Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
that resulted from a decline in the socio-economic status and human health of the
population (Latham
1997
). Both these community problems are susceptible to sup-
port from facets of Social Horticulture. Encompassing these triple descriptions of
the Discipline of Horticulture broadens its vision to one that “encompasses all life
and bridges the gap between science, art and human beings” (Janick and Goldman
2003
; Janick
2014
).
Developing Benefits for People and Places
If production, environmental and social horticulture are to flourish then there is
a need to describe the beneficial relationships that exists between people, plants,
and places. This is firmly the purpose of this Trilogy. Each facet forms part of a
platform which supports the concept of sustainable development that involves the
increasingly urban lifestyle (Anon
2013c
). Horticulture has been regarded as a rural
entity. This concept must now change and accept a wider dimension since unlike
agriculture it is well suited to providing benefits for an increasingly urbanised world
population. This world's population could well reach 9.1 billion by 2050, with par-
ticular impact in the developing countries such as Asia and Africa (Anon
2009b
).
Urbanization is likely to continue at an accelerating pace, with upwards of 70-80 %
of the world's population choosing to live in the urban and peri-urban areas of many
countries (Anon
2006
). Future trends indicate that the world's population could ex-
ceed 5 billion people out of a total world population of 8.1 billion people by 2030.
In 2012 China had 51 % of its population living in its towns and cities in just 3 years.
According to the economic historians it took 200 years in Great Britain, 100 years
in the United States and 50 years in Japan to reach the same stage (Anon
2013e
).
Increasing populations are placing substantial pressures on the world's food sup-
plies (Anon
2013c
) as well as its environment and natural resources (Anon
2009a
).
Achieving benefits from horticulture's sectors requires a workforce. Earlier anal-
yses identified groupings of food producers or growers, the environmental (ame-
nity) horticulturists, and those providing support services that move products and
commodities through the value added chain (Rowe
1979
). People involved with
food production are largely engaged in the production, processing, distribution and
sale of fruit and vegetable crops, or other produce, largely consumed as food or
drink. Environmental horticulture involves those people and organizations that are
engaged in the production, sale and management of plants largely used for recre-
ational and leisure purposes. Service personnel involve those people engaged in
supplying the non-plant products and services within a community and as such can
involve those in manufacturing, sales and service, education and training, research,
extension, consultancy and management of these services.
Among the challenges that influence production horticultural performance will
be our increasing world population. To feed our forecasted population of 9 billion
people by 2050, we need at the present rate of production, to increase production
from an annual 2.4 billion tonnes of fruit and vegetables to well over 3.1 billion
