Origin of Agriculture

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Origin of Agriculture
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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

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Introduction

• Humans turned non-agricultural to agricultural
  way of life.
• Agriculture horticulture and domestication
• Study history by
• Carbon dating
• Fossils
• Phytoliths

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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

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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

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Vavilov (1927)

• Center located in 20-45 degrees latitude
• 6-8 centers
• China
• India
• Central Asia
• Near East
• Mediterranean
• Ethiopia
• Mesoamerica
• South America

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Zhukovsky (1968)

• Megagene centers   
• China
• Indochina - Indochina
• Australia - New Zealand
• India
• Central Asia
• West Asia
• Mediterranean
• Africa
• Europe - Siberia
• Mexico Central America
• N. America

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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