agricultural society essay brainly

The Development of Agriculture

The development of agricultural about 12,000 years ago changed the way humans lived. They switched from nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles to permanent settlements and farming.

Social Studies, World History

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The Farming Revolution Taking root around 12,000 years ago, agriculture triggered such a change in society and the way in which people lived that its development has been dubbed the “ Neolithic Revolution.” Traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyles, followed by humans since their evolution, were swept aside in favor of permanent settlements and a reliable food supply. Out of agriculture, cities and civilizations grew, and because crops and animals could now be farmed to meet demand, the global population rocketed—from some five million people 10,000 years ago, to eight billion today.

There was no single factor, or combination of factors, that led people to take up farming in different parts of the world. In the Near East , for example, it’s thought that climatic changes at the end of the last ice age brought seasonal conditions that favored annual plants like wild cereals . Elsewhere, such as in East Asia, increased pressure on natural food resources may have forced people to find homegrown solutions. But whatever the reasons for its independent origins, farming sowed the seeds for the modern age.

Plant Domestication

The wild progenitors of crops including wheat ( Triticum aestivum ), barley ( Hordeum vulgare ), and peas ( Lathyrus oleraceus ) are traced to the Near East region. Cereals were grown in Syria as long as 9,000 years ago, while figs ( Ficus carica ) were cultivated even earlier; prehistoric seedless fruits discovered in the Jordan Valley suggest fig trees were being planted some 11,300 years ago. Though the transition from wild harvesting was gradual, the switch from a nomadic to a settled way of life is marked by the appearance of early Neolithic villages with homes equipped with grinding stones for processing grain.

The origins of rice and millet farming date to the same Neolithic period in China. The world’s oldest known rice paddy fields, discovered in eastern China in 2007, reveal evidence of ancient cultivation techniques such as flood and fire control.

In Mexico, squash cultivation began around 10,000 years ago, but corn ( maize ) had to wait for natural genetic mutations to be selected for in its wild ancestor, teosinte. While maize -like plants derived from teosinte appear to have been cultivated at least 9,000 years ago, the first directly dated corn cob dates only to around 5,500 years ago.

Corn later reached North America, where cultivated sunflowers ( Helianthus annuus ) also started to bloom some 5,000 years ago. This is also when potato ( Solanum tuberosum ) growing in the Andes region of South America began.

Farmed Animals

Cattle ( Bos taurus ), goats ( Capra hircus ), sheep ( Ovis aries ), and pigs ( Sus domesticus ) all have their origins as farmed animals in the so-called Fertile Crescent , a region covering eastern Turkey, Iraq, and southwestern Iran. This region kick-started the Neolithic Revolution. Dates for the domestication of these animals range from between 13,000 to 10,000 years ago.

Genetic studies show that goats and other livestock accompanied the westward spread of agriculture into Europe, helping to revolutionize Stone Age society. While the extent to which farmers themselves migrated west remains a subject of debate, the dramatic impact of dairy farming on Europeans is clearly stamped in their DNA. Prior to the arrival of domestic cattle in Europe, prehistoric populations weren’t able to stomach raw cow milk. But at some point during the spread of farming into southeastern Europe, a mutation occurred for lactose tolerance that increased in frequency through natural selection thanks to the nourishing benefits of milk. Judging from the prevalence of the milk-drinking gene in Europeans today—as high as 90 percent in populations of northern countries such as Sweden—the vast majority are descended from cow herders.

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Essay on Agriculture | Importance & Significance of Agriculture Essay

Agriculture is the backbone of our country. The following essay on agriculture discusses the significance, importance and role of agriculture for the progress & power of a nation.

Agriculture Essay | Importance & Significance of Agriculture in Life

The primary purpose of agriculture is to cultivate crops and to domesticate animals for the purpose of providing food and other necessities for mankind.

Although it has been practiced since ancient times, it has evolved over time and has become an important part of our country’s economic development.

Importance of Agriculture

Agriculture is very important. Following are the main points regarding the significance of agriculture in our lives

1. Agriculture is the main Source of food:  Agriculture is a gift to the country, so it is no surprise that our food is a product of this activity. Food shortages existed in the country before independence, but they were resolved with the advent of the green revolution in agriculture in the year 1969.

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2. Agriculture contributes to National Income:  Agricultural activities generated over 59% of national income in 1950-51. Although it has reduced to around 24% about ten years ago, the agricultural sector remains one of the major sources of income in India.

3. Progress of Industrial Sector:  The agricultural sector plays a major role in the industrial sector by providing the raw materials which are used in manufacturing. Many industries are dependent on agriculture, including cotton textiles, sugar, jute, rubber, and oil.

4. Agriculture creates Employment Opportunities:  Agricultural activities require a large labour force, which provides numerous employment opportunities. There are not only direct employment opportunities available but indirect ones as well. A good example is farmers need to transport their products from one place to another, which supports the transport sector.

5. Agriculture increases Foreign Trade:  Agriculture accounts for the majority of exports. Agricultural exports account for more than 70% of total exports. India is the world’s third largest producer of jute products and sugar.

6. Increase in Government Revenue:  Government revenue is generated from excise duties on agricultural goods, land revenue and taxes on agricultural machinery sales.

7. Formation of Capital:  Capital can be generated from surplus income generated from agricultural activities.

8. Agriculture is dangerous Industry:  However, it is no secret that agriculture is a dangerous industry, and the importance of agriculture cannot be underestimated. Injuries among farmers are quite common. Rollovers and other accidents involving motor and machinery are some of the common causes of agrarian injuries.

Additionally, they are also at risk of skin diseases, lung infections, noise-induced hearing problems, sunstroke, and some types of cancers caused by the nature of their job. The pesticides may cause serious illnesses, even birth defects, in those exposed to them.

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Even so, agriculture still plays a crucial role in the evolution of human civilization. As Booker T. Washington once said about agriculture that, “No race can prosper till it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem”, Therefore, the agriculture sector is an integral part and a great strength  of a country.

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Essay on Agrarian Societies

In my essay, I explain what agrarian societies are, how long they have been around, and what it means to be an agrarian society. Most people think of Amish people when they think of agrarian societies, and they would be right, but my essay proves that they have been around for a lot longer than the Amish have.

An agrarian society is also known as an agricultural society. Their entire economy rests on their ability to produce and maintain farmland and crops. If a country, area, state or nation creates enough produce from farmland, it may be deemed an agrarian society, even if it is not meaning to be one in the same way that Amish people “intend” to live an agrarian lifestyle. If a country, area, state or nation has farming as its primary source of wealth, then it is an agrarian society; no matter how advanced the society is.

Agrarian societies are not as old as some people think. They have only existed in different parts of the world around as far back as 10,000 years ago, but some still exist today in various locations around the globe. The reason why they are only a relatively new thing in human history is because most societies have always had to mix the methods in which they produce, trade and survive. However, around 10,000 years ago, humans started trading over larger distances to the point where an agrarian society could exist. For example, if it wanted weapons, it could swap them for farmland produce rather than have to mine for the iron and produce them themselves.

There are some modern states around the world and in the US that would be agrarian based on the amount of land that farming takes up in those states, and yet it is not an agrarian society because it takes so few people to manage the farm. Farmland can take up hundreds of square miles of land, but due to modern technology, only a small group of people are needed to maintain the crops. Yet, on the flip side, a single square mile in a state may hold 100,000 people. Even in the 19th century in countries as advanced as Britain and the US, less than half of the population was involved in agriculture, and that was back in the days when horses and bulls were pulling ploughs.

An agrarian society is no longer an agrarian society when less than half of its population is directly involved and engaged with the agricultural production of the society. For example, if you have 11 people in the society and only 5 people are farmers, then it is not an agrarian society. Most modern societies are industrial societies with only a small portion of their population being directly engaged with farming and/or agricultural production. The Commercial and Industrial Revolution in of 1000-1500 C.E. with the Mediterranean city-states was what turned many societies away from farming and into industry. Maritime commercial societies during the middle ages were also the reason why many societies turned away from agriculture. A large part of the spread of industrialism was thanks to the British Empire invading countries and replacing agrarian societies with industrial ones.

The fact that many smaller states became, and still are, highly urbanized has proven that even tiny societies can exist very easily without having most of their population engaged in agriculture. There as some states and locations that are powered simply by natural resources such as mines, or by being centers of manufacturing or trade. The Amish people in the US do represent what people currently think of as an agrarian society, but such societies have been around a very long time and are actually not as needed or required as they once were.

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• Rebuilding of Moscow

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Subject essay: Lewis Siegelbaum

The capital city of both the RSFSR and the USSR, Moscow also served under Stalin as a beacon for world socialism. But Moscow was a nearly 800-year old city, with dozens of churches and residential structures dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, many narrow twisting lanes, and in a preponderance of wooden, brick, and stone buildings from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The “Master Plan for the Reconstruction of the City of Moscow,” devised by a commission under Lazar Kaganovich and co-signed by Stalin and Viacheslav Molotov on July 10, 1935, was intended as an “offensive against the old Moscow” that would utterly transform the city. Four years in the making, the plan called for the expansion of the city’s area from 285 to 600 square kilometers that would take in mostly farmland to the south and west beyond the Lenin (a.k.a. Sparrow) Hills. It involved sixteen major highway projects, the construction of “several monumental buildings of state-wide significance,” and fifteen million square meters of new housing to accommodate a total population of approximately five million. Surrounding the city would be a green belt up to a width of ten kilometers.

Even while the master plan was being drawn up, old Moscow was giving way to the new. One of the showpieces of the new Moscow was to be the Moscow Metro[politen] which broke ground in March 1932 and went into service on May 14, 1935. A second project begun in the early 1930s was the Moscow-Volga Canal, built by an army of prison laborers numbering 200,000 and opened in July 1937. Yet another project, for a monumental Palace of Soviets capable of hosting meetings of up to 15,000 people, was the subject of an architectural competition held in 1931. Entries were received from 160 Soviet and foreign architects including Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier. In June 1933, the jury headed by Molotov awarded the project to the Soviet architect, Boris Iofan. His terraced, colonnaded palace was to be the tallest building in the world, soaring eight meters above the recently completed Empire State Building. It was to be crowned with a massive, 90-meter-tall statue of Lenin.

The site selected for the colossus was, symbolically enough, the ground on which the Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer had stood before its demolition in 1931. This was one of many churches and religious abbeys destroyed in the frenzy to make over the capital. Work on the Palace of Soviets commenced in 1935 and continued until the Nazi invasion. In 1960 a giant outdoor heated swimming pool, the biggest in the Soviet Union (and reputedly, the world), opened on the site. It, in turn, gave way in the 1990s to a replica of the cathedral which was constructed under the auspices of Moscow’s flamboyant mayor, Iurii Luzhkov.

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