Lesson 1

• agriculture - art and science of producing food, feed, fiber, and many other desired products by cultivating the soil, growing crops and raising livestocks
• livestock - agricultural animals
• pastoral stage

  • hunting wild aniwals
  • gathering wild plants
  • fishing
  • moving one place to another - for food
• fishing tribes - more likely settled in one place as a pernament home usually near bodies of water
• transition from hunting-gathering to agricultural began at about the 10,000-15,000 years ago
• fertile crescent

  • agriculture is believed to be originated here
  • half-moon shaped region
  • was home to the eight neolithic founder crops
• eight neolithic founder crops

  • emmer
  • einkorn wheat
  • barley
  • peas
  • lentils
  • bitter vetch
  • chick peas
  • flax
• emmer

  • "farro"
  • one of the first domesticated crops in the Near east
• einkorn wheat

  • "one grain"
  • species of hulled wheat, with tough glumes or husks that tightly enclose the grain
• barley

  • serves as a major animals feed crop
  • also used for malting
• lentils

  • bush annual of the legume family
  • grown for its lens-shaped seeds
  • 15 inches tall
  • seeds grow in pods
  • two seeds in each
• peas

  • treated as a vegetable in cooking
  • botanically a fruit
  • annual plant - a cycle of one year
  • cool season crop grown in many parts of the world
• bitter vetch

  • ancient grain legume of the Mediterranean region
  • excellent sheep and cattle feed
• chick peas

  • "garbanzo bean"
  • high in protein
  • one of the earliest cultivated vegetables
• flax

  • "common flax" or "lin seed"
  • used to produce fibers
  • erect annual plant growing up to 1.2 M tall with slender stems
  • may refer to the unspun fibers of the flax plant
• neolithic revolution

  • characterized by the transition from nomadic hunting and gathering to establishments of settlements
  • increased tendency to live permanent or semi-permanent settlements
  • man created major modification to his environment
  • improved ability to sustain higher population densities
  • increased reliance on vegetable and cereal food in the diet
  • developed "trading economies" using surplus production from increasing crop yield
• muslim agricultural revolution

  • "arab agricultural revolution" or "islamic age"
  • integration of knowledge, trade and economies from various isolated regions and civilization due to contacts with muslim explorers, sailors, scholars, traders and travelers
• muslim agricultural revolution

  Important innovations:

  1. Sophisticated system of crop rotation

  • cash crop - short duration crops used in intermediary cropping to optimize land use
  • crop rotation - where land was cultivated 4 or more times in a two-year period
• muslim agricultural revolution

  highly developed iriigation techniques

  • hydraulic and hydrostatic principles
  • water mills, water raising machines, dams and reservoirs
• muslim agricultural revolution

  • introduction of large variety of crops which were studied and catalogued according to cropping season, type of land, and frequency of irrigation
• muslim agricultural revolution

  Incentive base approach

  • recognition of private ownership and the rewarding of cultivators with a harvest share commensurate with their efforts
• british agricultural revolution

  • characterized by massive increase in agricultural productivity and net output
• british agricultural revolution

  enclosure

  • common fields in were enclosed into individually owned fields - favorable to agricultural mechanization -> many farmers lost their job
• british agricultural revolution

  mechanization

  • alternating manual jobs with mechanical means
• british agricultural revolution

  seed drill

  • mechanical seeder which distributed seeds efficiently across the field
• british agricultural revolution

  rotherham ploughs

  • first commercially successful iron plough
  • remained in use in Britan until the development of the tractor
• british agricultural revolution

  threshing machine

  • to separate stalks and grains
  • increase the number of unemployed farm labors
• british agricultural revolution

  four field crop rotation

  • introduces turnips and clovers to replace the fallow years
  • fallow - pertains to a field that is previously empty or uncultivated
  • clovers - act as a fodder cup, also conditions the soil to assure greater yield from the following year
  • improved grain - led to increased livestock production
• british agricultural revolution

  scientific breeding - introduced to prevent genetic diversity from desirable animals
• british agricultural revolution

  selective breeding

  • mating two animals with particulary desirable traits
• british agricultural revolution

  inbreeding

  • same breed
  • to retain or stabilize desirable qualities
• green revolution - a major transformation in agriculture because of various programs in agricultural research, extension and infrastructural development mostly funded by the rockfeller and ford foundations
• green revolution

  important innovations

  • pesticides
  • irrigation projects
  • synthetic nitrogen fertilizers
  • genetically modified products
  • high-yielding varieties (HYVs)