The food, feed and economic crops grown in the farmland opened in the territory of the God's Emissary King's Legion are all common weeds in the wild in the human world.
These weeds have not yet been domesticated. Except for intensive sowing and field management that increase part of the yield, the rest of their traits are no different from those of wild species.
Perhaps, ants will have to go through long-term labor to select a few varieties that are truly suitable for agriculture from the many crops currently available, and complete the domestication of these varieties from wild plants to cultivated plants. This process may last for hundreds or thousands of years.
Humans have been in agricultural society for thousands of years. After artificial cultivation, they have domesticated a number of plants that have certain production value or economic traits, are genetically stable, and can suit human needs.
Among them, food crops include rice, wheat, corn, sorghum, etc.; fiber crops include cotton, hemp, etc.; oil crops include peanuts, rape, sesame, etc.; fruit trees such as apples, peaches, oranges, pears, etc.; vegetable crops such as cabbage, radish, and cabbage. etc.; there are also various ornamental flowers, such as peony, bunch of reds, clivia, etc. All were domesticated in different historical periods.
Many scholars believe that the domestication of plants developed in human history as a gradual process. About 10,000 years ago, relatively stable residential populations appeared in some areas. These people accidentally observed that plant seeds can take root and sprout after falling to the ground, and saw that plant tubers can also grow and reproduce by themselves, so they tried to use these parts for planting. The result was a success.
Some places where plant domestication was successful earlier have formed some of the more famous sources of plant domestication today.
There are several important domestication sources:
1. Mesoamerican domestication origin. Some important food crops were domesticated earlier, such as corn, beans, pumpkins and other easy-to-grow crops.
2. The origin of domestication in West Asia. West Asia is also a typical region in the world for early domestication of plants. People in this region successfully domesticated crops such as wheat and barley in the early days.
3. Source of domestication in Southeast Asia. This area mainly domesticated taro, potatoes, bananas and other crops in the early days.
4. East African plateau domestication area. On the East African Plateau, people mainly domesticated hard wheat, sorghum, millet and other food crops.
5. Mediterranean acclimation place. In the Mediterranean region, food crops such as barley and oats were domesticated mainly for humans.
6. The place of domestication in northern China. Mainly in the early days, important crops such as millet, barley, and buckwheat were successfully domesticated.
Early plant domestication was mainly limited to the domestication of food crops. This is consistent with people's productivity level and situation at that time.
For the domestication of plants, traditional methods are generally relatively primitive. The procedures are simple but the timeliness may be very long, and the yield may not be high enough. These methods mainly use plant seeds or tubers directly for planting and cultivation. For example, grow corn, rice, potatoes and other crops.
In the improvement process, people gradually improve the soil and other growing environments of plants to achieve the effect of increasing yields. In order to achieve the effect of increasing production, people spread various organic and inorganic fertilizers. But no matter what, the premise is to respect the natural growth characteristics of plants.
It can be said that through domesticating plants, humans have obtained a stable supply of plant food or cash crops. But on the other hand, plants have also gained better growth opportunities because of artificial intervention. There is even a saying that it is not people who have domesticated plants, but plants that have domesticated people.
Humans have lived by gathering and hunting for 2.5 million years, without particularly interfering with the growth of animals and plants.
All this changed completely about 10,000 years ago, when humans began to devote almost all their efforts to controlling the lives of several species of animals and plants. From sunrise to sunset, humans are busy sowing, watering, and weeding, thinking that they can get more fruits and grains. This is a revolution in the way humans live: the agricultural revolution.
Scholars have claimed that the Agricultural Revolution was the Great Leap Forward of mankind, a story of progress driven by human brain power. They say that evolution makes people smarter and smarter, unlocking the secrets of nature and allowing them to tame sheep and grow wheat. When this happened, humans happily gave up the hardship, danger, and simplicity of hunting and gathering, settled down, and enjoyed the happy and satisfying life of farmers.
But this story is just fantasy. There is no evidence that humans are getting smarter. Long before the agricultural revolution, foragers already knew the secrets of nature. After all, in order to survive, they had to know a lot about the animals they hunted and the food they gathered.
Far from bringing about a new era of easy living, the Agricultural Revolution made farmers live a harder and less satisfying life than the foragers. The lives of hunter-gatherers were actually more varied and varied, and they were less exposed to the threats of hunger and disease.
It is true that the Agricultural Revolution increased the total amount of food for humans, but the increase did not mean better food and a more leisurely life. Instead, it only caused a population explosion and produced a group of pampered and pampered elites.
Generally speaking, farmers work harder than foragers and end up with a worse diet.
And if you look at this from the perspective of a plant, such as wheat.
Ten thousand years ago, wheat was just one of many weeds, appearing only in a small area in the Middle East. But in just 1,000 years, wheat suddenly spread all over the world.
Survival and reproduction are the most basic evolutionary criteria, and according to this criterion, wheat can be said to be one of the most successful plants in the history of the earth.
Take the Great Plains of North America as an example. There was no wheat at all 10,000 years ago, but now there are large undulating wheat fields, and there are no other plants within hundreds of kilometers.
The secret of wheat is to manipulate Homo sapiens and use it for its own advantage.
Apes like Homo sapiens originally lived a comfortable life by hunting and gathering. It was not until about 10,000 years ago that they began to invest more and more energy in cultivating wheat. In the next few thousand years, humans in many parts of the world began to grow wheat, and they were already exhausted from just working on it from morning to night.
Growing wheat is not easy, and taking care of it is troublesome. First, wheat doesn’t like stones, big or small, so Homo sapiens had to pick up the stones in the fields and move them out, which caused back pain. Second, wheat doesn’t like to share space, water, and nutrients with other plants, so we see men and women spending all day weeding under the hot sun. Third, wheat will get diseases, so Homo sapiens must help control insects and diseases. Fourth, neither locusts nor rabbits are opposed to a feast of wheat, but wheat is completely unable to resist, so farmers have to guard and protect it. Finally, wheat gets thirsty, so humans have to bring water from springs or streams all the way to quench its thirst. Wheat also gets hungry, so Homo sapiens even has to collect animal excrement to nourish the land where wheat grows.
So, who is the biggest beneficiary?
