History of agriculture

Agriculture involves the domestication of plants. Data from molecular and archaeological research generated over the past 15 years now makes it clear that agriculture began independently over a much larger area of the globe than was once thought, and included a diverse range of taxa. At least 11 regions of the Old and New World were involved as independent centers of origin, encompassing geographically isolated regions on most continents, but several more have been suggested.^[1] The earliest development was around 11,500 years ago separately in both the Fertile crescent and at Chogha Golan in modern-day Iran, where wild barley, wheat and lentils were cultivated and where domesticated forms of wheat appeared about 9800 BC.^[2] Early agricultural communities such as Chogha Golan in 10,000 BC^[3][4] along with settlements such as Chogha Bonut (the earliest village in Susiana) in 8000 BC^[5][6] began to flourish in and around the Zagros Mountains region in western Iran.^[7] There are 7,000-year-old jars of wine excavated in the Zagros Mountains^[8] (now on display at the University of Pennsylvania); ruins of 7,000-year-old settlements such as Tepe Sialk are further testament to that. The two main Neolithic Iranian settlements were the Zayandeh River Culture and Ganj Dareh. Around about the same time the earliest known clay vessels and modeled human and animal terracotta figurines were produced at Ganj Dareh, with settlements such as Chogha Mish, dating back to 6800 BC also in western Iran.^[7]

Independent development of agriculture occurred in northern and southern China, Africa's Sahel, New Guinea, parts of India and several regions of the Americas.^[9] Agricultural techniques such as irrigation, crop rotation, and application of fertilizers were developed soon after the Neolithic Revolution but have made significant strides in the past 200 years. The Haber-Bosch method for synthesizing ammonium nitrate fertilizer represented a major breakthrough and allowed crop yields to overcome previous constraints.

In the past century, agriculture in the developed nations, and to a lesser extent in the developing world, has seen large rises in productivity due to the replacement of human labor by mechanization, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and selective breeding. The recent history of agriculture has been closely tied with a range of political issues including water pollution, biofuels, genetically modified organisms, tariffs and farm subsidies.

Overview

Agricultural practices such as irrigation, crop rotation, application of fertilizers and pesticides, and the domestication of livestock were developed long ago, but have made great progress in the past century. The history of agriculture has played a major role in human history, as agricultural progress has been a crucial factor in worldwide socio-economic change. Division of labour in agricultural societies made commonplace specializations rarely seen in hunter-gatherer cultures, which allowed the growth of towns and cities, and the complex societies we call civilizations. When farmers became capable of producing food beyond the needs of their own families, others in their society were free to devote themselves to projects other than food acquisition. Historians and anthropologists have long argued that the development of agriculture made civilization possible. According to geographer Jared Diamond, the costs of agriculture were: "the average daily number of work hours increased, nutrition deteriorated, infectious disease and body wear increased, and lifespan shortened."^[10]

Prehistoric origins

Forest gardening, a plant-based food production system, is thought by one researcher to be the world's oldest agroecosystem.^[11] Forest gardens originated in prehistoric times along jungle-clad river banks and in the wet foothills of monsoon regions. In the gradual process of a family improving their immediate environment, useful tree and vine species were identified, protected and improved whilst undesirable species were eliminated. Eventually superior foreign species were selected and incorporated into the family's garden.^[12]

Evidence of oat harvesting dating to 30,600 BC has been found in Paglicci Cave, Italy.^[13] Evidence of plant cultivation dating from 23,000 years ago has been found at the Ohalo II site.^[14]

Neolithic

Threshing of grain in ancient Egypt

The Fertile Crescent of Western Asia first saw a domestication of animals that are supposed to have started the Neolithic Revolution in the Mediterranean area.

The domestication of the dog is supposed to have happened during the Late Paleolithic, while the ancestors of the first domesticated cattle, sheep, goats and pigs seems to have been selected by breeding just after ice-time, to become the first known domesticated animals in Eurasia. Later a similar process led to the domesticated animals of Meso-America. The gradual transition from wild harvesting to deliberate cultivation of palnts also happened independently in several areas around the globe during the three first milleniums after ice-age.^[15]

Agriculture allowed for the support of an increased population, leading to larger societies and eventually the development of cities. It also created the need for greater organization of political power (and the creation of social stratification), as decisions had to be made regarding labor and harvest allocation and access rights to water and land. Agriculture bred immobility, as populations settled down for long periods of time, which led to the accumulation of material goods.^[16]

Early Neolithic villages show evidence of the ability to process grain, and the Near East is the ancient home of the ancestors of wheat, barley and peas. There is evidence of the cultivation of figs in the Jordan Valley as long as 11,300 years ago, and cereal (grain) production in Syria approximately 9,000 years ago. During the same period, farmers in China began to farm rice and millet, using man-made floods and fires as part of their cultivation regimen.^[15] Fiber crops were domesticated as early as food crops, with China domesticating hemp, cotton being developed independently in Africa and South America, and the Near East domesticating flax.^[17] The use of soil amendments, including manure, fish, compost and ashes, appears to have begun early, and developed independently in several areas of the world, including Mesopotamia, the Nile Valley and Eastern Asia.^[18]

Roman harvesting machine

Squash was grown in Mexico nearly 10,000 years ago, while maize-like plants, derived from the wild teosinte, began to be seen at around 9,000 years ago. The derivation of teosinte into modern corn was slow, however, and it took until 5,500^[15] to 6,000 years ago to turn into what we know today as maize. It then gradually spread across North America and was the major crop of Native Americans at the time of European exploration.^[19] Beans were domesticated around the same time, and together these three plants formed the Three Sisters nutritional foundation of many native populations in North and Central America. Combined with peppers, these crops provided a balanced diet for much of the continent.^[20] Grapes were first grown for wine approximately 8,000 years ago, in the Southern Caucasus, and by 3000 BC had spread to the Fertile Crescent, the Jordan Valley and Egypt.^[21]

Agriculture advanced to Europe slightly later, reaching the northeast of the continent from the east around 4000 BC. The idea that agriculture spread to Europe, rather than independently developing there, has led to two main hypotheses. The first is a "wave of advance", which holds that agriculture traveled slowly and steadily across the continent, while the second, "population pulse" theory, holds that it moved in jumps.^[22] Also around 6000 years ago, horses first began to be domesticated in the Eurasian steppes. Initially used for food, it was quickly discovered that they were useful for field work and carrying goods and people.^[23] Around 5,000 years ago, sunflowers were first cultivated in North America, while South America's Andes region was developing the potato.^[15] A minor center of domestication, the indigenous peoples of the eastern United States appear to have domesticated numerous crops, including tobacco.^[24]

Bronze and Iron Ages

Beginning around 3000 BC, nomadic pastoralism, with societies focused on the care of livestock for subsistence, appeared independently in several areas in Europe and Asia. The main region was the steppes stretching from the Great Hungarian Plain to the Northeast China Plain, where cattle, sheep, horses, and to a lesser extent yaks and bactrian camels provided sustenance. The second was in Arabia, where one-humped camels were the main animal, with sheep, goats and horses also seen. The third area was a band of societies in areas of eastern and central Africa with a tropical savannah climate. Cattle and goats were found most often in this area, with smaller numbers of sheep, horses and camels. A fourth area, more minor than the others, was found in northern Europe and Asia and was focused on reindeer herding.^[25]

Between 2500 and 2000 BC, the simplest form of the plough, called the ard, spread throughout Europe, replacing the hoe. This change in equipment significantly increased cultivation ability, and affected the demand for land, as well as ideas about property, inheritance and family rights.^[26] Before this period, simple digging sticks or hoes were used. These tools would have also been easier to transport, which was a benefit as people only stayed until the soil's nutrients were depleted. However, as the continuous cultivating of smaller pieces of land became a sustaining practice throughout the world, ards were much more efficient than digging sticks.^[27] As humanity became more stationary, empires, such as the New Kingdom of Egypt and the Ancient Romans, arose, dependent upon agriculture to feed their growing populations, and slavery, which was used to provide the labor needed for continually intensifying agricultural processes. Agricultural technology continued to improve, allowing the expansion of available crop varieties, including a wide range of fruits, vegetables, oil crops, spices and other products.^[28][29] China was also an important center for agricultural technology development during this period. During the Zhou dynasty (1666–221 BC), the first canals were built, and irrigation was used extensively. The later Three Kingdoms and Northern and Southern dynasties (221–581 AD) brought the first biological pest control, extensive writings on agricultural topics and technological innovations such as steel and the wheelbarrow.^[30]

In the ancient world, fresh products, such as meats, dairy products and fresh fruits and vegetables, were likely consumed relatively close to where they were produced. Less perishable products, such as grains, preserved foods, olive oil and wine, were often traded over an extensive network of land and sea routes. The ancient trade in agricultural goods was well established, with wine traded in the Mediterranean region in the 6th century BC and Rome receiving extensive shipments of grain as tax payments by the 2nd century BC. Huge amounts of grain were transported, mainly by sea, and it was during this period that the subsidization of grain farming began, for the prevention of famine. Ancient Rome was a major center for agricultural trade. Trade routes stretched from Britain and Scandinavia in the west to India and China in the east, and included major crops, such as grain, wine and olive oil (also a fuel for oil lamps), as well as additional products, including spices, fabrics and drugs.^[31]

In Ancient Greece and Rome, many scholars documented farming techniques, including the use of fertilizers.^[18] Much of what was believed about farming and plant nutrition at this time was later found to be incorrect, but their theories provided the scientific foundation for the development of agricultural theories through the Middle Ages. Ideas about soil fertility and fertilization remained much the same from the time of Greco-Roman scholars until the 19th century, with correspondingly low crop yields.^[18] By the time of Alexander the Great's conquests (330–323 BC), the role of horses had developed, and they played a huge role in warfare and agriculture. Innovations continued to be developed which allowed them to work longer, harder and more efficiently. By medieval times they became the primary source of power for agriculture, transport and warfare, a position they held until the development of the steam and internal combustion engines.^[23] The Mayan culture developed several innovations in agriculture during its peak, which ranged from 400 BC to 900 AD and was heavily dependent upon agriculture to support its population. The Mayans used extensive canal and raised field systems to farm the large portions of swampland on the Yucatán Peninsula.^[32][33]

Middle Ages

Agricultural calendar from a manuscript of Pietro de Crescenzi.

The Middle Ages saw significant improvements in the agricultural techniques and technology. During this time period, monasteries spread throughout Europe and became important centers for the collection of knowledge related to agriculture and forestry. The manorial system, which existed under different names throughout Europe and Asia, allowed large landowners significant control over both their land and its laborers, in the form of peasants or serfs.^[34] During the medieval period, the Arab world was critical in the exchange of crops and technology between the European, Asia and African continents. Besides transporting numerous crops, they introduced the concept of summer irrigation to Europe and developed the beginnings of the plantation system of sugarcane growing through the use of slaves for intensive cultivation.^[35] Population continued to increase along with land use. From 100 BC to 1600 AD, methane emissions, produced by domesticated animals and rice growing, increased substantially.^[36]

By 900 AD in Europe, developments in iron melting allowed for increased production, leading to developments in the production of agricultural implements such as ploughs, hand tools and horse shoes. The plough was significantly improved, developing into the mouldboard plough, capable of turning over the heavy, wet soils of northern Europe. This led to the clearing of forests in that area and a significant increase in agricultural production, which in turn led to an increase in population.^[37] A similar plough, which may have developed independently, was also found in China as early as the 9th century.^[38] At the same time, farmers in Europe moved from a two field crop rotation to a three field crop rotation in which one field of three was left fallow every year. This resulted in increased productivity and nutrition, as the change in rotations led to different crops being planted, including legumes such as peas, lentils and beans. Inventions such as improved horse harnesses and the whippletree also changed methods of cultivation.^[37] Watermills were initially developed by the Romans, but were improved throughout the Middle Ages, along with windmills, and used to grind grains into flour, cut wood and process flax and wool, among other uses.^[39]

Ancient methods of planting are still widespread in many countries. Here, two members of the Brao ethnic group plant seeds on their land in Laos

Crops included wheat, rye, barley and oats. Peas, beans, and vetches became common from the 13th century onward as a fodder crop for animals and also for their nitrogen-fixation fertilizing properties. Crop yields peaked in the 13th century, and stayed more or less steady until the 18th century.^[40] Though the limitations of medieval farming were once thought to have provided a ceiling for the population growth in the Middle Ages, recent studies^[41][42] have shown that the technology of medieval agriculture was always sufficient for the needs of the people under normal circumstances, and that it was only during exceptionally harsh times, such as the terrible weather of 1315–17, that the needs of the population could not be met.^[43] The Medieval Warm Period, between 900–1300 AD, brought generally warmer global temperatures, leading to increased harvests throughout Europe and a greater northern range for subtropical crops such as figs and olives. Greenland and Iceland were settled by Europeans during this period, and supported agricultural activities. The long-term warming period is generally thought to have occurred mainly in Europe, but other areas of the world experienced shorter warming periods at different times during this period, including China in the 11th and 12th centuries, with similar effects on agriculture. The climate variations found in Europe during the Medieval Warm Period returned to more moderate levels in the 15th century, and terminated in the Little Ice Age of the 16th-mid 19th centuries.^[44]

Global exchange

The Harvesters. Pieter Bruegel – 1565

After 1492, a global exchange of previously local crops and livestock breeds occurred. Key crops involved in this exchange included maize, potatoes, sweet potatoes and manioc traveling from the New World to the Old, and several varieties of wheat, barley, rice and turnips going from the Old World to the New. There were very few livestock species in the New World, with horses, cattle, sheep and goats being completely unknown before their arrival with Old World settlers. Crops moving in both directions across the Atlantic Ocean caused population growth around the world, and had a lasting effect on many cultures.^[45]

After its introduction from South America to Spain in the late 1500s, the potato became an important staple crop throughout Europe by the late 1700s. The potato allowed farmers to produce more food, and initially added variety to the European diet. The nutrition boost caused by increased potato consumption resulted in lower disease rates, higher birth rates and lower mortality rates, causing a population boom throughout the British Empire, the US and Europe.^[46] The introduction of the potato also brought about the first intensive use of fertilizer, in the form of guano imported to Europe from Peru, and the first artificial pesticide, in the form of an arsenic compound used to fight Colorado potato beetles. Before the adoption of the potato as a major crop, the dependence on grain caused repetitive regional and national famines when the crops failed: 17 major famines in England alone between 1523 and 1623. Although initially almost eliminating the danger of famine, the resulting dependence on the potato eventually caused the European Potato Failure, a disastrous crop failure from disease resulting in widespread famine, and the death of over one million people in Ireland alone.^[47]

Modern developments

Plans for Jethro Tull's seed drill, from 1752.

The British Agricultural Revolution, with its massive increases in agricultural productivity and net output, is a topic of ongoing debate among historians and agricultural scholars. The changes in agriculture in Britain between the 16th and 19th centuries would subsequently affect agriculture around the world. Major points of development included enclosure, mechanization, crop rotation and selective breeding. Prior to the 1960s, historians viewed the British Agricultural Revolution of having been "largely facilitated by a small number of key innovators," including Robert Bakewell,^[48] Thomas Coke and Charles Townshend. However, modern historians disperse much of the importance surrounding these individual men, and instead point to them holding a smaller position within a major societal shift regarding agriculture in Britain.

The agricultural changes, along with industrialization and migration, allowed the population of Britain, as well as other countries who followed its model, such as the US, Germany and Belgium, to escape from the Malthusian trap and increase both their population and their standard of living. It is estimated that the productivity of wheat in England went up from about 19 bushels per acre in 1720 to 21–22 bushels by the middle of the century and finally stabilized at around 30 bushels by 1840.^[49][50][51]

Premodern agriculture across Europe was characterized by the feudal open field system, where farmers worked on strips of land in fields that were held in common; this was inefficient and reduced the incentive to improve productivity.^[52] Many farms began to be enclosed by yeomen who improved the use of their land. This process of land reform accelerated in the 18th century with special acts of Parliament to expedite the legal process.^[53] The consolidation of large, privately owned holdings, encouraged the improvement of productivity through experimentation by enterprising landowners. By the 1750s, the market for agriculture was substantially commercialized - crop surpluses were routinely sold by the producers on the market or exported elsewhere.^[53][54]

These social changes were coupled with technical improvements. New methods of crop rotation and land use resulted in large additions to the amount of arable land. The four-field crop rotation was popularized by Charles Townshend in the 18th century. The system (wheat, turnips, barley and clover), opened up a fodder crop and grazing crop allowing livestock to be bred year-round. Yields of cereal crops increased as farmers utilized nitrogen-rich manure and nitrogen fixing-crops such as clover, increasing the available nitrogen in the soil and removing the limiting factor on cereal productions that had existed prior to the early 19th century. This improved production per farmer led to an increase in population and in the available workforce, creating the labor force needed for the Industrial Revolution.^[55]

The development of agriculture into its modern form was made possible through a continuing process of mechanization.^[56] Prior to this, basic agricultural tools had slowly been improved over centuries of use. The plough, for example, was a heavy implement with wheels in the 1500s. By the 1600s it was lighter, and by 1730, the Rotherham plough dramatically changed farming with no wheels, interchangeable parts, stronger construction and less weight. During the early 1800s, cast iron replaced wood for many parts, leading to longer-lasting implements. Seed drills had been under development since the early 1500s, but it was Jethro Tull's 1731 invention of a horse-drawn seed drill and horse hoe (a small plough to hoe between crop rows) that would eventually revolutionize planting in Britain, although they would not become popular until the early 1800s.^[57] Andrew Meikle patented the first practical threshing machine in 1784.^[58]

The Industrial Revolution caused a boom in international trade and shipping. Increased production caused a rise in the need for raw materials, with European merchants purchasing the majority of the goods. The value of goods traded worldwide increased by five times between 1750 and 1914, with annual shipping tonnages increasing from 4 million to 30 million tons between 1800 and 1900. In the second half of the 19th century, trade also expanded in the food (including grain and meat) and wool markets, and England (with the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846) began to trade quantities of industrial products for wheat from around the world. The vast expansion of railroads that followed the invention of the steam engine further revolutionized world trade, especially in the Americas and East Asia, as goods could now be more easily traded across vast land distances.^[59] The developments of heat processing and refrigeration in the 19th century led to a similar revolution in the meat industry, as they allowed meat to be shipped long distances without spoiling. Countries in tropical locations, such as Australia and South America, were at the forefront of this effort.^[60]

Early 20th century image of a tractor ploughing an alfalfa field.

In the mid-1800s, horse drawn machinery, such as the McCormick reaper, revolutionized harvesting, while inventions such as the cotton gin made possible the processing of large amounts of crops. During this same period, farmers began to use steam-powered threshers and tractors, although they were found to be expensive, dangerous and a fire hazard. The first gasoline-powered tractors were successfully developed around 1900, and by the early 1920s, the Fordson, the John Deere and the International Harvester Farmall company, were marking the rapid shift toward replacement of draft animals (particularly horses) by mechanized, portable power. Since that time, self-propelled mechanical harvesters (combines), planters, transplanters and other equipment have been developed, further revolutionizing agriculture.^[56] These inventions allowed farming tasks to be done with a speed and on a scale previously impossible, leading modern farms to output much greater volumes of high-quality produce per land unit.^[61]

The scientific investigation of fertilization began at the Rothamsted Experimental Station in 1843 by John Bennet Lawes. He developed the first commercial process for fertilizer production - the obtaining of phosphate from the dissolution of coprolites in sulphuric acid.^[62] In 1909 the revolutionary Haber-Bosch method to synthesize ammonium nitrate was first demonstrated; it represented a major breakthrough and allowed crop yields to overcome previous constraints. In the years after World War II, the use of synthetic fertilizer increased rapidly, in sync with the increasing world population.^[63]

Recent

Despite the tremendous gains in agricultural productivity, famines continued to sweep the globe through the 20th century. Through the effects of climatic events, government policy, war and crop failure, millions of people died in each of at least ten famines between the 1920s and the 1990s.^[64]

Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution, is often credited with saving hundreds of millions of people worldwide from starvation.

The Green Revolution refers to a series of research, development, and technology transfer initiatives, occurring between the 1940s and the late 1970s, that increased agriculture production around the world, beginning most markedly in the late 1960s. It involved the development of high-yielding varieties of cereal grains, expansion of irrigation infrastructure, modernization of management techniques, distribution of hybridized seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides to farmers.^[65] The initiatives, led by Norman Borlaug, the "Father of the Green Revolution", are credited with saving hundreds of millions of people from starvation.^[66] Demographer Thomas Malthus in 1798 famously predicted that the Earth would not be able to support its growing population, but technologies such as those promoted by the Green Revolution have thus far allowed the world to produce a surplus of food.^[67]

Although the Green Revolution significantly increased rice yields in Asia, yield increases have not occurred in the past 15–20 years. The genetic yield potential has increased for wheat, but the yield potential for rice has not increased since 1966, and the yield potential for maize has "barely increased in 35 years".^[68] It takes a decade or two for herbicide-resistant weeds to emerge, and insects become resistant to insecticides within about a decade. Crop rotation helps to prevent resistances.^[68]

The cereals rice, corn, and wheat provide 60% of human food supply.^[69] Between 1700 and 1980, "the total area of cultivated land worldwide increased 466%" and yields increased dramatically, particularly because of selectively bred high-yielding varieties, fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, and machinery.^[69] However, concerns have been raised over the sustainability of intensive agriculture. Intensive agriculture has become associated with decreased soil quality in India and Asia, and there has been increased concern over the effects of fertilizers and pesticides on the environment, particularly as population increases and food demand expands. The monocultures typically used in intensive agriculture increase the number of pests, which are controlled through pesticides. Integrated pest management (IPM), which "has been promoted for decades and has had some notable successes" has not significantly affected the use of pesticides because policies encourage the use of pesticides and IPM is knowledge-intensive.^[69] In the 21st century, plants have been used to grow biofuels, pharmaceuticals (including biopharmaceuticals),^[70] and bioplastics.^[71]

Origins and spread

Origin hypotheses

A traditional hunter-gatherer society in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming, 1870.

Scholars have developed a number of hypotheses to explain the historical origins of agriculture. The transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies, based on evidence from south west Asia and China, indicates an antecedent period of intensification and increasing sedentism known as the Natufian in south West Asia and the Early Chinese Neolithic in China. Current models indicate that a range of food resources was being used more intensively. Wild stands that had been harvested previously started to be planted. Evidence is also now emerging that the crops grown initially were wild and not domesticated.^[72] Crops such as emmer and einkorn wheat do not appear to have become domesticated until well into the Neolithic and 'ancient cultivated rice' (Oryza sativa) took 3000 years to become domesticated.

Localised climate change is the favoured explanation for the origins of agriculture in the Levant. The fact that farming was 'invented' at least three times elsewhere, suggests that social reasons may have been instrumental. When major climate change took place after the last ice age (c. 11,000 BC), much of the earth became subject to long dry seasons.^[73] These conditions favoured annual plants which die off in the long dry season, leaving a dormant seed or tuber. These plants tended to put more energy into producing seeds than into woody growth. An abundance of readily storable wild grains and pulses enabled hunter-gatherers in some areas to form the first settled villages at this time

The Oasis hypothesis was proposed by Raphael Pumpelly in 1908, and popularized by Vere Gordon Childe who summarized the hypothesis in his book Man Makes Himself.^[74] This hypothesis maintains that as the climate got drier, communities contracted to oases where they were forced into close association with animals which were then domesticated together with planting of seeds. The hypothesis has little contemporary support, as the climate data for the time does not support the hypothesis.

The Hilly Flanks hypothesis, proposed by Robert Braidwood in 1948, suggests that agriculture began in the hilly flanks of the Taurus and Zagros Mountains, and that it developed from intensive focused grain gathering in the region.^[75]

The Feasting model by Brian Hayden^[76] suggests that agriculture was driven by ostentatious displays of power, such as throwing feasts to exert dominance. This required assembling large quantities of food which drove agricultural technology.

The Demographic theories were proposed by Carl Sauer^[77] and adapted by Lewis Binford^[78] and Kent Flannery. They describe an increasingly sedentary population, expanding up to the carrying capacity of the local environment, and requiring more food than can be gathered. Various social and economic factors help drive the need for food.

The evolutionary/intentionality hypothesis, advanced by scholars including David Rindos,^[79] is the idea that agriculture is a co-evolutionary adaptation of plants and humans. Starting with domestication by protection of wild plants, followed specialization of location and then domestication.

The Levantine Primacy Model was developed in the 1980s by Ofer Bar-Yosef and his collaborators. This provides a cultural ecology explanation, based on the idea that some areas were better favoured with domesticable plants and animals than others.^[80]

The domestication hypothesis put forth by Daniel Quinn and others states that first humans stayed in particular areas, giving up their nomadic ways, then developed agriculture and animal domestication.

Another hypothesis is that humans were prevented from staying in one place for much of their history, due to the risk of attacks from other tribes.^[81]

The Innovation and Specialisation Model was put forward recently by Rupert Gerritsen, in Australia and the Origins of Agriculture (2008). This hypothesis considers the question in terms of economic development and treats agriculture as a form of specialisation arising from two factors, higher population densities and innovation in areas of higher net natural productivity, and long-term advantageous information acquisition at nodal points in communication in long range scale-free networks.

Early development

Sumerian harvester's sickle, 3000 BC, made from baked clay.

Early people began altering communities of flora and fauna for their own benefit through other means such as fire-stick farming very early.^[82][83]

Anthropological and archaeological evidence from sites across Southwest Asia and North Africa indicate use of wild grain (e.g., from the c. 20,000 BC site of Ohalo II in Israel, many Natufian sites in the Levant and from sites along the Nile in the 10th millennium BC). There is even evidence of planned cultivation and trait selection: grains of rye with domestic traits have been recovered from Epi-Palaeolithic (10,000+ BC) contexts at Abu Hureyra in Syria, but this appears to be a localised phenomenon resulting from cultivation of stands of wild rye, rather than a definitive step towards domestication.

Previously, archaeobotanists/paleoethnobotanists had traced the selection and cultivation of specific food plant characteristics in search of the origins of agriculture. One notable example is the semi-tough rachis (and larger seeds) traced to just after the Younger Dryas (about 9500 BC) in the early Holocene in the Levant region of the Fertile Crescent. However, studies have demonstrated monophyletic characteristics attained without any human intervention, implying that what some may perceive as domestication among rachis could have occurred quite naturally.^[84] In fact, the timescale insisted upon for rachis domestication (approx. 3,000 years) coincidentally has been demonstrated to directly coincide with the statistically generated timeframe numerically modeled that would be required for monophyly to be reached if a population were simply abandoned and left to only natural demands, implying that if any sort of human intervention had occurred at all then the timescale insisted upon should be considerably shorter (than 3,000 years).^[84]

It was not until after 9500 BC that the eight so-called founder crops of agriculture appear: first emmer and einkorn wheat, then hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax. These eight crops occur more or less simultaneously on Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) sites in the Levant, although the consensus is that wheat was the first to be grown and harvested on a significant scale.

At around the same time (9400 BC), another study argues, parthenocarpic fig trees appear to have been domesticated.^[85] The simplicity associated with cutting branches off fig trees and replanting them alongside wild cereals owes to the basis of this argument.^[86]

By 7000 BC, sowing and harvesting reached Mesopotamia, and there, in the fertile soil just north of the Persian Gulf, Sumerians systematized it and scaled it up. By 8000 BC, farming was entrenched on the banks of the Nile River. About this time, agriculture was developed independently in the Far East, probably in China, with rice rather than wheat as the primary crop. Maize, a domesticate of the wild grass teosinte, was domesticated in West Mexico by 6700 BC.^[87] The potato, the tomato, the pepper, squash, several varieties of bean, and several other plants were also developed in the New World, as was quite extensive terracing of steep hillsides in much of Andean South America. Agriculture was also independently developed on the island of New Guinea.^[88]

Recent discoveries in Europe, such as Cyprus and mainland Greece has shown that farming started early in south east Europe. In Franchthi Cave in Greece there are no certain gathering of plant foods attested before c. 11,000 BC, although large numbers of seeds of the Boraginaceae family may come from plants gathered to furnish soft bedding or for the dye which their roots may have supplied. First appearing at c. 11,000 BC are lentils, vetch, pistachios, and almonds. Then c. 10,500 BC appear a few very rare seeds of wild oats and wild barley. Neither wild oats nor wild barley become at all common until c. 7000 BC^[89][90] On Cyprus the oldest agricultural settlement ever found on a Mediterranean island has been discovered at Klimonas. Between 9100 and 8600 BC organized communities were farming and built half-buried mud brick communal buildings 10 meters in diameter surrounded by dwellings that were likely also used to store the village's harvests. Remains of carbonized seeds of local plants and grains introduced from the Levantine coasts (including emmer, one of the first Middle Eastern wheats) have also been found in Klimonas.^[91]

There is evidence of emmer and einkorn wheat, barley, sheep, goats and pigs that suggest a food producing economy in Greece and the Aegean by 7000 BC.^[92] Archaeological evidence from various sites on the Iberian peninsula suggest the domestication of plants and animals between 6000 and 4500 BC.^[92] Céide Fields in Ireland, consisting of extensive tracts of land enclosed by stone walls, date to 3500 BC and are the oldest known field systems in the world.^[93][94] The horse was domesticated in the Pontic steppe around 4000 BC.^[95] Evidence of cannabis use by 4000 BC and domestication by 3000 BC survive in Siberia. Domesticated marijuana had also begun in China by 2500 BC.^[96]

In China, rice and millet were domesticated by 8000 BC, followed by the beans mung, soy and azuki. In the Sahel region of Africa local rice and sorghum were domestic by 5000 BC. Local crops were domesticated independently in West Africa and possibly in Ethiopia. In New Guinea, ancient Papuan peoples are thought to have begun practicing agriculture around 7000 BC. They began domesticating sugarcane and root crops. Pigs may also have been domesticated around this time. By 3000 BC, Papuan agriculture was characterized by water control for irrigation.^[97] Evidence of the presence of wheat and some legumes in the 6th millennium BC have been found in the Indus Valley. Oranges were cultivated in the same millennium. The crops grown in the valley around 4000 BC were typically wheat, peas, sesame seed, barley, dates and mangoes. By 3500 BC, cotton growing and cotton textiles were quite advanced in the valley. By 3000 BC farming of rice had started. Other monsoon crops of importance of the time was cane sugar. By 2500 BC, rice was an important component of the staple diet in Mohenjodaro near the Arabian Sea. By this time the Indians had large cities with well-stocked granaries. Three regions of the Americas independently domesticated corn, squashes, potato and sunflowers.

Sumer

Agricultural scene from Ancient Egypt.

By the Bronze Age, wild food contributed a nutritionally insignificant component to the usual diet. If the operative definition of agriculture includes large scale intensive cultivation of land, mono-cropping, organized irrigation, and use of a specialized labour force, the title "inventors of agriculture" would fall to the Sumerians, starting c. 5500 BC. Intensive farming allows a much greater density of population than can be supported by hunting and gathering, and allows for the accumulation of excess product for off-season use, or to sell/barter. The ability of farmers to feed large numbers of people whose activities have nothing to do with agriculture was the crucial factor in the rise of standing armies. Sumerian agriculture supported a substantial territorial expansion which along with internecine conflict between cities, made them the first empire builders. Not long after, the Egyptians, powered by farming in the fertile Nile valley, achieved a population density from which enough warriors could be drawn for a territorial expansion more than tripling the Sumerian empire in area.

In Sumer, barley was the primary crop; wheat, flax, dates, apples, plums, and grapes were grown as well. Mesopotamian agriculture was both supported and limited by flooding from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, as floods came in late spring or early summer from snow melting from the Anatolian mountains. The timing of the flooding, along with salt deposits in the soil, made farming in Mesopotamia difficult. Sheep and goats were domesticated, kept mainly for meat and milk, butter and cheese being made from the latter. Ur, a large town that covered about 50 acres (20 hectares), had 10,000 animals kept in sheepfolds and stables and 3,000 slaughtered every year. The city's population of 6,000 included a labour force of 2,500, cultivating 3,000 acres (12 km²) of land. The labour force contained storehouse recorders, work foremen, overseers, and harvest supervisors to supplement labourers. Agricultural produce was given to temple personnel, important people in the community, and small farmers.

The land was plowed by teams of oxen pulling light unwheeled plows and grain was harvested with sickles in the spring. Wagons had solid wheels covered by leather tires kept in position by copper nails and were drawn by oxen. Animals were harnessed by collars, yokes, and headstalls. They were controlled by reins, and a ring through the nose or upper lip and a strap under the jaw. As many as four animals could pull a wagon at one time. The horse was domesticated in Ukraine around 4000 BC, and was in use by the Sumerians around 2000 BC.

Ancient Egypt

Indus valley civilization

Cotton was cultivated by the 5th-4th millennium BC.^[98]

Wheat, barley, and jujube were domesticated in the Indian subcontinent by 9000 BC; Domestication of sheep and goat soon followed.^[99] Barley and wheat cultivation—along with the domestication of cattle, primarily sheep and goat—continued in Mehrgarh culture by 8000-6000 BC.^[100][101] This period also saw the first domestication of the elephant.^[99] Agro pastoralism in India included threshing, planting crops in rows—either of two or of six—and storing grain in granaries.^[101][102] By the 5th millennium BC, agricultural communities became widespread in Kashmir.^[101] Archaeological evidence indicates that rice was a part of the Indian diet by 8000 BC.^[103] The Encyclopædia Britannica—on the subject of the first certain cultivated rice—holds that:^[104] A number of cultures have evidence of early rice cultivation, including China, India, and the civilizations of Southeast Asia.

Irrigation was developed in the Indus Valley Civilization by around 4500 BC.^[105] The size and prosperity of the Indus civilization grew as a result of this innovation, which eventually led to more planned settlements making use of drainage and sewers.^[105] Archeological evidence of an animal-drawn plough dates back to 2500 BC in the Indus Valley Civilization.^[106]

Ancient China

Han Dynasty tomb mural depicting ploughing by Shennong, the legendary "Divine Husbandsman".

Records from the Warring States, Qin Dynasty, and Han Dynasty provide a picture of early Chinese agriculture from the 5th century BC to 2nd century AD which included a nationwide granary system and widespread use of sericulture. An important early Chinese book on agriculture is the Chimin Yaoshu of AD 535, written by Jia Sixia.^[107] Jia's writing style was straightforward and lucid relative to the elaborate and allusive writing typical of the time. Jia's book was also very long, with over one hundred thousand written Chinese characters, and it quoted many other Chinese books that were written previously, but no longer survive.^[108] The contents of Jia's 6th century book include sections on land preparation, seeding, cultivation, orchard management, forestry, and animal husbandry. The book also includes peripherally related content covering trade and culinary uses for crops.^[109] The work and the style in which it was written proved influential on later Chinese agronomists, such as Wang Zhen and his groundbreaking Nong Shu of AD 1313.^[108]

For agricultural purposes, the Chinese had innovated the hydraulic-powered trip hammer by the 1st century BC.^[110] Although it found other purposes, its main function to pound, decorticate, and polish grain that otherwise would have been done manually. The Chinese also began using the square-pallet chain pump by the 1st century AD, powered by a waterwheel or oxen pulling an on a system of mechanical wheels.^[111] Although the chain pump found use in public works of providing water for urban and palatial pipe systems,^[112] it was used largely to lift water from a lower to higher elevation in filling irrigation canals and channels for farmland.^[113] By the end of the Han dynasty in the late 2nd century, heavy ploughs had been developed with iron ploughshares and mouldboards.^[114][115] These would slowly spread west, revolutionizing farming in Northern Europe by the 10th century. (Glick, however, argues for a development of the Chinese plough as late as the 9th century, implying its spread east from similar designs known in Italy by the 7th century.)^[116]

Roman Empire

Roman harvesting machine

In classical antiquity, Roman agriculture built from techniques pioneered by the Sumerians, transmitted to them by subsequent cultures, with a specific emphasis on the cultivation of crops for trade and export. Romans laid the groundwork for the manorial economic system, involving serfdom, which flourished in the Middle Ages. The farm sizes in Rome can be divided into three categories. Small farms were from 18-88 iugera (one iugerum is equal to about 0.65 acre). Medium-sized farms were from 80-500 iugera (singular iugerum). Large estates (called latifundia) were over 500 iugera.^[117]

The Romans had four systems of farm management: direct work by owner and his family; slaves doing work under supervision of slave managers; tenant farming or sharecropping in which the owner and a tenant divide up a farm’s produce; and situations in which a farm was leased to a tenant.^[117] There was a great deal of commerce between the provinces of the empire, all the regions of the empire became interdependent with one another, some provinces specialized in the production of grain, others in wine and others in olive oil, depending on the soil type.

Mesoamerica

In Mesoamerica, wild teosinte was transformed through human selection into the ancestor of modern maize, more than 6,000 years ago. It gradually spread across North America and was the major crop of Native Americans at the time of European exploration.^[118] Other Mesoamerican crops include hundreds of varieties of squash and beans. Cocoa was also a major crop in domesticated Mexico and Central America. The turkey, one of the most important meat birds, was probably domesticated in Mexico or the U.S. Southwest.

In Mesoamerica, the Aztecs were active farmers and had an agriculturally focused economy. The land around Lake Texcoco was fertile, but not large enough to produce the amount of food needed for the population of their expanding empire. The Aztecs developed irrigation systems, formed terraced hillsides, and fertilized their soil. However, their greatest agricultural technique was the chinampas, or artificial islands, also known as "floating gardens". These were used to make the swampy areas around the lake suitable for farming. To make chinampas, canals were dug through the marshy islands and shores, then mud was heaped on huge mats made of woven reeds. The mats were anchored by tying them to posts driven into the lake bed and then planting trees at their corners that took root and secured the artificial islands permanently. The Aztecs grew corn, squash, vegetables, and flowers on chinampas.

South America

Inca farmers using a chaki taklla, a human-powered foot plough.

In the Andes region of South America the major crop was the potato, domesticated approximately 7,000–10,000 years ago.^{[119][120][121]} Many varieties of beans were domesticated in South America, as well as coca, which is still a major crop to this day. Animals were also domesticated, including llamas, alpacas, and guinea pigs.

Terraced farmland in Peru, adopted by the Inca.

The Pre-Columbian Andean civilizations were predominantly agricultural societies. These civilizations took advantage of the difficult terrain, facing challenges from the narrow mountain valleys and coastal desert regions by developing terrace agriculture and sophisticated irrigation networks. Many sites of terrace farms can now be observed as anden. The adaptation of earlier agricultural technologies of the Wari and Moche allowed the Incas to organize the production of diverse crops in coastal, mountainous, and jungle environments. The strong centralized government of the Sapa Inca allowed for the redistribution of food to other regions where it was not normally accessible or less abundant. This redistribution and storage was in part made possible by the Inca road system.

North America

The indigenous people of the Eastern U.S. appear to have domesticated numerous crops. Sunflowers, tobacco,^[122] varieties of squash and Chenopodium, as well as crops no longer grown, including marshelder and little barley, were domesticated.^[123][124] Other wild foods may have undergone some selective cultivation, including wild rice and maple sugar. The most common varieties of strawberry were domesticated from Eastern North America.^[125] Two major crops, pecans and Concord grapes, were utilized extensively in prehistoric times but do not appear to have been domesticated until the 19th century.^[126][127]

The natives in what is now California and the Pacific Northwest practiced various forms of forest gardening and fire-stick farming in the forests, grasslands, mixed woodlands, and wetlands, ensuring that desired food and medicine plants continued to be available. The natives controlled fire on a regional scale to create a low-intensity fire ecology which prevented larger, catastrophic fires and sustained a low-density agriculture in loose rotation; a sort of "wild" permaculture.^{[128][129][130][131]}

Australia

From the time British colonization of Australia began in 1788, Indigenous Australians were characterised as being nomadic hunter-gatherers who did not engage in agriculture or other forms of food production, despite some evidence to the contrary. Rhys Jones, however, proposed in 1969 that Indigenous Australians engaged in systematic burning as a way of enhancing natural productivity, what has been termed fire-stick farming.^[132] In the 1970s and 1980s archaeological research in south west Victoria established that the Gunditjmara and other groups had developed sophisticated eel farming and fish trapping systems over a period of nearly 5,000 years.^[133] Professor Harry Lourandos suggested in the 1980s that there was evidence of 'intensification' in progress across Australia,^[134] a process that appeared to have in progress over the preceding 5,000 years. These concepts have led Bill Gammage to argue that in effect the whole continent was a managed landscape.^[83]

It is now being argued that in two regions of Australia, the central west coast and eastern central Australia, forms of early agriculture were being practiced, whereby plants were being sown or planted on a large scale and the yield being stored or preserved in significant amounts.^{[83]:281–304[135]} It also appears that the people in these regions were living in permanent settlements of significant size (over 200 residents, possibly up to 1,000), in dwellings large enough to house 10 or more people, and they exhibited high degrees of sedentism. The Nhanda and Amangu of the central west coast grew yams (Dioscorea hastifolia), while various groups in eastern central Australia (the Corners Region) planted and harvested bush onions (yaua - Cyperus bulbosus), native millet (cooly, tindil - Panicum decompositum) and a sporocarp, ngardu (Marsillea drumondii).

Middle Ages and early modern period

An Indian farmer with a rock-weighted scratch plough pulled by two oxen. Similar ploughs were used throughout antiquity before being replaced in many places by the carruca and other turnploughs during the Middle Ages.

Population continued to increase along with land use. From 100 BC to AD 1600, methane emissions rose an average of 31 million tons per year. This average annual rise is almost as high as the United States produced annually in 2012. Methane gas was produced primarily by domesticating animals and the growing of rice.^[136]

Arab world

From the 8th century, the medieval Islamic world underwent a transformation in agricultural practice which has been described by some as the "Arab Agricultural Revolution". This transformation was driven by a number of factors including the diffusion of many crops and plants along Muslim trade routes, the spread of more advanced farming techniques, and an agricultural-economic system which promoted increased yields and efficiency. The shift in agricultural practice led to significant changes in economy, population distribution, vegetation cover, agricultural production, population levels, urban growth, the distribution of the labour force, cooking and diet, clothing, and numerous other aspects of life in the Islamic world.^[137][138]

Muslim traders covered an expansive area of the Old World, and these trade routes enabled the diffusion of many crops, plants and farming techniques across the Islamic world, as well as the adaptation of crops, plants and techniques from beyond the Islamic world.^[138] Historian Andrew Watson has argued that this diffusion introduced a number of crops of major importance to Europe by way of Al-Andalus, along with the techniques for their cultivation. Important crops involved in this transfer included sugar cane, rice, and cotton. A number of additional fruit trees, nut trees, and vegetables were also transferred.

Agricultural technologies that were widely adopted during this period included intensive irrigation systems, crop rotation systems, and use of agricultural manuals. A sophisticated system of irrigation made use of norias, water mills, water raising machines, dams and reservoirs. Some irrigation infrastructure and technology was continued from Roman times, and some introduced by Muslims.

Europe

Agricultural calendar from a manuscript of Pietro de Crescenzi.

The Middle Ages saw significant improvements in the agricultural techniques and technology. During this time period, monasteries spread throughout Europe and became important centers for the collection of knowledge related to agriculture and forestry. The manorial system, which existed under different names throughout Europe and Asia, allowed large landowners significant control over both their land and its laborers, in the form of peasants or serfs.^[139] During the medieval period, the Arab world was critical in the exchange of crops and technology between the European, Asia and African continents. Besides transporting numerous crops, they introduced the concept of summer irrigation to Europe and developed the beginnings of the plantation system of sugarcane growing through the use of slaves for intensive cultivation.^[140] Population continued to increase along with land use. From 100 BC to AD 1600, methane emissions rose an average of 31 million tons per year. This average annual rise is almost as high as the United States produced annually in 2012. Methane gas was produced primarily by domesticating animals and growing rice.^[141]

By AD 900, developments in iron smelting allowed for increased production in Europe, leading to developments in the production of agricultural implements such as ploughs, hand tools and horse shoes. The carruca plough offered a significant improvement over the earlier scratch plough, having adopted the Chinese mouldboard plough to turn over the heavy, wet soils of northern Europe. This led to the clearing of forests in that area and a significant increase in agricultural production, which in turn led to an increase in population.^[37] At the same time, farmers in Europe moved from a two field crop rotation to a three field crop rotation in which one field of three was left fallow every year. This resulted in increased productivity and nutrition, as the change in rotations led to different crops being planted, including legumes such as peas, lentils and beans. Inventions such as improved horse harnesses and the whippletree also changed methods of cultivation.^[37] Watermills were initially developed by the Romans, but were improved throughout the Middle Ages, along with windmills, and used to grind grains into flour, cut wood and process flax and wool, among other uses.^[142]

Crops included wheat, rye, barley and oats. Peas, beans, and vetches became common from the 13th century onward as a fodder crop for animals and also for their nitrogen-fixation fertilizing properties. Crop yields peaked in the 13th century, and stayed more or less steady until the 18th century.^[40] Though the limitations of medieval farming were once thought to have provided a ceiling for the population growth in the Middle Ages, recent studies^[41][42] have shown that the technology of medieval agriculture was always sufficient for the needs of the people under normal circumstances, and that it was only during exceptionally harsh times, such as the terrible weather of 1315–17, that the needs of the population could not be met.^[43][143]

Columbian exchange

The Harvesters. Pieter Bruegel – 1565

After 1492, a global exchange of previously local crops and livestock breeds occurred. Key crops involved in this exchange included maize, potatoes, sweet potatoes and manioc traveling from the New World to the Old, and several varieties of wheat, barley, rice and turnips going from the Old World to the New. There were very few livestock species in the New World, with horses, cattle, sheep and goats being completely unknown before their arrival with Old World settlers. Crops moving in both directions across the Atlantic Ocean caused population growth around the world, and had a lasting effect on many cultures.^[144] Maize and cassava were introduced from Brazil into Africa by Portuguese traders in the 16th century.^[145] They are now important staple foods, replacing native African crops.^[146]

After its introduction from South America to Spain in the late 1500s, the potato became an important staple crop throughout Europe by the late 1700s. The potato allowed farmers to produce more food, and initially added variety to the European diet. The nutrition boost caused by increased potato consumption resulted in lower disease rates, higher birth rates and lower mortality rates, causing a population boom throughout the British Empire, the US and Europe.^[46] The introduction of the potato also brought about the first intensive use of fertilizer, in the form of guano imported to Europe from Peru, and the first artificial pesticide, in the form of an arsenic compound used to fight Colorado potato beetles. Before the adoption of the potato as a major crop, the dependence on grain caused repetitive regional and national famines when the crops failed: 17 major famines in England alone between 1523 and 1623. Although initially almost eliminating the danger of famine, the resulting dependence on the potato eventually caused the European Potato Failure, a disastrous crop failure from disease resulting in widespread famine, and the death of over one million people in Ireland alone.^[47]

Modern agriculture

British agricultural revolution

Use of primitive agricultural techniques was the historical standard. The vast majority of the world population engaged in subsistence agriculture and yields remained low. Between the 16th century and the mid-19th century, Great Britain saw a massive increase in agricultural productivity and net output. New agricultural practices like enclosure, mechanization, four-field crop rotation and selective breeding enabled an unprecedented population growth, freeing up a significant percentage of the workforce, and thereby helped drive the Industrial Revolution. By the early 19th century, agricultural practices, particularly careful selection of hardy strains and cultivars, had so improved that yield per land unit was many times that seen in the Middle Ages and before. It is estimated that the productivity of wheat went up from about 19 bushels per acre in 1720 to 21–22 bushels by the middle of the century and finally stabilised at around 30 bushels by 1840.^[147]

The Agricultural Revolution was a major turning point in history. The population of England in 1750 reached the level of 5.7 million, just as it had done in the past in around 1350 and again in 1650. This time, instead of a Malthusian catastrophe occurring from plague or famine, the population growth remained sustained.

Charles 'Turnip' Townshend, agriculturalist who introduced four-field crop rotation and the cultivation of turnips.

One of the keys to the British Agricultural Revolution was the development of ways of keeping and improving the arable land in Great Britain to counteract the loss of the soil's plant nutrients in cropping a given area. Higher yielding land was added to higher yielding crops with more yield/acre. Farm workers using more productive tools and machinery produced more crops with fewer workers. The Agricultural Revolution picked up speed as the Industrial Revolution and the advances in chemistry produced the scientific knowledge, wealth and technology for a more systematic development of commercial fertilizers and new and more productive agricultural machinery.

Advice on more productive techniques for farming began to appear in England in the mid-17th century, from writers such as Samuel Hartlib, Walter Blith and others.^[148] The main problem in sustaining agriculture in one place for a long time was the depletion of nutrients, most importantly nitrogen levels, in the soil. To allow the soil to regenerate, productive land was often let fallow and in some places crop rotation was used. The Dutch four-field rotation system was popularised by the British agriculturist Charles Townshend in the 18th century. The system (wheat, turnips, barley and clover), opened up a fodder crop and grazing crop allowing livestock to be bred year-round. The use of clover was especially important as the legume roots were an important source of nutrients for the soil.^[149]

Another catalyst for improvement came from the Enclosure movement. Prior to the 18th century, agriculture across Europe used the feudal open field system with subsistence farmers cropping strips of land in fields held in common and splitting up the produce; this was very inefficient and reduced incentive to improve the productivity. Many farms began to be enclosed by Yeomen who improved the use of their land. This process accelerated in the 15th and 16th centuries with special acts of Parliament to expedite the legal process. This culminated in the General Enclosure Act of 1801, which sanctioned large-scale land reform.

Shires selectively bred for size, in the 18th century.

The mechanisation and rationalisation of agriculture was another important factor. Robert Bakewell and Thomas Coke introduced selective breeding, and initiated a process of inbreeding to maximise desirable traits from the mid 18th century, such as the New Leicester sheep.

Machines were invented to improve the efficiency of various agricultural operation, such as Jethro Tull's seed drill of 1701 that mechanised seeding at the correct depth and spacing and Andrew Meikle's threshing machine of 1784. Ploughs were steadily improved, from Joseph Foljambe's Rotherham iron plough in 1730^[150] to James Small's improved "Scots Plough" metal in 1763. In 1789 Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies was producing 86 plough models for different soils.^[151] Traction machines also began to replace horsepower on the farms in the 19th century.

The scientific investigation of fertilization began at the Rothamsted Experimental Station in 1843 by John Bennet Lawes. He investigated the impact of inorganic and organic fertilizers on crop yield and founded one of the first artificial fertilizer manufacturing factories in 1842. Fertilizer, in the shape of sodium nitrate deposits in Chile, was imported to Britain by John Thomas North as well as guano (birds droppings). The first commercial process for fertilizer production was the obtaining of phosphate from the dissolution of coprolites in sulphuric acid.^[62]

The repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 that removed tariffs on food imports, and the development of steamships and railways, which revolutionised the transportation of food, allowed a truly global market for food to emerge. This reduced volatility in food prices as scarcity in one area could be offset by cheap imports from another area.

The work of Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel created the scientific foundation for plant breeding that led to its explosive impact over the past 150 years.^[50] Firms, such as Gartons Agricultural Plant Breeders began to market hybrid crops in the 1890s.

20th century

Early 20th century image of a tractor ploughing an alfalfa field.

Dan Albone constructed the first commercially successful gasoline-powered general purpose tractor in 1901, and the 1923 International Harvester Farmall tractor marked a major point in the replacement of draft animals (particularly horses) with machines. Since that time, self-propelled mechanical harvesters (combines), planters, transplanters and other equipment have been developed, further revolutionizing agriculture.^[152] These inventions allowed farming tasks to be done with a speed and on a scale previously impossible, leading modern farms to output much greater volumes of high-quality produce per land unit.^[153]

The Haber-Bosch method for synthesizing ammonium nitrate represented a major breakthrough and allowed crop yields to overcome previous constraints. It was first patented by German chemist Fritz Haber. In 1910 Carl Bosch, while working for German chemical company BASF, successfully commercialized the process and secured further patents. In the years after World War II, the use of synthetic fertilizer increased rapidly, in sync with the increasing world population.^[154]

In the past century agriculture has been characterized by increased productivity, the substitution of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides for labor, water pollution, and farm subsidies. In recent years there has been a backlash against the external environmental effects of conventional agriculture, resulting in the organic movement.^[155] Famines continued to sweep the globe through the 20th century. Through the effects of climactic events, government policy, war and crop failure, millions of people died in each of at least ten famines between the 1920s and the 1990s.^[64]

Other applications of scientific research since 1950 in agriculture include gene manipulation, Hydroponics, and the development of economically viable biofuels such as Ethanol.

Green Revolution

Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution, is often credited with saving over a billion people worldwide from starvation.

The Green Revolution refers to a series of research, development, and technology transfer initiatives, occurring between the 1940s and the late 1970s, that increased agriculture production around the world, beginning most markedly in the late 1960s.^[65] The initiatives, led by Norman Borlaug, the "Father of the Green Revolution" credited with saving over a billion people from starvation, involved the development of high-yielding varieties of cereal grains, expansion of irrigation infrastructure, modernization of management techniques, distribution of hybridized seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides to farmers.

Synthetic nitrogen, along with mined rock phosphate, pesticides and mechanization, have greatly increased crop yields in the early 20th century. Increased supply of grains has led to cheaper livestock as well. Further, global yield increases were experienced later in the 20th century when high-yield varieties of common staple grains such as rice, wheat, and corn were introduced as a part of the Green Revolution. The Green Revolution exported the technologies (including pesticides and synthetic nitrogen) of the developed world to the developing world. Thomas Malthus famously predicted that the Earth would not be able to support its growing population, but technologies such as the Green Revolution have allowed the world to produce a surplus of food.^[67]

Although the Green Revolution significantly increased rice yields in Asia, yield increases have not occurred in the past 15–20 years.^[68] The genetic "yield potential" has increased for wheat, but the yield potential for rice has not increased since 1966, and the yield potential for maize has "barely increased in 35 years".^[68] It takes a decade or two for herbicide-resistant weeds to emerge, and insects become resistant to insecticides within about a decade.^[68] Crop rotation helps to prevent resistances.^[68]

Organic farming

Though the intensive farming practices pioneered and extended in recent history generally led to increased outputs, they have also led to the destruction of farmland, most notably in the dust bowl area of the United States following World War I. As global population increased, agriculture continued to replace natural ecosystems with monoculture crops. Activists such as Sir Albert Howard began the organic movement as a reaction to the widely used intensive agriculture practices. In recent years, growing awareness has led to increased interest in such areas of agriculture as organic farming, permaculture, heirloom plants and biodiversity, the growth of the Slow Food movement, and an ongoing discussion surrounding the potential for sustainable agriculture.

See also

• Rural history
• Historical hydroculture
• History of fertilizer
• History of gardening
• History of cotton
• History of the potato

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Bibliography

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Europe

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United States

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Australia

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• Rupert Gerritsen, Australia and the Origins of Agriculture (2008).
• Jones, R. Fire-stick Farming. Australian Natural History, 16(1969): 224.
• Lourandos, H. Continent of Hunter-Gatherers: New Perspectives in Australian Prehistory (1997)
• Williams, E. Complex Hunter-Gatherers: A Late Holocene Example from Temperate Australia (1988).

External links

• Early Agricultural Remnants and Technical Heritage is a multidisciplinary project investigating the development of non-industrial agricultural techniques, with a focus on Europe.
• Tracing the Evolution of Organic/Sustainable Agriculture A Selected and Annotated Bibliography. Alternative Farming Systems Information Center, National Agricultural Library.
• The history of the UK countryside The history of the UK countryside, farming and agriculture, a unique 3D animated guide chronicling the last 15000 years in 20 key stages.