Agronomy
Agronomy (Ancient Greek ἀγρός agrós 'field' + νόμος nómos 'law') is the science and technology of producing and using plants for food, fuel, fiber, and land reclamation. Agronomy has come to encompass work in the areas of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and soil science. It is the application of a combination of sciences like biology, chemistry, economics, ecology, earth science, and genetics. Agronomists of today are involved with many issues, including producing food, creating healthier food, managing the environmental impact of agriculture, and extracting energy from plants. Agronomists often specialise in areas such as crop rotation, irrigation and drainage, plant breeding, plant physiology, soil classification, soil fertility, weed control, and insect and pest control.
Agronomy
Biotechnology procedures that permit the easy asexual transfer of genes among microorganisms, when and if mastered for higher plants, hold the potential for transferring desired genes across species, genera, and perhaps family barriers. Let your imagination roam - the high lysine trait from the pigweed might be used to improve the quality of maize protein. 'The resistance of maize to wheat stem rust might be used to make wheat resistant to this disease. The gene for tolerance to Al[uminum] toxicity in wheat might make maize tolerant to Al[uminum]... The future for agronomy is not only bright, but it has no foreseeable bounds.
Kenneth Frey' (1985:188-9) as cited in: Jack Ralph Kloppenburg First the Seed: The Political Economy of Plant Biotechnology (2005).