Agricultural Development in South and East Asia

Running head: ASIAN ARCHAEOLOGIES
ASIAN ARCHAEOLOGIES
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1ASIAN ARCHAEOLOGIES
Introduction
Asia is one of the largest producers of agricultural crops. This includes rice, wheat and
various other staple crops which is used by people throughout the world as their primary food.
China and India the two countries with the world’s largest population is also the largest producer
of stable crops like rice, wheat, maize, sugarcane, and plantation crops like tea, coconut, jute and
similar ones. The region has long history of agricultural development and since ancient times
people have been depending on agricultural activities to sustain their own life and also to gain
profits by selling the surplus amount.
The countries in the South Asian region presently are India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal,
Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Maldives. The countries in the East Asian regions are China,
Korea, Japan, Vietnam and Mongolia (Holcombe 2017). In the following paragraphs
development and history of agriculture in these two parts of Asia are discussed and compared.
Emergence of agriculture in South Asia
The most important agricultural producer in South Asia presently is India having highest
amount of agricultural production. In the traditional Historical texts it is stated that the normal
agricultural activities started during the 9000 BCE (Ludden 2013). However the “mythological”
texts of the region places agricultural activities to be much older than that era. The region is also
characterized by double monsoon season therefore the producers of the crops were getting more
advantage of producing larger amounts. The early ages of human civilization such as the
Neolithic age the primary agricultural activities were planting the crops, threshing of the crops,
and building small granaries to store the grains. The primary cultivation that was found in this

2ASIAN ARCHAEOLOGIES
age was Wheat and Barley, and all these features were found in the Mehrgarh civilization
(Denham 2013).
It is believed that some of the oldest civilizations thrived in this region of South Asia
including the Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro civilization which is often referred to as the oldest
civilization. All these civilizations were all dependants on agriculture and had advanced
irrigation systems. It has been found in the Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro that the people had their
own brick houses often double storeyed and the drainage system was well developed. The
irrigation system had been also quite developed and supported the agriculture of the region.
There are many remarkable features of civilization found in this region in the discussed era.
According to Bhutani (2013) “The Kandian Home Gardens in Sri Lanka, the terraced rice
gardens of Nepal, the Apatani system in northeast India and the fish-rice farming system in
Bangladesh are all well-known examples of this unique wealth of knowledge.” The system of
agriculture in this period was very much sustainable and environment friendly. The agricultural
system was not harming the land and the vegetation. This unique feature of agriculture is one of
the characteristics of the agricultural development in the South Asia region.
In the Mehergarh civilization the primary food crop grown was barley and this was the
oldest evidence of agriculture. Apart from that wheat was grown. The four types of wheat that
was grown in this region included emmer, durum, einkorn and bread white. Later on other crops
were being grown within this civilization and cotton was one of the main. In south east Asia
other important crops were Mung Bean, horse gram, black gram, pigeon pea and similar grains.
The modern day rice was probably grown in 4500 BC or later. In the civilization of Harappa and
Mohenjo Daro dates, field peas, sesame and lentils were also found. Textile industry became
well developed because of growth of cotton (Spengler et al. 2014).