TODAY is the final day of the 21st International Union of Forestry Research Organisation World Congress in Kuala Lumpur. It took, among other things, a long look at commercial agroforestry.
Last month the Ministry of Agriculture successfully organised a revitalised Maha 2000 (Malaysian Agricultural, Horticultural and AgroTourism Show). These are two of the many programmes that mark the beginning of a renewed commitment to the hitherto neglected agricultural sector.
The percentage of Malaysia’s workforce in the agricultural sector declined from 31.3 per cent in 1985 to 18 per cent in 1995. Food imports increased from RM3.5 billion in 1985 to RM10 billion in 1997.
Agriculture is now seen as the tool to further improve the country’s economy. Self-sustenance in food can provide security and extra comfort to the nation.
This is why Islam puts a high value on efforts to consolidate agriculture. Some Muslim scholars have decreed that agriculture take precedence over other fields of economy.
Thus, it is not surprising to find ample evidence of a strong emphasis on agriculture in the history of Islamic civilisation. In fact, a unique character of the spread of Islam across three continents in the seventh and eighth centuries was the concomitant diffusion of new crops.
Diffusion of rice, sorghum, hard wheat (used for pasta), sugar cane, cotton, watermelon and egg plant meant that these plants came to be grown throughout the Islamic world. Some proved to be of great economic importance.
Moreover, most of these plants were of tropical origin and not easy to grow in cooler and drier regions, so that their introduction had revolutionary effects on the whole agricultural system.
For one thing, farming practices changed. The traditional growing season had always been winter, with land mostly lying fallow during the summer.
But now a virtually new agricultural season was opened because many of the new crops required heat to flourish. Most of the plants referred to earlier became summer crops.
Summer crops radically altered the rhythm of the planting seasons. Previously idle land and labour became more productive. The introduction of a summer season also saw the emergence of crop rotation. Under the Roman Byzantine system, the normal practice had been to cultivate the ground once every two years.
However, the Muslim-inspired agricultural revolution made it possible to cultivate the land four times or more, instead of once during every 24-month period.
It is true that multiple harvesting reduces the fertility of the land. To combat this, Muslim manuals on agriculture recommended all kinds of manure, each with its own special qualities and applications, as well as the use of ashes, marl and various other materials.
More ploughing, digging, and hoeing became necessary. Al-Marqrizi, a 15th century scholar, stated that before sugar cane was planted in Egypt the land had to be ploughed six times.
Ibn Bassal recommended that ploughing and manuring be done up to 10 times before cotton seed was sown.
The new crops and their rotation around the seasons meant that more water was needed.
Before the rise of Islam the old irrigation systems had already fallen into decay and irrigated areas had shrunk. In any case, pre-Islamic methods were inadequate for the new agricultural revolution.
So the Muslim-led agricultural revolution was accompanied by a complete review of the whole system. Old irrigation systems were repaired and extended, and new ones built.
The technology of water-raising devices and methods of storing, conveying and distributing water were developed and diffused. Techniques for prospecting hidden resources, and underground systems or qanats, for collecting and conveying such water were devised.
So huge were the strides made by Muslims in agriculture that by the 11th century there was hardly a river, stream, oasis, spring, aquifer or predictable flood in the region that went unused.
This agricultural revolution was not confined to irrigated or fertile areas, for virtually all categories of land were farmed more intensively.
Muslim farming manuals had identified more types of soil than the ancients had done, and by considering not only the types but also its moisture and temperature, Islamic agriculturists were able to see their potential more clearly.
Thus, the novel crops and the new specialised knowledge allowed the margins of farming to be pushed back into near-desert land which previously had been used only for sporadic grazing, if at all.
Such significant activity could not escape the attention of Muslim scientists, who set about developing the science of agriculture. Important agricultural manuals were written, among them Kitab al-filaha al-Nabatiyya of Ibn Wahshiyya.
Leading books on agricultural science were published in Muslim Spain during the 11th and 12th centuries and among these were the works of Ibn al-Hassal and Ibn al-Awwam. Some of these books were translated into Spanish and Latin and became the inspiration for writings that appeared later in the West.
During the 11th century Muslim agronomists in Spain carried out part of their research in the royal botanical gardens in Toledo and Seville. These experimental gardens were the first of their kind and were not copied in the West until the 16th century where they first appeared in the university cities of northern Italy.
The Muslims of the past worked hard at agriculture, perhaps inspired by some of the verses of the Quran, one of which is translated thus:
“And in the Earth are tracts diverse though neighbouring and gardens of vines and fields sown rich with corns, and palm trees growing out of single roots or otherwise, watered with the same water, yet some of them We (God) make more excellent than others to eat. Behold, verily, in these things as they are signs for those who understand.”
Thus, in times of either prosperity or hardship, we should not lose sight of the vital role that the agricultural sector plays. It proved to be vital to the progress and success of medieval Muslims. It may prove yet again to be important for our success today.