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Land Occupation

In 2018 out of the 230 millions hectares of the Divine Kingdom, around 186.3 millions (81%) are used to support agricultural activities. Nonetheless, it is important to remember that managed forests and fallows are counted among the official numbers. In a given year, it's as much as 112 millions hectares that are reserved to forestry, forest gardens, and other woodland productions. This is due, in great part, to the Pet Kot - Xukalpuh combination, the first being permanent forest gardens traditional to the Mutul and the second a Crop rotation technique with a short period of intensive cereal exploitation (2 or 4 years) followed by a longer fallow period where the land is let to return to a controlled forest environement (6 or 12 years). These forests are not unproductive however, as they are important source of fruits, nuts, and spices, as well as offering lands for Cerviculture. But the most important product of these managed forests is, without doubt, Chocolate. Some Pet Kot are even entirely dedicated to the culture of the cacao tree and are thus known as Kakawnal. These plots are under a specific legislation and increased control to ensure the quality, and prestige, of their production. Around 20% of the agricultural lands are used without interruption however: these are generally modern Raised field located near swamps or in floodplains.

Land Ownership

Communal farming

In the Mutul, farmers rarely -if ever- own the lands they exploit beyond their residence's garden. Instead, most of the Divine Kingdom's farmlands belong to the Nalil who then grant usufruct rights to individuals, who then farm their plot and collectively maintain communal holdings. The Divine Throne have great oversight over the agricultural industry: each Aj Kuch Kab -or "District Leader"- handle the rotation of crops and lands in a Xukalpuh system, and can also establish plans to expand agricultural activities in their Nalil. This include the construction of new canals, terraces, raised beds, and so on. It is also part of the Kuch Kabob' duties to maintain their Nalil' agricultural registers up-to-date and to annualy present them to the Ministry of Land Gestion. This control over farmalnds is due to the fact that in a jungle environment no matter how careful a farmer is, nutrients are often hard to retain and there is a constant risk of losing agricultural lands permanently because of carelessness.

Other form of holdings

Beside the Nalilob, other landowners exist in the Mutul, even private ones. While the number of farmers who owned their land privately rised drastically during the Eastern Wind (1940-1950), few remained after the downfall of the Orientalists. Nowadays, large exploitations are located mostly in areas considered to be "low risks" in Eastern and Western Mutul.

Many plots thourough the Mutul are also given to temples and sanctuaries "in full" so that they can support themselves. Historically, many temples have become large landowners generally specialized in the production of "luxury" goods such as chocolate or coffee or Yaupon Holly. But these large clerical properties do not differ greatly from communal exploitations and many have been recognized as Nalil of their own led by Aj K'in K'uch who have the same prerogatives and responsibilities as their secular counterparts.

Methods of Culture

One of the greatest challenges in Mesoamerica for farmers is the lack of usable land, and the poor condition of the soil. The two main ways to combat poor soil quality, or lack of nutrients in the soil, are to leave fields fallow for a period of time in a Xukalpuh cycle, and to use slash-and-burn techniques. In slash and burn agriculture, trees are cut down and left to dry for a period of time. The dry wood and grasses are then set on fire, and the resulting ash adds nutrients to the soil. These two techniques are often combined to retain as many nutrients as possible. However, the scarce access to ressources in a jungle and equatorial environment make it vital on the long-run to develop more complex and sustainable techniques.

Terracing

The first way to create land is to form terraces along the slopes of mountain valleys. Terraces made out of walls of stones have become the standard, especially as the techniques developed in Kayahallpa began to spread out, but even to this day it is possible to see old terraces made out of large cut down trees upon with soil have been mounted still being in used by Mutuleses farmers. In more isolated areas, such terraces might even still be built by locals.

Pet Kot

Historically, much of the Mutulese food supply was grown in forest gardens, which they call Pet Kot. Named after the characteristic walls of loose stones that surround them, Pet Kot are a low-maintenance, sustainable, plant-based food production and agroforestry system based on woodland ecosystems. Making use of companion planting, these can be intermixed to grow in a succession of layers to build a woodland habitat. In the Yajawils of the Xuman Peninsula, where the technique originated, there is an estimated 3 millions communaly handled Pet Kot and maybe a million privately owned forest gardens.

Depending on the region, names for forest gardens may vary. For example, they are especially common near small and medium rivers in the rest of the Mutul and can form very long bands of riparian managed forests. When forest gardens are used to separate plots of farmlands or as borders between Nalilob, they are called Tolch'e. Tolch'e are especially important as reserves for species, reinforcing the whole agricultural system by accelerating the speed at which trees and other bushes colonize fallows, and as protection against the elements.

Xukalpuh

The Xukalpuh is a crop-growing system used throughout the Mutul. The word is, as for Pet Kot, derived from the fences traditionaly surrounding the fields and their shapes: square (Xukal) reeds (puh). The main focus of this method is the production of maize, beans, and squash. The system calls for a short period of intensive exploitation of these three crops, followed by a much longer, between four to eight times the length, period of fallows. In reality, the Xukalpuh cycle is made of four stages: an intensive exploitation of the three sisters, followed by a transition stage were Quick-yielding fruit trees, like plantain, banana, and papaya are planted and cultivated within a year. Fruit trees that need more time to produce, such as avocado, mango, citrus, allspice, guava, cherimoya, ramón, and others are planted amidst the maize, beans, and squash to bear fruit in five years. Their maturation, and the resulting canopy, mark the beginning of the third stage where fruits are harvested for a few years while hardwoods, such as cedar and mahogany, are planted to mature over the next decades.

Finally, in the final stage of the cycle, the forest is left to regenerate. The hardwoods rise above the fruit trees to create a high canopy. The milpa has now regenerated to look much like it did before the forest gardener cleared and burned it two decades earlier. It is now a managed forest with little to no undergrowth. Farmers generally leave deers and turkeys to roam in the forest to add more values to their production. When the time is considered right, remaining animals are hunted for their food and hides while the precious essences of wood are collected. Remaining trees are cleared and burned to enrich the soils and the cycle can start anew.

Raised fields

Raised field agriculture is a form of hydraulic cultivation using raised and canalized fields creating conditions in which the earth is above its natural height. They are built around swamps, in floodplains, and other wetlands. Generally, raised fields are built following the same pattern: first, the canals are digged removing subsoil material. Then, the subsoil materials that were taken out of the ground to form the canals are now deposited on the area where the field will be (in between the canals). This foundation will, on average, end up around 200 cm above the bottom of canals. Thirdly, the original top soil that was first removed in the first stage is now added on top of the subsoil field foundations along with top soils taken from other areas and organics added for planting mediums.

The advantage of this construction process is the natural development of a multi-purpose drainage system. These canals of varying size can be used either as transport -for the larger ones-, for waste disposal and, indicentally, as a source of fertilizer because of the accumulation of muds and sediments that could be removed and placed on the topsoil, re-enriching the fields with new organic materials.

Raised fields are, contrary to the other types of farms in use in the Divine Kingdom, often privately owned. In Eastern Mutul especially, large landowners have maintained great properties near and in-between the large waterways and rivers of the region. As a result, these Yajawils have become some of the most steady net exporters of foodstuff, especially when considering their direct land access to Sante Reze which is a net importer of that category.

Because of its tropical and equatorial climate, raised fields in the Mutul are less complex than their Kayahallpa counterparts as they do not need to prevent crops from freezing overnight.

Production

Cohune palm (Mutli: Tutz) is a species of palm trees native to the Mutul. It is used in the production of cohune oil and its nut can be used as a variety of vegetable ivory. As an estimate, 80% of all Pet Kot and late-stage Xukalpuh in the Xuman Peninsula grow Tutz in a noticeable quantity.

mamey sapote (Mutli: Zon) is another species of trees native to the Mutul. its fruit is eaten raw or made into milkshakes, smoothies, ice cream and fruit bars. However, most of these products are aimed at the national market and rarely leave the Mutul's borders. It's the tree's seeds which, despite their toxicity, are kept and pressed for their oil which is used for cooking as well as in soaps, beauty and cosmetic products. These transformations are either operated directly by Mutuleses companies or the oil is directly exported to its main foreign consumer: Sante Reze's pharmaceutical industry. Other fruits often categorized as "Zon" despite being genetically unrelated to it are Casimiroa edulis, the "Oxidentalese Apple", and the tomato-like Diospyros nigra.

gumbo-limbo (Mutli: Chaka), also known as copperwood, is a small to medium-sized tree growing to 30 meters tall with a shiny dark red bark. Despite its abundant and year-round production of fruits, they are not the reason why the tree is cultivated as they are too small and too tedious to harvest to be profitable and are instead left to migrating birds and other animals. Their main use is as living fences to protect fields and as a source of resin. Chaka resin is extremely appreciated in the production of varnish and incense and may also be used in the treatment of Gout.

The X'an palm tree is found everywhere in the Mutul. It is not cultivated for its fruits, but for its leaves which are used for their insect repelling properties and, in the poorer regions of the country, as house insulation. 90% of all investigated Pet Kot present a number of X'an palm trees grown specifically for this purpose and its cultivation is encouraged by the Divine Throne as it minimize the spread of malaria and other mosquito-born diseases.

While far less cultivated than historically, Mahogany (Mutli: Sutz'uch) was once the "Mutulese's Fleets Greatest Weapon" as it was the chief wood employed for naval cosntruction. It is particularly suited for planking, waterways, bulwarks, rails, skylights and companions, bitts, gangway ladders, and other deck work. With the later employment of iron, steel and teak in shipbuilding, mahogany became far more important as a furniture wood which remain its main modern day purpose, though it is still preferred to any other wood for the framework of small sailing vessels.

Tabebuia rosea (Mutli: Hokab) is one of the most popular tree in the Mutul's eastern Yajawils where it is often used for decoration because of its abundant and beautiful flowers. it's mainly exploited to extract Lapachol, used for the creation of medecines against palludism.

Kanixt'e is an evergreen tree cultivated all around the Mutul and the countries once part of the kingdom's Oversea possessions for its edible fruit, colloquially known as "egg fruit". Like the related lucuma, the canistel can be eaten fresh, and has the texture of a hard-boiled egg yolk. The ripe fruit can be made into jam, marmalade, pancakes, and flour. The ripe flesh is blended with cocoa milk (or just milk) and other ingredients to make a shake, and pureed, it is sometimes added to custards or used in making ice cream. The wood of the tree is occasionally used in construction where it is available, especially as planks or rafters. It was also a source of latex used to adulterate chicle, a natural gum collected from several species of the Manilkara genus, used in making chewing gum and other products. Only an handful of local producers and small gums companies still use Chicle in their products, most companies having switched to the cheaper butadiene-based synthetic rubber since the 60s.

lilac trees (Mutli: Manchich) belong to the Fabaceae (legume) family. It is cultivated for its bark, which is used in the fabrication of Balché a mildly intoxicating beverage popular among the Mutuleses, to the point of being nicknamed the "Mutulese beer". To make Balché, the Manchich barks are soaked in honey and water, and fermented.

breadnut (Mutli: Oxt'e) is a tree species in the family Moraceae of flowering plants, whose other genera include figs and mulberries. It has a large seed covered by a thin, citrus-flavored, orange-colored skin favored by a number of forest creatures. More importantly, the large seed which is enveloped by the tasty skin is an edible ‘nut’ that can be boiled or dried and ground into a meal for porridge or flatbread. It was, historically, a very common Famine food for the populations of the Mutul. Nowadays, Breadnut leaves and fruits are commonly used as forage for livestock during the dry season, and are especially popular in cerviculture and Aviculture.

fishpoison tree (Mutli: Tiaxib) is a medium-sized, deciduous, tropical tree endemic to the wider Kayamuca Sea. Prehistorical populations quickly discovered that extracts from the tree could sedate fish, allowing them to be caught by hand, leading to the tree's common name. Nowadays, Mutuleses Fishermen still use the extract for their activity but it is also demanded by pharmaceutical companies for its value as an analgesic and sedative. The species is shade intolerant, requiring full sunlight for maximum development, meaning it can only be cultivated outside of Pet Kot or at their edges, greatly reducing its availability.

The Mutul produce around 9 millions metric tons of of poultry each year. This number has been relatively stable thourough the 21st century.