AGRICULTURE & CIVILIZATION A CLOSER LOOK AT FARMING IN SOME OF THE EARLIEST AGRARIAN CIVILIZATIONS

9000 BCE 6000 BCE 6500 BCE 6500 BCE 3500 BCE 3000 BCE APPROXIMATE YEAR AGRICULTURE BEGAN Yellow The Fertile Indus & Yangtze Papua Cresent River Valley River Valleys New Guinea Mesoamerica Andes

The Fertile Crescent was a wide Agriculture emerged in the Indus The Yellow (or Huang He) River The first human inhabitants of Papua Domestication of wild teosinte The first agricultural communities to expanse of land along the Tigris and River Valley when foraging Harappan stretches nearly 3,000 miles across New Guinea are thought to have (which became maize, and eventu- emerge in South America populated Euphrates rivers, stretching from the communities settled in the lush lands China, while the Yangtze River is arrived from Southeast Asia more ally corn) may have begun as early the regions around the Andes Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, between the Himalayas and the almost 4,000 miles long. Both rivers than 40,000 years ago. The Pacific as 7000 BCE but the first organized Mountains. Diverse geography and and even into the Nile River Valley by Hindu Kush mountains in present- flow east from the Tibetan Plateau island receives plentiful rainfall and agricultural villages emerged high-altitude settlements supported some definitions. These river valleys, day Pakistan. Fertile soils and a and the Himalayan Mountains. The contains incredible biodiversity. thousands of years later. Several beans, potatoes, and a hearty known as the "cradle of civilization," steady water supply supported the first farmers in China cultivated Scientists estimate that between 5 different civilizations rose and fell in protein-rich grain called quinoa. had rich soils in which crops flour- cultivation of crops, and the river grasses in the vast floodplains and and 10 percent of all of the planet’s this region including the Olmec, Alpaca and llamas were domesti- ished. Civilization first emerged in also provided transportation, fertile river valleys formed by the species live on Papua New Guinea. which flourished from about 1600 cated as work animals and for their Mesopotamian cities like Babylon, enabling commerce. Eventually cities Yangtze and the Yellow in eastern Human communities on the island BCE to 400 BCE; the Maya, which wool, which was woven into textiles. Sumer, Ur, and Uruk in modern-day like Harappa, Lothal, and China. Chinese agriculture is known were equally diverse, some taking on flourished from about 250 CE to 900 By the beginning of the 16th century, Iraq and in Jericho to the west. Mohenjo-Daro became centers of for its sericulture, the rearing of agriculture and some sustaining CE; and the Aztec, which reached its the Incas had established a vast Egyptian civilization emerged in the trade. The Indus River Valley silkworms for the production of raw themselves solely as foragers. The height just before its people were empire with tremendous architecture Nile River Valley a bit later. By around civilization is thought to be among silk to make fine fabrics. Eventually, region's first farmers (in the Western conquered by Spanish conquistado- such as Machu Picchu. Within a 3200 BCE, civilizations in the Fertile the first to develop a standardized demand for silk from China would Highlands) used terraces with res in 1520. These Mesoamerican century, Spanish conquistadores led Crescent were using the wheel and system of weights and measures, help connect all of Afro-Eurasia in a complex irrigation systems and cultures developed complex by Francisco Pizarro had conquered had developed the earliest known including the use of finely calibrated system of trade routes called practiced crop rotation to increase irrigation systems and produced Inca society. system of writing. rulers as early as 2400 BCE. the Silk Road. their yields. skilled astronomers and poets.

barley barley millet amaranth flax rice rice sugarcane maize (corn) quinoa wheat rye wheat ramón (breadnut) wheat

chickpeas cotton bananas beans beans lentils lentils soybeans sago cacao coca peas peas taro chilies potatoes yams papaya squash tomatoes

cows chickens chickens dogs alpacas dogs dogs goats dogs ducks guinea pigs goats pigs sheep pigs turkeys llamas sheep

Wheat Rice Maize GENUS: Triticum GENUS: Oryza GENUS: Zea NUMBER OF SPECIES: 16 NUMBER OF SPECIES: 23 NUMBER OF SPECIES: 1 1st DOMESTICATION: Southeastern Turkey 1st DOMESTICATION: Eastern China 1st DOMESTICATION: Mesoamerica

28% CARBOYDRATES

3% PROTEIN 1% OTHER

68% WATER HUMAN FOODS ANIMAL FEEDSTOCKS ETHANOL PRODUCTION

REGIONS OF WHEAT PRODUCTION NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF RICE U.S. MAIZE (CORN) USAGE Wheat is grown in more countries and on more land than any other cereal crop Almost half of the world’s population depend on rice as a primary food source Of every 10 ears, humans consume 2, livestock consumes 4, and ethanol production uses 4