It is unknown who first irrigated his crops with water brought specially from a nearby river, but archeological evidence suggests that, wherever farming began to take place, irrigation soon followed. There is evidence of irrigation from around 6000 b.c.e. in Sumer in Mesopotamia, and also on ancient Egyptian farms near the Nile. Some 2,000 years later, irrigation occurred in Geokysur in South Russia, and in the Zana Valley in the Andes Mountains of Peru. By 3000 B.C.E., the the same techniques were used by the Indus Valley Civilization in what is now Pakistan.
When, at around 6000 B.C.E., the first farmers in Mesopotamia planted their crops of barley, wheat, and other plants near the Tigris or Euphrates rivers, they relied on rain, the occasional flood, and the ability of the soil to hold water to ensure that their crops grew from seed to, harvest. Water could be carried in buckets
more...