CAMBRIDGE GEOGRAPHY A2 - TROPICAL ENVIRONMENTS: POPOLUCA AND MILPA SYSTEM. Contains: the Mexican Popoluca, what is Milpa, cultivation cycle, explanation, Milpa description, the importance of Milpa, labour-intensive agriculture, ranching and its effects, animals farmed, new forms of farming.

1. A2 GEOGRAPHY
TROPICAL ENVIRONMENTS
SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF TROPICAL AREAS CASE STUDY
POPOLUCA AND MILPA

2. THE MEXICAN POPOLUCA
Popoluca is a Nahuatl term
meaning "gibberish, unintelligible
speech“ and is referring to the
indigenous peoples of south-
eastern Veracruz and Oaxaca,
from southern Mexico.
Many of them (about 30,000)
speak languages of the Mixe
Zoque family, while others speak
the Mazatecan languages, in
which case the name in English
and Spanish is spelled Popoloca.

3. WHAT IS MILPA?
Milpa is a crop-growing system used throughout Mesoamerica.
It has been most extensively described in the Yucatán peninsula area of
Mexico.
The word milpa is derived from the Nahuatl word phrase mil-pa, which
translates into "maize field.“
Though different interpretations are given to it, it usually refers to a
cropping field.
Based on the ancient agricultural methods of Maya peoples and other
Mesoamerican people, milpa agriculture produces maize, beans, and
squash.

4. A typical modern Central American Milpa. The corn stalks
have been bent and left to dry with cobs still on, for
other crops, such as beans, to be planted. The banana
plants in the background are not native, but are now a
common part of modern Central American agriculture.

5. CULTIVATION CYCLE
The Milpa cycle calls for 2 years of
cultivation and eight years of letting
the area lie fallow.
Agronomists point out that the
system is designed to create relatively
large yields of food crops without the
use of artificial pesticides or
fertilizers, and they point out that
while it is self-sustaining at current
levels of consumption, there is a
danger that at more intensive levels
of cultivation the Milpa system can
become unsustainable.

7. EXPLANATION
The word is also used for a small field, especially in Mexico or Central
America, that is cleared from the jungle, cropped for a few seasons,
and then abandoned for a fresh clearing.
In the states of Jalisco, Michoacán, and other areas of central Mexico,
the term milpa simply means a single corn plant (milpas for plural).
In El Salvador and Guatemala, it refers specifically to the corn crop or
corn field as a whole.

9. DESCRIPTION
Charles C. Mann described Milpa agriculture as follows, in 1491
New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus:
"A Milpa is a field, usually but not always recently cleared, in which farmers
plant a dozen crops at once including maize, avocados, multiple varieties of
squash and bean, melon, tomatoes, chilis, sweet potato, jícama, amaranth, and
mucuna (endemic crops, teacher’s note).... Milpa crops are nutritionally and
environmentally complementary. Maize lacks the amino acids lysine and
tryptophan, which the body needs to make proteins and niacin;.... Beans have
both lysine and tryptophan.... Squashes, for their part, provide an array of
vitamins; avocados, fats.”

11. SUCCESS
The Milpa, in the estimation of H. Garrison Wilkes, a maize researcher
at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, "is one of the most
successful human inventions ever created."

13. THE IMPORTANCE OF MILPA
The concept of Milpa is a sociocultural construct rather than simply a
system of agriculture.
It involves complex interactions and relationships between farmers, as
well as distinct personal relationships with both the crops and land.
For example, it has been noted that "the making of Milpa is the central,
most sacred act, one which binds together the family, the community,
the universe... it forms the core institution of Indian society in
Mesoamerica and its religious and social importance often appear to
exceed its nutritional and economic importance."

15. LABOUR-INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE
Milpa system resembles shifting cultivation, which mimics the natural
forest:
• It is a labour-intensive form of agriculture, using fallow (the stage of
crop rotation in which the land is deliberately not used to raise a
crop)
• It is a diverse form of polyculture with over 200 species cultivated,
including maize, beans, cucurbits, papaya, squash, water melons,
tomatoes, pineapples, chayotes, oregano, coffee and chili.
• Coffee is sold for cash
• Two crops are planted annually
• Fields are usually dug with digging sticks or ploughs.

17. RANCHING AND ITS EFFECTS
As in a rainforest, the crops are multi-layered, with tree, shrub and
herb layers.
Ranching prevents the natural succession of vegetation
because of a lack of seed from nearby forests and the grazing
effects of cattle.

19. ANIMALS FARMED
Animals farmed include chickens, pigs and turkeys.
They are used as a source of food, bartering or selling, and the waste is
used as a natural fertiliser.
Rivers and lakes are used for fishing and catching turtles.
Wild animals (deer, boar, rabbits) are hunted with arrows and spears.

21. NEW FORMS OF FARMING
The main new forms of farming are:
• Cattle ranching for export
• Plantations for cash crops, such as tobacco