The answer is quite a lot actually.
By studying traditional agriculture, planners and developers can avoid making environmental, cultural and socio-economic strategic mistakes. This ensures that decisions are sensitive to the environment and a range of processes and needs.
More importantly, traditional farming techniques that date back to ancient times can guide us with ecological farming activities. Without the input of technological and mainly chemical solutions, traditional agriculture can balance the deficiencies of modern agriculture. Moreover it can guide us in the development of stable and sustainable systems with the use of local resources and human and animal energy.
Finally we can learn from their mistakes of over farming, soil erosion, tree felling and over grazing. Indeed, some believe whole civilizations such as the Indus Valley people disappeared due to these reasons.
Ancient Egyptian Agriculture
The ancient Egyptians depended totally on the Nile River. Indeed, the Nile Valley was Egypt – a thin ribbon of fertile land hemmed in by sandy desert. The Egyptians became highly competent agriculturalists, understanding their environment and utilizing their skills in engineering and mathematics to maximize their yields.
Most Egyptians farmed the land and seldom went hungry. They grew and ate a variety of crops such as barley, wheat, fruit and vegetables. Dates, figs, leeks, onions, garlic, cucumber, beans and lettuce were grown and eaten by all groups in society.
Scribes forecast the quality of the harvest by measuring the level of the Nile’s water. The level of water largely determined the harvest. In a land with little or no rainfall, accurate land surveying was regarded as highly important.
The quest for agricultural efficiency was the responsibility of the engineers. They studied mathematics, interpreted the seasons and annual growth cycle and calculated that the year at 365 days. Of great importance, they developed dykes, dams and irrigation channels especially at El Fayum. These constructions curbed harmful flooding and provided controllable water supplies to all. Irrigation was largely carried out using the basin system. The cultivated ground was divided into huge areas made into basins by the construction of solid enclosing walls and when the Nile was in flood, waster was diverted into the basins by canals. From each basin, which might cover up to 17000 hectares, water was channelled into outlying areas. In gardens and orchards, water was hand lifted until the invention of the shaduf.
The Shaduf is a simple but effective device for irrigation and has been used in Egypt for 3,500 years. Water is drawn from the Nile or one of its canals into a bucket attached to a weighted pole. The weight lifts the full basket which can then be easily emptied into a tank built at a higher level. From the tank, water is channelled through smaller canals to irrigate land some distance from the river. The canals slope downwards using the power of gravity.
Today, Egyptian farmers or fellah still use many of the tools developed by the ancients thousands of years ago. About 6 out of 10 Egyptians still till the soil or raise animals in the same fashion. The plough was introduced to Egypt about 4,500 years ago. Indeed, a pharaoh looking at a present day field might think he was in his own time.
Mayan Agriculture
Between 300 and 850, the Maya built many cities such as Copan, Piedras and Uaxactun. Scholars believed that only priests and officials lived in these cities and the people lived in clearings in the jungle operating a form of slash and burn agriculture. However excavations suggest that actually the cities were divided into sections or family compounds with each having a plot of farmland around its buildings. Crop rotation was utilized to ensure that soil was not exhausted. A range of crops were grown such as maize (the staple diet), beans, root crops, sweet potatoes and several types of fruit.
Sumerian Agriculture
The Sumerians established the first settled civilization based on agriculture and trade. They were the first people to understand the principles of scientific agriculture – the relationship between seeds, soil, water and the annual cycle of the weather. Barley, their chief crop, was used as a form of money and they cultivated flax, lentils, peas, wheat and vetch. To improve their agriculture Sumerian engineers constructed damns and canals. Silt from the river fertilized the land which yielded two crops a year. The Sumerians took a great interest in mathematics, probably out of the necessity to survey the land. They based their number systems on units of 60 and passed on to present times the 60 minute hour and the 360 degree circle.
Indus Valley Agriculture
Over 4,500 years ago, in present day Pakistan, the Indus Valley people lived in an area covering over 1 million square metres. In those days, the Valley was much more fertile than it is today. Some believe this is down to climate change, others believe it is the farming techniques and lifestyle of the people that resulted in them disappearing without trace after 1,000 years.
So what did these civilizations have in common?
- They knew their neighbourhood – soil types, fertility levels and land use categories are known by the older members of communities and passed onto the younger members.
- Crops were sown that were correct for that particular site and could tolerate the conditions and were resistant to specific diseases. There was a reliance upon local crop varieties and the use of wild plans and animals for consumption
- The understanding of water conversation and management and the recycling of nutrients.
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