What is a brief history of agriculture?
Answers
There is some evidence that Africans were gathering sorghum, grinding it and eating it 105,000 to 80,000 years ago. Starch grains turned up on grindstones from Mozambique. No one knows whether the sorghum was planted on purpose or gathered from the wild.
DNA studies of Turkish wheat showed that it was domesticated 10,000 years ago. Millet, a gluten-free grain of African origin, was domesticated in China around 10,000 years ago, and has been used to make porridge, noodles and alcohol. Rye was grown in Syria 500 years before wheat was domesticated. Bananas and sugarcane were first grown in New Guinea circa 6900 BC, and cultivation of taro, sago and yams dates to ten thousand years ago there. Maize cultivation began in Mesoamerica around 2500 BC.
The very first forms of agriculture may have involved cutting and burning of forest so gardens could be planted (slash and burn). Brassica crops, such as mustard, were probably domesticated a very long time ago, and are still eaten throughout Europe and Asia. These include cabbage, turnips, rutabaga, brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and collards. Growing kale is easy (it got 7 feet tall in my garden) and early gardeners must have appreciated this. Onions and garlic were grown in ancient Sumer and Egypt. Silt left by the rivers in river-valley cultures helped keep pastures and gardens fertile, which made it easier to feed farmers and city people.