Agriculture in Charnea

Agriculture in Charnea faces significant challenges due to the harsh conditions of the Ninva desert and the surrounding regions. The foremost limitation of the agricultural practices of the desert peoples is the scarcity of water which limits the areas that can be made arable to scattered patches where natural oases are found or artificial irrigation projects can be established, as well as some areas in far eastern Charnea and the Agala highlands where naturally occurring rivers and lakes can be exploited for irrigation. Across the expanse of the otherwise arid and inhospitable Charnean landscape, six key areas exist wherein natural surface water occurs or the underlying water table is high enough to be easily reached from the surface for irrigation. Poor soil quality represents the second most prevalent barrier to successful agriculture in Charnea. The sandy soils of the desert generally lack organic matter and nitrogen, while phosphorous content may be abundant in some areas and sparse in others. Thirdly, the strong winds and sandstorms typical of the Charnean environment threaten cultivated areas with damage to plants and structures or may even cause sand dunes to shift and overrun entire zones of cultivated land. Over extended periods, winds can denude an entire area of any sand or soil particles and leave only exposed rocky surfaces that no cultivar can penetrate. Due to these and other conditions inhibiting agricultural practices, only 5 - 10% of the land area of Charnea is considered suitable for agriculture.

The challenges of agriculture in the desert are surmountable, however, and have been conquered by many generations of Ninvite civilizations and cultures. Eastern Charnea played host to some of the earliest examples of agriculture in human history on the banks of the Kira river dating back as far as 5,000 BCE, while later civilizations such as the ancestral Deshrians further developed the foundational practices of desert cultivation that are still practiced today. Using a combination of sophisticated water-efficient irrigation techniques, careful cultivation and soil enrichment practices, as well as the creation of biological windbreaks and protections against erosion, the ancient Charnean farmers and their modern counterparts have been able to overcome the difficulties of growing food in the harsh environment of the Ninva. Historically, Charnean agricultural practices created enough food production within the desert to feed major urban centers of the ancient world such as Ekelhoc in the west or Hamath in the east. Modern Charnea experienced rapid population growth in the 20th century and has since outstripped the limits of what the Ninva can provide, becoming a net importer of food since 1968. Nevertheless, Charnean agronomy remains advanced and is capable of meeting a significant fraction of food demands in modern times.

Methods

Swales

Basic layout of the common swale structure, showing the path of water capture and infiltration into the ground.

Swale or basin cropping is an unorthodox agricultural method utilized by the nomadic and semi-nomadic peoples of Charnea. The foundational principle of the swale is to create a barrier that catches and holds the water in a particular strip of desert longer than it would otherwise linger after a brief seasonal shower or other wet season downpour, thereby increasing the rate of water infiltration into the ground in that area significantly. Through well planned placement of earthworks and basins across the landscape, this principle can be exploited to create zones capable of sustaining more concentrated vegetation than the surrounding landscape. The typical structure of a desert swale is a simple ditch backed by a berm, typically placed on a hillside or other sloped area of land in such a way that the barrier will catch flowing water during the seasonal rains and sudden flash floods typical of the brief but intense desert rains. The structure causes water to pool in the ditch and seep under the berm, permeating the ground in an area that would otherwise have little to no moisture in the soil with water quickly flowing elsewhere whenever it falls. The effect is to create an artificial moisture reserve underground, typically beneath or downhill from the berm portion of the swale. This water reservoir is too small and too deep for many varieties of cultivated plants, but can be accessed by hardier deep-rooted desert shrubs and trees.

Newly established swales are reinforced by acacia and mesquite trees which secure the earthworks against erosion.

Swale cultures are distinct from the cereal-based agriculture of sedentary farmer societies, and is typically based on trees or shrubs that are largely capable of living off of the additional water supplied by artificial water-catching earthworks with minimal human intervention. Such areas are periodically visited by their cultivators to collect seed pods and other useful parts of the plants, seed new areas and preform maintenance on existing water-capture earthworks. Swale agriculture is ideal for - and historically based in- the nomadic cultures of Charnea which follow regular migration routes and periodically revisit certain areas but seldom linger in one region for long. To outsiders, the swale cultures of nomadic Charnean peoples often appear as uncultivated if unusually fertile patches of desert. In swale cultivation, plants are spaced far apart to minimize competition for moisture, and there is no tilling of the land, further adding to the impression of an wild patch of land. Although they do not require constant maintenance and are much less intensive than typical sedentary agriculture, cultivated swales nevertheless require regular visits by their tenders for aggressive de-weeding practices necessary to minimize the amount of water consumed by non-productive plants in the swale.

In the modern day, the defining swale crop is the honey mesquite, introduced to Charnea by Mutulese traders in the 17th century. Mesquite trees are extremely resilient to drought conditions and thrive in the landscape of the Ninva. In many cases, their high growth rate and capacity to multiply allows them to survive even without human intervention in certain parts of the desert. The main product of mesquite groves are the seed pods, which are ground into flour for the production of mesquite bread which is high in protein and known for its distinctive nutty flavor. The tree also has an important role to play in the broader landscape of Charnean agriculture as a member of the legume family and a nitrogen-fixing plant. Its survivability in the desert combined with its ability to enrich the typically abysmal nitrogen levels in desert soils have made it a ubiquitous sight along the outer edges of expanding fields and plantations, as they serve to effectively colonize patches of desert and make them fit for other cultivars.Other key features of swale agriculture includes the cultivation of laserwort, a plant that has historically held extremely high value as a trade commodity. The semi-wild environment produced by swale agriculture is the only successful method of laserwort cultivation, as the species has so far resisted attempts to fully domesticate and cultivate it at an industrial scale. The species is prized for its resin, known as laserpicum, which has been valued as a natural contraceptive, aphrodisiac and a valuable spice in recipes since ancient times.

Animal husbandry

A camel farm in the White Desert region.

The grazing of animals is thought to have been the main purpose for which the nomads of the Charnean desert developed the methods of swale culture more than two thousand years ago. Before the introduction of mesquite, swales did not readily host plants that could produce edible products, certainly not cereals as is typical of settled agriculture, and so their primary function in nomadic societies was the sustenance of animals which could be fed from trees, shrubs and desert grasses that would be inedible to humans. Swales in the desert are still to this day the basis on which herds of livestock are sustained, as the unmodified natural landscape itself is seldom accommodating when it comes to good grazing lands. By far the most important animal of the nomadic segment of Charnean agriculture is the camel, due to its excellent overall survivability in the desert as well as their usefulness as beasts of burden which could help carry a clan's possessions. Goats are also common in Charnea, although they were always of lesser status to camels as they are only useful for producing meats, cheeses and pelts and not for any other purpose as a beast of burden or as a mount for transportation. Camels have also been emphasized over goats in Charnea due to the goats' tendency to destructively overgraze and in so doing destroy the delicate balance of the desert ecosystem on which the nomads depend.

The traditional Tenerian nomad methods of animal husbandry revolve around extracting the maximum possible benefit from the animal to the clan as possible. This depended on extracting edible foodstuffs from the animals without killing them, for which the nomads would come to develop the "blood and milk" diet which has been seen as repulsive by outsiders. Camel milk and the yoghurts derived from it are nomadic staples, as are the products of coagulated blood extracted from superficial wounds that do not kill the animal and so enable more milk and blood to be taken in the future. Meat was only available to pre-modern Charneans when an animal was too old or weak to be milked or bled and was of no further use as a living member of the herd. Although meat is far more common today, it remains conspicuously absent from traditional Charnean cuisine. The animal farming industry in Charnea, much like the rest of the agricultural industry, still relies on many of the traditionally customs due to their suitability for the desert environment in which introductions of foreign methods have often failed. The only notable exception was the introduction of zebus in the Agala and parts of historical Tebua, as well as the relatively recent experiments in domesticating the giant eland in the red desert. Zebus and elands, like camels, are well adapted to the heat and the water-scarce conditions found in Charnea, and so have seen some success in the southern and southwestern parts of Charnea.

Alleys

Alley cropping is the most common means of cultivating a large density of crops in the limited areas that can be claimed from the desert and turned into arable parcels of land. As a type of agroforestry, Charnean alley cropping combines many complimentary types of trees, shrubs and low-lying plant species into a tight spatial arrangement to gain the maximum possible productivity through the complimentary qualities of the plants in question. The defining feature of alley style farms are the rows of trees which define the 'alleys', creating long, narrow corridors where other plants can grow with little interference from the wind or the destructive sands as the rows of trees create natural windbreaks, protecting and compartmentalizing the cultivated fields. Many varieties of crops are grown in the alleys, while the types of trees used to create the alley 'walls' are also carefully chosen and always contribute some benefit to the operation to justify the investment in space and water being expended to keep them alive. The overwhelming majority of Charnean farms even in the modern day make use of alley cropping to provide sheltered and water-efficient means of cultivation in the desert. This partially explains the low penetration of industrial agricultural methods into the Charnean agricultural sector, which still relies on the practices laid down by their ancestors thousands of years ago. Such practices are considered to be much more adapted to the realities of the Ninvite environment than any imported industrial methods, and so have remained in spite of the introductions of new technologies such as motorized agricultural machinery or genetically modified crop varieties. Alley cropping farms most typically follow a radial pattern of expansion with a water source, be it a spring or an excavated well, in the center for irrigation and the windbreaking alley walls expanding outwards like the spokes of a wheel while an outer frontier of trees and shrubs form the outer windbreak and help to colonize the desert landscape as the farm expands.

Red acacia tree grown alongside millet.

Within the physical structure of the alley, a division exists between the 'wall' crops and the 'floor' crops. Low lying crops which are cultivated within the sheltered alleys are typically cereals or other plants of high productivity which could not survive in an unsheltered field buffeted by the winds of the Ninva. Flax has historically been the most important crop due to its dual utility in producting foodstuffs as well as {[wp|linen}} textiles, although millet, wheat and barley have also been cultivated in varying quantities depending on regional preferences. Millet is typical of the south and west of Charnea, while wheat and barely is more common in the east, as are chickpeas. Hemp, used as animal feed, textile fiber, building material in {[wp|adobe}}, as well as for {[wp|Hashish|hash}} production, is also a typical floor crop.

By contrast, the hardier and taller shrubs and trees that form the protective walls of the alley cropping agroforestry system typically contribute more exotic goods useful in trade. The prime examples are the kermes oak and the red acacia. The oaks, which are relatively short and straddle the line between shrub and tree, are host to the scale insect species from which kermes crimson dye is produced. The dye was historically of immense economic importance to the Charneans as one of their most valuable exports, and contributed to the strong cultural association of the Tenerian nomads with the color red. Red acacias are one of the main species which produce gum arabic, an aromatic and another important trade good for the desert people in times past. Mastic shrubs are also cultivated for their aromatic resin, helping to contribute to the time-honored Tenerian tradition of gum-chewing. These traditional trade goods have lost much of their economic value but are still grown for their primary purpose as hardy tree species in alley windbreaks as well as for their value to Charnean traditional practices.

Apiculture

Examples of apiculture can be found in ancient Deshrian art dating back 4,000 years.

A central component of the alley cropping system which is not often represented is the apicultural element which helps to sustain the entire system. Beekeeping has been practiced in eastern Charnea for thousands of years, with some scholars claiming that Charnea may well be the homeland of the practice. Charnean agriculturalists have long understood the beneficial effects of apiaries and domesticated honeybees on the fertility of crops. Honey collected from the hives is also one of the valuable commodities which the desert agriculturalists produced for export, although it was also prized by the nomadic tribesmen and caravanners due to its long shelf life. The wax from the hives has also been used for various artisanal purposes historically, although it is of little economic relevance today. It is common practice for every radial alley farm to have an attached apiary, while the larger agricultural zones can have entire communities of beekeepers who are sustained financially by the production of their hives and are respected by the farming neighbors for the benefits their bees bring to the fields. In some cases, the density of vegetation in the desert itself is high enough to sustain so-called 'wild apiaries', hives which sustain themselves not on the domestic plants of an alley farm but on the wild or swale-cropped plants in the desert. Wild apiaries became more common after the introduction of the honey mesquite, which became extremely prevalent and is considered an invasive species in some parts of the Ninva. Mesquite honey is by consequence the most common product of Charnean apiaries.