Agriculture is home to some of the most impressive achievements in human history. From the first records of human agriculture to the invention of hydroponics, the reaper and the combine harvester, agricultural tools have been pivotal developments that have improved global living standards.
In this blog, we’ll walk through some of the most impactful advancements in agricultural tools and hypothesize about how tools may impact the industry and continue to increase agricultural yield in the future.
The Beginning of Agriculture: The Fertile Crescent
The story of human development can be linked back to the start of agriculture as a practice. While agriculture helped support the creation of year-round settlements and created new professions through the usage of food surpluses, it also had significant short-term tradeoffs.
Abandoning the hunter-gatherer lifestyle resulted in major social and economic transformations, decreased fertility and average life expectancy, increased disease and malnourishment and centralized political power in the hands of a ruling few.
The first record of agricultural tools is from Sumeria, in modern day Iraq. Grain farmers utilized forked sticks as a trench-creating tool, allowing them to more easily and uniformly plant seeds in the ground. Around three hundred years later, Egypt began using sharpened pieces of flint to reap grain to produce bread and beer, two essential parts of the Egyptian economy.
Early Instances of Hydroponic Development
Even though hydroponics is thought of as a modern agricultural tool, the practice of growing crops without soil has ancient roots. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, supposedly grew crops in suspended gardens in an otherwise arid area.
In the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan, farmers developed a farming system on rafts called “chinampas”. This meant that crops could grow their roots directly down to the waters of Lake Tenochtitlan.
While not exactly like modern hydroponics, the Aztecs used these rafts as agricultural tools to meet the needs of their environment.
The Industrial Revolution’s Agricultural Tools
The industrial revolution provided humanity with one of the greatest periods for tool development. Inventors, faced with changing societal conditions that increased global populations due to advancements in medicine and urbanization, created new tools to increase farm yields and create surpluses to export to an international market.
Developments like the Daisy Self-Rake Reaper changed agriculture forever. It combined many steps of the harvesting process into one machine, allowing farms to do more work with less laborers, and increasing production. Based off previous versions of the McCormick Reaper, this was the first system that the operator could sit in, further increasing the speed and ease of production.
The threshing machine also was a major influence in the history of agricultural tools, separating grain seeds from the stalks and husks. The further combination of these two machines: the reaper and the threshing machine created the combine harvester we know today.
What’s The Modern Impasse for Agricultural Tool Progression?
While the agricultural tools of the past have helped farmers solve the problems of feeding an ever-increasing population, there are some major challenges that the agriculture sector will face in the next 100 years and beyond. Challenges include:
- A diminishing amount and quality of natural resources
- Climate change making the world’s highest producing farming areas unsustainable
- Transition to regenerative farming practices to protect natural ecosystems
- Farmer’s difficulty to retain quality workers
- Increasing automation and integration of precision farming technology
Are Hydroponics a Promising Advancement for Agricultural Tools?
Hydroponics provides farmers with the agricultural tools to meet the challenges of modern farming. Growing crops without soil, hydroponics allows farmers to utilize less water than is used in traditional agriculture. This provides a sustainable path for the agriculture industry to meet the needs of growing populations around the world.
Hydroponics can be used in vertical farms, compactly growing crops in warehouses or shipping containers that allow farms to be located close to urban centers, making distribution easier and ensuring consumers have access to healthier, fresher produce.
These systems typically grow crops with high-powered grow lights that can be customized to benefit the needs of specific plants. They’re able to grow crops in any environment, without regard for outside climate conditions, allowing growers to cultivate crops in demand out of season.
Summary
From the humble beginnings of forked sticks in Sumeria to the high-tech hydroponic systems of today, the evolution of agricultural tools has been a testament to human ingenuity and adaptability.
When facing the challenges of the future, including climate change, resource scarcity, and population growth, agricultural tools will continue to evolve. The rise of hydroponics and precision farming technology are just the latest chapters in this ongoing story.
As we look to the future, we can be confident that the same innovative spirit that drove the development of the plow, the reaper, and the cotton gin will continue to drive the advancement of agricultural tools, ensuring our ability to feed the world’s growing population in a sustainable and efficient manner.
Interesting in learning about how Pure Greens container farms can benefit your farm or help you expand your operations with the benefits of controlled environment agriculture?
Contact us today for more information. We’re happy to assist you with any questions you have and customize a hydroponic system to meet your farm’s needs, increasing the yield per square foot and producing unparalleled harvest quality.
