Agriculture History

Agriculture is said to be as old as time; probably one of the world’s oldest industries. Thousands of years before civilization, humans wandered and gathered food to eat. It was after this phase that domestication began. It is reported that humans at the time relied on edible grasses as feed around 21,000 BC. By 9,000 BC, seed saving for cultivation began in Mesopotamia – now Iraq. Cultivation reduced the need to wander in search of food to eat at the time. Between 8,000 and 7,000 BC, the settled communities in Central America and China began the cultivation of corn and rice respectively. At the time, rice production transformed nomadic settlements to urban settlements giving rise to the emergence of empires. The period between 5000 and 300 BC witnessed new crops including vegetables, potatoes, and cowpea.