Research Projects: Agriculture and Environment Interactions in Eurasia: Past, Present and Future

Agriculture and Environment Interactions in Eurasia: Past, Present and Future - A ten-thousand-year history

sato Yo-Ichiro RIHN

ishikawa Ryuji Faculty of Agriculture and Life Science, Hirosaki University

willcox, George Maison de l'Orient et de la Mediterranee, France

kato Kenji Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Okayama University

kimura Emi RIHN

kurata Takashi RIHN

shinoda Ken-ichi Department of Anthropology, National Science Museum

jones, Martin Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge

tanaka Katsunori RIHN

tsujimoto Hisashi Faculty of Agriculture, Tottori University

nakamura Ikuo Graduate School of Horticulture, Chiba University

harada Nobuo School of Asia 21, Kokushikan University

nosoya Leo Aoi RIHN

matthews, Peter National Museum of Ethnology

This research project examines the history of interactions between agricultural activities and the environment in three Eurasian climate zones: the ‘Monsoon Agriculture Zone’, ‘Mugi Agriculture Zone’ and ‘Vegeculture Zone’. It takes an interdisciplinary approach to the concept of ‘genetic diversity’ in agriculture and its role in agricultural development in the last ‘ten-thousand years’.

It is said that environmental destruction began with agriculture. Agriculture has indeed transformed environments wherever it has been practiced. In Eurasia between the Central Asian desert, where it is now almost impossible to conduct any agricultural activity, and the monsoon region, where vegetation and water are still abundant, there are large differences in the degree of environmental destruction or modification that can be associated with agriculture. The goal of our project is to grasp how agriculture emerged within, contributed to, and was affected by, wider patterns of environmental change in the last ten thousand years. In particular, we focus on the relationship between genetic diversity, agriculture, and environmental transformation, including degradation and collapse.

The project is comprised of three principal working groups, each of which investigates the history of human agricultural activities in one of three climate zones: the Monsoon Agriculture Group, the Mugi Agriculture Group (focusing on annual winter crops), and the Vegeculture Group. Their descriptions reveal that agricultural developpment has not been constant and that collapses were frequent. In addition, the Swidden Agriculture Group investigates modern farming techniques and those that may be sustainable in the future.

Excavation at Ikeshima Fukumanji prehistoric site in Osaka, Japan, has revealed that early peoples employed various adaptive techniques in the face of flood, drought and other environmental hazards. They adapted agricultural systems by introducing new cultivar species or cropping methods (as, for example, in developing Shimabata, or mounded dry fields), adjusted the location of cultivation, and constructed canals in order to manage the flow of water (even going so far as to shift the course of the Yamato River). Evidence suggests that there was early and intermittent cultivation of paddy fields. Above all, it appears that Japanese agriculture has experienced repetitive collapse and recovery through history (Fig. 1).

Morphological and DNA analyses of plant and faunal remains excavated from the Xiaohe Tomb site in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China (Photos 1-4), indicate that what is now desert was formerly of the ‘makiba’ climate zone, containing large-scale wheat fields, forests and meadows. Pollen analysis reveals that there were also wetlands in the area. The theoretical model of such environmental transformation describes a sequence of cultivation activities → soil salinization → desertification (Fig. 2).

Discovery of previously unreported wild forms of taro (Colocasia spp.) in the Philippines increases the likelihood that the domestication of taro has a long and complex history in Southeast Asia. Intensive utilization of a wild form with edible leaves suggests that the distinction between ”gathering“ and ”agriculture“ is not as fundamental as is commonly thought. The use of wild and cultivated plants in humanly-modified habitats invites reconsideration of the formal definition of agriculture.

In addition to ethnographic research of modern swidden agriculture in Japan, project members carried out archival research on Edo period land-use at the site of old Shiramine Village, Ishikawa prefecture (presently Shiramine, Hakusan city). This research has clarified the state of swidden agriculture, which was often not recorded in official documents. Project members also organized “The 3rd Swidden Agriculture Summit”, held in Oita, in order a forum for discussion of modern agricultural problems in Japan, particularly in relation to hilly and mountainous areas, and the significance of swidden agriculture in these areas.

In our final year of project research, we will use our historical description of agriculture-environment interactions in the three climate zones in order to suggest how agricultural production and food consumption can be better arranged in the future.

The Monsoon Agriculture, Mugi Agriculture and Vegeculture groups will analyze each factor in our theoretical model of agriculture-environment interactions, identifying key production characteristics and describing how ecosystems and the genetic diversity of cultivars were transformed in each climate zone. The Swidden Agriculture group will develop its discussion of the significance of swidden agriculture for future agriculture and lifestyle, especially in relation to its distant history in Japan and decline in the modern period.

A public exhibition of all project results is planned at the National Museum of Nature and Science (Tokyo) in autumn 2010, as is the publication of several monographs and edited volumes.