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Old 11-25-2020, 05:57 PM   #1
(E)
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: New Zealand.
Default Crop selection

I'm looking for information about what crops are planted and how much of each crop is planted each year/season by a relatively self sufficent low tech community (village/town etc).

I have lots of fragmentary data and examples about this but little unifying theory. That said, a unifying theory may not exist.

If anyone knows of any sources to research or has any information it would be appreciated.
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Old 11-26-2020, 01:05 AM   #2
Michele
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Udine, Italy
Default Re: Crop selection

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Originally Posted by (E) View Post
I'm looking for information about what crops are planted and how much of each crop is planted each year/season by a relatively self sufficent low tech community (village/town etc).

I have lots of fragmentary data and examples about this but little unifying theory. That said, a unifying theory may not exist.

If anyone knows of any sources to research or has any information it would be appreciated.
Have you already considered GURPS Low-Tech Companion 3?
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Old 11-26-2020, 04:43 AM   #3
adaman14
 
Join Date: Nov 2020
Default Re: Crop selection

Is there a specific time period and civilization you are trying to emulate?
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Old 11-26-2020, 07:20 AM   #4
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: Crop selection

The location and era matters a lot. After the Columbian exchange, American staples started being grown in Africa, Asia, and Europe in vast quantities, so much so that many people in those regions assume that crops like chocolate, maize, peanuts, pineapple, potato, pumpkin, tomato, vanilla, etc. are native to their culture. Before the Columbian exchange, the crops of the Old World were much less varied, with the majority of land being devoted to grains like barley, millet, rice, sorghum, soybean, rye, wheat, etc..
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Old 11-26-2020, 08:55 AM   #5
Rupert
 
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Default Re: Crop selection

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
The location and era matters a lot. After the Columbian exchange, American staples started being grown in Africa, Asia, and Europe in vast quantities, so much so that many people in those regions assume that crops like chocolate, maize, peanuts, pineapple, potato, pumpkin, tomato, vanilla, etc. are native to their culture. Before the Columbian exchange, the crops of the Old World were much less varied, with the majority of land being devoted to grains like barley, millet, rice, sorghum, soybean, rye, wheat, etc..
It depends a lot on where in the 'old' or 'new' world you are too - peanuts are South American, as are pineapples (and so not part of pre-Columbian North American diets).

Soybeans are East Asian, and thus not part of old European diets. Peas were originally Mediterranean and Near Eastern, and spread to Europe and India quite early. Broad beans and lentils were common pretty much all over Europe, Asia, and North Africa. Europe also had a wide range of root crops (Turnips, beets, etc.), many of which were displaced by potatoes, and also many brassicas, and lettuces.

One thing that's always amused me is the assumption that Indian food ('curries') naturally have lots of chilli in them to make them hot. Chilli is, of course, not native to India, but to the Americas.
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Old 11-26-2020, 10:56 AM   #6
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Crop selection

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
The location and era matters a lot. After the Columbian exchange, American staples started being grown in Africa, Asia, and Europe in vast quantities, so much so that many people in those regions assume that crops like chocolate, maize, peanuts, pineapple, potato, pumpkin, tomato, vanilla, etc. are native to their culture. Before the Columbian exchange, the crops of the Old World were much less varied, with the majority of land being devoted to grains like barley, millet, rice, sorghum, soybean, rye, wheat, etc..
The majority of land is still devoted to staple crops; it's just that maize has joined what and rice as a staple grain, and potatoes have become a staple root crop. Things like chocolate, peppers, and tobacco occupy much less acreage, and are grown much more for sale rather than subsistence.
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Old 11-26-2020, 11:08 AM   #7
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
Default Re: Crop selection

Also, as far as a 'theory' behind what was grown, having theories that meaningfully enhanced traditional practices is largely a TL 5+ feature.
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Old 11-26-2020, 11:56 AM   #8
johndallman
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Default Re: Crop selection

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Also, as far as a 'theory' behind what was grown, having theories that meaningfully enhanced traditional practices is largely a TL 5+ feature.
I think he's asking for a model for GMs and players to use in determining what kind and amount of crops to grow, rather than an in-setting theory. I'm also pretty sure there is no such model suitable for the purpose.

We need to start by determining the objective of farming. Humans, until recently, have generally increased their numbers to the limits of the food supply, but other species might have different objectives, such as fantasy elves not wanting to change the character of a forest.

Then there's the question of the amount of food you can get without using agriculture, from fishing, hunting, and gathering, and what kinds of food you can get from those means.

Then there's the question of the amount of land available, the kinds of crops available, the amount of labour needed for different crops, the need for crop rotation, the potential for making money by growing different crops, your need or desire for crops other than food, such as fibre or tobacco, and so on.

There's also the trade-off between using land for agriculture or animal husbandry, which depends strongly on the kind of land you have, the kinds of animals, and your need for animal labour for agriculture.

The total problem is huge, and filled with special cases and feedback loops. In any real situation, it will be much simpler because of constraints, but still pretty complicated.

A practical way to solve it for game purposes might well be to start with nutritional requirements, what different kinds of food can supply, and what different ways of getting food can yield.
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Old 11-26-2020, 12:14 PM   #9
Phantasm
 
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Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
Default Re: Crop selection

In the past, a lot of what decided which crops were grown depending on knowing - usually through experimentation - which crops would grow in an area based on its climate and soil conditions, as well as the need for irrigation. And a lot of this was trial and error.

You wouldn't plant potatoes in South Carolina, for example, because that's the wrong climate, even if the soil was right; it's basically too hot for potatoes. Likewise, you wouldn't plant much wheat in most of Norway because it's just too cold most of the year.

A good idea from a worldbuilding standpoint is to figure out what region of our world the climate is like, and see what crops are or were grown in that region (Wikipedia is your friend in this case). It's not perfect, but it's a start.
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Old 11-26-2020, 12:54 PM   #10
AlexanderHowl
 
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Another thing to consider is nutritional requirements. Many New World grains require complementary crops to provide humans with complete nutrition, which was one the reasons why malnutrition was such as issue in Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries. They switched to New World crops like maize and potatoes because of the bulk calories that they could produce, not understanding that they had less protein and fewer nutrients per kilogram than Old World crops. They usually ended up with more people because of more calories, but the resulting population often suffered from mental and physical difficulties caused by the resulting chronic malnutrition.
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