Since nobody answered this I am editing the question... from asking if anyone teaches courses on indigenous agriculture, to why are we not teaching anything about indigenous agriculture. In many cases in the world high yields have been sustained for thousands of years, and the amount of knowledge and technology that has been acquired in these systems in enormous. And yet we engage these concepts almost not at all within academic settings, and focus instead on an entirely new concept of agriculture that has emerged only within the last few hundred years. Why, and how can we overcome this?
Just to elaborate a bit I need to design a course and am looking for people to bounce ideas off of. Maybe even anyone teaching about cropping systems, or agriculture and place more generally would also be very helpful.
Wow...nobody??? Maybe I should revise the question to ask "how are we supposed to build upon the concepts of agriculture, developed over millenium by cultures around the world, if we do not examine their development and maintenance in our educational systems?"
Hi Damiano. That would be great! And the sooner the better...I need to give a presentation for a course proposal in this arena in about 10 days.
I think you might do well look to programs in Anthropology (lots on 'farming / food production!), Human Ecology, Permaculture, and, surprisingly, Historical Archaeology. I can provide you with a couple of references that deal with indigenous agriculture, just to get you going: Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/buffalo/garden/garden.html ;
Bruce Trigger's book The Huron: Farmers of the North: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1091163.The_Huron ;
Paul Richards worte a lot about agricultural systems, ie: Richards, P. 1985. Indigenous Agricultural Revolution. Ecology and Food Crops in West Africa. Methuen.
Thank you Heather. Those are all the areas that I myself work in, and the core disciplines in the Human Biocomplexity Project (which my dissertation contributed its own small part to) that looks at the development of social complexity in terms of the environmental limitations and, in particular, how that relates to agriculture. I would love to hear more resources if you have them. Feel free to email me if that is easier at [email protected]
Thank you!
Hi Heather, I just wanted to let you know that I have very much enjoyed reading Buffalo Bird Womanʻs Garden. Thank you very much for sharing.
I am reviving this question in hopes to get more replies. I canʻt imagine that people do not think that there are many things to learn from traditional agricultural systems that we are not applying today.
Reviewing own family- and village-agriculture & rural history from the year 1000 till date in middle northern Germany I am quite shocked, how the farming-population was exploited, suppressed and kept dull over the centuries. Knowledge and logic gained only momentum in the later part of the 19th century. Till then the narrow-minded 3-field-crop-rotation with fallow and without any leguminous crop was a standard. The rural population hardly grew & knew. Food-crisis & famine was a regular visitor. In isolated places/districts however the more clever clerical and/or feudal authorities learned and understood, that exploitation of a flourishing farming-society is more profiatable than of a dull one. In these frame-conditions traditional agricultural development pathways were mostly absent. I wonder whether my home-area and family-farm-ancestors had any substantial valuable, old achievements and technologies. Around 1900 things improved drastically and new agro-technicalities entailed real progress. This was very much based on: A) Systematic introduction of nitrogen-fixing pulsecrop for food and feed; incl. mixed-cropping of e.g. oat+faba-beans; B) Use of natural local rock/gravel for calcium-fertilizer; C) Promotion of mineralic N,P,K-Fertilizer; D) Use of all sorts of industrial waste as fertilizer; E) Systematic farmer-training in Winter-Schools + showing model-fields; F) Abolishment of bondage/serfdom starting as of 1830; G) Redistribution of common-ownership lands to all (unfortunately mostly to the big ones); as of 1850; H) Production of industr.raw-material crops, like flax; H) Promotion of water-power; ===Reviewing the last 100-150 years in Europe might reveal some interesting agro- tricks and techniques.....but they are already often revived in bio-farming, organic-farming and agricultural museums.
My side of the story:
I am 62 years old. My town used to have a large fertile plain plus many green areas between the houses. When I was a young boy, most of the grown vegetables were rain-dependent & irrigation was applied to citrus fruits. Water melons were not irrigated. DDT was used as an insecticide & sulfur powder was sprinkled on grapes. Natural fertilizers were used only. All the crops were very delicious in these days(i.e. more than 50 years ago). At present, you can find, in the market ,good quantities of various crops but their tastes are well below the old ones. Very few crops have kept the good old tastes. I think that the difference ought to be investigated (i.e. why there has been an increase in quantity & a decrease in quality at the same time ?).
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