What did the chain had for farmers who used rivers for irrigation were part of a cause effect chain?

Answer 1

Although Mesopotamia had fertile soil,

farming wasn’t easy there. The region

received little rain. This meant that the

water levels in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers depended on how much rain fell in eastern Asia Minor where the two rivers began.

When a great amount of rain fell there, water

levels got very high. Flooding destroyed

crops, killed livestock, and washed away

homes. When water levels were too low,

crops dried up. Farmers knew they needed a

way to control the rivers’ fl ow.

Controlling Water

To solve their problems, Mesopotamians

used irrigation , a way of supplying water

to an area of land . To irrigate their land,

they dug out large storage basins to hold

water supplies. Then they dug canals ,

human-made waterways , that connected

these basins to a network of ditches. These

ditches brought water to the fi elds. To

protect their fi elds from fl ooding, farmers

built up the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates. These built-up banks held back fl oodwaters even when river levels were high

Answer 2

Early farmers

faced the

challenge of

learning how to

control the flow

of river water

to their fields in

both rainy and

dry seasons.