"Philosophical" question about agronomy/agriculture?

Question

Looking for people's opinions on the different aspects of agronomy/agriculture as from a balance between science and art. Any serious thoughts would be appreciated, thanks.

Answer 1

Permaculture Answer:

We are Permaculturists in Permaculture it is all about BUILDING the soil. Enriching not depleting it. As my friend Garnet above explains. I am going to quote directly from Permaculture A Designers Manual Bill Mollison I usually use his concepts but on this issue I think his points are worth reproducing word for word. Then I will relate it to your question.

It is a PRIMARY design strategy to prevent topsoil losses and to repair and rehabilitate ares of damaged and compacted soils

Permanent crop, soil bunds, terraces and low tillage systems all reduce soil and mineral nutrient loss.

Soil rehabilitation and pioneer green crop should precede other plant system establishment.

Adequate soil tests plus test strips of crop examined fro deficiency or excess symptoms leaf analysis, and livestock health should be assessed to guide soil treatments.

If soil types can be specified, fencing, cropping and treatment should coincide with these specific soil assemblies and specific crops for such type researched.

Soil life processes need to be encouraged by provision for green crop, humus, mulch, and the root associates -mycorrhiza- of plants. A useful earthworm may needed to be introduced.

Drainage hence PH and soil water capacity need specific treatment or assessment and will largely determine crop and tree types.

Minimal use of large livestock and heavy machinery is to be recommended on easily compacted soils as is burning and clearing.

Use pigeon and animal manure where major elements are scarce, as in third world areas, also use greywater and sewage or wastes.

Before draining waterlogged soils recommend crops to suit the condition. Never drain wildlife habitats, fens or bogs which are species rich.

Chose the right soil shaping or earth works to suit crop drainage and salt threat

Using an auger, check soils for house foundations,. Using a wetted soak pit, time the absorption of greywater for sewage disposal at house sites.

Preserve natural - poor- sites for their special species assemblies; play most attention to human nutrition in the home gardens, and select species to cope with poor soil conditions on the broadscale.

Fertilize plants using foliar sprays containing small amounts of the key elements or pellet seeds with  the key elements which are deficient locally. Pelleted seed and folia sprays are economical ways to add nutrients to plants.  Bill Mollison  1988:225

My Answer:

Clearly building soils like most things in Permaculture are firmly science based. It is about learning FROM nature, not merely copying it. Permaculture is about observation and the minimum amount of interference/adjustment to meet man's needs by producing the highest yield possible on the smallest amount of land. It relies on science, observation, hypothesis, theories and solutions.

Now the ART. Read all the books, do the course then go take that information onto the land. Try actually physically doing something you know about. That is the ART. When Permaculture is done well it IS ART.

Answer 2

Agriculture and agronomy are certainly sciences, but I believe they also encompass a certain amount of art, especially in selective plant and animal breeding. The farmer's scientific self knows how to feed an organism for optimum health and development, but it takes an artist to envision that living thing in its ideal form. The rose grower's creative side is what prompts him to spend years developing a blue flower, not his knowledge of proper soil pH for maximum growth. In rose grower's case, the science of horticulture is just a paintbrush in the hands of an artist.

Answer 3

Agronomy is a chance of planting trees or seed of trees.

agriculture is an unjustify bussiness ouvre the years.

The werent a balance in between science and art, i would assumes, but nether parties could came out fake of each other, just copies or duplicates or translations at it best i could had gotten out or into.

Answer 4

For my husband and I, you roll agronomy and agriculture together, and try to balance the whole kit-and-kaboodle via a permiculture method.

We are always working to improve our soils (agronomy for those who do not know) with our crops, and the manures our critters produce.  We want to do so without the use of chemical fertilizers, nor chemical insectisides.

We believe trace minerals are vital to good soil, and good crops.  To this end, I give my goats and horses 4 different types of mineral blocks, and the rabbits recieve three different types.  The manure and urine the critters are producing is rich in healthy trace minerals.

In return the rich manure is spread on the fields to fertilize the crops.  The alfalfa is harvested and fed to the critters.  That alfalfa is also drawing up, and returning some of those trace minerals back to the animals.

The goats eat the noxious weeds in the pasture, before anything else, so keep our pastures almost weed free.  This means more graze produced by the pastures for the horses.

We grow rape seed (canola) and make our own biofuels.  The squeezings from the rape seed are fed to the goats.  This means more of the trace minerals are both returned to the goats, back to the soil, and back to the plants.

The entire system is definatly a balancing act.  I moved here three years ago, and brought the goats and horses with me.  Before that, chemicals had been used on the land, and crops removed from the land (alfalfa) but never any return of animal manure, nor green manure crops.

In three short years, the difference in the lushness of the land, and the amount of tonage of fodder produced has improved beyond my expectations.

Yet I've reached the point where I can no longer allow my goat herd to grow larger (currently about 100 animal) or we will start to strip the land.

Everything must be kept in balance.  This is why we are searching of a larger piece of land, so our farm can grow.  

Even then, everything will have to be kept in balance.  New animals, like Large Black Hogs will be added, along with West Highland cattle.  Both will bring benifits to improving the land we live on, and farm....best of all they will do so naturally.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 5

I am an Agronomist, or maybe I should say a retired Agronomist from teaching and doing research in a university.  Agronomy is crop and soil science.  I would describe agriculture over all as a science as well.  If we talk about farming and farmers, I think that you could put in a part of art in what farmers do.  It is based on science but there is art in being able to make farming your way of life.  Farming is a lifestyle and not just an occupation.  There is both science and art in being to take the land and live off it and turn it over to the next generation in better shape than you found it.  It takes a love of the land and I think that you have to be a farmer to understand that and not just a scientist.