Wetland Raised-Field Agriculture and Its Contribution to Sustainability: Ethnoecology of a Present-Day African System and Questions about Pre-Columbian Systems in the American Tropics
Abstract
:1. Introduction
- Why do RF show such great diversity in shape, size and organization and to what extent is their design an adaptation to environmental (e.g., edaphic, hydrological or topographic) conditions (see [10] for a summary)?
- Why were RF built, how were they managed and how important was nutrient management in RF agriculture (see [25] for a review of these questions)?
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Study Site
2.2. Methods
3. Results
3.1. Diversity in the Shape, Size and Spatial Organization of RF
- Circular RF, named lianga (pl. maanga), are frequently found (Figure 3A). They can reach more than 20 m in diameter. According to our interviews, an important advantage of these round RF is that they can be easily converted into habitable plots. Before 1967, when a large dredge began pumping sand from the Congo River to elevate the city site and protect it from flooding, high ground was scarce. At that time, houses were built on raised mounds that had first been cultivated as circular RF. Note that the amount of sand dredged from the river can be seen in satellite images, where the white sand on which Mossaka has been built is strikingly evident.
- Other RF take the shape of a crown (round or rectangular) or a horseshoe. They are called molingu (pl. milingu) (Figure 3B). When horseshoe-shaped, these RF can serve as fish traps. At the end of the major rainy season pela, when water recedes from the floodplain, and along with it the fish that reproduced and fed there during the high-water season, fishermen put a basket trap (called boloko) across the opening of a molingu to capture fish that had ventured inside. This fishing technique was already described by Sautter [38]. Fish can also be captured by hand inside the basin formed by the molingu with the help of a woven basket eyika (pl. biyika). These RF can also be easily converted into a house site by filling the central part with earth.
- We also observed elongated ridges of varying length and breadth, some measuring more than 30 m long and 2.5 m wide. These RF are commonly designated by the word mondzeke (pl. mindzeke), but some people distinguish between two types, mosambuku (pl. misambuku) and ekoti (pl. bikoti), the latter being broader than the former (Figure 3C). Elongated ridges can be used to demarcate borders between two fields. They are sometimes elbow-shaped, following these borders.
- Some RF, called mombaka (pl. mimbaka), look like a crescent moon (Figure 3D). They are often built around the elongated ridges and can demarcate the frontier of the fields.
3.2. Construction, Functioning and Management of RF
3.3. Productivity of Raised Fields
3.4. An Agricultural System in Decline
4. Discussion
4.1. Advantages Conferred by Raised Fields for Food Production and Preservation of Wetlands
- As RF are not flooded (except during exceptional high flood events), manioc tubers can reach their full size. RF are ‘bread-baskets’, where manioc is ‘live stored’ and harvested little by little according to the farmer’s needs.
- This agricultural system allows farmers great flexibility in organizing their activities by spreading out over time the labor devoted to maintenance of fields and harvest and processing of tubers. This flexibility is a crucial advantage in environments characterized by risks such as flooding and in which multiple subsistence activities often require people to be away from the farms for quite long periods for fishing and trading activities.
- RF agriculture offers impressive crop yields. The incorporation of organic matter from surrounding areas during the construction of RF, and further addition after two harvests, seems to increase soil fertility. However, further soil-based studies are needed to understand to what extent the soils are enriched. The fallow-corrected gross yield of manioc we found (15.2 tons per hectare per year) is high compared to mean yields for this crop for the world and for sub-Saharan African countries (respectively 12.8 and 9.9 tons per hectare) [51,52,53]. It is also higher than the measured yields offered by flood-recessional agriculture (mitsaba) in the islands of the Congo River close to Mossaka (7.3 tons per hectare, see [50]). Our estimates of yield must, however, be considered preliminary. First, although yields were measured in 10 RF, these measures were conducted with only two farmers (in 2 and 8 RF, respectively) and only in a single year of harvest, and do not take into account variation in yield among years for the same field and among fields. Second, some inaccuracies might have occurred during the participatory weighing of the harvests. Third, we took into account yield of manioc only, whereas many other crops are planted on RF (and sometimes in the interspaces between RF). Further measures should be conducted to confirm our estimates.
4.2. A Window to Explore the Functioning of Pre-Columbian Raised-Field Agriculture
4.2.1. Implications for Diversity in the Shape, Size and Spatial Organization of Pre-Columbian RF
4.2.2. Functioning and Management of Pre-Columbian RF in Tropical America
4.2.3. Productivity and Carrying Capacity of Raised-Field Agriculture
4.2.4. An Agricultural System in Decline
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Measures | Abbreviation | Method |
---|---|---|
Total weight of the harvest in 2014 (kg) | Wh | Participatory weighing with 2 farmers |
Raised field area (m2) | RFa | Measures of the area of the harvested fields using a measuring tape |
Net yield (kg/m2) | NY | |
Proportion of floodplain area occupied by raised fields | Pf | Assessment from 4 plots of 1 ha through Google Earth satellite images |
Gross yield (kg/m2) | GY | |
Probability that a given field will be harvested in a given year | Ph | Estimated from the fallow/cultivation calendar of 8 farmers |
Fallow-corrected gross yield (kg/m2) | CGY |
Measures | Abbreviation | Farmer 1 | Farmer 2 | Mean |
---|---|---|---|---|
Total weight of the harvest in 2014 (kg) | Wh | 1360 | 1185 | |
Raised field area (m2) | RFa | 130.6 (from eight raised fields: three lianga and 5 mondzeke) | 74.5 (from two raised fields: two lianga) | |
Net yield (kg/m2) | NY | 10.4 | 15.9 | 13.2 |
Proportion of floodplain area occupied by raised fields | Pf | 0.28 | ||
Gross yield (kg/m2) | GY | 2.9 | 4.5 | 3.7 |
Probability that a given field will be harvested in a given year | Ph | 0.41 | ||
Fallow-corrected gross yield (kg/m2) | CGY | 1.2 | 1.8 | 1.52 |
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Comptour, M.; Caillon, S.; Rodrigues, L.; McKey, D. Wetland Raised-Field Agriculture and Its Contribution to Sustainability: Ethnoecology of a Present-Day African System and Questions about Pre-Columbian Systems in the American Tropics. Sustainability 2018, 10, 3120. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10093120
Comptour M, Caillon S, Rodrigues L, McKey D. Wetland Raised-Field Agriculture and Its Contribution to Sustainability: Ethnoecology of a Present-Day African System and Questions about Pre-Columbian Systems in the American Tropics. Sustainability. 2018; 10(9):3120. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10093120
Chicago/Turabian StyleComptour, Marion, Sophie Caillon, Leonor Rodrigues, and Doyle McKey. 2018. "Wetland Raised-Field Agriculture and Its Contribution to Sustainability: Ethnoecology of a Present-Day African System and Questions about Pre-Columbian Systems in the American Tropics" Sustainability 10, no. 9: 3120. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10093120