Researched
Irrigation
Canals and ditches carried river water to fields, making harvests possible in dry regions like Mesopotamia and Egypt.
Open in the interactive tree →Irrigation agriculture appears in Mesopotamia by about 6000-5500 BC and later along the Nile, Indus and Yellow River. Managing water required shared labour, records and rules, and is often linked to the first states. Salt build-up in the soil was an early downside that still damages irrigated land today.
Prerequisites
- Farming (Neolithic Revolution)~9500 BC
Unlocks
- Shaduf, Qanat & Water Lifting~2000 BC
- Aqueducts & Public Water~312 BC
- Center-Pivot & Drip Irrigation1948-1965
- Green Revolution1960s
- Aquaculture overtakes wild catch2022
More in Agriculture & Food · Prehistory
- Farming (Neolithic Revolution)~9500 BC
- Granaries & Grain Storage~9300 BC
- Animal domestication~9000 BC
- Fermented food and drink~7000 BC
- The plough~3500 BC