Introduction
Throughout the years, man has developed different ways of producing food in his plate. The earliest way of man to survive is to hunt and gather for his food. Some societies like the Arctic Inuit hunts animals for their meat, while others like the Kung of Southern Africa forages lands for plants. At such early times, they were able to identify between edible and poisonous ones from experience (Chauhan, 2012).
As man settles to form villages, they also learned to domesticate animals and plants. There were stories that surrounds the discovery how planting of seeds and growth of plants. Archaeologists identified the diet of the early foragers through the unearthing of fossilized plants and animals in places where the early human settlement was found. It varies from charred seeds to preserved fruits and other plant parts. Together with man’s discovery of farming, the use of different technologies for agriculture has been developed as well.
The roots of agriculture began about ten thousand years ago. It developed independently as civilizations are all starting to emerge in different parts of the world. Most of these civilizations can be found beside rivers and on foothills because of the rich soil that surrounds it. Macrofossils of pollen grains, corn cobs, and wheat spikelets were found in these areas. (Tanno & Wilcox, 2006) The area known as Fertile Crescent indicates the presence of agriculture which dates back from 9, 000 to 14,000 years ago (Levetin-McMahon, 2008). According to Chauhan, from then to the last century, it was characterized as the era of enhanced productivity. Man discovered more tools to improve his farming, but repercussion of these actions has later taken effect, and the outcome was bad.
Agriculture in the Ancient World
The word agriculture came from the mid-fifteen century from the Late Latin word agri and cultura which means “field” and “cultivation”, or – if combined together - “cultivation of the land”. (Harper, 2014)
Agriculture started in several areas of the world, such as the Americas, Mesopotamia, Southern India, China, and West Africa. Most of these civilizations emerged from riverbeds and foothills. For example, Egyptians started in the River Nile while the Mesopotamian people settled along the Tigris and Euphrates River. The Chinese culture developed along the Yellow river and the people of India grew on the side valleys and foothills.
A key feature of the human experience is the diverse and dispersed nature of the people. People scatter to own large areas of land, about 2.5 square miles, to be able to sustain their societies. (pearsonhighherd.com, 2012) There are many theories as to how hunters and gatherers of the early world switched to domestication, specifically planting. One theory is that, one wise man realized that if one plants a seed, it will grow. Some say that this man found plants growing at dump sites to where seeds were thrown out. Another theory says that seeds that were buried together with the dead were discovered by this man growing at grave sites. From then, the term Agricultural Revolution arose because of the transition of man’s being a forager into a farmer.
On the other hand, some scientists contend that this shift is not a revolution, but a mere cultural evolution that is inevitable in a growing society. These cultures know that in some way, people will be able to incorporate farming together with foraging as strategy for food collection. For example, some aboriginal tribe abandons planting whenever there are other ways of having food, such as fishing. In a settlement, while others were out for hunting and gathering some were able to observe growing of plants. Scientists say that there is a transitional stage from foraging to farming that lasted for thousands of years until resources in an area became adapted to the culture of farming. (Levetin-McMahon, 2008)
Revolution and Evolution of Agriculture
Also, according to Levetin-McMahon, the clash between the terminologies’, revolution and evolution, simply states that agriculture did not just happen in short period of time It took tens of thousands of years for the early man to develop their ways of farming and domestication. There are also different factors such as environmental change, discovery of tools, and soil adaptation which resulted to the evolution of agriculture.
As mentioned earlier, one of the earliest sites of agriculture is the Fertile Crescent which is the present day Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, and Syria. Earliest plant domestication were found out to be wheat, barley, pea, and lentil. Studies indicate that barley might be the first crop domesticated in these areas, but others say that it was wheat. Jarno, a site in Iraq that was closely studied, was a permanent farming village that was inhabited for about nine thousand years ago. Twenty –four mud walls were discovered in this site which housed about a hundred and fifty people (Levetin-McMahon, 2008). In these parts, scientists have traced the selection of seed variety that was used by the people. The seeds were mostly larger and semi-tough rachis. There were evidences for the use of wild cereals and wild grains. Cotton and sugar arrived at around 6,000 years ago. Evidences were found in the Indus Valley. By the 3rd millennium BC, evidences of rice farming have been found in these areas.
There were also early archaeological records of animal domestication of wild cattle. Cattles are kept for their milk, blood, and meat. They are also used as field plows and carriers in a civilization. In the Indus Valley of Pakistan, the humped cattle were found to be domesticated around 8,000 years ago. The age of these fossils were identified through radiocarbon dating Chauhan, 2012. Likewise, at around 5,400 years ago, chicken were first domesticated in the Southeast Asia. Studies show that the first variety of chicken may have come from Thailand and China.
Crops that were very suitable for planting spread throughout the neighbouring regions and were slowly traded across continents. n places where agriculture evolved, the natives were able to produce indigenous crops that were used as a staple food supply (Levetin-McMahon, 2008). The propagation of agriculture was also said to be the result of man still being nomadic and transferring from one place to another even if they knew how to domesticate plants and animals. This is evident in places where winter lasts and people had to find a more suitable environment to farm and herd animals. For example, the people who reached Australia are mostly from Asia during the Ice Age and the time when the Indian Ocean was still small. When the ice melts, those who reached Australia were cut off and have no means to back. (pearsonhighherd.com, 2012)
On the other side of the world, people were able to reach the Americas through the land bridges that once connected Asia and Alaska. Migration might have occurred in these areas before the land bridges were flooded as the ice melts (pearsonhighherd.com, 2012). Take note that this was still the time of the Ice Age. These migrations of people throughout the world helped in the dispersion of agricultural knowledge. Lands that were left by some of them grew and were found by other societies. Diffusion of knowledge in agriculture was shared between tribes and cultures.
Agriculture in the Modern World
The discovery of canal and irrigation system in the New World brought another revolution in the world of agriculture. Evidences of advanced storage systems were also found in the Indus Valley Civilization. While agriculture may have flourished in most parts of the world, there were isolated places that took long before their discovery. It took long before agriculture reached places such as Southern Europe from the Middle East. Yet, the same process occurred soon enough and the knowledge in farming and creation of tools became known from one region to another. Trading over regions also became apparent and agricultural communities grew larger together with the discovery of trading equipment such as carts and ships.
In the present world, techniques to further plant and animal propagation have been developed. The birth of Industrial Agriculture in the production of livestock, poultry, and crops revolutionized the world. The Green Revolution in Mexico led to the increase of production in agriculture between the 1940s and 1960s. Innovation such as the use of agricultural machinery and farming methods has also contributed to this. Moreover, genetic modification technologies that rooted from selective breeding have been explored. It has been used for cultivation in order to select the most desirable traits in animals and plants for production and people’s consumption. (Chauhan, 2012) This is in answer to the growing population of the world and the increase in hunger in most parts of the world. Yet, these discoveries brought an alarming change in the world and have brought uproar to the people. The use of industrialized fertilizers and pesticides contributed to the change in the environment of the world such as global warming. This called for an action called the Organic Movement which broadly refers groups of individuals who promotes a cleaner and safer way of agriculture. Some government such as in Europe has followed this movement.
Conclusion
The history of agriculture has come a long way. From the nomadic tribes of hunter and gatherers, to the birth of human civilization of farmers, and to the present day consumers, agriculture developed in every possible way. The variations in peoples’ culture also contributed to the wide array of food in our table today.
Combining the migration, diffusion and trading of the early people, agriculture developed throughout the world. It also gave birth to different techniques and technologies in farming that are still used as of today.
Along with this, the world has suffered changes. The advent of new technologies may have helped us in different ways but was also able to incur bad effects to the people. Although these innovations helped the growing society, it also became the reason why we became too dependent on new technologies that we have forgotten much about the native way of farming. We became too excited of the easiest and fastest way of producing goods brought to us by technology and in return we became too dependent on such that if we were to return to the ancient ages, we wouldn’t even be able to survive.
This study of the history of agriculture is not only to give information but to open about the flow of history and how it changed through time. History is said to repeat itself. What if, we all hope not, the Ice Age happens again? Without the newest technologies in which we depend on, how do you think will we be able to survive?
REFERENCES
Dr. Chauhan, Narendrasinh B. (2012). Unit1: History of Agricultur, Department of Extension Education B.A.College of Agriculture, AAU, Anand. Compilation. Retrieved November 13, 204.
Early World History: From Origins to Agriculture and New Forms of Human Organization. Pearsonheghered.com. Retrieved November 13, 204. Web. http://www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/hip/us/hip_us_pearsonhighered/samplechapter/0205896286.pdf
Harper, Douglas. (2001-2014). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved November 13, 204. Web. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=agriculture
Levin-McMahon. (2008). Origins of Agriculture, Plants and Society, Th Mcgraw-Hills Companies. 5th ed. pp 178-183.
Story of Farming.(2000-2014). Historylink101. History Sorce LLC. Retrieved November 13, 204. Web. http://historylink101.com/lessons/farm-city/story-of-farming.htm
Tanno and Wilcox. (2006). Origins of Agriculture. Science 311. Retrieved November 13, 204. Web. https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/0424/Origin_of_agriculture.pdf.
