Plants which yield fibres have been companion to humankind since the beginning of our time. Materials for rope and weaving were collected from the wild by the earliest peoples; later societies began to care for particular stands of these plants. Eventually people took responsibility for the preparation of beds and the sowing of seeds and continued the domestication of these useful plants over thousands of years. Natural fibre plants are among the earliest known cultivated plants. These species have been extensively 'developed' through breeding and selection according to the needs and values of mankind. Yet, in comparisson to many other modern crops, fibreplants remain very similar to their wild ancestors.
Through the Industrialisation of Agriculture over the past 200 years, fibre plants have been bred with a focus on fibre quality, climatic adaptability and yield factors, which has not always led to an improvement in the culture. Modern, production-oriented agricultural technique for fibre plants employs large amounts of water, chemical pesticides and herbicides and is practiced principally as monoculture. These factors disrupt ecological balances in forest and field. The extreme inequalities of the world markets for raw materials combine with the environmental damage to threaten existence of the very cultures whose forefathers discovered these plants in nature.
As renewable resources, plant fibres can play an important role in the world environment and economy, but this will be decided through the global market. Growing demand for and production of cheap synthetic fibres in industry threatens the future prospects for farmers of natural fibres and their products.