The significance of agriculture to civilization is that with the benefits of agriculture, new problems are created which often lead in their solutions, to civilization.
Agriculture is apparently a prerequisite for civilization.
If agriculture develops naturally as a result of a certain combination of conditions that lead unavoidably to it, then it probably arose independently in the Old and New Worlds. Maize dates to 6OOO to 8OOO BC near Mitla, Oaxaca, and 4OOO to 6OOO in the basin of Mexico. In Assam, the Naga hills people cultivate a very primitive variety of maize, and in China, maize was used to pay taxes within 6O years of the discovery of America by Columbus. Maize was already established in the Philippines when Magellan landed there. It is in Middle America that maize, as the basis for the diet of most Indian groups, provides by its life cycle, the rhythm for Indian life and religion.