For the majority of human history most of mankind’s efforts have been to produce enough food to survive. Many people existed just barely above starvation level.
It wasn’t until the late nineteenth century that agriculture started to get more efficient. Farmers could produce more food per acre. The twentieth century saw even bigger gains.
In 1900 about 97% of all jobs involved the growing, transportation, and distribution of food. In 2000 only 3% of jobs involved food. That freed up people to develop new technologies instead of trying to feed themselves.
>>It wasn’t until the late nineteenth century that agriculture started to get more efficient.
There have actually been a number of periods when agricultural production increased rapidly. Some examples are the introduction of double cropping of rice in China, the introduction of crop rotation in Europe, the introduction of plants such as potatoes from the Americas to Europe, sugar production in Brazil and the Caribbean, etc.
Rapid growth in agricultural production is always followed by rapid growth in population until the limit is reached again.