Agrobiodiversität in Deutschland - Genres

22 | Johannes Engels
From the earliest conservation and use activities
of genetic resources until today
Fig. 1: Domestication areas of our major crop plants, usually corresponding with the primary centres of
genetic diversity of the species
Abb. 1: Domestikationszentren der Hauptkulturarten, in der Regel sind dies auch die Primärzentren der
genetischen Vielfalt dieser Arten
Based on archaeological records it has been concluded that plant and animal
domestication arose independently in at least seven, and possibly more,
separate locations independently and as listed in Table 1. Besides the oldest
centre of agricultural origin and crop diversity, i.e. the Near East, with an
estimated age of more than 13.500 years (!), also the ages of agricultural activities
in the Americas dating back to about 10.000 and that of Papua New
Guinea to approximately 9.000 years are striking. It should be remarked
that only since approximately 9.500 years agriculture and pastoralism in
the Fertile Crescent have become the dominant mode of subsistence for the
majority of the population (Harris 1998).
Tab. 1: Estimated dates of agricultural origin of centres of plant domestication
Tab. 1: Geschätzter Zeitpunkt des Beginns von Landwirtschaft in den
Domestikationszentren
Centers of domestication
Average number of years
before Christ (BC)
1. Near East (in particular the Fertile Crescent) 11.500
2. Northern /Southern China 6.000
3. Central Mexico 6.500
4. Americas 8.000
5. Papua New Guinea 7.000
6. West and Central Africa 2.000
7. Eastern North America 2.500
(Adapted from Dillehay 2007)
It should be noted that these estimated dates of agricultural origin that
are based on more comprehensive and recent studies tend to indicate that
agricultural activities have started earlier than has been accepted for a long
time. This is an important indicator of the importance of migration of people
as an engine of spreading agriculture and crops around the world, either
and predominantly through colonizing new areas or through the adoption
of domesticates by local foragers. Harris (1998) noted that agropastoralism
can be seen as a “uniquely successful self-sustaining subsistence system
which had a ‘built-in’ tendency to expand spatially and was not restricted
territorially by a need for continued access to wild plant and animal food”.
Genetic diversity and plant collectors
As already mentioned above, genetic diversity of crop plants has either been
generated and adopted to local conditions through the domestication process
and/or introduction from elsewhere, linked to migration of foragers and
farmers that moved around the world for many ten thousands of years. In
Johannes Engels | 23