Mexico’s Chinampas – Wetlands Turned into Gardens – Fight Extinction
Last edited Mon Feb 29, 2016, 05:10 PM - Edit history (1)
Mexico’s Chinampas – Wetlands Turned into Gardens – Fight Extinction
By Emilio Godoy
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A farmer transports his freshly harvested crops from his chinampa - a rectangular garden on land reclaimed from the
wetlands of Mexico City - along a canal in Xochimilco. But this age-old Aztec technique used to feed the local population
is threatened by the encroaching city and by pollution. Credit: Emilio Godoy/IPS
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XOCHIMILCO, Mexico , Feb 27 2016 (IPS) - David Jiménez grows two kinds of lettuce and other fresh produce on his “chinampa” or artificial island just under one hectare in size in San Gregorio Atlapulco, on the south side of Mexico City.
“We can get five or six harvests a year. Lettuce can grow in 30 days,” Jiménez, the president of the six-member La Casa de la Chinampa cooperative, told IPS with evident enthusiasm. The cooperative operates in Xochimilco, one of Mexico City’s 16 boroughs.
The ejido – land held in common by the inhabitants of a village and farmed cooperatively or individually – where Jiménez has his farm covers 800 hectares, and is home to 800 farmers who mainly grow vegetables. Half of the ejido is made up of chinampas.
The system of chinampas dates back to the Aztecs, long before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 15th century. The technique creates small, rectangular gardens reclaimed from Mexico City’s marshy lakebed by piling up soil on a mat of sticks, using wattle as fencing and willow trees at the corners to secure the bed.
The chinampas are rich in muck and decaying vegetation, which provide nutrients for the crops, while the ditches between them give the plants continuous access to water. As a result, the vegetables grown there are especially rich in nutrients.
More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2016/02/mexicos-chinampas-wetlands-turned-into-gardens-fight-extinction/
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Prince Charles visiting chinampas in Xochimilco, Mexico.
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