Agriculture developments date back to at least 10,000 years ago. Different plants and animals were domesticated at different times and regions. Before the development of crop growing, human beings hunted and gathered fruits in the wild. People Developed skills on how to care for the soil and growing crops leading to permanent human settlement. Agricultural practices such as irrigation, crop rotation, fertilizers, and pesticides were developed long ago but have made great strides in the past century.
Planned sowing and harvesting of plants started in the Fertile Crescent region, where domestication for cereals, legumes and flax occurred (Badr et al. 499). Wheat, emmer wheat and barley, pea, lentil, chickpea and bitter vetch were the main crops (Badr et al. 499). The long dry season with short rains at the Mediterranean was suitable for small plants with large seeds.
Northern China was the domestication home of foxtail millet and broomcorn millet 8,000 years ago, and rice was grown in Southern China much later. The cultivation of these crops was done in the Yellow River basin (Zhuang and Kidder 1602). 4500 years ago, soybean was also domesticated in northern China whereas orange and peach also originated in China around 2500BC.
In Africa, agriculture was autonomously developed in Ethiopian Highlands, West Africa and the Sahel. Bananas and plantains were re-domesticated in Africa as early as 5,000 years ago, having been domesticated in Southeast Asia earlier (Robbins and Connah 203). Other crops that were grown in Africa were Asian yams, finger millet and taro. Coffee was also famous in the Ethiopian highlands. Sorghum and pearl millet were grown in the Sahel region (Robbins and Connah 203). On the other hand kola, African rice, yams and the oil palm, were domesticated in West Africa.
In Mesoamerica Maize, beans and squash were among the earliest crops domesticated potatoes, and manioc was domesticated in South America. Sunflower, sump weed and goosefoot were domesticated by the Native Americans around 2500 BC.
The emergence of domestication of plants was accompanied by the need to keep animals. Animals that provided milk, like goats and cows, provided valuable nutrients like proteins. Some animals were used to plough or tow farms. The earliest domestication of animals involved cows, pigs, sheep, and dogs.
Work Cited
Badr, A. et al. "On The Origin And Domestication History Of Barley (Hordeum Vulgare)".Molecular Biology and Evolution 17.4 (2000): 499-510. Web.
Robbins, Lawrence H., and Graham Connah. "African Civilizations, Precolonial Cities And States In Tropical Africa: An Archaeological Perspective". American Antiquity 55.1 (1990): 203. Web.
Zhuang, Y., and T. R. Kidder. "Archaeology Of The Anthropocene In The Yellow River Region, China, 8000-2000 Cal. BP". The Holocene 24.11 (2014): 1602-1623. Web.
