is agriculture a social science

image

t e Agricultural science (or agriscience for short) is a broad multidisciplinary field of biology that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. Professionals of the agricultural science are called agricultural scientists or agriculturists.

Full
Answer

Is agriculture a basic science or Applied Science?

 · An exploratory literature review shows that five thematic clusters of extant social science literature on digitalization in agriculture can be identified: 1) Adoption, uses and adaptation of digital technologies on farm; 2) Effects of digitalization on farmer identity, farmer skills, and farm work; 3) Power, ownership, privacy and ethics in digitalizing agricultural …

What is the role of Science in sustainable agriculture?

Social sciences (including economics or busi ness) occupy by far the most important place. The strongest concentration was found in tourism-related journals (consistent with power laws)….

What do we need to make agriculture a science?

 · In this episode of the Thrive podcast, Katherine Snyder, a senior social scientist with the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), shares her views on silver bullet solutions to agricultural development dilemmas. Katherine Synder is an anthropologist who spent many years living and working in rural Africa. She is based in Nairobi …

What can we learn from Systems Design in agriculture?

 · Agroecology is a science, a farming system, and a social movement. Perhaps most important it is a means of gaining a better understanding how the world works and our place within it, so we can find our purpose and fulfill our uniquely human responsibilities as members and caretakers of the earth’s integral community.

image

What science does agriculture fall under?

New ways of producing food and fiber and meeting human needs comes about through science. Simply put, agriculture is science in action. The science of agriculture comprises four major areas of study: life sciences, physical sciences, biotechnology, and consumer science.

Is agriculture considered a science?

Agriculture is the art and science of cultivating the soil, growing crops and raising livestock. It includes the preparation of plant and animal products for people to use and their distribution to markets.

Is agriculture economics a social science?

Agricultural economics is an applied social science that deals with how producers, consumers, and societies use scarce and natural resources in the production, processing, marketing, and consumption of food and fiber products.

What is considered a social science?

Social science entails the study of human behavior and society at a variety of levels. Popular social science majors include psychology, political science, and economics. A social science degree can lead to many types of jobs in business, science, and law.

Why is agriculture is a science?

Agriculture is an applied science which encompasses all aspects of crop production including horticulture, livestock rearing, fisheries, forestry, etc. Agriculture is defined as an art, science and business of producing crops and livestock for economic purposes.

Is agriculture a science or technology?

Agriculture is the art and science of cultivating the soil, growing crops and raising livestock.

How can you relate agriculture to social science?

Social Sciences dealing with agriculture have so far generated plenty of research results, making great contributions to the formulation of agricultural policies in the world and to the methodological improvement of rural development, etc.

Is agribusiness a social science?

It is a social science that deals with economic problems in agriculture, the food industry, rural communities, and the use and conservation of our natural resources.

What are the 4 main branches of agriculture?

There exist four main branches of agriculture, namely;Livestock production.Crop production.agricultural economics.agricultural engineering.

What are the 8 branches of social science?

What are the branches of social science? The most important branches of Social Science are Anthropology, Economics, Politics, Psychology, Sociology, History, Law, Linguistics, Archaeology and Geography.

What are the 9 disciplines of social sciences?

The most common social science subjects include Anthropology, Archaeology, Economics, Geography, History, Law, Linguistics, Politics, Psychology and Sociology.

What are the disciplines under social sciences?

Social Science DisciplinesAnthropology.Economics & Management.History.Human Services.Political Science.Psychology.Sociology.

image

What are the themes of power, ownership, privacy and ethics in agriculture?

(2019) raise four important areas of future research: 1) investigating the societal role of farms, thus broaden ing the imagination of stakeholders about the possible other goals that smart farming could serve, and enhancing their reflection about their relative value ; 2) reflection on the epistemological choices that are made in the selection of data, the ways in which meaningful connections are made between them and how they are interpreted (echoing suggestions by Bronson, 2019 ); 3) understanding the preconditions for trust between stakeholders who have a role in smart farming and who engage in a relationship together when they become members in a data sharing network (an issue also raised by Jakku et al., 2019; Wiseman et al., 2019 ); and 4) scrutiny of codes of conduct, as it is unclear how current regulation could satisfactorily combine the private and societal goals that smart farming is intended to serve. Regan (2019) adds to this the importance of looking at issues such as perceived uncertainty and risk. Most of the authors in this thematic cluster point to the need for responsible research and innovation. Based on the insights from articles in this special issue, as well as a wider reflection by the authors of this article, future research could explore topics such as the role of values in digital agriculture design, the organisation and governance of data and the application of responsible innovation principles. For instance, examples of specific questions could include:

What is digitalization in agriculture?

1.1. Digitalization as a transformative force in agricultural production systems, value chains and food systems

What can economics and management sciences contribute to?

Economics and management sciences can make many analytical contributions to policy, farm management, supply chain, consumer demand and sustainability issues ( Coble et al., 2018 ), using the variety of methods they employ. Approaches from economics and marketing of innovation ( Desmarchelier et al., 2013) and production organisation specific to services (and more precisely to Knowledge Intensive Business Services – Lusch et al., 2007) might usefully be applied to agriculture (as done earlier by Klerkx and Proctor, 2013) ). This could involve applying the case studies approach to new business models, to understand how actors create value out of agricultural data. Another useful avenue of enquiry would be to develop more quantitative approaches in this context, which have proven their value in other sectors, such as statistical analysis of systematic surveys on firm innovation ( Cainelli et al., 2004 ).

How is farmer identity investigated?

Topics such as farmer identity and farm work are often investigated by qualitative methods, consisting of interviews and participant observation. The new realities of digital agriculture and the abundance of data they afford enable web and mobile analytics, visualization of large data sets, machine learning, sentiment analysis and opinion mining, computer-assisted content analysis, natural language processing, automated data aggregation and mining, and large social media networks ( Mills, 2018 ). These new data sources and methods could offer possibilities for doing new sorts of ethnographies or technographies ( Jansen and Vellema, 2011 ), such as ‘netnography’ ( Kozinets, 2010 ). However, such analysis is obviously subject to accessibility and personal data issues, and similar ethical concerns related to power, privacy and data ownership as those noted by works described under section 2.3, and would require dedicated research ethics ( Glenna et al., 2019 ).

What is interdisciplinarity in social science?

The first level of interdisciplinarity is between social science disciplines. The special issue brings together contributions from sociology, science and technology studies, economics, design thinking and policy studies, showing the diversity and complementarity of angles on the topic of digital agriculture.

What are the different forms of digitalization in agriculture?

While there is a lot of literature from a natural or technical sciences perspective on different forms of digitalization in agriculture (big data, internet of things, augmented reality, robotics, sensors, 3D printing, system integration, ubiquitous connectivity, artificial intelligence, digital twins, and blockchain among others), social science researchers have recently started investigating different aspects of digital agriculture in relation to farm production systems, value chains and food systems. This has led to a burgeoning but scattered social science body of literature. There is hence lack of overview of how this field of study is developing, and what are established, emerging, and new themes and topics. This is where this article aims to make a contribution, beyond introducing this special issue which presents seventeen articles dealing with social, economic and institutional dynamics of precision farming, digital agriculture, smart farming or agriculture 4.0. An exploratory literature review shows that five thematic clusters of extant social science literature on digitalization in agriculture can be identified: 1) Adoption, uses and adaptation of digital technologies on farm; 2) Effects of digitalization on farmer identity, farmer skills, and farm work; 3) Power, ownership, privacy and ethics in digitalizing agricultural production systems and value chains; 4) Digitalization and agricultural knowledge and innovation systems (AKIS); and 5) Economics and management of digitalized agricultural production systems and value chains. The main contributions of the special issue articles are mapped against these thematic clusters, revealing new insights on the link between digital agriculture and farm diversity, new economic, business and institutional arrangements both on-farm, in the value chain and food system, and in the innovation system, and emerging ways to ethically govern digital agriculture. Emerging lines of social science enquiry within these thematic clusters are identified and new lines are suggested to create a future research agenda on digital agriculture, smart farming and agriculture 4.0. Also, four potential new thematic social science clusters are also identified, which so far seem weakly developed: 1) Digital agriculture socio-cyber-physical-ecological systems conceptualizations; 2) Digital agriculture policy processes; 3) Digitally enabled agricultural transition pathways; and 4) Global geography of digital agriculture development. This future research agenda provides ample scope for future interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary science on precision farming, digital agriculture, smart farming and agriculture 4.0.

What is dial A for agriculture?

Dial “A” for agriculture: a review of information and communication technologies for agricultural extension in developing countries

What is the role of science in agriculture?

The main role of science in agriculture has been to help us generate novelties that allow us to produce more with less land and less effort. Results have been spectacular. The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research ( CGIAR ), a grouping of 16 international agricultural research institutes, is best known for starting the Green Revolution of rice and wheat in Asia. In the thirty years from 1971 to 2000 the improved crop varieties produced by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center ( CIMMYT) have helped raise average rice and wheat yields by 2.3 and 1.65 times respectively, helping to feed an Asian population that grew by almost 70% in the same period.

Why did farmers not know the consequences of the novelties?

Farmers did not know the consequences because they were used to operating on the scale of their own fields, not to thinking about what might happen over millions of hectares. And the research and extension systems that were encouraging them to adopt did not know the consequences either. This has been a salutary lesson to the CGIAR: reductionist science that isolates problems and ignores contexts and scale issues can come horribly unstuck even in relatively simple ecosystems. It does not necessarily produce sustainable solutions.

What is biotechnology?

Biotechnology is a suit of tools that allows plant breeders to introduce a greater array of novelty into their plant varieties, and select which work, much faster than they could using conventional plant breeding techniques. There is nothing inherently evil or Frankenstein-like about genetically modified plants.

Leave a Comment