The practice of planting multi-level (or layered or vertically stratified) mixed crop gardens that mimic tropical forest ecosystems has been common & successful in humid tropical climate zones for a long time. I Googled it and I think this is, at least in part, what "permaculture" refers to (I confess that this is a new term for me kind of like "rain water harvesting" was what we all did on our fincas in the mountains of Nicaragua but I'd never heard it called that before). In the recent colonial past, this type of indigenous mixed crop gardening was largely replaced in many areas by foreign-imported pesticide-intensive and petroleum fuel-dependent large-scale monoculture which was disastrous for the local ecosystems & economies, leading to rapid soil depletion (e.g., formation of nutrient depleted hard crust in laterite soils) and continued destruction of natural habitat as new land for planting (to replace depleted soil zones) was continually cleared.
I've seen family-sized versions of these traditional multi-level, mixed crop gardens around people's homes in Africa, Asia, and Central & South America. They tend to resist insect infestations naturally because of the crop diversity and do not deplete soil nutrients. Many family garden plots planted in this manner have been producing crops for generations. On a larger scale, multi-level, mixed crop agriculture is labor intensive which is perfect for societies in which chronic unemployment (e.g., often caused by foreign agribusiness monoculture ventures) is a problem.
I imagine that you probably already know all of this, but it is especially interesting to me as a did my college economic geography term paper on the 'the benefits of traditional mixed-cropping over Western-style monoculture in the humid tropics' about 45 years ago --just a reminder that good soil stewardship and sound agricultural practices never go out of style.
|
|
