Maya civilization

:This article is about the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. See Maya people for a discussion of the modern Maya. For other meanings of the word Maya, see Maya (disambiguation)

Agriculture

The ancient Maya had diverse and sophisticated methods of food production. It was formerly believed that slash and burn (swidden) agriculture provided most of their food but it is now thought that permanent raised fields, terraccing, forest gardens, managed fallows, and wild harvesting were also crucial to supporting the large populations of the Classic period in some areas. Indeed, evidence of these different systems persist today: raised fields connected by canals can be seen on aerial photographs, contemporary rainforest species composition has significantly higher abundance of species of economic value to ancient Maya, and pollen records in lake sediments suggest that corn, manioc, sunflower seeds, cotton, and other crops have been cultivated in association with deforestation in Mesoamerica since at least 2500 BCE.

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Contemporary Maya people still practice many of these traditional forms of agriculture, although they are dynamic systems and change with changing population pressures, cultures, economic systems, climate change, and the availability of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

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