By six thousand years ago, agriculture was firmly established in Asia, India, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Mexico, Central America, and South America. Before recorded history, these areas had domesticated some of the world's most important food (corn, rice, and wheat) and fiber (cotton, flax, and hemp) crops. The place of origin of wheat is unknown, but many authorities believe that it may have grown wild in the Tigris and Euphrates Valleys and spread from there to the rest of the Old World. Wheat was grown by Stone Age Europeans and was reportedly produced in China as far back as 2700 b.c.e. Wheat is now the major staple for about 35 percent of the people of the world. The earliest traces of the human utilization of corn date back to about 5200 b.c.e. It was probably first cultivated in the high plateau region of central or southern Mexico and represented the basic food plant of all pre Columbian advanced cultures and civilizations, including the Inca of South America and the Maya of Central America.
Botanists believe that rice originated in Southeast Asia. Rice was being cultivated in India as early as 3000 b.c.e. and spread from there throughout Asia and Malaysia. Today rice is one of the world's most important cereal grains and is the principal food crop of almost half of the world's people. Hemp, most likely the first plant cultivated for its fiber, was cultivated for the purpose of making cloth in China as early as the twenty-eighth century b.c.e. It was used as the cordage or rope on almost all ancient sailing vessels. Linen, made from flax, is one of the oldest fabrics. Traces of flax plants have been identified in archaeological sites dating back to the Stone Age, and flax was cultivated in Mesopotamia and Egypt five thousand years ago. Cotton has been known and highly valued by people throughout the world for more than three thousand years. From India, where a vigorous cotton industry began as early as 1500 b.c.e., the cultivation of cotton spread to Egypt and then to Spain and Italy. In the West Indies and South America, a different species of cotton was grown long before the Europeans arrived. Other important plants that have been under domestic cultivation since antiquity include dates, figs, olives, onions, grapes, bananas, lemons, cucumbers, lentils, garlic, lettuce, mint, radishes, and various melons.
See also: Modern Plant Breeding, Recombinant Technology
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