Farmer's Diary: Man’s inherent desire for better yields

There is a book I have been reading in recent weeks titled, Hybrid by Noel Kingsbury. It is about the history and science of plant breeding and most of the ideas that I want to share with the readers today are derived from it.

Perhaps not so many of us take the trouble to think about the history of crops we grow and the animals that we keep.

Probably even fewer may easily believe that thousands of years ago the animals and birds we keep for meat, milk and eggs like cattle, goats, chicken, ducks, turkey, and the others lived in the wild and mankind hunted them in the bushes and forests.

Similarly, the crops such as tomatoes, maize, beans, and the many others found on our market stalls today grew on their own in the bushes and forests and mankind had to go gathering them for food wherever blind chance took him.

Observe, identify, select
In the wilderness our ancestors went picking fruits like oranges, digging up tubers like yams, and harvesting the bananas and actually all the food items we now see grown in our gardens. Some plants were ornamental while others provided clothing and building material.

With the passing of time, mankind was observing, identifying, and selecting some of the food plants and animals that he could domesticate. He had to study their behaviour and growing trends. It is as far back as then that bioscience and technology begun to take shape albeit in a much simpler form than we know it in present time.

That is how the crops we now call food such as wheat, rice, maize, bananas, potatoes and livestock such as cattle, sheep and fowls came out of the wilderness.

He had to clear the bush and prepare the ground for their enhanced growth in order to enjoy better harvests and to ensure food security.

By the application of modern science, plant and animal breeding, we continue crossing them to get better yields.

Many of the animals, birds, and plants that were brought into our care indeed still have their cousins in the wilderness. Some are almost extinct while many others have totally disappeared.

Rather surprisingly though, the ones we have domesticated have become so “civilised” and sophisticated that they can hardly live without shelter or grow along with weeds, which actually was their way of life long ago.

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