A History of Agriculture in India v1.c23.s6: Earliest Agriculture Was by Vegetative Propagation

A History of Agriculture in India v1.c23.s6

Language: English

Earliest Agriculture Was by Vegetative Propagation

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(Bananas, Sugarcane, Yams, Sago Palm, etc.)

Sauer is of the view that the earliest agriculture was by vegetative propagation of parts of plants. He states, 'The creative curiosity of man in the monsoon lands has operated strongly with asexual plant reproduction. Multiplication and selection is from clones. A piece of a plant is set into the ground to make a new plant. This may be by an offset or sprout from the parent, by dividing a root stock, by a stem cutting, or by a piece of underground stem or tuber. An individual plant is divided and multiplied indefinitely.'

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The list of such man-made plants, or cultigens, is large, with eastern India in the first place as regards origin. Botanically, it includes many and important monocotyledons: Southeast Asia is the original home of the bananas and ginger. Musaceae and Zingiberaceae are predominantly Southeast Asian. The principal area of diversity of Musaceae is Assam-Thailand with 10-20 species, followed by Borneo-Indonesia with 11-13 species. Genetic studies lately have resolved the variations in the Asiatic bananas with the result that the old distinction between bananas and plantains must be abandoned. One cultigen line derives directly from Musa balbisiana, native from Bihar, up to the Himalayas, another from the Malayan *M. acuminata*, and the third main line involves hybrids between the two.⁶ *Musa acuminata* in the broad sense is geographically nearly coextensive with the genus as a whole, and its centre of diversity lies in the Malayan area, where four out of the known five subspecies overlap. This area was also the primary centre of origin of the cultivated bananas, which sprang from *M. acuminata*.

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⁶ Cheesman, E.E. On the Nomenclature of Edible Bananas, *Jour. Genetics*, Vol. 48, 1948, pp. 293-296

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Discussing the evolution of edible bananas, Cheesman observes, ‘The early cultivators seized upon the first signs of parthenocarpy and female sterility. Thus began the evolution of edible bananas, and jungle weeds were transformed into a fruit crop with sweet, moist and aromatic flesh. There was selection in favour of triploidy, because of the vigour, yield and sterility. The AAB group has 20 clones in India and eastern Malaysia. There are many mutants in India. The dispersal of the edible bananas outside Asia was accomplished by the transport of vegetative planting material by human agencies. The first movement was across the Pacific. The second movement was across the Indian ocean to Africa.’⁷ According to Murdock, the Indian element entered Africa by the Sabean lane during the first millennium B.C. The Malaysian elements, which include the bananas, taros, yams, breadfruit and coconut, were introduced by the Indonesian migrants about the time of Christ in Kenya and Uganda, from where they diffused across the African continent to western Sudan. The Bantus carried these crops westwards and southwards. It was followed by a population explosion.

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⁷ Cheesman, E.E. *The Evolution of Bananas*, pp. 132, 143, 144

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The domesticated forms of the ginger family, such as turmeric, appear to be mainly Indian. For the home of the greater yam (*Dioscorea alata*), Burkill favours the eastern side of the Bay of Bengal; for *D. esculenta*, Indochina.⁸ ‘A half-dozen species of cultivated yams, some of them carried to the farthest Pacific Islands, throw important light on cultural radiation from the Southeast Asiatic mainland. Certain palms, especially the sago palm, pandanus, bamboos, and sugarcane, have been widely carried out of India and Indochina and greatly altered by man.’

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⁸ Burkill, I.A. *Dictionary of Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula*, 159

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It may be noted that no archaeological evidence of such plants would be available as climate precludes the preservation of herbaceous cultigens.

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Who were the earliest farmers in South-Eastern Asia. According to Sauer, ‘The improvement of plants by selection for better utility to man was accomplished only by a people who lived at a comfortable margin above the level of want. The needy and miserable societies are not inventive, for they lack the leisure for reflection, experimentation, and discussion.

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‘The hearths of domestication are to be sought in areas of marked diversity of plants or animals, where there were varied and good raw materials to experiment with, or, in other words, where there was a large reservoir of genes to be sorted out and recombined. This implies well-diversified terrain and perhaps also variety of climate.

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'Primitive cultivators could not establish themselves in large river valleys subject to lengthy floods and requiring protective dams, drainage, or irrigation. Thus earliest agriculture had its origin in hill and mountain lands.

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'Above all, the founders of agriculture were sedentary folk. Groups move as little as their needs of food, water, fuel, and shelter require. Mobility as a dominant character goes with specialized hunting economies or with life in meagre environments. Growing crops require constant attention. I have never seen primitive plantings that are not closely watched over until the crop is secured. A planted clearing anywhere is a feast set for all manner of wild creatures that fly, walk, and crawl to come in and raid fruits, leaves, and roots. What is food for man is feast for beasts. And, therefore, by day and night someone must drive off the unbidden wild guests. Planting a field and then leaving it until the harvest would mean loss of harvest.

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'The progenitors of the earliest agriculturists I have sought in some well-situated, progressive fishing folk living in a mild climate along fresh waters. Fresh water is postulated rather than salt because seaside vegetation has contributed little to the making of crop plants. For sedentary living there must have been available a long season or year-round staple resource in fish and other aquatic life. Clustering of groups in permanent villages was made possible at sites continually advantageous for fishing, such as stream junctions, lake outlets, rapids. Waterways served as lines of communication with other villages and so for the exchange and growth of ideas. Waterfowl, riparian mammals, water-side plants gave diversity to food. Basts and fibers were used to make nets and lines and suitable woods were at hand for boats and paddles.'⁹

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⁹ Sauer, O.C. Agricultural Origins and Dispersals, pp 24 to 26

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Sauer states that the art of seeding is relatively recent in the Old World and marginal to the art of planting. Archaeological excavations in the Fertile Crescent area of the Near East have shown that the art of seeding is as old as 7000 B.C. In the lands with cold winters the art of seeding is not marginal. Here vegetative propagation of crop plants is marginal. In tropical areas no doubt vegetative propagation is of prime importance.