The nations of Central America are generally considered to be Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. At the end of the twentieth century, the agricultural sector employed about 46 percent of the available labor force in Central America, most of which was engaged in subsistence agriculture. This percentage is higher than that of the neighboring developing countries of Mexico (28 percent) and Colombia (30 percent). The Central American percentage is higher than those in more developed countries, such as the United States and Canada, each of which is below 4 percent. The percentage of suitable land in Central America is about equal to that in Mexico (12 percent) but significantly more than in Colombia (4 percent). Arable land in the United States is about 19 percent.
Early Agriculture
Considerable archaeological evidence supports the existence of sedentary agriculture in the region for more than two thousand years. The early Maya farmed raised fields in lowland swamp areas and constructed irrigation systems in areas with a dry season. In highland areas, steep slopes were terraced. The most prominent terrace agriculture in the Americas was in the Andean cultures, but Central Americans also used this practice. Agriculture was based mainly on corn, but other crops were widely grown, including squash, beans, and chile peppers. Nonfood crops such as cotton and tobacco were grown for both domestic use and trade. These two crops continue to be important.
Exactly what group of Central Americans established the various agricultural practices, or when, is debatable. However, it is known that agriculture supported large communities of people early in the first millennium. The cities of Tikal, Copan, Caracol, and others had populations of thirty-five thousand or more.
Raised field agriculture had several benefits. Sediment dredged from channel bottoms was added to the fields, raising the surface above the surrounding swamp, creating dry land. This mate real was rich in nutrients from decaying plant matter and wastes from aquatic creatures. Channels of water dividing the dry land provided habitat for fish and turtles, which were a protein rich food source for people.
Slash-and-burn agriculture was practiced. The process involved stripping forests and burning the debris in place. Trees too large to be cut with primitive stone implements were girded, that is, a circle of bark was removed from around the tree, and the tree died afterward. Burned debris added nutrients to the topsoil. Because the soil was generally poor, the fields, usually known as milpas, or cornfields, but sometimes referred to as swidden, were abandoned after two or three years of production and left fallow for up to twenty years. This process is still practiced.
Intercropping, or polyculture, was a practice that helped ensure a harvest. The planting of several crops and different varieties provided a harvest even if one crop failed. This practice is also in use today.
Traditional Crops
Since the nineteenth century, certain crops have been raised in Central America as export crops and others principally for domestic consumption.
Continue of the article: Traditional Crops
See also: CENTRAL AMERICAN FLORA
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