One way to describe primary industries would be to say that they are involved in the growing, harvesting, extracting and sometimes processing of natural resources which form the basis of the products we use in our everyday lives.

The Primary sector of industry involves the conversion of natural resources into primary products. Most products from this sector are considered raw materials for other industries. Major businesses in this sector include agriculture, agribusiness, fishing, aquaculture, forestry, and all mining and quarrying industries.

Downstream manufacturing industries that agregate, pack, package, purify or process the raw materials close to the primary producers are normally considered part of this sector, especially if the raw material is unsuitable for sale or difficult to transport long distances.

The key areas of employment in this sector are:

• Farming involves growing crops.

• Stockbreading means rearing animals (cattle), providing food, wool and skins.

• Mining involves extracting raw materials – oil and coal, for example – from the earth (or under the sea).

• Quarrying is an excavation usually open to the air from which stone, slate, or the is obtained by cutting, blasting, etc.

• Fishing involves catching sea life.

• Aquiculture is the cultivation of aquatic animals and plants, especially fish, shellfish, and seaweed, in natural or controlled marine or .freshwater environment

  

• Forestry and silviculture  promote the cultivation of forest trees and the process and managing forests.

In developed and developing countries, a decreasing proportion of workers are involved in the primary sector.

Primary industries also create the basic materials for use in other industries, such as growing and harvesting wheat that can then be turned into the bread.