The roots of agriculture began in crop production

By: DR. MIKE ROSMANN

Most archeological and genetic evidence indicates the history of agriculture extends back 13,000-15,000 years. In his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond declares that the earliest deliberate cultivation of crops occurred on the plains that intersect the Zagros Mountains of modern-day Iran, Turkey and Iraq. Though dryer today, this was the Fertile Crescent of southwest Asia.

What factors led humans to practice agriculture? The answer is not as simple as “Food is needed to survive.” This and next issue’s column indicate how and why people began to raise crops and livestock.

Accumulated knowledge from several disciplines, chiefly anthropology, archeology and paleontology, suggests our earliest ancestors were highly territorial hunter-gatherers in Africa who scavenged plants and their seeds or fruits, tubers, insects, birds, eggs, fish, and the meat, bones and skins of small animals and the carcasses of larger animals, usually slain by more powerful predators.

As the clans outgrew the carrying capacity of their African territories, successive waves of early humans, such as Neanderthals, migrated into Europe and Asia in search of favorable sources of essentials for their survival – chiefly foods, garments and shelter. Life remained uncertain for these aboriginals, as the plants and animals on which they subsisted varied in their availability.

The most recent wave of our progenitors also migrated out of Africa, about 50,000 years ago. What is considered modern man brought greater capacities with them than preceding humans. Their brains were larger; their language and observation skills were more refined. They probably knew something about refining metals, which greatly improved tool-making.

These modern humans found ample plants and animals in the fertile regions of southwest Asia where the terrain was warming after the most recent glacial period. Receding ice across Europe and Asia, and in North America as well, followed by numerous cycles of healthy grasses and manure from grazing animals, resulted in rich loam soils available for tilling and growing selected crops.

The keen observation skills of modern humans enabled them to select seeds from available grasses in the Fertile Crescent, such as wheat and barley, and from indigenous legumes, such as lentils and other pulses. They began to collect and store the tastiest seeds with the most nutritional value.

Some seeds inadvertently fell into the soil around the living quarters of human groups and sprang into the plants they desired. Learning to tuck seeds into moist ground, to scrape away competing plants and to select the most usable and nutritious seeds from among those they grew, benefited the community.

This was the beginning of agriculture. As described in next issue’s column, raising livestock followed crop production. Most importantly, domesticating animals and cultivating land to produce food, clothing and shelter allowed modern man to survive lean times, such as winter and droughts, and to proliferate faster than hunter-gatherers.

Researchers of our origins suggest the emergence of agriculture enabled people within their agrarian communities to specialize in various tasks. Some became tool-makers, perhaps capitalizing on information passed along by central African ancestors about how to smelt metals.

Others specialized in acquiring knowledge about medicinal plants and healing rituals, thus becoming the first medical and behavioral healthcare providers. Some specialized in building, to become the first construction engineers. Others became the village artists and musicians. Still others became the leaders of religious practices, government and so forth.

Development of modern culture was facilitated by people not having to spend most of their time securing adequate food, clothing and shelter. The systematic observation methods of early agriculturists were the basis of the scientific method.

The need to count and calculate sufficient food, as well as to construct buildings, inspired the development of a numeral system and mathematics. The need to record information contributed to the invention of written language.

In order to keep clans from killing each other off, governments and judicial proceedings were devised to settle territorial disputes.

As agricultural communities proliferated in southwest Asia, some members had to secure additional territories to raise crops and livestock. Over successive generations they migrated into Europe, Asia, Australia and some crossed the still-ice-covered Bering Strait to settle into the western hemisphere.

There is some evidence which suggests agriculture and human societies developed independently in eastern Asia and the Americas, but perhaps these migrants brought remnant knowledge of agricultural methods with them.

As David Montgomery argues in his 2007 book, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilization, how we behave today is greatly due to agriculture. He also warns if we aren’t good stewards of our lives and environments, we could contribute to our demise.

In addition to the aforementioned books by Jared Diamond and David Montgomery, I am indebted to other popular and scholarly books and articles – too numerous to list here – for the information in this article. I have posted a bibliography on my website.

Original Article Here

Afghanistan agriculture

For many years Afghanistan was known for its vigorous agricultural production. The country grew more wheat and fruit than it could consume and exported the surplus.

Terrible changes began in 1979, with Soviet helicopters thundering across the sky and mortar fire shattering the peace.

The Soviet invasion triggered years of terrible upheaval that destroyed not only much of the agricultural infrastructure but also the knowledge that provided its foundation. Afghan agriculture was bludgeoned back to primitive conditions.

This reversal has been so great that in 2012, most Afghan farmers “are barely subsistence farmers,” said Lt. Col. Lynn Heng, commander of a 58-member Nebraska Army National Guard unit — Agribusiness Development Team No. 2 — that spent nine months in Afghanistan during 2011-12.

“When you have 30 years of war and lose a couple of generations of farming knowledge, this is what happens,” Heng told The World-Herald last April, when his team returned from their mission to help Afghan farmers.

Now, more than three decades after that period of turmoil began, Midlanders are among the Americans who have been helping the Afghans slowly regain farming knowledge. A new report from the Pentagon looks at the range of conditions in Afghanistan, and the section on agriculture describes the importance of the farm sector to Afghanistan’s well-being.

“Approximately 80 percent of Afghans’ livelihoods are directly linked to agriculture,” the report says. “Agribusiness development is a key driver to increasing overall economic growth and per capita gross domestic product of the rural population of Afghanistan.”

Afghanistan has been fortunate this year that above-average precipitation has helped boost crop yields significantly, the report says. As a result, the country has greatly reduced its cereal imports.

There’s been progress on other ag fronts too. Afghanistan this year has achieved “an increase in livestock births, greater milk production, enhanced food security and improved household nutrition.”

Among the issues that Americans have been helping Afghan farmers with, the report says, are wheat and vegetable production, orchard and vine crops, grain storage trials, productivity improvement, marketing and post-harvest storage.

U.S. support has helped Afghans establish more than 211,000 orchards that have exported 120 tons of fresh fruit.

One of the main obstacles to further progress is limited access to credit. And an inadequate supply of water, the report says, is “the major limiting factor in Afghan agricultural production.” More efficient use of water is a major focus of U.S. advisers.

There’s an odd omission in the Pentagon report: It speaks at length about the activities in Afghanistan of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but it fails to mention the ag-related work by National Guard teams such as those from Nebraska and Iowa.

These Midlanders have focused on many of the problems highlighted in the Department of Defense report. Since 2009, Nebraska has sent three National Guard teams to Afghanistan as part of the ag-support effort. Assistance from Iowa’s Army and Air National Guard has included the Guard’s 734th Agribusiness Development Team.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln helped out, too. Its agricultural extension agents helped train the Guard team, and UNL Extension educator Vaughn Hammond went with Heng’s team to Afghanistan, helping with issues including beekeeping, fruit production and composting.

Last spring, Heng, Hammond and their colleagues returned home from their mission. Gov. Dave Heineman told them, “Your mission helped ensure the stability of a country and its people that have seen difficult days.”

The governor’s words ring true. Midlanders can take pride in helping plant these seeds of knowledge. May their fruit continue to yield progress in that troubled land.

Original Article Here

Agriculture: climate change

AGRICULTURE is the mainstay of our country’s economy. According to Pakistan Economic Survey 2011-12, the agriculture sector is critical for growth, exports, incomes and food security, and for industrialisation. It is the second largest sector of economy and contributes about 21 per cent to the GDP, generates productive employment opportunities for 45 per cent of the country’s labour force while 60 per cent of the rural population depend directly or indirectly on this sector for their livelihood.

According to the Survey, Pakistan’s agriculture grew by 3.1 per cent against the targeted 3.4 per cent. Major crops accounted for 31.9 per cent of the agricultural value-added and experienced a growth of 3.2 per cent in the fiscal year 2011-12.

Agriculture is continuously witnessing a downward trend as it has registered an overall decline of 10 per cent in several major and minor crops during the last three years. Reasons for the decline have been floods in the country during 2010 and heavy rains in Sindh during 2011.

Also, lack of research, insufficient funds allocation and lack of encouragement for domestic varieties are among the few major impediments in the development of agriculture.

Climate change is becoming a threat for the country. Also, increasing population and decreasing resources may pose a threat for our future generations. Therefore, farmers should implement their knowledge and improve food security through sustainable agriculture. Promotion of sustainable agriculture will not only save environment, but also boost farmers’ incomes.

KHAN FARAZ
Peshawar

Original Article here

Another big agricultural trial: Will Africa benefit?

By Clet W. Masiga

Agro-ecological intensification of farming systems has been recognised as one of the key strategies for transforming subsistence farming to commercialisation in Africa. 

This is a new move by the consortium for improving agriculture-based livelihoods in central Africa (CIALCA) and world experts on agricultural intensification to focus agricultural research on experiments that will focus on agro-ecological processes rather than that which focuses on use of external inputs and commodities rather than systems. 

The experiments will, in addition, be done without subsidising farmers and communicating the results of such complex knowledge generated from such experiments by expert institutions.  

The consortium brings together world leaders with significant influence in agricultural research from three of 18 institutions supported by the consultative group on international agricultural research (CGIAR). These are international institute of tropical agriculture (IITA), Bioversity, and the tropical soil biology and fertility programme of the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (TSBF-CIAT). 

These institutions have set up a research for development platform in various mandate areas in Africa aiming to identify improved production, market and nutrition options and to facilitate the access for development partners to these options. 

Therefore, their recommendation will have a significant influence on African leaders and the donor community in driving the agricultural research agenda for Africa in the next decade. 

The recommendations were summarised in four statements. If we are to maximise local soil fertility management practices, it was suggested that priority needs to be given to making greater use of agro ecological processes that optimise efficiency with only complementary use of external inputs like fertilizers. 

This should go hand in hand with a commodity-based value chain approach, which is thought to be more efficient in achieving system change than an integrated farming systems approach which is very complex. 

It was also thought that adoption of technology driven by subsidies and hand outs is counterproductive and that complex agricultural knowledge can only be communicated by expert institutions. 

The four recommendations were arrived at during the discussion to take stock of the state of the art agricultural intensification in the highlands of sub-Saharan Africa and to chart the way forward for agricultural research for development in the humid highlands, specifically in the humid tropics consortium research programme and the CIALCA consortium. 

It was agreed that African farmers face numerous difficulties in improving production and productivity due to pests and diseases, and declining soil fertility. It was also recognised that fertilizers and pesticides are difficult to obtain, expensive and not properly evaluated in African farming systems.   

Agro ecological intensification is a practical, knowledge-based approach with potential to respond both to the needs of smallholder farmers for increased production through more efficient use of local resources and to the demands placed on the high-input export sector for more environmental sustainability. 

This approach focuses on biological mechanisms to suppress pests and diseases, strategies to increase crop yield and management of soil nutrient cycles for a healthier and more productive crop. 

In this approach, management of functional biodiversity and deployment of better knowledge about agro-ecological interactions serve to reduce losses, optimise crop residue breakdown and soil nutrient fixation, and promote crop health. 

Technically, the outcomes of this multimillion dollar agricultural experiment will contribute to information required to influence policy for agricultural growth in Africa. However, the impact would be more if other options were considered. 

As such I believe that these recommendations need to be taken seriously as it will influence agricultural research agenda for Africa. The results will have a direct impact on food security, farming incomes and agricultural economy. 

The writer is a conservation biologist/geneticist and farm entrepreneur

Original Article Here

Agriculture and its role in our economy

By Mohammed Al Balushi — It is well known that the economy of Oman mostly depends on oil and gas. There are some other economic areas on which a lot were written but practically not well observed in the country yet, like, tourism, industry, people's skills and knowledge and agriculture. However, agriculture is one of the essential part of an economy. There are many countries which don’t produce oil and gas but depend on agriculture. It means agriculture has its due importance in the economic circle. Oman has a strategic location and nice climate and yet its agriculture has yet to gain better focus and value to become a part of its economy. The land of Oman is a great gift from the Lord and from which many things can be produced agriculturally.
History has witnessed that before agriculture people got all their food by gathering wild plants, hunting and fishing. In current life and according to some researches agriculture provides us with nearly all our food, with fibres for clothing, raw materials for industry, and half of the world's workers are farmers, and about a third of the earth's land area is used for agriculture. The agricultural revolution, which started in early 1700 in Britain, brought on many changes, the first was proper understanding of the value of agriculture and how it develops people and countries economically. In this revolution the three main developments were: improved crop growing methods, advances in livestock breeding and invention of new farm equipment.
Of course, agriculture is not only about food. But also about shelter, clothing and medicine. These four are the very basic needs of people. Some of the questions that need to be raised are how can agriculture contribute to economic development? How does it reduce world poverty? How does it relate to other sectors? In Oman where does agriculture stand? These are very basic queries for Omani economists and once these are properly answered and handled, then the economic problems can be dealt with to a great extent.
In my observations, I found that agriculture has not got its due importance and its economic value has not been properly evaluated.
Ironically, this is one of the greatest opportunities for economic growth. The things which need to be done in this area are: understanding that agriculture is vital for economic development, presenting the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) analyses to local and foreign investors. Since I did not study at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), I don't have any idea what role the agriculture college is playing, theoretically and practically. What kind of knowledge and skills do these students acquire during their college study, where can the knowledge will be utilised, and where do these students go after graduating?
However, in my opinion a proper strategy should be adhered to whereby agriculture can be connected with economic development. One of my suggestions is that the students should be given opportunities to learn and understand agricultural practices in some farms during their summer vocation, like how they study computer in institutes and recite Quran in mosques.
In Oman there still large areas which are empty and can be well used for agriculture. Agriculture has been practised in the region since ancient times and it has been referred to in the verses of Quran.
For example; the verses (22) and (61) from Sura Al Baqara talks about agriculture. Verse 2/22: "Who has made the earth a resting place for you, and the sky as a canopy, and sent down water (rain) from the sky and brought forth therewith fruits as a provision for you…" and in verse 2/61 "And remember when you said O Musa! We cannot endure one kind of food. So invoke your Lord for us to bring forth for us of what the earth grows its herbs, its cucumbers, its Fum (wheat or garlic), its lentils and its onions."
If the agricultural revolution, which began once in 1700, has revolutionised the world why can't it happen once again so that it may reduce the world’s economic problems? Oman should take the proper initiative in this area and the people concerned should spare the time for this issue.

Original Article Here

Knowledge into know-how

Keith Strange/The News

Surry County North Carolina Cooperative 

Extension Agent Bryan Cave inspects a field 

of wheat. His office has its hands in a 

variety of programs in the county.

by Keith Strange
Editor’s Note: This is the second installment of a series of articles profiling the different departments in Surry County government.

DOBSON — The traditional mission of the Surry County Cooperative Extension Office is changing with the times, according to Director Bryan Cave.

“We plan our programming based on local needs,” he said from his office this week. “Those needs are identified through an advisory leadership system made up from people from different areas of the county who get together and talk about the issues affecting their individual communities.”

The extension is an educational partnership between N.C. State University, N.C. A&T State University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Surry County.

Its mission is to “deliver education and technology that enriches the lives, land and economy of local citizens.”

And the way it accomplishes that mission is changing.

Traditionally, if a person thought about the cooperative extension, he thought about agriculture and farming. While the extension is still heavily involved in these areas, its mission is expanding to keep up with what’s happening in the county.

“We’re also involved in educating youth through the 4-H program as well as community and economic development. We educate people in the family and consumer sciences like health and wellness and work with people in issues related with Medicare Part D to help them select their insurance,” Cave said. “But our bread and butter is still agriculture.”

And with the numbers involved, it only makes sense.

Last year, the cooperative extension reached more than 7,500 young people through training, clubs and special-interest programming including such varied offerings as seminars on healthy eating to learning about natural resources.

His office helped more than 80,000 people who called with questions during the year, answers that provided concrete benefits to the county.

“Last year, the benefits to the county from extension programming was about $3.4 million,” Cave said. “And that comes from services provided with a local budget of $270,000.”

Of that $3.4 million, about half of those savings were related to agriculture, he noted.

Examples?

Cave pointed to work conducted with wheat producers in the county last year.

“We worked with four farms to help get them involved in a statewide insect study,” he said. “What the program ended up doing is helping them avoid spraying insecticides. It saved those four growers about $10,000 last year, and the really neat thing is that information was shared with other wheat growers in the county and they’ll do the same thing this year.”

Pilot Mountain Pride is another group closely associated with the extension office.

The agricultural aggregation center is a way smaller, local producers can compete with larger companies to market their product.

“It allows the small farmers to enter the regional market by combining their product to allow them to sell locally at a higher volume,” Cave said. “It just creates marketing opportunities and gives them access to sales outlets they might not otherwise have.”

Asked why his office is still needed in the information age, Cave smiled.

“We really do touch on a lot of different areas here,” he said. “All of the information we give is research-based and unbiased. We’re changing knowledge into know-how.

“We bring unbiased information to people that’s specific to this area and package it in a way that’s easily understood and implemented. It’s customized information.”

And with 20 percent of the local economy agriculture-based, that’s a huge mission.

“We can’t afford to lose that agricultural base in Surry County,” Cave said. “While they’re not all farmers, between 16 and 17 percent of the county workforce work in areas that are tied to agriculture.”

That translates to a farm economy of about $220 million a year.

“That’s a huge piece of the economic fabric of our county,” Cave said.

Is his office still relevant in the Information Age? Cave thinks so.

“I think we’re more relevant today than we’ve ever been, with the whole local food movement and with people trying to get back to healthy, locally-grown food,” he said. “There is a lot of desire for how to do that, and we’re filling that need.

“It’s not just agriculture anymore, but we’re still more relevant today than we’ve been in the past.”

Reach Keith Strange at kstrange@heartlandpublications.com or 719-1929

Original Article Here