Humankind’s relationship with fruiting plants began long before the origins of agriculture in 8,000 to 10,000 BC, when all human beings practiced the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
Fruits were mainstays of out diet, being excellent sources of fiber, vitamins, and other healthful or medicinal compounds unbeknownst to us then.While cereal grains, such as wheat and barley, were probably the crop plants domesticated by humans several of today’s fruit crops were not far behind, since they were native to the very same area – the Fertile Crescent of Asia Minor.
Domestication of wild fruiting plants may have been inadvertent; the first groves of fruit trees probably sprang from seeds thrown in waste heaps at the edge of village.
Careful observation and selection for useful traits, such as larger size better taste and higher yield, started the transformation of those wild plants into the crops we cultivated and enjoy today.
During the age of discovery, fruit, sees or live plants were often taken ion transoceanic voyages and exchanges in both directions helped spread many crops throughout the world.Christopher Columbus and his contemporaries may have not realized the impact they would have on agriculture and society when they brought crops such as coffee and citrus to the New World, returning to Europe with previous unknown, but now common, foods such as cocoa and pineapple.
Today we have well-established world trade networks and sophisticated cultural and post-harvest technologies that allow fruits to be enjoyed throughout much of the year, instead of mere weeks per year as our ancestor experienced.
Global trade has made formerly rare and exotic treats derived from fruit crops commonplace in countries with no hope of cultivating the plants.
Fruits crops are important agricultural commodities; they add tens of billions of dollars per year to the global economy and are major sources of income for developing countries.
Worldwide, over 100 millions acres of land has been devoted to their production, and the livelihood of literally millions of farming depends on continued global trade.
Brief History of Fruit Crops
