Agriculture began independently in both North and South America ∼10,000 years before present (YBP), within a few thousand years of the arrival of humans in the Americas. This contrasts with the thousands of years that people were present in the old world before agriculture developed.

Did agriculture develop independently around the world?

Agriculture has no single, simple origin. A wide variety of plants and animals have been independently domesticated at different times and in numerous places. The first agriculture appears to have developed at the closing of the last Pleistocene glacial period, or Ice Age (about 11,700 years ago).

How was agriculture developed?

One of the earliest agricultural tools was fire. Farmers cultivated small plots of land by hand, using axes to clear away trees and digging sticks to break up and till the soil. Over time, improved farming tools of bone, stone, bronze, and iron were developed. Early farmers also developed improved varieties of plants.