Until about 30 years ago, Western
academic opinion agreed that the Amazon Basin could never
have sustained large populations; due to the limitations
of a tropical environment, the area could support only
hunting and gathering and slash-and-burn agriculture.
Subsequent archaeological research proved this opinion
wrong. The
savannas and forests of the Bolivian Amazon were, in
fact, once densely populated by well-organized societies,
and the landscape was heavily modified by pre-Columbian
farmers. In the early 1960s, William Denevan and George
Plafker uncovered evidence of massive earthworks in the
savannas of the Llanos de Moxos, including raised fields,
canals, causeways, reservoirs, dikes, and mound
settlements. A joint project involving the Inter-American
Foundation, the Parroquia of San Ignacio, the Bolivian
Institute of Archaeology, and the University of
Pennsylvania has developed an experimental program to put
raised-field agriculture back into use.
Shallow flood
waters cover much of the low-lying lands in the Llano de
Moxos during parts of the rainy season. The rest of the
year, dry conditions prevail and water is scarce. The
alternation between seasonal flooding and seasonal
drought, combined with poor soil conditions and lack of
drainage, makes farming these areas difficult.
The ancient
inhabitants of the area created an agricultural landscape
to solve these problems and make the area highly
productive.They constructed a system of raised fields, or
large planting surfaces of earth elevated above the
seasonally flooded savannas and wetlands. Experiments
have shown that raised fields improve soil conditions and
provide localized drainage and the means for water
management, nutrient production, and organic recycling.
Experiments in
raised-field agriculture began in 1990 at the Biological
Station of the Department of Beni in Bolivia. Because of
its success, the project expanded into indigenous
communities of the region. During 1993, the communities
of Bermeo and Villa Esperanza decided to collaborate.
They donated land, and the Inter-American Foundation
provided funds to pay community members a small daily
wage to build and maintain the fields.
The raised
fields have produced impressive harvests of manioc and
maize. Community members carefully record data on each
field to see whether these high levels can be sustained
over a series of years. While initial construction costs
of raised fields appear high, the high productivity which
may be sustainable over a long period of continuous
cropping makes raised-field farming a labor-efficient
technology. Little maintenance is necessary to keep the
fields in production.
Many areas with
similar conditions throughout lowland tropical Latin
America could be farmed using raised-field technology.
Highly productive raised-field farming could provide
sustainable agricultural development for local
communities and offer an alternative to cutting down the
rainforest.
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