Over the past century, enormous progress has been achieved worldwide in improving human welfare. Societies have changed radically thanks to quantum leaps in technology, rapid urbanization, and innovations in production systems. Yet conditions in today’s world are a far cry from the world ‘free of fear and want’ envisioned at the foundation of the United Nations. Similarly, much remains to…
The history of early human advance is the history of harvesting prosperity from agricultural innovation. In India, the later Vedic texts (c. 3000–2500 BCE) make frequent references to agricultural technology and practices.Jia Sixie, drawing on over one thousand years of Chinese study in his Qimin Yaoshu, or Essential Techniques for the Common People (535 CE), asserts throughout his work the c…