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Indigenous Brazilian Agriculture

Agricultural region

⚠ NOT PRIMITIVE AND NOT PAST. Indigenous agriculture in Brazil domesticated cassava, peanut, cashew, pineapple, cacao relatives and many palms, and built AGROFORESTRY systems — the "forest islands" and the anthropogenic TERRA PRETA DE ÍNDIO soils of the Amazon, deliberately enriched with charcoal, bone and waste over centuries and still far more fertile than the surrounding ground. Today: swidden roças, managed fruit groves, fishing, gathering, and an active Indigenous food-sovereignty movement.

Atlas — where and when

Communities and languages

Languages: Portuguese

What is recorded

  • Terra preta de índio, the anthropogenic dark earths of the Amazon, were created by long-term human enrichment with charcoal and organic waste and remain substantially more fertile than surrounding soils. Indigenous agroforestry and domestication produced cassava, peanut, cashew, pineapple and numerous palms. documented
  • Terra preta de índio: Amazonian soils deliberately enriched with charcoal and organic waste over centuries, still more fertile than the surrounding ground. documented

Recipes

No recipes are filed under this cuisine yet.