Agriculture

Agriculture is the raising of domesticated animals and the planting, cultivation, and preservation of crops. Agriculture entails selective breeding of organisms with combinations of inherited characteristics that benefit humans (and not necessarily the organisms themselves), and so these practices have over time greatly influenced the course of evolution of these animals. Agriculture arose thousands of years ago in different parts of the world. The steps were similar in different places, but the types of organisms that were raised or cultivated differed. Underlying all of agriculture is human control of the environment.

From Hunting and Gathering to Intentional Intervention
Preparing a feast today is as easy as visiting the local supermarket, farm stand, or garden. However, fifteen thousand years ago, conditions were quite different. Isolated bands of people hunted and gathered on the parts of the earth not covered in ice, seeking wild game and edible plants. They had to find food, or starve.

Cultivation of plants may have arisen accidentally. According to the "dump heap hypothesis," wandering peoples discarded remains of plant foods in piles in cleared areas, then returned to the sites and discovered that the same types of plants they had eaten the year before grew again. Eventually, people connected the leaving of seed one season to finding of edible plants the next. Farming began when people intentionally saved and planted seeds of their favorite plants.
By selecting characteristics that make a plant a good crop, early farmers altered the genetic makeups of plant populations.

Corn, for example, is a product of human intervention. Corn's ancestor, a grass called teosinte, had small ears with sparse kernels. As humans selected teosinte ears bearing the most plump kernels, they gradually edged evolution towards forming a new species, corn. A reminder today of this ancient intervention is that the jackets formed by the leaves covering an ear of corn (husks) are so tight that the plant cannot naturally release its seed. Other plant species were also changed by humans selecting variants that held onto seeds more tightly, a trait that would not benefit a plant in the wild.

Easy Farming

Anasayfa

Konular

Tüm Konular

Konular

Strawberry

Peach

Orange, New South Wales

Radish Crop in Pakistan

Cultivation of Cabbage (Brassica oleracea)

Plums Crop in Pakistan

Apricot Crop in Pakistan

Coconuts: A Sustainable Agricultural Industry?

Avocados

Coconut