agricoltura tradizionale

Some scientists from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), in collaboration with local farmers, are promoting a program to restore the chinampas in the Xochimilco wetland, south of Mexico City.The chinampas are delicious small artificial islands created by the Aztecs, a sort of floating farms that play a fundamental role in the identity of Xochimilco, an area of ​​lakes and swamps that has survived urbanization and the expansion of industrial agriculture.The objective of the initiative is to preserve the chinampas system and all living beings that depend on it.A system which, in 1987, was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO precisely because of its cultural importance and ecological value. The chinampas, once used only to grow vegetables and leafy greens, are now largely abandoned or transformed into, for example, football fields and restaurants.In 2018, FAO data revealed that only 17% of the 20,922 chinampas it was still cultivated in the traditional wa...

In Kenya, in the Nile basin, farmers in the village of Sitati are developing agroforestry projects to replace the more widespread sugarcane monocultures.The goal is to revitalize the land, diversify diets and incomes and increase the water levels on which many animals depend.This creates "food forests", which attract a series of wild animals - such as the Nubian shell turtle in danger of extinction - and redevelop wetlands and river systems.The technique, in particular, changes the way the community manages agriculture and the environment, predicting the intercropping between different food crops – such as cereals, orchards, vegetables, tubers – and non-productive grasses and trees.For example, a mix of crops such as banana, sweet potato, hibiscus, papaya, avocado, chilli pepper that grow among native wild trees such as the silver oak is common.The result is a bushy-looking vegetable garden that attracts and protects various species of wild animals an ecosystem th...

In the years in which Vietnam rushed towards the industrial and intensive development of its economy, after the end of the war against the United States, much of the Mekong Delta was reshaped to support large-scale agriculture, promoting industrial cultivation methods aimed at increase rice harvests and transform the nation into an export powerhouse for the well-known cereal.Among the few areas not affected by the development plan was the coastal island of With Chem deemed too small for this purpose.Here, locals were able to continue practicing theirs traditional agricultural methods seemingly out of date.A model which, now that the intensive one is showing its long-term effects, characterized by land impoverishment and pollution, is returning to inspire the country which now aims to return to agricultural practices more based on nature.Once forgotten, the island of With Chem it is therefore now recognized as a guide to a more sustainable agricultural future. Con...