Horticulture is a segment of the agricultural industry. The term horticulture literally means the culture of a garden. However, the term has taken on a broader context. Horticulture includes the production and use of plants for food, comfort and beautification.
The horticultural industry encompasses the production, processing, shipping and marketing of fruits and vegetables. As such, it is a sector of agro-industry and industrialized agriculture. Industrialized horticulture sometimes also includes the floriculture industry and the production and trade of ornamental plants. Therefore, food industries can use horticultural waste as natural ingredients for the formulation of functional foods.
It should be noted that it also includes domestic gardening and even in this regard alone service horticulture has a high financial and sociological profile. It covers a wide range of disciplines, including arboriculture, public garden management, municipal parks and open spaces, street planting and flower displays, interior design and landscaping. The production units of this type of system have names in English such as pastures, grasslands, forests or fields, while horticultural production units are called gardens, orchards, groves, vineyards, greenhouses, nurseries and sometimes plantations. Many Kalanchoe species from Southern Africa and Madagascar are excellent gardening topics in their own right.
They include a wide range of people and groups that cultivate, landscape, cultivate, research, advise and enjoy the abundance of horticultural plants for their nutrition, health benefits and aesthetics. Urban parks, gardens and street trees are considered essential to creating a good living environment in communities around the world and are serviced by the Department of Horticulture in many cities and towns. There are also green jobs in private and community gardens, municipal parks, and state or national reserves. The cultivation of cereals, legumes or oilseeds for feed, food or industrial use is not horticulture nor are systems that cultivate plants for the production of fiber (e.g., environmental or urban horticulture supports activities such as home gardening or landscaping (in this context, caring for lawns is considered a horticultural activity).), arboriculture and interior decoration with plants.
The horticultural industry is the most quality-conscious of all agricultural industries and one aspect of quality improvement is related to the reduction of chemical waste in horticultural products. Gardeners and landscape designers often select plants to provide a specific environment or function within the landscape. In the United Kingdom, for example, the “home garden” industry is valued at £3.2 billion per year (direct plant sales bring in approximately £1 billion) and it is estimated that household horticulture employs approximately 90,000 people.
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