HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE

 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE

The earliest man, Homo erectus emerged around one and half million years ago and by about a million years ago he spread throughout old world tropics and later to temperate zones. About 500 thousand years ago, he learnt to control and use fire. The earliest man is distinguished from fellow animals by his intelligence and skill in making tools.

Homo sapiens, the direct ancestor of modern man lived 250 thousand years ago. Homosapiens sapiens, the modern man, appeared in Africa about 35 thousand years ago. He is distinguished from all other extinct species of genus Homo, by large brain, small teeth and chin and capacity for making and using tools. He hunted a variety of animals and cooked their meat on fire. The weapons for hunting were boulders and spears of wood tipped with blades of flint.

He also used stone-tipped arrows. Later he domesticated the dog which greatly helped him in hunting. Apart from the meat of animals, he gathered a variety of seeds, leaves and fruits fromn

the jungle It is estimated that most efficient hunting and gathering can hardly support one person per square kilometre while pastoral life can support three and agriculture about a hundred. He had no control over food supply and was unable to clothe and shelter adequately. During the period 8700 B.C. to 7700 B.C., he domesticated animals and turned a herdsman. He first domesticated sheep and later goat. Between the period 7500 B.C. to 6500 B.C., man gradually shifted from hunting and gathering to agriculture. Stone axes were used for cutting trees and fire for burning forests. Grains of cereals were dibbled with the aid of pointed sticks. Later on, stone hoes with wooden handles were invented. The cereals grown during this period were wheat and barley and later rice, maize and millets (Table 1.1). Subsequently he domesticated cattle, pigs, horse and ass.

Agriculture has no single and simple origin. lt was started in different parts of the world during different periods. Present day agriculture in India as elsewhere has evolved itself through the ages. 

As India was a pastoral country before agriculture was started, development of crops and animals took place concurrently leading to various types of farming systems that are now seen in different parts of the country.

India's most important contribution to world agriculture is rice, the staple food crop of most  of south, south-east and east-Asia. Sugarcane, number of legumes and tropical fruit like mango are also natives of India. Indus Valley and Harappan civilization flourished from the close of the third millennium B.C. until around 1750 B.C. Excavations in this area have revealed huge

granaries. Barley, wheat, sesame, peas, date-palm, cotton and lentils were the main crops during this period. Wooden plough and wheeled cart were in use. Farmers used sling-balls for scaring birds. 

Harappans knew ginning, spinning and weaving of cotton into cloth.

South India was a second and initially independent agricultural region. Crops were being raised here during the first half of the second millennium B.C. Two types of pulses and finger millet were cultivated. The third intermediate area was north and west of Deccan Plateau where the earliest cultivation of rice was recorded. Later, wheat, cotton, flax, lentils, pulses and millets spread to this region.