Agrophysics

From Freepedia

Agrophysics is a new branch of science bordering on physics and agronomy, whose objects of study are the ecosystem and the biological object affected by human activity, studied and described using the methods of physical sciences.

Agrophysics is closely related to biophysics, but is restricted to the biology of the plants and animals involved in agricultural activities. It is different from biophysics in having the necessity of taking into account the specific features of the research objects, which involves the knowledge of agricultural technology, biotechnology and genetics.

Agrophysics is close to certain fundamental sciences like biology, whose methods and knowledge it utilizes (especially in the field of environmental ecology and plant physiology), and physics, from which it acquires the research methods, especially that of physical experiment and model. The scope of interest of Agrophysics is not focused solely on technical problems of agronomy and on practical implementation of fundamental studies, and that is an aspect that makes it different from agricultural engineering which provides grounds for classifying Agrophysics as one of the fundamental sciences.

The needs of agronomy concerning the study of the complex soil-plant-atmosphere system lay at the root of the emergnece of Agrophysics. The scope of the branch of science, originally limited to the study of relations within the ecosystem, expanded over time onto influencing the properties of agricultural crops and produce as foods and raw postharvest materials, and onto the issues of quality assessment.

A research centre that is focused on the development of the science and defines its unique character, known and highly valued in Poland and in the world, is the Institute of Agrophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences in Lublin.

Agrophysics, utilizing the achievements of exact sciences for solving major problems of agrculture, is involved in study of materials and processes occuring in the production and processing of agricultural crops, with particular emphasis on the condition of the enviroment and the quqlity of farming materials and food productions.

References

Fundamentals of Agrophysics by P. V, etc. Vershinin, 1959, Publisher: IPST, ISBN 0706503589
Fundamentals of Agrophysics (Osnovy agrofiziki) by A. F. Ioffe; I. B. Revut; Petr Basilevich Vershinin, English : Publisher: Jerusalem, Israel Program for Scientific Translations; (available from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Clearinghouse for Federal Scientific and Technical Information, Va.) 1966.
Scientific Dictionary of Agrophysics: polish-english, polsko-angielski by R. Debicki, J. Glinski, J. Horabik, R. T. Walczak - Lublin 2004, ISBN 8387385883