ancient farming
Old-world crop tending
Ancient farming refers to agricultural practices from early civilizations—the methods used before modern machinery, synthetic fertilizers, and scientific breeding.
The term encompasses techniques like irrigation, crop rotation, and animal-drawn plowing developed thousands of years ago: Ancient farming in Mesopotamia relied on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
Often invoked when discussing sustainable agriculture or traditional methods that preceded industrial farming.
- wheatCereal crop for flour
- barleyGrain for malt
- sickleCurved hand-held harvesting blade
- plowTool for turning soil
- hoeWeeding and tilling implement
hand tools · millet · surplus · rice · grain storage · sowing seeds · threshing floor · water management · oxen · beast of burden · shaduf · emmer · domestication · slash-and-burn · crop rotation · fallow fields · soil fertility · terraced hillsides
ancient farmingindustrial agriculture
Large-scale mechanized farming
factory farming · mechanized farming · agribusiness · corporate farming · intensive agriculture
ancient farmingagribusiness
Commercial farming sector
corporate farming · commercial agriculture · plantation agriculture