The god Osiris was the first farmer, and according to ancient Egyptian myth he taught the Egyptians how to farm and domesticate animals. The first evidence for the cultivation of grain comes from the Predynastic period, about 6,500 years ago. The annual flooding of the Nile watered the fields, and over time the Egyptians developed an irrigation system of dykes and ditches to hold water and control the flooding. The floodwaters covered the land in silt which acted as a fertiliser.

Much of the land was owned by the pharaoh or the temples. The crops were stored in state or temple granaries and given out as payment to the many employees.