Encyclopedia of Plant and Crop Science

For most of their history, humans have been hunters and gatherers and only in the past 10,000 years has agriculture become the basis of food production. Without farming, human population remained low, probably somewhere between 10 and 30 million and only the invention and spread of agriculture have allowed population to pass six billion and continue to grow. For a long time, it was widely believed that the discovery of farming techniques was a unique invention in the mountainous region east of the Mediterranean Sea. Now, however, at least six other independent centers of origin are recognized and evidence is emerging that there may be others.[1] Four of the centers of origin are in the old world and these will be the topic of this article.