History of Agriculture
DR. MİNE ERDAL
Agriculture and Food Perspective for the Year 2050
In 2050, some 9 billion inhabitants (between 8 and 11 billion) estimates published by the United
Nations in 2001.
In order to feed such a population properly, without undernourishment or shortages, the
quantity of vegetable products designated as food for humans and domestic animals will have to
more than double for the whole world.
It will almost have to triple in the developing countries, more than quintuple in Africa, and
increase more than ten times in several African countries.
In order to obtain such an enormous increase in vegetable production, agricultural activity will
have to be extended and intensified on a long-term basis in every region of the world where
that is possible
Paris, December 2001,Marcel Mazoyer, Laurence Raudart
INTRODUCTION
The word agriculture is derived from the Latin word ager or agri its means soil or field, and
cultura or culture means cultivation.
Simply we can say cultivation of soil.
Technical definition: It is the process of producing food, feed, fiber and other desired products
(drugs, fuels, ornamentals, spices) by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of
domesticated animals (livestock).
The practice of agriculture is also known as farming.
It has two main branches 1. Crops 2. Animals (Fisheries, Poultry and livestock).
Components of agriculture:
It has four components.
1. Crops 54 % 5%
1%
2. Livestock 41 %
3. Fisheries 4.5 %
4. Forestry 0.5 % 41%
54%
1. Crops 2. Livestock 3. Fisheries 4. Forestry
IMPORTANCE OF
AGRICULTURE
1. Supply or provide food and fiber
2. Contributes a large portion of ‘gross domestic products’
3. Provides raw materials to industries.
4. Provides significant part of foreign exchange.
5. Significantly important labor force are engaged in
agriculture
6. It is economical backbone of many countries.
History of Agriculture starts way before
human existence!!!
Are ants the first farmers???
Research discovers a 50 million-year history of fungus cultivation and antibiotic
pest management (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(42), 10720-
10725.)
nt s
ing a
-far m
These ants not only grow fungus gardens
underground for food but also have adapted to
us
handling parasitic “weeds” that infect their crops.
fung
ant–Pseudonocardia associations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77gOklqgiYQ
Ants for Dairy Production…
Herder ants, e.g. Argentine Ant, tend to Aphids
Ants love the sugary substance (honeydew) aphids excrete and treat these insects as their personal herd of dairy
cows.
Some species of herder ants follow the little green food machines, eating their droppings, while others milk their
herds by tickling and stroking them with their antennae to ants-aphids stimulate honeydew production.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJmCKaX0AGg
Ants for Dairy Production.
Ants sometimes tear the wings off the aphids to stop
them from flying away. They also use chemicals (found
on their feet) to drug the aphids, slowing them down
and also preventing their wings from developing.
To compensate, ants protect their livestock from
predators. They attack ladybugs, spiders and anything
else.
And yet, much like we eat our cattle, ants will eat aphids
too.
Where did the earliest humans come from?
Mary and Louis Leakey discovered the earliest traces
of humans in the Great Rift Valley of Africa
Fossilized footprints
Fossilized footprints
Archaeologist Mary Leakey (shown at top of photo) found
these remarkable footprints of a hominid adult and child at
Laetoli, Tanzania.
The pair had walked through fresh volcanic ash that
solidified after being buried by a new volcanic eruption.
Dated at 3.5 million years old, the footprints are the oldest
evidence of bipedalism yet found. (SPL/Photo Researchers,
Inc.)
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Australopithecina or Hominina
East Africa from 6.5 - 1.5 MYA
Imperfectly bipedal
Mostly vegetarian but “Lucy” was omnivorous
Used stone tools
Australopithecus afarensis
Lucy was discovered in 1974 in
Africa, at Hadar, a site in the Awash
Valley of the Afar Triangle in Ethiopia,
by paleoanthropologist Donald
Johanson of the Cleveland Museum
of Natural History.
Homo habilis
Homo habilis is the least similar to modern humans
of all species in the genus.
Manufactured the Oldowan stone-tool industry and
mainly used tools in butchering
Abundant meat in diet
Homo Erectus
First used fire
Pear shaped stones (Acheulean stone tools)
for hunting butchering
Shelter construction with volcanic rocks
Proto-language not speech
Acheulean (top row) and Oldowan (bottom row) stone tools
Neanderthals
Live in small groups
Hunters and gatherers
stone-tool industry
the ability to create fire
build cave hearths
make the adhesive
capable of speech, possibly articulate
Medicinal plants knowledge
Plants are in their diets
The first humans:
Cro-Magnon
the first early modern humans (Homo sapiens) to
settle in Europe
interacted and interbred with the indigenous
Neanderthals (H. neanderthalensis), who went extinct
40- 35 KYA
Near Eastern Neolithic farmers which split from
the European hunter-gatherers about 40 KYA
started to spread out across Europe by 8 KYA
Early European modern humans
The First Humans
They were creative in tool-making and art.
The famous cave paintings at Lascaux,
France and Altamira, Spain show great
talent.
2 million BC to 12, 000 BC: It is still the
Paleolithic Age.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lascaux
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnSq0c7jM-A
Migrations of Homo sapiens
Siberia
Europe 40,000 years ago
40,000 years ago
North America
12,000-30,000
years ago
Oceania
1600 B.C.E.-500 C.E.
Southwest Asia
100,000 years ago
Australia Chile
Human Origins as many as 60,000 12,000-13 ,000
200,000-250,000 years ago years ago
years ago
Possible coastal routes of human migration
Possible landward routes of human migration
Migrations in Oceania
23
Homo Sapiens Evolution
Reading / video homework
How are fossils dated?
https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geology/carbon-14.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osA8TX0cwYI
Paleolithic Neolithic Ancient Age Medieval Age Modern Age Contemporary Age
Paleolithic Age (2 million ya to 14000 ya)
What word does Paleolithic Resemble?
Paleontology?
Paleo means “ancient” or “prehistoric”
Lithic means stone
Paleolithic Age was a time period before the invention of writing and is also called the Old Stone
Age.
Paleolithic Neolithic Ancient Age Medieval Age Modern Age Contemporary Age
Characteristics of the Paleolithic Age
People were nomads.
People were hunter-gatherers.
They followed herds of animals for
food.
They visited the same places each
new season for wild plants.
They lived in caves, rock shelters, or
built non-permanent homes.
Paleolithic Neolithic Ancient Age Medieval Age Modern Age Contemporary Age
Art
Paleolithic Neolithic Ancient Age Medieval Age Modern Age Contemporary Age
SIMPLE STONE TOOLS
Used for cutting,
chopping, and
Chiseling
Axe, cleaver, flint
knives
Paleolithic Neolithic Ancient Age Medieval Age Modern Age Contemporary Age
Paleolithic Age Overview
Social Nomads – wandered
place to place
Economic Hunter-gatherers –
hunted/fished animals
and gathered wild plants
Type of Homes Non-permanent, caves,
rock shelters, quick huts
Technology Simple Stone tools –
axe, chisel, knives, flints
