Think one step advance --- something about agriculture

     Agriculture provides basic element for human being survive such as food and cloth, agriculture also provides raw material for industry such as rubber. But those are not the only things agriculture can provide: agriculture can provide medicine like traditional herb; agriculture can provide energy such as bio fuel; agriculture can provide landscape because it can make this world more beautiful; agriculture also can help human being looks better by providing agricultural cosmetic; more importantly,  agriculture provide a suitable environment we depend.

     In the early period we only care about yield of the plant. But now we think more beyond that because we are concerning more about our health, climate change and think more about our planet. We must manage agriculture in environment friendly way. Negative effect should be avoided. Agriculture products should be produced using less chemical fertilizer, less chemical pesticide, less green house emission, less plastic materials. Agriculture should be harmonized with nature and be managed with a sustainable way.

     There are different stages of agriculture development: the first stage is food security, in this stage the most important thing is quantity of food that agriculture provided in affordable price for human being. The second stage is food safety: after we have enough food people will pay more attention to food safety, at this stage we must use less chemical which may have negative effect of our health. The third stage is produce health food: we want agriculture produce food with better nutrition or with some functions elements to prevent illness of human being. In the second and third stage we may concern more about post harvest technology. With developed post harvest technology we can produce safer, rich nutrition food and add more value to agriculture products. The agriculture development stage should be concerned when develop agriculture policy or to develop a research agency. Only if the policy and research agenda harmonized with the situation of develop of agriculture it will be welcomed by farmers and benefit its society.