West Africa

Many foods were originally domesticated in West Africa, including grains like African rice, Pearl Millet, Sorghum, and Fonio; tree crops like Kola nut, used in Coca-Cola, and Oil Palm; and other globally important plant foods such as Watermelon, Tamarind, Okra, Black-eye peas, and Yams.^[2] Additionally, the regionally important poultry animal Guinea Fowl was domesticated in West Africa. Some of these crops were domesticated at least 4,500 years ago.^[3]

Around 4000 BCE the climate of the Sahara and the Sahel started to become drier at an exceedingly fast pace. This climate change caused lakes and rivers to shrink significantly and caused increasing desertification, potentially reducing the wild food supply and spurring people to domesticate plant crops.^[2] This, in turn, decreased the amount of land conducive to settlements and helped to cause migrations of farming communities to the more humid climate of West Africa.^[4]

Ethiopian Highlands

The most famous crop domesticated in the Ethiopian highlands is coffee. Khat, ensete, noog, teff and finger millet were also domesticated in the Ethiopian highlands.

Plants

Meat

Mediterranean

There was a great deal of commerce between the provinces of the Roman Empire. All the regions of the empire became interdependent with one another; some provinces specialized in the production of grain, others in wine and others in olive oil, depending on the soil type. Columella writes in his Res Rustica, "Soil that is heavy, chalky, and wet is not unsuited to the growing for winter wheat and spelt. Barley tolerates no place except one that is loose and dry."^[5] Pliny the Elder writes extensively about agriculture from books XII to XIX; in fact, XVIII is The Natural History of Grain.^[6] Crops grown on Roman farms included wheat, barley, millet, pea, broad bean, lentil, flax, sesame, chickpea, hemp, turnip, olives, pear, apples, figs, and plums. Others in the Mediterranean include:

Mediterranean and subtropical fruits

Fruits in this category are not hardy to extreme cold, as the preceding temperate fruits are, yet tolerate some frost and may have a modest chilling requirement. Notable among these are natives of the Mediterranean:

Common across Asia

Middle East or West Asia

The Neolithic founder crops (or primary domesticates) are the eight plant species that were domesticated by early Holocene (Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B) farming communities in the Fertile Crescent region of southwest Asia, and which formed the basis of systematic agriculture in the Middle East, North Africa, India, Persia and (later) Europe. They consist of flax, three cereals and four pulses, and are the first known domesticated plants in the world. Although domesticated rye (Secale cereale) occurs in the final Epi-Palaeolithic strata at Tell Abu Hureyra (the earliest instance of a domesticated plant species), it was insignificant in the Neolithic Period of southwest Asia and only became common with the spread of farming into northern Europe several millennia later.

Indian Subcontinent

Around 7000 BCE, sesame and brinjal were harvested and humped cattle were domesticated in the Indus Valley.^[7] By 3000 BCE, spices, like turmeric, cardamom, black pepper and mustard seed were harvested.^[8]

North Asia

• Blackcurrant
• Cabbage
• Chamoe

Tibetan plateau

• Barley

East Asia

Australia

Austranesia and New Guinea

Austronesia is the broad region covering the islands of both the Indian and the Pacific oceans settled by Austronesian peoples originating from Taiwan and southern China, starting at around 3,500 to 2,000 BCE. These regions include Island Southeast Asia, Near Oceania (Melanesia), Remote Oceania (Micronesia and Polynesia), Madagascar, and the Comoros Islands. Contact and cultural exchange with early Papuan agriculture in New Guinea also led to homogenization of the agriculture of the two ethnolinguistic groups. The plants originating from Austronesia and New Guinea include:^[9][10]

North America

Mexico and Central America

Common fruits and vegetables:

The Caribbean

South America