1. The Agricultural World
History of Agriculture
Diffusion of Agriculture
Types of Agriculture

3. What is Agriculture? Agri – having to do with the science of the soil.
Culture – a set of learned behaviors that is characteristic of a group of people and is passed from generation to generation.
Therefore, agriculture is the learned behaviors of people associated with…
Plants
Aquaculture
Herding

4. Introduction
Agriculture— deliberate rending of crops and livestock to produce food, feed, and fiber
Today remains the most important economic activity in the world
Employs 45 percent of the working population
In some parts of Asia and Africa, over 80 percent of labor force is engaged in agriculture
Importance of agriculture
All humans depend on agriculture for food
Urban-industrial societies depend on the food surplus generated by farmers and herders
Without agriculture there could be no cities, schools, factories, or offices

5. History of Agriculture
Until 10,000 years ago, most humans lived as hunter-gatherers.
They generally lived in small nomadic groups known as band societies.
Lived in small groups because they could not produce enough food to sustain large groups
Sentinelese people of India

6. 1st Agricultural Revolution
About 11,000 years ago, humans determined how and when plants ripened; were used for food and medicines. (Called the Human Era)
Caused the creation of seed agriculture.
Occurred in several different places and diffused contagiously.
The advent of agriculture prompted the Neolithic Revolution when access to food surplus led to radical changes in human life:
of permanent settlements (primitive cities)
the domestication of animals (meat supply)
use of metal tools
trade and cooperation (surplus food = wealth)
Beginnings of complex societies (more free time!)

8. Agricultural diffusion (Plants)
Agriculture began with plant domestication
Domesticated plant—one deliberately planted, protected, and cared for by humans
Genetically distinct from wild ancestors because of improvement through selective breeding
Tend to be larger than wild species, bearing larger, more abundant crops

9. Agricultural diffusion (Animals)
Domesticated animal—one dependent on people for food and shelter
Differs from wild species in physical appearance and behavior
Result of controlled breeding and daily contact with humans
Occurred later than the first planting of crops
People may have first domesticated cattle and some birds for religious reasons

10. Agricultural diffusion
Carl Sauer’s Theory on domestication
Domestication probably did not develop in response to hunger
Starving people must spend every waking hour searching for food
Started by people who had enough food to remain settled in one place
Did not occur in grasslands or river floodplains because of thick sod and periodic flooding
Must have started in regions where many different kinds of wild plants grew
Started in hilly district areas, where climates change with differing sun exposure and altitude
Most experts believe repeated domestication occurred at different times and locations

12. Agricultural diffusion
Diffusion of domesticated plants did not end in antiquity
Crop farming reached its present extent within the last 100 years
Example-lemons, oranges, grapes, and date palms were taken to California by Spanish missionaries during the eighteenth century
Introduction of European crops to the Americas, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa that came with the mass emigration of European farmers
Even more important diffusion of American Indian crops to the Eastern Hemisphere
The pig and the dog may have attached themselves to human settlements to feast on garbage

13. Agricultural diffusion
Most geographers now believe agriculture arose in at least three regions of great biodiversity
The Fertile Crescent located in the Middle East
Bread grains, grapes, apples, olives; and many others
Oldest archaeological evidence of crop-domestication
Diffused to Central Africa creating a secondary center of domestication adding such crops as sorghum, peanuts, yams, coffee, and okra

14. The Fertile Crescent

15. Agricultural diffusion
Farmers of the Fertile Crescent deserve credit for the first great animal domestications—notably the herd animals
Cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats
In this region or nearby, farmers first combined domesticated plants and animals
People began using cattle to pull the plow, increasing cultivated acreage
Out of necessity, a portion of the harvest was put aside as livestock feed

17. Agricultural diffusion
Second great center developed in Southeast Asia
Possibly included land now covered by shallow seas
Rice, citrus, taro, bananas, and sugarcane, plus others
Stimulus diffusion yielded a secondary center—northeastern China

19. Agricultural diffusion
Mesoamerica—the third great region of domestication
Started about 5,000BC
Independent invention, not started by diffusion
Maize, tomatoes, chili peppers, and squash, among many others
Stimulus diffusion produced a secondary center in northwestern South America, from which came the white potato and manioc

21. Second Agricultural Revolution
In the seventeenth century, a second agricultural revolution took place which increased efficiency of production as well as distribution which allowed more people to move to the cities as the industrial revolution got under way.
Occurred in urban places and diffused hierarchically.
The eighteenth century's European colonies became sources of raw agricultural and mineral products for the industrializing nations.
Now, many of the countries which were once colonies of Europe, especially those in Central America, are still heavily involved in the same types of agricultural production as they were hundreds of years ago.

22. Second Agricultural Highlights
Late Middle Ages
Occurred in tandem with FIRST Industrial Revolution
Enclosure of individually owned fields
Emergence of urban industrial markets
Modification of subsistence farming practices
Crop rotation
Use of natural and semi-processed fertilizers
New tools and equipment
Horse-drawn farm machinery
Dramatic increase in crop and livestock yields
Transportation technology linking farm and urban commercial food market

23. The Third Agricultural Revolution
Origins in North America
Industrialization of agriculture
Mechanization
Replacement of human labor with machines
Chemical farming
Use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides
Food manufacturing
Addition of economic value through processing, canning, refining, packaging
Green Revolution
Plant breeding
Biotechnology
Genetic manipulation