Yam genomics supports West Africa as a major cradle of crop domestication

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Scientists are coming to the conclusion that the Niger River Basin is the equivalent to the Fertile Crescent when it comes to plant/crop domestication.

Here's a couple of sites on the research paper:
(PDF) Yam genomics supports West Africa as a major cradle of crop domestication
Yam genomics supports West Africa as a major cradle of crop domestication

While there has been progress in our understanding of the origin and history of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa, a unified perspective is still lacking on where and how major crops were domesticated in the region. Here, we investigated the domestication of African yam (Dioscorea rotundata), a key crop in early African agriculture. Using whole-genome resequencing and statistical models, we show that cultivated yam was domesticated from a forest species. We infer that the expansion of African yam agriculture started in the Niger River basin. This result, along-side with the origins of African rice and pearl millet, supports the hypothesis that the vicinity of the Niger River was a major cradle of African agriculture.

One hypothesis about crop domestication in Africa suggests
an origin encompassing a large area from Senegal to Somalia (2).
This Sahel-wide hypothesis was mainly based on distributions of
wild and cultivated African cereals, such as pearl millet (Cenchrus
americanus), sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), fonio (Digitaria exilis), and
African rice (Oryza glaberrima). Recent studies have challenged this
hypothesis and proposed a more restricted area of origin in the western
Sahel, near the Niger River basin. Pearl millet was domesticated in a
region corresponding today to northern Mali and Mauritania (5), and
African rice was also domesticated in Mali (6).

As for yams, more Northern origins than previously postulated
(2,24) were found for both pearl millet (5) and African rice (6). The
basin of the Niger River was presumably a hotspot of cultivation, as
several archaeological sites with remains of cultivated crops are
located in this region (25–28). Among the five crops of African origin
that are most produced in Africa today (yam, African rice, sorghum,
pearl millet, and cowpea; www.fao.org/faostat), four presumably orig-
inated in a restricted area: African yam expanded from the Niger
River basin (present study), African rice was domesticated in the re-
gion of the Inner Niger Delta in Mali (6), pearl millet in northern
Mali and Mauritania (5), while cowpea is posited to have originated
in northern Ghana (29). Together, these results greatly refine our un-
derstanding of West African crops domestication history. They help
identify a major cradle of domestication in West Africa, geograph-
ically localized around the Niger River (Fig.4), comparable to the
Fertile Crescent in the Near East.

These are type of scientific papers that will help advance SSA people. Not the ramblings of idiot hoteps.

I wish they went more into and/or there were other papers on other domesticated crops within Africa.
E.g. African Palm Oil, Melegueta Pepper, Indigo, Ackee etc.

 

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Pearl Millet was found in Mali as early as 2500BC.

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) is the most widely grown type of millet. It has been grown in Africa and the Indian subcontinent since prehistoric times. The center of diversity, and suggested area of domestication, for the crop is in the Sahel zone of West Africa. Recent archaeobotanical research has confirmed the presence of domesticated pearl millet on the Sahel zone of northern Mali between 2500 and 2000 BC.[1] Cultivation subsequently spread and moved overseas to India. The earliest archaeological records in the Indian subcontinent date to around 2000 BC,[2] and it spread rapidly through Northern Indian subcontinent reaching South India by 1500 BC, based on evidence from the site of Hallur.

The Fertile Cresent agriculture started as far back in 11400BC.

Early domestications
Prehistoric seedless figs were discovered at Gilgal I in the Jordan Valley, suggesting that fig trees were being planted some 11,400 years ago.[13] Cereals were already grown in Syria as long as 9,000 years ago.[14] Small cats (Felis silvestris) also were domesticated in this region.[15] In addition to cereals, legumes including peas, lentils and chickpea were domesticated in this region.

Domesticated animals include the cattle, sheep, goat, domestic pig, cat, domestic goose.

But Sub-Saharan Africans were signficant populations in both:

Modern analyses[16][17] comparing 24 craniofacial measurements reveal a predominantly cosmopolitan population within the pre-Neolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age Fertile Crescent,[16] supporting the view that a diverse population of peoples occupied this region during these time periods.[16] In particular, evidence demonstrates a strong Sub-Saharan African presence within the region, especially among the Epipalaeolithic Natufians of Israel.[16][18][19][20][21][22] Similar arguments do not hold true, however, for the Basques and Canary Islanders of the same time period, as the studies demonstrate those ancient peoples to be "clearly associated with modern Europeans". Additionally, no evidence from the studies demonstrates Cro-Magnon influence, contrary to former suggestions.[16]

 

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The Fertile Cresent agriculture started as far back in 11400BC.


But Sub-Saharan Africans were signficant populations in both:

The Natufians had very minor African DNA. They were just a dark skinned group of people.