• It 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.
Contribution of Agriculture
• Produce
 Food to meet basic nutritional needs of the population
 Raw materials to help the industry
 Cash crops for export

• Farmers have demand for manufactured consumer

and capital goods
Contribution of Agriculture
• Agriculture employs a large percentage of the labor
force

• Agriculture generates a large percentage of the

GDP

• With improved farm productivity, the labor and

GDP shares of agriculture will decline over time
Rural Development
• It refers to the process of improving the quality of
life and economic well-being of people living in
relatively isolated and sparsely populated areas.

• It is understood primarily in the economic sense of

the process of assuring a progressive improvement
in economic security of people in rural areas.
Contribution of Rural Development
• Employment.
In countries whose share of overall employment in
agriculture is at high levels, for example where farmers
represent over 50% of the workforce, farming is likely to
be the key economic activity determining the progress of
rural development.
• Related economy.
The farm sector in every country supports
a range of ancillary and service industries,
generating economic activity in supply and
distribution chains as well as processing
industries.
 AGRICULTURE VS INDUSTRY
• Agriculture is focused on the working of soil
and other facilities to produce crops, animals
and trees for human consumption or further
refinement into products, while industry is
focused more on refining and processing raw
materials into products for sale.
 AGRICULTURE VS INDUSTRY
• Two sectors are not to be viewed as
competitive but are complementary to each
other.
• J. L. Nehru observed in 1963 that agriculture is
more important than industry as industry
depends on agriculture.
 AGRICULTURE VS INDUSTRY

• There is no doubt that without agriculture,

country cannot exist and without industry,
country cannot develop.
• Agriculture's important role is one of
production, both of food for the rural and the
urban population and of cash crops for the
export market, to earn foreign currency.
 The industries preferred to build a new
plant in the metropolitan area rather than
in a rural town.

In this process demand is stimulated for other

products and services, and employment
opportunities emerge to absorb the society's
work-force.
• As the cycle develops, the increasing
agricultural production causes an increasing
demand for inputs, which ensure the resources
required to maintain the agricultural
production.