Sheet n°301 - June 2008
w
Traditional forms of agriculture : unexpected
degree of diversity, time-honoured principles
light of principles emphasizing self-sufficiency,
or even sheer survival,
as opposed to cash
cropping, manual labour as opposed to an
extreme level of mechanization, extensive
practices as opposed to
intensification. A more
caricatural image holds
up mixed cropping,
whether or not associated with livestock rearing, in a sharp contrast
to one of vast prairies
of cereal monoculture.
However, this conventional, rather simplistic
image touches only the
tip of the iceberg of the
enormous diversity of
traditional agricultural
systems that exist. They
may now make up only
a tiny proportion of the
farmed surface area
of the world, but they
are remarkable in their
complexity and their
ability for adaptation
to restricted and harsh
environments. Two IRD
researchers, working
jointly with scientists
from both national and
international organizations, made highly detailed surveys of these
agricultural methods,
some dating back several millennia. They have
now published a book
setting out the most
extraordinary examples.
This work, with its cultural and historical flavour, is more than just
a straightforward selection of ancestral farming
techniques. It also evokes how such forms of
agricultural are embedded within each society
that elaborated them.
© IRD / Marc Pouilly
he general public
T
often regards traditional agriculture in the
Beating wheat in the Torotoro region (Bolivia).
The modern agriculture that is sometimes taken to be the “conventional”
one is daily gaining ground over socalled traditional or extensive forms of
farming practised for several thousand
years by rural populations who in some
cases live on the fringes of industrial
society. These forms of agriculture are
often highly idiosyncratic and take up
only a tiny portion of the Earth’s total cultivated surface. Yet they stand out owing
to their ability to adapt to a constantly
changing natural environment and to the
diversity of farming practices they adopt.
It is difficult to draw up an exhaustive
list of what are often atypical methods.
Nevertheless, a book co-written by IRD
researchers and their partners presents
no less than 65 examples scattered over
all the continents. This work gives and
idea of the sheer imagination, adaptability, endurance and skills of observation of human communities who, in the
most unyielding environments or the
harshest climates, have managed to find
a solution for survival through a complete mastery of plant cultivation. Today,
some of these practices persist only in
a particular area of the world. Others,
like traditional agriculture practised in
marshy areas, are found in similar form
in the different continents. Thus, the
hortillonage system in Europe and Asia
shows many similarities with Mexican
chinampas, the Andean camellones and
the raised, drained taro fields of the western Pacific. These types of agriculture
involve a network of canals and raised
plots of land on which food cropping can
be practised. But whereas such systems
in Picardy (France) -the hortillonagesare steadily dying out, their counterparts
are developing spectacularly on the
coasts of countries open to international
markets, like Indonesia or Thailand.
Particular climatic or population stresses often push farmers to use ingenious
methods. In Tunisia, lagoonal bars,
unsuitable for agriculture owing to salt
content and sand devoid of the minerals essential for plants, are harnessed
by local people to produce vegetables
and cereals (potatoes, onions, peppers,
squash and related produce, maize and
so on). With no active irrigation, rainfall accumulates in the layer of sand
men bring on their backs and mix with
manure. That water is then taken down
to plant root level by the beating of the
tides. On the Canary island Lanzarote,
which receives annually no more than
150 mm of rainwater, farming seems
like an impossible challenge. Yet it is on
this island that one of Spain’s most repu-
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CONTACTS :
ERIC MOLLARD
Unité de recherche
Dynamiques socioenvironnementales et
gouvernance des ressources
Address :
IRD
BP 64501
34394 Montpellier cedex 5
France
Tel : + 33 (0)4 67 63 69 81
eric.mollard@ird.fr
ANNIE WALTER
Unité de recherche
Caractérisation et contrôle
des populations de vecteurs
annie.walter@ird.fr
REFERENCE :
Agricultures singulières
Éditeurs scientifiques :
ERIC MOLLARD, ANNIE WALTER
Editions IRD, 2008, 344 p
ted wines is produced. Remarkably, the
vines do not desiccate in the sun, but
this is because of the growers’ ingenuity. They plant the vines one by one
in conical hollows they cover over with
volcanic ash and lava stones. Scientific studies have shown that this protective layer is a means of holding eight
times more water than bare soil and
decreases evaporation by 92% when
its thickness reaches 10 cm. Low walls
protect the year’s foliage and the bunches
of grapes from the trade winds. Contrary
to a widespread idea, traditional agriculture is not synonymous with an archaic
way of doing things. This is illustrated by
the highly elaborate system of mulberry
dykes still seen in southern China. This
agricultural practice combines market
gardening, aquaculture and cultivation
of mulberry used as food for silk worms,
and is probably one of the best examples
of integrated agriculture where none of
the constituent elements can be envisaged independently from the others.
One of the probable characteristic
elements common to each of these
singular forms of agriculture, whatever
their degree of complexity, is the need
for the collective work of the members of the community who practise it.
Moreover, account must be taken of the
effort, financial investment and multiple functions these types of agriculture
represent for the people concerned. It
remains, however, that the right level
of adaptation achieved between the
environment, humans and a particular
type of agriculture does not always last.
Indeed the environment never ceases to
change under human activity in general
and agriculture in particular. Persistence
of these techniques over time also comes up against population growth and
structural changes in the societies that
set them in place. It is therefore difficult
to transpose the practices involved. They
are based at any given moment entirely
on a balance between a type of environment and a type of society. But in spite
of their extraordinary nature and the
fact that they constitute only a tiny
proportion of all agricultural systems, they still stand as a source of
inspiration and lessons for the development of agriculture.
Grégory Fléchet - DIC
Translation - Nicholas Flay
1. The research carried out was
conducted with contributions from
researchers from CIRAD, the CNRS,
the Indonesian Institute of Sciences,
the Center for International Forestry
Research (Indonesia), the Institut
français d’études andines (Peru),
the International Water Management Institute (Ghana), the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do
Sul and from the Museu Paraense
Emílio Goeldi (Brazil).
KEY WORDS :
Traditional agriculture,
adaptation, natural
environment
VINCENT CORONINI
+33 (0)1 48 03 75 19
presse@ird.fr
INDIGO, IRD PHOTO
LIBRARY :
DAINA RECHNER
+33 (0)1 48 03 78 99
indigo@ird.fr
www.ird.fr/indigo
On the left, hortillonnage in Thailand given over to coriander growing, between an asparagus crop and a rice field.
On the right, on the isle of Lanzarote, in the Canaries, each vine planted at the bottom of a conical hollow is protected
by a low crescent-shaped wall.
Grégory Fléchet, coordinator
Délégation à l’information et à la communication
Tél. : +33(0)1 48 03 76 07 - fax : +33(0)1 40 36 24 55 - fichesactu@ird.fr
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Sheet n°301 - June 2008
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