Crop origins and evolution
The origins of agriculture and domesticated crops are intertwined, and the change from a hunter-gatherer mode to tillage, sowing and harvesting was one of the major technologcal innovations of humankind. This occured some 10,000 years ago in several different locations, and involved the domestication of wild-relatives of the major crops (see History of Agriculture).
Domestication involves changes in the genetic makeup and morphological appearance of plants (and animals) but the wild-relatives of crop continue today to be important sources of genetic diversity and traits to protects domesticated crops from stress and disease (see Plant breeding) and to ensusure food security. Knowledge of crop origins is thus of considerable practical importance.
Development today of new crops (such as perennialls alternatives of currently used annual staples) has the potential value to meet some of current agricultural challenges such as water use efficiency, salinization, and soil conservation.
Tracing the ancestors of crops
Wheat domestication in the Middle East
- See also Wheat
Rice domestication in Asia and Western Africa
- See also Rice
Maize and bean domestication in the Americas
- See also Maize
Genetic events during domestication
New crops by hybridisation and polyploidy
- See also Plant breeding
Further reading
- Damania, A.,J., Valkoun, G. Willcox, and C. Qualset, eds. (1998). The Origins of Agriculture and Crop Domestication, 1st ed.. International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Aleppo, Syria.
- de Candolle, A. (1992). Origin of Cultivated Plants, 1sh ed.. Cambridge, U.K..
- Diamond, Jared (1997). Guns, Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years, 1st ed.. Vintage. ISBN 0-09-939278-0.
- Frankel, O. H., A. H. D. Brown, and J.J. Burdon. (1995). The Conservation of Plant Biodiversity, 1st ed.. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K..
- Gepts, Paul. Chapter 13. Ten thousand years of crop evolution. In Chrispeels, Maarten J.; Sadava, David E. (editors) (2003). Plants, Genes and Crop Biotechnology, 2th ed.. Jones and Bartlett. ISBN 0-7637-1586-7.
- Harlan J. R. (1992). Crops and Man, 2nd ed.. American Society of Agronomy, Madison, WI.
- Vavilov, N. I. (1997). Five Continents.. Rome: International Plant Genetic Resources Institute; St. Petersburg: N. I.Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Industry..