Lecture 1,2,3
Lecture 1,2,3
Introduction:
1. Our heritage is unique than any other civilization. As a citizen of India, we must
feel proud about our rich cultural heritage.
2. Agriculture in India is not of recent origin, but has a long history dating back to
Neolithic age of 7500-4000 B.C.
3. It changed the life style of early man from nomadic hunter of wild berries and
roots to cultivator of land.
4. Agriculture is benefited from the wisdom and teachings of great saints.
5. The wisdom gained and practices adopted have been passed down through
generations.
6. The traditional farmers have developed the nature friendly
7. Farming systems and practices such as mixed farming mixed cropping, crop
rotation etc.
8. The great epics of ancient India convey the depth of knowledge possessed
by the older generations of the farmers of India.
Definitions:
1. HISTORY: Continuous record of past events.
Ancient agricultural practices, Paleolithic age (old stone age), Mesolithic period.
Neolithic Agricultural Revolution Chalcolithic Culture (Bronze Age) and Beginning of
Agriculture in India: Archeological and Historical facts.
Paleolithic age (Old Stone Age/Ancient Stone Age (2.5 million-12,000 BC) :
1. The age in human culture characterized by the use of rough or chipped stone
tools.
2. This period is characterized by the food gatherers and hunters.
3. The Stone Age man started making stone tools and crude choppers.
4. Man was essentially a food gatherer and depended on nature for food
5. He learnt to control fire, which helped him to improve his way of living.
6. At the end of this age, the modern human being (Homo sapiens) first
appeared around 36,000BC.
1. Invention of plough.
2. Agriculture shifted from hilly area to lower river valley.
3. Flood water was stored for irrigation and canals were dug.
4. Irrigated farming started in this period.
5. Sowing of seed by dibbling with a pointed stick.
6. Salinity problem and water logging were noticed due to canal irrigation.
Beginning of Agriculture in India:
1. Demographic pressure probably led to the adoption of crop cultivation and
animal husbandry, leading to modern civilization.
2. Next, consumer demand within a constrained space forced the adoption of
some form of intensive agriculture.
3. Other evidence for this trend is found in Peru where people domesticated camel
ids and guinea pigs 2,000 years before crop cultivation.
4. Agriculture would have been started with the end of the last Ice Age between
15,000 and 8,000 years ago.
5. Before this, people living the hunter-gatherer lifestyle depended upon what was
available.
6. Historical evidences showed that agriculture started around 8,500 years ago
from the Near East, reaching Britain around 6,000 years ago and Spain and
Portugal by 5,000 years ago.
7. American Indians of central Brazil, called, the Kayapo are a modern version of
hunter gatherer people.
8. With chickens, crops such as corn, sweet potatoes, sweet manioc and yams and
a hunting life style they represent a transition from a hunter-gathering lifestyle
to an agricultural lifestyle.
9. What they caught by hunting, be it a tortoise, deer, fish or a wild pig, they had
to share and they discouraged selfishness.
10. Women worked in groups to gather fruit, nuts and plants from the same forest
where the men hunt. Ironically, on finding a high fruit tree, they cut it down
with a metal axe to harvest the ripe fruit. Domestic crops and animals become
more important as food than wild animals and plants.
11. Agriculture is relatively new, only emerging between 12,000 and 8,000 years
ago and has often caused environmental damage, but has led to the social
changes that have allowed the formation of our modern civilization.
12. The domestication of dogs and turkeys followed agriculture.
13. People made tools such as bone reaping knives with flint cutting teeth.
Beginning of Agriculture in India: Archeological and historical facts
1. Wild ancestors of wheat and barley, goat, sheep, pig, and cattle were
found.
1. Arab conquest of Sind was during 711-712 AD; Md bin Qaism defeated
Dahir, the Hindu King of Sind. Arabs were experts in gardening.
2. 1290-1320AD (Reign of Khiljis): Alauddin Khilji destroyed the
agricultural prosperity of a major part of India. He believed in keeping the
farmers poor.