Grains and the start of agriculture

Cereal grains have been used as food by humans since prehistoric times. The seeds of wild plants (the "ancestors" of cultivated wheat, barley and millet) were gathered during Palaeolithic and Neolithic times.

The transition from gathering to cultivation started with the planting of these seeds. Millet, barley and wheat were the first cereals to be cultivated around 7000 BC. Rice was cultivated in South-East Asia in 3000 BC, and in China the five sacred cultivated plants were rice, barley, soybeans, wheat and millet. Maize was cultivated in Mexico around 5000 BC.

Grains can be credited with starting agriculture which in turn had a significant impact on the development of human civilisation. Without grains, urban civilisation would not have developed. Hunter-gatherer societies, which did not domesticate grains, developed differently to those which developed a settled, agricultural existence.

Today, wheat and rice are two of the most widely consumed grains in the world.