Food production

BHAVANIPUR EDUCATION SOCIETY COLLEGE

UID NO~0204180050 ROLL NO~71158750

Introduction
Insuring sufficient food supplies is one of the most basic challenges facing any human
society. Organized and efficient food production supports population growth and
ultimately the development of cities and towns,trade,and other essential elements of human
progress. For many thousands of years people collected their food
from the wild or hunted animals large and small,wild plant ased foods and fungi were
important staples in the paleothic diet,including wild ancestors of some species that are
widely cultivated today . but as population grew and people pushed into areas less endowed
with easily obtainable food they sought more reliable sources of nutrition from as early as
11,000 b.c.e

1
RICHARD LOBB (online source pdf)
Dawn of civilization

As we know agriculture was a driving force behind the growth of civilization .farming
probably provide 10to100 time smore calorie per acre,and another benifits of farming was
that agricultrure produce enough food people became free to pursue interests other than
worrying about what they are going to eat that day.because in hunting they have to search
and then he can hunt the animal so that they have to struggle daily for food,but farmings
makes it easy those who didn,t need to be farmers took on role as soldiers,priests
adminstrator,artists and scholars.the shift to agriculture is believed to have occurred
independently in several parts of the world including northern china,central america,and
the fertile crescent a region in the middle east.

By 500B.C.E agriculture was practised in every major continent except australia.

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Sites where civilization takes place

IN EURASIA the summerians started to live in villages from aout 8,000 B,C relying on
tigris andeuphrates river and a canal system for irrigation ploughs appear in pictograps
around 2,300B.C farmers grew wheat,barley vegetables such as lentils and onions and
fruits including dates grapes and figs.

2
Tannahill, Reay (1968). The fine art of food. Folio Society.
Richard lobb
EGYPT the civilization of ancient egypt was indebted to the nile river and its dependable
seasonal flooding. The river’s predictability and the fertile soil allowed the egyptians to

build an empire on the

basis of great agricultural wealth.egyptians are credited as being one of the first groups of
people to practice agriculture on a large scale.this was possile ecause of the ingenuity of the
egyptians as they developed basin irrigation.their farming practices allowed them to grow
staple food crops,especially grains such as wheat and barley,industrial crops,such as flax
and papyrus.

IN INDIA indian agriculture began y 9,000 B.C.E as a result of early cultivation of plants
and, and domestication of crops and animals.settled life soon followed with implements and
techniques being developed for agriculture.cattle sheeps and goats were domesticated in
mehrgarh culture by 8,000 to 6,000 B.C cotton was cultivated by the 5th and 4th millenium
B.C. indian products soon reached the world via existing trading networks and foreign
crops were introduced to india.most of the crops grown around ancient times in the indus
valley to be monsoon types crops.farmers planted winter crops,like
wheat,barley,peas,lentils,linseed and mustard.

IN CHINA the development of farming over the course of china’s history has played a key
role in suporting the growth of what is now the largest population in the world.analysis of
stone tools by professor LIU LI and others has shown that the origins of chinese
agriculture is rooted in the pre-agricultural paleolithic.during this time hunter gatherers
harvested wilkd plants with the same tools that would later be used for millet and rice.
Remains of domesticated millet have found in modern china at DADIWAN,CISHAN,AND
SEVERAL peiliganj sites. in china there was a nationwide granary system and widespread
silk farming.water powered grain miles were in use by the 1st century B.C followed by
irrigation.

IN ANCIENT GREEECE farming was difficult in ancient greece.much of the country is

mountainous,and only aout one-fifth of the land can be easily cultivated. moreover, the soil
is generally of poor quality and the climate with its hot,dry summers less than ideal to
growing crops neverthelesses, the ancient greece adapted their agriculture to the land and
climate of the region.

Greek agriculture focused on a few basic crops,especially wheat,barley,grapes,figs, and

olives.farmers grew wheat and barley in the new fertile areas of greece,notably in the plains
of argos and olympia in the south.grapes ,figs,olives thrived in less fertilke soils ,and they
could better withstand the extreme conditions of dryness and drought,which explains their
importance in greek agriculture.

IN AMERICA the crops domesticated in mesoamerica(apart from teosinte)include squas

,eas and coca.the turkey was proaly domesticated in mexico or the american southwest.

in the andes region of south america,with civilizations including the inca ,the major crop
was potato,domesticated approximateley 7,000-10,000 years ago.

The indogenous people of the eastern U.S.A domesticated numerous

crops.sunflowers,tobacco,varieties of squash and chenopodium,as well as crops no longer
grown,including marsh elder and little barley were domesticated. Wild foods including
wild rice and maple sugar were harvested.

AUSTRALIANS from the time of ritish colonization of australia in1788,indigenous

australians were caharecterized as nomadic hunter gatherers who did not engage in
agriculture,despite evidence to the contrary in 1969,the archaelogists Rhys Jones proposed
that indigenous australians engaged in systematic urning as a way of enhancing natural
productivity, what has een termed fire stick farming.

In two regions of australia,the central west coast and eastern central asia forms of early
agriculture may have been practiced.people living in permanent settlements of over 200
residents sowed or planted on a large scales and stored the harvested food.

Revolution

in the midddle ages oth in the islamic world improved techniques and the diffusioin of
crop plants,including the production of sugar rice,cotton and fruit trees such as the orange
to europe by way of Al-Andlas.after 1942,the columian exchange brought new world crops
such as noise potatoes,tomatoes,sweet potatoes menioc to europe.

And in old world crops such as wheat barley,rice turnips and livestock including horses
cattle,sheep and goats to america.irrigation crop and fertilizers were greatly developed in
the past 200 years. starting with the ritish agricultural revolution allowing global
population to rise significantley since,1900 agricultutre in the developed nations and to
lesser extent in the developing world has seen large rises in productivity as human labour is
replaced by mechanization and assisted by synthetic fertilizers pesticides and selective
breeding.

Science and technology played and increasingly important role in food production in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the deve.lopment of mineral and chemical fertilizers
freed farmers from reliance on manure. and the new equipment such as seed drill made for
more efficient planting.scientists also developed a better understanding of the nutritional
compounds of food which lead to an emphasis on balanced diet.
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Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture related with the domestication of care for
and breeding of animals such as dogs,cattle,horses,sheep,goats and other like creatures.

Animal husbandry began in the neolithic(new stone)revolution around 10,000 years ago
but may have began much earlier.it has een speculated that human being used fire to cook
3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_agriculture
http://www.foodsystemprimer.org/food-production/history-of-agriculture/index.html
and from Richard lobb pdf
food 1.5million years ago but the only archaeological evidence obtained thus far sets the
date of the use of fire for cooking from that time only animals being used for
domestication,feed the need of food and many more purposes. shortly after this date
evidence of domesticated animal ones left over from human social gatherings.

Another thing is that,animal husandry was the part of the subsistence farmers way of
life,producing not only food needed by family but also the fuel,fertilizers,clothing transport
and drought power.killing the animal for food was secondary consideration and wherever
possile its products,wool,eggs and milk were harvested while the animal was still alive.
4

ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS

IN EGYPT

In ancient egypt cattle were the most important livestock,and sheep,goats,pigs and geese
were raised from earliest times and supplied respectiveley milk, wool ,meat,eggs,leather
skins,horn and fat even the dung had its uses there is little evidence that mutton was
consumed ,while domesticated pigs were eaten at least since the eginning of the 4th
millenium BCE but pork have no places in religious ceremonies.goat meat on the other
hand was acceptale even to upper class egyptians.goat skins served as water containers and
floating devices.

IN ANCIENT ROMe all the livestock known in ancient egypt were available.in addition
rabits were domesticated for food by the first century BC.

And later on domestication of animals was grown in different regions of the world.
5

4
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab57
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_husbandry
5
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab57
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_husbandry
 conclusion

the agricultural sector is of vital importance for the region. It is undergoing a process of
transition to a market economy, with substantial changes in the social, legal, structural,
productive and supply set-ups, as is the case with all other sectors of the economy. These
changes have been accompanied by a decline in agricultural production for most countries,
and have affected also the national seed supply sectors of the region. The region has had to
face problems of food insecurity and some countries have needed food aid for IDPs and
refugees.

Due to the relatively low demographic pressure projected for the future, the presence of
some favourable types of climates and other positive factors, including a very wide formal
seed supply sector, it should be possible to overcome problems of food insecurity in the
region as a whole, and even to use this region to provide food to other food-deficient
regions. Opportunities must therefore be created to reach these results.

In order to address the main constraints affecting the development of the national and
regional seed supplies that are mentioned here, the region requires integrated efforts by all
national and international stakeholders and institutions involved in seed supply and plant
genetic resource management. On practical issues, lessons learned by some countries could
be shared with other countries; e.g. on how to progress with the transition or how to
recognize the most immediate needs of farmers. Appropriate policies should also be
established, at various levels, in order to facilitate seed investment and development in the
region.
 Bibliography
1
RICHARD LOBB (online source pdf)
1
Tannahill, Reay (1968). The fine art of food. Folio
Society.
Richard lobb
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_agriculture
http://www.foodsystemprimer.org/food-
production/history-of-agriculture/index.html
and from Richard lobb pdf
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.
asp?historyid=ab57
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_husbandry