360 articles
Nutrient management
Nutrient management: agricultural practice of managing the amount, source, timing, and placement of fertilizers and manure (the 4Rs) to meet crop needs while limiting water pollution, GHG emissions, and input costs.
Olive grove
Olive grove: a planting of olive trees (Olea europaea) grown for oil or table fruit. Over 95% of production is Mediterranean; systems range from traditional (<140 trees/ha) to super-high-density hedgerows (up to 1,600/ha).
Olive pomace oil
Olive pomace oil, also called orujo oil, is extracted with solvents from olive pomace, the solid residue of olive oil production. Refined grade has acidity ≤0.3 g/100 g; it legally cannot be sold as "olive oil" in the EU.
Olive tree of Vouves
The Olive tree of Vouves (Ελιά Βουβών) in Ano Vouves, Kolymvari, Chania, Crete, is a grafted monumental olive tree still bearing fruit, claimed at 2,000 to over 4,000 years old, protected as a natural monument since 1997.
Onam (ഓണം)
Onam (ഓണം) is Kerala's annual harvest festival in the month of Chingam (August–September), celebrating the homecoming of King Mahabali and the Vamana legend, with Pookkalam, Onasadya, Vallam Kali, and ten days of festivities; it is Kerala's official state festival since 1961.
Open pollination
Open pollination is pollination within a cultivar by self- or cross-pollination rather than a controlled cross, yielding genetically diverse open-pollinated varieties whose seed stays true-to-type when isolated.
Ops
Ops, Roman goddess of abundance and riches (Latin ops, "plenty"); festivals Opiconsivia (25 August) and Opalia (19 December) tied to Consus; wife of Saturn only after Hellenism; not originally agrarian per Miano 2015.
Opuntia ficus-indica
Opuntia ficus-indica (prickly pear, cactus pear, nopal, Indian fig opuntia) is a Mexican-domesticated CAM cactus grown for fruit, nopalitos, and forage; cladodes are 88-95% water, WUE 3-5x C3/C4 crops, up to 50 t dry mass/ha/yr.
Orangery
An orangery (plural orangeries), also called an orangerie, is a brick building with large windows and a solid roof, originally built to overwinter citrus and other tender plants in Europe.
Orchard
Orchard: a managed planting of fruit or nut trees, from ancient domestication (ca. 3500 BC Western Asia) and colonial seedling apple orchards to modern high-density systems of 1,000-5,000 trees per hectare.
Organic certification
Organic certification, verified by accredited certifiers such as under the USDA National Organic Program, confirms farms and handlers meet organic standards, requiring a three-year transition, annual inspections, and enabling the USDA organic seal.
Organic farming
Organic farming, also called biological or ecological agriculture, is a certified production system excluding synthetic fertilizers and pesticides; about 99 million hectares worldwide, yields roughly 10-20% below conventional, but higher profitability via price premiums.
Organic fertilizer
Organic fertilizer: naturally derived plant-nutrient products (manure, compost, blood meal, bone meal, fish and kelp products) that release nutrients through microbial mineralization; distinct from USDA National List approval for certified organic production.
Organic food
Organic food is produced under certified standards restricting synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, GMOs, and radiation. USDA "organic" requires 95% organic content; residues are lower, nutritional differences limited, US sales $70.1 billion in 2025.
Pacific Northwest Research Station
Pacific Northwest Research Station (PNW), USDA Forest Service research unit founded 1925, headquartered in Portland, Oregon; first director Thornton T. Munger; 11 labs, 12 experimental forests; slated for closure in 2026 reorganization.
Panagbenga Festival
Panagbenga, the Baguio Flower Festival, is an annual February festival in Baguio City, Philippines; Kankanaey for "season of blooming". Started 1996 after the 1990 earthquake, run by BFFFI, famous for grand street dance and floral float parades.
Pasta
Pasta, shaped dough of durum wheat semolina and water (fresh or dried, optionally with eggs), made by mixing, extrusion, and drying; over 300 shapes, medieval Sicilian dried-pasta origins, €14.6bn dry market.
Peach leaf curl
Peach leaf curl, caused by Taphrina deformans, is a spring fungal disease of peaches and nectarines causing red, puckered, curled leaves; controlled only by dormant-season fungicide sprays or resistant cultivars like Frost and Redhaven.
Peanut oil
Peanut oil (groundnut oil, arachis oil), from Arachis hypogaea seeds, is a frying oil with a 229.4°C smoke point, oleic- and linoleic-rich composition, and FDA-exempt highly refined form safe for most peanut allergies.
Phylloxera crisis in Hungary
The phylloxera crisis in Hungary (filoxéravész) was the destruction of over 40% of Hungarian vineyards by the phylloxera aphid between 1875 and the mid-1890s, forcing replanting on American rootstocks.
Pitaya
Pitaya, or dragon fruit (Selenicereus undatus, formerly Hylocereus undatus), is the fruit of night-blooming climbing cacti native from Mexico to Honduras; self-incompatible cultivars need cross-pollination, and Vietnam leads production.
Plant nursery
Plant nursery: an establishment propagating and growing plants for sale or transplanting, also called nursery stock production. Covers field, container, and greenhouse systems, plant health certification (SANC, EU plant passport), and forest seedling supply.
Plant production
Plant production: growing crops, fodder, and industrial plants within agriculture. Covers potential, attainable, and actual yield levels, limiting factors (water, nutrients, pests), FAO's Plant Production and Protection Division, and organic versus conventional yield gaps.
Plant propagation
Plant propagation, also called artificial propagation, is the practice of producing new plants from existing ones, either sexually by seed or asexually from vegetative parts such as stems, roots, or leaves.
Plant protection
Plant protection: measures against crop pests, diseases, and weeds, from cultural and biological control to plant protection products, organized through Integrated Pest Management and governed by the IPPC, EU, and national biosecurity systems.
Plantation
Plantation: large, centrally managed farm or forest estate growing one main cash crop (tea, rubber, oil palm, sugarcane, timber) with hired labor and capital; distinct from smallholdings by scale, bureaucracy, and monoculture.
Pollarding
Pollarding is a tree-management practice in which upper branches are repeatedly cut back above the reach of browsing animals, producing regrown shoots for fodder and firewood.
Pomace
Pomace is the pulpy residue of skins, seeds, and stalks left after fruit is pressed for juice, most often the main solid by-product of winemaking.
Pomegranate
Pomegranate (Punica granatum, انار, رمان), a Lythraceae shrub native from Türkiye to Pakistan, domesticated about 10,000 years ago in Iran; grown for its polyphenol-rich arils, with blood-pressure evidence the strongest human finding.
Pomona (mythology)
Pomona, Roman Italic goddess of orchard fruit and gardens, with a flamen Pomonalis and the Pomonal grove near Ostia; famous from Ovid's Metamorphoses tale of Vertumnus wooing her in disguises.