CIRAD 17/08/2015 - Article

VIDEO. From the invention of agriculture some 12 000 years ago to the current day, the agronomist Etienne Hainzelin traces the main stages of crop domestication. With a focus on the industrialization of agriculture, he shows how the shift to practices whose sole purpose is to boost yields has caused substantial damage, including high biodiversity losses. Agriculture now needs to change its perspective and move to re-diversify the species used, since agricultural biomass will be an unavoidable raw material for the industry of the future.

Talk given at the 2015 Milan Universal Exposition, in the France Pavilion, 8 July 2015.

In Neolithic times, almost 10 000 years ago, and in various regions of the planet, man invented agriculture by domesticating a range of species, particularly plants. Agriculture has since conquered and shaped the planet; it has enabled people to eat better and has also caused profound changes that have given rise to great civilizations.

Since then, these crop species have been steadily improved by 400 generations of farmers; they have become specialized and have sometimes ensured the prosperity of the regions in which they are grown. Exotic species have been acclimatized and some, like coffee, cocoa or spices, have become geostrategic resources that have triggered many conflicts.

Crop improvement on a scientific basis began towards the end of the 19th century, with the discovery of the laws of heredity. But it was during the 20th century, with the explosion of the biological sciences, particularly genetics, that some of the leading crop species, such as cereals, were substantially improved. The increases in yields as a result of industrialized agriculture were spectacular for more than 50 years, but at the cost of a drastic reduction in the diversity of cultivated areas and within species.

This industrial agriculture is not sustainable, and its environmental impacts are well known. If it is to change, it will have to rely on our in-depth knowledge of the living world, so as to find new genetic improvement approaches