Early Farming Methods: What Began and What Still Works

Early farming methods began in several places at different times. The best-dated case is the Fertile Crescent, where wheat, barley and pulses were domesticated about 10,000 years ago (Functional Ecology, 2016). This guide covers the main techniques of those first farmers: basin irrigation, rotation, terraces, raised beds and mixed planting. It gives dated evidence for each, shows what field trials say about the ones that still work, and includes a calculator for the water you would need under different irrigation methods.

When and where early farming began

Farming did not start in one place. It began separately in several regions, each with its own crops. The dates below are the ones in the sources we opened; new finds sometimes push them earlier.

The sickle study is worth a closer look. The researchers examined flint sickle blades from two sites in the Levant, el-Wad Terrace and Salibiya I. The wear patterns show that people cut semi-ripe and ripe cereals, and that they stripped the stalks to loosen the grain, which works like threshing. The authors reconstruct a harvest that began in mid-spring and ran into late spring, and they argue that it was well organized and that grain was stored, including seed for the next year. That is their reading of the evidence, and it is a recent paper, so expect debate.

Two points stand out. Early farmers started with plants that already grew wild around them. And water control came later than the first crops: people grew grain on rain-fed land and floodplains before they built basins and lifting devices.

What farming changed in the crops

The first farmers did not just plant seed. By saving seed from the best plants year after year, they changed the plants. Researchers grew Fertile Crescent crops next to their wild ancestors in a greenhouse and compared them. Cereal and pulse crops gave on average 50% more yield than their wild progenitors, with 90% heavier individual seeds and 38% less chaff or pod material (Functional Ecology, 2016). The study covered a set of wheat, barley, pulse and related crops, so treat the numbers as averages for that set, not for every crop.

This is the first “farming method” that still matters: selection. A grower who saves seed from the plants that did best in the field is repeating it on a small scale. Seed saving has limits: it works best for open-pollinated varieties, and saved seed can carry disease, so check seed health and any local seed rules before you rely on it.

Why did the first farmers stay with farming once they had started? The sources we opened do not answer that, and we will not guess. What they show is the result: crops with heavier seed and less waste than their wild ancestors, which gave a higher yield per plant.

Chart

Domesticated crops compared with wild ancestors

Average difference, Fertile Crescent cereal and pulse crops vs wild progenitors grown side by side; chaff shown as % less

Basin irrigation on the Nile

Egyptian farmers built low earth walls to divide the flood plain into basins. Gates let the Nile flood into a basin, where the water sat for about a month. The soil soaked up water and silt, and the salts were flushed down below the roots (WaterHistory.org). Farmers then drained the basin and sowed into wet soil.

The system was tied to the river. Postel notes that a low flood could cause famine and a flood that was too high could do damage. For nearly 1,500 years about 800,000 hectares were farmed under basin irrigation. The shaduf, a pole-and-bucket water lift, appeared in upper Egypt sometime after 1500 BC and may have added 10 to 15 percent to the cultivated area. By Roman times about 1 million hectares were under cultivation in a year (WaterHistory.org).

The same ideas are used today as controlled flooding and level basin irrigation. For a close look at Egyptian methods, see our guide to ancient Egyptian irrigation techniques.

From basins to drip: how well water is used

Other old systems moved water by gravity. The FAO describes qanats, also called foggara in Arabic, as man-made springs that bring groundwater to the surface by gravity, so no lifting is needed (FAO, water lifting manual).

Chart

Field application efficiency by irrigation method

Share of applied water the crop uses, FAO planning values

One gap between old and new methods is how much of the applied water reaches the crop. The FAO gives these field application efficiencies: 60% for surface irrigation (border, furrow and basin), 75% for sprinklers and 90% for drip (FAO, Annex I: Irrigation efficiencies). These are planning values. Real fields vary with soil, slope and management.

The FAO’s own worked example shows what that means. A maize crop with a water need of 800 mm per season and an application efficiency of 0.65 needs about 1,230 mm applied (FAO, Water quality for agriculture). Use the calculator below with your own numbers. Local water rules and licences apply to any change in how you take or apply water.

Try the numbers for your own farm below.

Salt and the limits of irrigation

Careful water use is the shared thread of these systems. Where rain is short or floods are uneven, water decides the harvest. The Nile basins held flood water for about a month, the Hani terraces pass water from forest to field with no reservoirs, and chinampa canals form part of the irrigation system. Careful water use was the shared thread.

Watering dry land has a cost. Salts in the water stay in the soil when the water evaporates. In southern Mesopotamia, texts from 2500 BC onward use a term, ki-mun, for saline ground. The scholar Thorkild Jacobsen argued that rising salt pushed farmers from emmer wheat to barley, which tolerates salt better, around the start of the Akkadian Period (2335 to 2120 BC). Marvin Powell questioned this and noted that barley may have been preferred for its higher productivity and adaptability (Iraq journal, Cambridge University Press). So the story is debated, and we state it as a debate.

The lesson is not in dispute. The Nile basins worked partly because flood water washed salts out each year. Modern irrigators handle salt by leaching with extra water. In the FAO’s worked example, the 1,230 mm applied is more than the 890 mm needed for crop use plus leaching, so the usual losses beyond crop need can cover the leaching when drainage is adequate.

Crop rotation and fallow

Resting land and changing crops is among the oldest ways to keep fields productive. We could not find a dated source for who rotated first, so we leave that open and look at what trials show today.

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Fertilized yield gain over continuous cropping

Percent yield gain, rainfed no-till 2007-2013, one Nebraska site; four-year gains are the best result reported

A long-term study by the USDA Agricultural Research Service at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (rainfed, no-till years 2007 to 2013) compared rotations with continuous cropping. Fertilized corn yielded 29% more in a two-year rotation and up to 48% more in a four-year rotation that included a legume winter cover crop; grain sorghum gained 20% and up to 29% (University of Nebraska-Lincoln CropWatch, 2021). Rotation also cut crop losses in drought by 14 to 90 percent compared with continuous cropping. Results come from one site and soil, so test on your own land.

Rotation is common practice. In a 2013 USDA ERS analysis of U.S. survey data for corn, soybeans and wheat, between 84 and 92 percent of acreage involves some rotation (USDA ERS, 2013).

The same study measured soil organic carbon to 60 inches deep. Continuous corn held 48.1 tons of carbon per acre, a corn and soybean rotation 62.5, and the best four-year rotation (corn, soybean, grain sorghum, then oat and clover) 65.1; the same crops in a different order held 60.5. The researchers say the likely link is better water retention and steadier yields. They also found that crop rotation raised yields about as much as nitrogen fertilizer did, and that adding fertilizer nitrogen to the most varied rotations did not raise yield further. That is a result for those plots; fertilizer needs on your farm depend on soil tests and local advice.

A simple four-year plan to adapt looks like this: a heavy-feeding grain, then a legume, then a second grain such as barley or oats, then fallow or a green manure crop. Adapt it to your climate, soil and local extension advice.

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Soil organic carbon to 60 inches

Tons of carbon per acre, Nebraska long-term trial, soil sampled 2016; the 4-yr bar is corn-soybean-sorghum-oat/clover (the same crops in another order held 60.5)

Terraces, raised beds and mixed planting

Where land was steep or wet, early farmers reshaped it. Three examples have good records.

Rice terraces. The Hani people in Yunnan, China, have lived in this terrace landscape for over 1,300 years. The FAO notes forests above the villages feed an irrigation network down to the terraces, with no reservoirs, and 48 local rice varieties are still grown. It also lists risks: landslides, terrace collapse and drought in dry years (FAO GIAHS, Hani Rice Terraces). For more on Chinese farming tools, see our guide to ancient Chinese farming tools.

Chinampas. These are narrow raised beds built in shallow lakes in the Valley of Mexico, separated by canals. The FAO says the beds are built from lake sediment, branches and decaying plants, kept fertile by adding aquatic plants, and that producers manage 51 domesticated species (FAO GIAHS, Chinampas). See also our explainer on how Aztec chinampas worked.

The FAO describes how a chinampa is built. Builders mark out the bed, cut stakes and branches of the native willow called ahuejote, set them around the edge, and fill the frame with two layers: one of organic matter and one of lake mud. The canals around the beds are about 1.5 meters deep on average, and they double as the irrigation system. The same page says the canals also help control flooding by taking excess rain water away from Mexico City. Today the beds still grow vegetables and flowers near the city, which shows that an old design can fit a modern urban setting.

Corn, beans and squash. The Three Sisters combination is common across Native American tribes. At its Knife River site in North Dakota, the National Park Service notes beans grow around the corn stalks and squash spreads vines across the ground; women were the main caretakers of the gardens (National Park Service).

The same page describes the tools and the work. Rakes were made from deer antlers and hoes from bison shoulder blades, and digging sticks made planting holes. Water came from the river in bison bladders, with many trips to water a garden that could be as large as a football field. Seed from the best plants was saved for the next year, which is the same selection step described at the start of this guide.

Andean farmers also built terraces on steep slopes. We have not quoted figures for them here because the area estimates we found differ widely.

Early methods and what they offer now

The qanat limit follows from the FAO description of how the water arrives, which depends on groundwater above the outflow level. The other limits come from the sources above or from basic farm practice.

Manure, compost and green manure

Long before bagged fertilizer, farmers returned plant and animal waste to the soil. The chinampa builders did this with canal plants. Mixed farms did it with livestock manure. Mulch, compost and green manure crops do the same job today.

If you use manure or compost, test the soil and follow local nutrient rules, which cap rates near water. For any pesticide or fertilizer product, follow the label and local rules.

Mulch, a layer of straw or leaves on the soil, is another old habit with a modern use: it covers the ground, and the Nebraska researchers say rotations and cover crops that build soil organic matter can improve soil water retention. If you have livestock, the short video below shows how crops and animals support each other on a mixed farm, from manure as fertilizer to crop leftovers as feed.

▶ Six benefits of mixing crops and animals on one farm, including manure as fertilizer. · 2:55

What to copy and what to leave in the past

Old systems were built around local labor and local water. Some limits are plain:

• Flood-dependent systems fail when the flood fails. Modern farms use storage, wells or both.
• Many techniques need hand labor. Terraces and raised beds are costly to build and keep.
• Farm sizes differ. Small plots can use mixed planting more easily than a large grain farm.
• Copy the principle, not the tool: keep soil covered, return organic matter, rotate crops, and match water to the crop.

For how these ideas compare with current practice, see our overview of how modern farming methods compare.

▶ Seven simple ways to protect soil and water on a working farm. · 4:34

How to try these ideas on a working farm

1. Pick one field and one practice. Changing too much at once hides what worked.
2. Write down the current crop, yield, inputs and water use so you have a baseline.
3. If you grow grain, add a legume or cover crop to the sequence and keep the old sequence on a neighboring field for comparison.
4. Check your irrigation: find the crop water need and your method’s efficiency, then use the calculator above to see how much water the difference is worth.
5. On steep ground, ask your local conservation office before building terraces or banks.
6. Review after at least a full rotation. The Nebraska results above came from many seasons, not one.

Checking your own fields from space

Satellite images show change in plant cover across a field over a season, which can help you see whether a rotation, cover crop or new irrigation method is changing how the crop grows. They show where a crop looks different, not the cause, so walk the field to find out why. Farmonaut offers a Satellite + AI Farm Monitoring System for this, on web, Android and iOS.

Related pages on our site: farm carbon footprint tools, large-scale farm management apps, fleet and machinery management, satellite data API, weather and satellite API documentation, product traceability and crop loans and insurance.

▶ How satellite NDVI maps show crop stress across a large farm. · 4:09

FAQ

What were the earliest farming methods?

The earliest records show wild grain harvest with sickles, then planting and seed saving. Wheat, barley and pulses were domesticated in the Fertile Crescent about 10,000 years ago (Functional Ecology, 2016). Rice in China is about 9,000 years old. Maize in Mexico may go back as far as 10,000 years, though the source says “may have” and the date is still discussed. Sickle blades from the Levant show people harvesting wild cereals even earlier, between 15,000 and 11,700 years ago.

Which early farming method is still used?

Several are. Crop rotation, terracing, raised beds, mixed planting and basin or level-basin flooding are all in use. The Hani terraces and the Xochimilco chinampas are listed by the FAO as Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems.

Did crop rotation really raise yields?

In one long-term Nebraska trial, fertilized corn gave 29% more in a two-year rotation than continuous corn, and up to 48% more in a four-year rotation with a legume cover crop (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2021). Results vary by site.

How did ancient farmers deal with salt?

On the Nile, the flood washed salts down below the roots each year (WaterHistory.org). In Mesopotamia, salty ground is recorded in texts from 2500 BC, and scholars still debate how much it changed crops (Iraq journal).

Is drip irrigation better than basin irrigation?

On water use, the FAO gives 90% field application efficiency for drip and 60% for surface methods, including basin. Drip systems need design and upkeep, so ask a local irrigation adviser before switching. Check local rules and get advice for your crop and soil.

Can satellites help with traditional methods?

They can show whether a field’s vegetation changes after you adopt a practice. They do not show the cause, so combine them with field checks.