<P> It was not until after 9,500 BC that the eight so - called founder crops of agriculture appear: first emmer and einkorn wheat, then hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax . These eight crops occur more or less simultaneously on Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) sites in the Levant, although wheat was the first to be grown and harvested on a significant scale . At around the same time (9400 BC), parthenocarpic fig trees were domesticated . </P> <P> By 7,000 BC, sowing and harvesting reached the fertile soil of Mesopotamia, where Sumerians systematized it and scaled it up . By 8,000 BC, farming was entrenched on the banks of the River Nile . About this time, agriculture was developed independently in the Far East, probably in China, with rice rather than wheat as the primary crop . Maize was domesticated from the wild grass teosinte in West Mexico by 6,700 BC . The potato (8,000 BC), tomato, pepper (4,000 BC), squash (8,000 BC) and several varieties of bean (8,000 BC onwards) were domesticated in the New World . Agriculture was independently developed on the island of New Guinea . In Greece from c. 11,000 BC lentils, vetch, pistachios, and almonds were cultivated, while wild oats and wild barley appear in quantity from c. 7,000 BC alongside einkorn wheat, barley, sheep, goats and pigs, while emmer was used on Cyprus between 9,100 and 8,600 BC . Banana cultivation of Musa acuminata, including hybridization, dates back to 5,000 BC, and possibly to 8,000 BC, in Papua New Guinea . Bees were kept for honey in the Middle East around 7,000 BC . Archaeological evidence from various sites on the Iberian peninsula suggest the domestication of plants and animals between 6,000 and 4,500 BC . Céide Fields in Ireland, consisting of extensive tracts of land enclosed by stone walls, date to 3,500 BC and are the oldest known field systems in the world . The horse was domesticated in the Pontic steppe around 4,000 BC . In Siberia, Cannabis was in use in China in Neolithic times and may have been domesticated there; it was in use both as a fibre for ropemaking and as a medicine in Ancient Egypt by about 2,350 BC . </P> <P> In China, rice and millet were domesticated by 8,000 BC, followed by mung, soy and azuki beans . In the Sahel region of Africa, local rice and sorghum were domesticated by 5,000 BC . Kola nut and coffee were domesticated in Africa . In New Guinea, ancient Papuan peoples began practicing agriculture around 7,000 BC, domesticating sugarcane and taro . In the Indus Valley from the eighth millennium BC onwards at Mehrgarh, 2 - row and 6 - row barley were cultivated, along with einkorn, emmer, and durum wheats, and dates . In the earliest levels of Merhgarh, wild game such as gazelle, swamp deer, blackbuck, chital, wild ass, wild goat, wild sheep, boar, and nilgai were all hunted for food . These are successively replaced by domesticated sheep, goats, and humped zebu cattle by the fifth millennium BC, indicating the gradual transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture . Maize and squash were domesticated in Mesoamerica; potato in South America, and sunflower in the Eastern Woodlands of North America . </P> <P> Sumerian farmers grew the cereals barley and wheat, starting to live in villages from about 8,000 BC . Given the low rainfall of the region, agriculture relied on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers . Irrigation canals leading from the rivers permitted the growth of cereals in large enough quantities to support cities . The first ploughs appear in pictographs from Uruk around 3,000 BC; seed - ploughs that funneled seed into the ploughed furrow appear on seals around 2300 BC . Vegetable crops included chickpeas, lentils, peas, beans, onions, garlic, lettuce, leeks and mustard . They grew fruits including dates, grapes, apples, melons, and figs . Alongside their farming, Sumerians also caught fish and hunted fowl and gazelle . The meat of sheep, goats, cows and poultry was eaten, mainly by the elite . Fish was preserved by drying, salting and smoking . </P>

In what way did the beginning of agriculture change the life of early humans