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Origin of Agriculture

1. Agriculture originated from hunter-gatherer societies gradually domesticating wild plants and animals around 10,000 years ago in several centers of origin located between latitudes 20-45 degrees. 2. Scholars have identified major centers of origin for agriculture including China, India, the Near East, Mesoamerica, the Andes, Ethiopia, and the Mediterranean based on archaeological evidence and the geographic distribution of wild plant relatives. 3. Key domesticated crops that originated in these centers include rice, millet, wheat, barley in Asia; corn, beans, squash in Mesoamerica; potatoes in the Andes; and coffee, yams, oil palm in Africa.

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Anne Gellyne E. Antoniano
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114 views16 pages

Origin of Agriculture

1. Agriculture originated from hunter-gatherer societies gradually domesticating wild plants and animals around 10,000 years ago in several centers of origin located between latitudes 20-45 degrees. 2. Scholars have identified major centers of origin for agriculture including China, India, the Near East, Mesoamerica, the Andes, Ethiopia, and the Mediterranean based on archaeological evidence and the geographic distribution of wild plant relatives. 3. Key domesticated crops that originated in these centers include rice, millet, wheat, barley in Asia; corn, beans, squash in Mesoamerica; potatoes in the Andes; and coffee, yams, oil palm in Africa.

Uploaded by

Anne Gellyne E. Antoniano
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Origin of Agriculture

Introduction
• Knowledge of time and place of origin is
important
– For taxonomists and plant breeders
– Present day plants are much different than
the wild varieties
• Genetically and morphologically different
• Several genes (characterisitcs) are selected
– Loss of plants is loss of gene pools from
which new traits can be retrieved
Introduction
• Humans turned non-agricultural to
agricultural way of life.
• Agriculture; horticulture and domestication
• Study history by
– Carbon dating
– Fossils
– Phytoliths
Why farm?
• Work by Lee and Devore
– !King bushmen of Kalahari desert of southern
Africa
• Selected plant for adequate diet
• 105 species were used
• Did not work hard
• Not due to mal-nutrition or poverty
• Not revolution but evolution
De Candolle (1883)
• Pioneering work
• Criteria for recognizing centers of origin
– Places where a plant grows spontaneously in
a wild state
– Places where fragments of plants in old
deposits and buildings (archeological and
palaeobotanical) are found
– Archives describing the adventures of
travelers.
– Philogical (naming) origin
Vavilov (1927)
• Center located in 20-45 degrees latitude
• 6-8 centers
• China
• India
• Central Asia
• Near East
• Mediterranean
• Ethiopia
• Mesoamerica
• South America
Zhukovsky (1968)
• Megagene centers   
– China
– Indochina - Indochina
– Australia - New Zealand
– India
– Central Asia
– West Asia
– Mediterranean
– Africa
– Europe - Siberia
– Mexico & Central America
– N. America
Centers of Origin
• Primary center: Places where initial
formation of species has taken place
• Secondary centers: new species formed
due to mutations and hybridization. Has
wide variety of subspecies
Harlan (1971 and 1992)
• Centers and non-centers: three each
• Recently related biomes to cultivation
• Tundra – no cultivation
• Tropical: Sugar cane, banana, orange, mango
and cocoa. Root crops and coffee
• Temperate: cheery, apple, pear, grapes walnut,
millets and wheat
• Mediterranean: maize, rice, sorghum, cassava,
sweet potato, bean, peanut, yams
• Sea coast: coconut, cabbage, cotton, beet
Old World Centers
• The near east: 9,000 – 14,000 years ago.
Fertile crescent of Mesopotamia. Wheat,
barley, peas and vetch
• The far east: 7,000- 8,000 years ago.
China, Thailand, India. Rice, millet, rape
and hemp
New World Centers
• Eastern North America: Cherokee
Sunflower and cranberries
• Western North America: Pueblo Dwellers
Trees and shrubs; pine nuts and pigweed
• Mexico: Aztecs and Mayans; Corn and
beans
• South American: Inca; Potato and
chocolate
Agriculture to day
• 3% of land is used for cultivation
• US: 1.9 billion acres
– 310million acres for crop
– 650 million acres for animal
• Four major crops: 80% Corn, wheat soy
and hay
• All fruits and vegetable – 7% land
• Cotton – 4%

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