Tiêu đề Evolution, Scope and Diversity.pdf ✅

1 UNIT 1 EVOLUTION, SCOPE AND DIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE Structure 1.0 Objectives 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Evolution 1.2.1 History of Indian Agriculture 1.2.2 Agriculture in Prehistoric Era 1.2.3 Development in Agriculture before Independence 1.2.4 Development in Agriculture after Independence 1.2.5 Modern Indian Agriculture 1.2.6 Global Issues Related to Agriculture 1.3 Scope 1.3.1 Food Security 1.3.2 Efficient Use of Knowledge of Agricultural Sciences 1.3.3 Efficient Use of Natural Resources 1.3.4 Development of New Plant Types 1.3.5 Development of Multiple Resistance Crop Varieties 1.3.6 Commercialization of Agriculture 1.3.7 Sustainable Agriculture 1.3.8 Risk Management in Agriculture 1.3.9 Organic Farming 1.3.10 Post-harvest Management 1.4 Diversity 1.5 Let Us Sum Up 1.6 Key Words 1.7 Some Useful Books / References 1.8 Answers / Hints to Check Your Progress 1.0 OBJECTIVES After reading this unit, you will be able to:  recall the changes in agriculture since the inception of civilization till today;  judge the improvements in the agricultural tools and implements;


4 1.2.2 Agriculture in Prehistoric Era Since agriculture fulfils the need of food to human and animal, it appears to be a very primitive step of human civilization. The earliest man (Homo erectus) emerged around one and half million years ago and spread throughout old world tropics and later to temperate zones. About 500 thousand years ago, he probably learnt to control and use fire. The earliest man was distinguished from fellow animals by his intelligence and skill in making tools and selection for self use. Homo sapiens, the direct ancestor of modern man lived 250 thousand years ago. Homo sapiens, the modern man, appeared in Africa 35 thousand years ago. He was distinguished from all other extinct species of genus Homo, by large brain, small teeth and chin and capacity for making and using tools. He hunted a variety of animals and cooked their meat on fire. The weapons for hunting were boulders and spears of wood tipped with blades of flint. He also used stone-tipped arrows. Later, he domesticated the dog, which greatly helped him in hunting. Apart from the meat, he gathered a variety of seeds, leaves, fruits, roots, and other parts of plants from the forest for food. He had no control over food supply and was unable to cloth and shelter adequately. During the period 8700 BC to 7700 BC, he domesticated animals and turned a herdsman. He first domesticated sheep and later goat. Between the period 7500 BC to 6500 BC, man gradually shifted from hunting towards agriculture. Stone axes were used for cutting trees and fire for burning forests. Agriculture has no single and simple origin. It was started in different parts of the world during different periods. The evolution of agriculture took place gradually with the changes in human civilization, mostly based on the experiences. The exact evidences are not known about shifting of man into agriculture from hunting and gathering of animal for food. The hunting and gathering food was difficult job to collect the food for each individual, while pastoral life and agriculture could support to a group. Thus, residing in group or camps and dependency of food on plants had started in human civilization. It is expected that pre-historic agriculture might have developed in several steps as under: (a) Conservation of desirable native plants By using various parts of plants like roots, seeds, leaves, flowers, fruits, etc. probably man have identified the desirable plants which he referred as crop plants and later he might have tried to conserve those plants from danger. (b) Collection and preservation of seeds After eating the fruits, man would have thrown the seeds elsewhere and they have seen the germination of same type of plants from thrown seeds. With this experience they might have learned and decided to grow these plant by using the collected and preserved seeds at desirable place. In this way they would have started the collection and preservation of seeds of useful plants. (c) Sowing of seeds With the increase in population, when man would have faced shortage of foods, they might have started sowing on the basis of climatic suitability.