Page 5 - Introduction to Agriculture by: Aqleem Abbas

Introduction to Agriculture Notes prepared by: Aqleem Abbas

The importance of an individual country as an exporter of agricultural products depends on many variables. Among them is
the possibility that the country is too little developed industrially to produce manufactured goods in sufficient quantity or
technical sophistication (advance technical development). Such agricultural exporters include Ghana, with cocoa, and
Myanmar (formerly Burma), with rice. However, a developed country may produce surpluses that are not needed by its
own population; this is the case with the United States, Canada, and some other countries. Because nations depend on
agriculture not only for food but for national income and raw materials for industry as well, trade in agriculture is a constant
international concern. It is regulated by the World Trade Organization. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations (FAO) (to eliminate hunger on world scale main headquarter is Rome, Italy) directs much attention to agricultural trade
and policies. According to the FAO, world agricultural production, stimulated by improving technology, grew steadily from the
1960s to the 1990s. Per capita food production saw sustained growth in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, and the Pacific areas
(surrounding pacific ocean), and limited growth in the Near East ( middle east) and North Africa. The only region not to
experience growth during the 1980s and 1990s was sub-Saharan Africa, which suffered from climatic conditions that
made agriculture difficult. Although agricultural growth began to taper off in the year 2000, it continued to outpace world
population growth.

HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE

The history of agriculture may be divided into five broad periods of unequal length, differing widely in date according to
region:

1. Prehistoric,
2. Historic through the Roman period,
3. Feudal,
4. Scientific
5. Industrial.

A countertrend to industrial agriculture, known as sustainable (exploiting natural resources without destroying ecological
balance of an area), agriculture or organic farming, may represent yet another period in agricultural history.

PREHISTORIC

Early farmers were, archaeologists agree, largely of Neolithic culture (latest period of stone age, between about 8000BC and
5000 BC,characterized by the development of settled agriculture and use of polished stone tools and weapon) Sites
occupied by such people are located in southwestern Asia in what are now Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Turkey ; in
southeastern Asia, in what is now Thailand; in Africa, along the Nile River in Egypt; and in Europe, along the Danube
River and in Macedonia, Thrace, and Thessaly (historic regions of southeastern Europe). Early centers of agriculture have
also been identified in the Huang He (Yellow River) area of China; the Indus River valley of India and Pakistan; and the
Tehuacán Valley of Mexico, northwest of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The dates of domesticated plants and animals vary
with the regions, but most predate the 6th millennium BC, and the earliest may date from 10,000 BC. Scientists have carried
out carbon-14 testing of animal and plant remains and have dated finds of domesticated sheep at 9000 BC in northern
Iraq; cattle in the 6th millennium BC in northeastern Iran; goats at 8000 BC in central Iran; pigs at 8000 BC in Thailand
and 7000 BC in Thessaly; onagers, or asses, at 7000 BC in Iraq; and horses around 4000 BC in central Asia. The llama and
alpaca were domesticated in the Andean regions of South America by the middle of the 3rd millennium BC.