Agronomy and horticulture are often used interchangeably to describe the process of preparing land for raising and cultivating plants and crops. However, these two sciences have several key differences.
Key Takeaways
- Agronomy is a holistic science that deals with improving the efficiency and effectiveness of agricultural practices, focusing on soil quality, properties, and conservation.
- Horticulture is the science and art of growing plants intensively on a smaller scale, focusing on value-added crops like fruits, vegetables, ornamental plants, and flowers.
- While both agronomy and horticulture involve the cultivation of plants, their scopes and focuses differ, with agronomy taking a more comprehensive approach to farming and horticulture emphasizing specialized, intensive cultivation.
Agronomy is a science that deals with the cultivation of crops in a more comprehensive and efficient manner than ordinary agriculture. Agronomists focus on improving cultivation practices to increase farmers’ profits while conserving the atmosphere and soil nutrients. Agronomy looks at the properties of the soil in which seeds are sown and the interaction of soil with plants.
Horticulture, on the other hand, is the science and art of growing plants intensively on a scale smaller than agriculture. It focuses more on value-added crops like fruits, vegetables, ornamental plants, and flowers. Horticulture can be practiced at home in gardens or on a large scale, such as by multinational companies growing fruits or vegetables for global consumption. Horticulture has branched out into various categories, including pomology (fruit cultivation), olericulture (vegetable cultivation), floriculture (flower cultivation), and landscape horticulture (design and maintenance of nurseries, public parks, and other green spaces).
