History of Agriculture

Mankind has been a farmer for 0.5% of human history. First hominid life forms 4 million years ago. They were hunter gathers. They hunted animals and collected seeds and fruits from wild plants. These nomadic people moved from one place to another place as they depleted the resources of an area. In such conditions of trial-and-error experimentation and manipulation of species, the scene was set for domestication of plants and animals. In addition, these hunter-gatherer societies probably paved the way for domestication by developing: social structure (promote cooperation); knowledge of cultivation techniques; Specialization on particular plant/animal foods.

Early Farming: -1650

Around 12-10,000 years ago human being started farming. The roots of farming began in the present day Turkey and the Middle East, called as Fertile Crescent. Cultivation involves the deliberate sowing or other management of plants, which do not necessarily differ from wild populations. The beginning of farming is primarily associated with the domestications of species; it involves genetic change of wild varieties through conscious or unconscious human selection. Two of the earliest settlements are known as Catal Huyuk and Jericho. Catal Huyuk had by 6000 B.C., more than 1000 houses. It is at this place where people taking wild grasses and using the seeds for food and planting for the next years food. These seeds are now known as cereals and make up a large percentage of the worlds food supply. Jericho, like many early cities was located around a consistent water source, a spring which produced over 1000 gallons every minute. Around two to three thousand people lived there. Farming of wheat, barley, peas, and lentils supported these people.

Almost at the same time agriculture developed in India, China, and about 5,000 years later in Andes and Mesoamerica.

1 In Southwest Asia the crops (including animals) were wheat, barley, peas, muskmelon, flax, sheep and goats. In China, they were rice, soybeans, hemp, silk, and chicken. In the Andes and Mesoamerica they were corn, beans, potatoes, cotton, and turkeys. Note that in each case these agricultural systems provided vegetables, meat, and materials to make clothing.

The use of crops and animals for food spread over thousands of years from the Near East, China, and Mexico to nearby regions and around the world. These crops spared most rapidly to areas with similar climates. They therefore tended to follow longitudinal lines east and west to areas with similar climates, for example from the Near East to Africa or from southern Mexico to North America was slow because the main routes were latitudinal, north and south, rather than east and west. Movement along latitudinal lines would require that the crops had to become adapted to new climates.

Farming did increase food production per unit area, making it easier to feed a population from the same amount of land around a settlement. The other most important aspect of farming is that the supply of food is more certain than the hunting and gathering. Farming was associated with a certain level of social organization or tool-making development, with a settled mode of life.

The move from shifting agriculture to domesticated agriculture was preceded and made possible by the millennia of accumulated experience of wild plants and animals, and trial- and-error experimentation. The shift was gradual and slow. The techniques were old. Most agricultural societies developed Slash and Burn technique, utilization of fallow lands etc. There were some early massive engineering projects to dam water for later use, including the digging of canals to distribute water to normally dried fields. The first known examples of this process were built by farmers near Euphrates valley. Finally there was almost complete reliance on agriculture as the major source of nutrition.

2 However, even today in some areas of the world, primitive methods are still the most effective.

Development of agriculture was followed by domestication of animals. This benefits in different ways: transport, draft, food and wool, hides, dung etc.

The consequences of the development of farming are: Increased carrying capacity of the land; Development of sedentary societies; Changes in social structure; Craft specialization; Civilization

When agriculture became established humans started to live in larger groups. They stopped living as hunter-gathering groups and formed cities and states. The largest of these appeared closet to sites where agriculture had developed much, for example in Egypt and China, and the empires (Inca, Mayan, Zapotec, Teotihuacan, Aztec) of South and Central America. Quite obviously, more complex civilizations require more food. Thus there appears to have a direct relationship between the development of agriculture and the appearance of more complex societies.

Global Agricultural Evolution 1650-1850

Farming changed very little from early times about 1700. In the 1700’s an agricultural revolution took place that led to a large increase in the production of crops. This increase of crops came about in a large part by little more than the final destruction of medieval institutions and more general adoption of techniques and crops that had been known for a long time. Included in some of these changes was also the adoption of crops from the “new world” such as corn and potatoes that produced a very large yield.

This phase was characterized by: New rotations with leguminous and root crops; Scientific method employed in agricultural research; Use of fossil fuels, increased yields and labor productivity;

3 Intervention of mechanized farm equipment; Beginning of food-processing industries; Transfer of crops and livestock from lands of origin as part of the era of European exploration.

From Farming to Manufacturing: 1850-1950

In the 1850’s, the industrial revolution spilled over to the farm with new mechanized methods that increased production rates. Early on, the large changes were in the use of new farm implements. Most of these early implements were still powered by horse or oxen. The advent of steam power and later gas powered engines brought a whole new dimension to the production of crops. These new implements combined with crop rotation, manure and better soil preparation lead to a steady increase of crop yield in Europe. At the latter part of this period, more and more people from the rural areas migrated to the urban areas to add fuel to the industrialization. Farmers were forced to abandon farming through progressive impoverishment; they had to invest heavily in expensive new technologies and found themselves unable to pay their debts to the banks because they prices what they produced were kept low to keep the industrial wages low. This was the time when family farm in western industrialized countries started declining and giant food companies like Uni-Lever Nestle were established.

Modern Agricultural Evolution: 1950-present

There were massive changes in world economy after the Second World War. The changes are: interdependent expansion of capital and consumer goods industries, huge increase of technical and consumer goods industries, rapid technical change and productivity growth, monopoly market structures, the transformation of production and exchange, and mass consumption of standardized commodities. Commodity relations penetrate all spheres of consumption as use values are commoditized and mass produced, leading to the concomitant decline of domestic labor and non-capitalist goods and services. The increasing commoditization of the domestic labor process associated with

4 new food preparation technologies and the diffusion of ‘white goods’ has transformed women’s working lives inside and outside the home, freeing them to enter the labor market.

This also brought changes in the social relations as well as changes in the life styles and consumption patterns. There was trade off between earning and giving time in the family, houses became full of home appliances, food went into the fridges and a huge surge of fast food chains.

In the 50 years since 1950, global agricultural production has increased by 60 per cent whereas the 1950 level production had been reached only after 10,000 of agricultural development. This recent acceleration of production is due to the use of mechanization, chemicals, specialization, selection of high-yielding cereals, expansion of irrigated areas and arable lands, and the development of specific farming system.

Unfortunately, this positive trend seems to have reached a steady state, and farmers cannot perpetually raise yields, particularly where natural capacity has already been exceeded. The situation is worsened by widespread soil degradation, erosion, and shortage of new arable land. Current farming actively compared to mining, because it is a nutrients that are not usually replaced.