Agrarian and Agricultural are sometimes confused because they carry common implications and are used to qualify like terms.
- as an agrarian or an agricultural society, an agrarian or an agricultural crisis, an agrarian or an agricultural policy
Both terms have reference to land, the conditions under which it is held, and its profitable use.
Agrarian usually stresses the economic or political issues involved in the ownership of land, in the conditions of tenancy, and in the right of the individual to the profits of his labor on the land.
- agrarian crises were frequent in Ireland in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries when the issue of tenant rights became acute
Agricultural stresses rather the successful and profitable use of land for the production of crops and the breeding of animals.
- agricultural crises are likely to occur when overproduction and a restriction of markets coincide
When, however, agricultural interests are at stake and political action is held to be necessary, a party formed to promote these ends may be called an agrarian rather than an agricultural party, and a measure advocated as an agrarian rather than an agricultural measure.