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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
Three Sisters
Corn
Maize is the most produced cereal in the world and is native to Oxidentale where it was first obtained from teosinte. So, it's very naturally that the Mutul - where Maize has always played an important cultural role - became one of the world's top producer of maize with an annual average of 110 millions metric tons. Three quarters of the annual production is consumed nationally, 50% by the aviculture industrial complex, 25% by the kingdom's population. The rest is exported with the main destinations being Tsurushima (15.3 millions), Sante Reze (8.55 millions), and Charnea (1.15 million tons).
Bean
Green beans are the unripe, young fruit of various cultivars of the common bean. Green beans are eaten around the world and are sold fresh, canned, and frozen. They can be eaten raw or steamed, boiled, stir-fried, or baked. They are commonly cooked in other dishes such as soups and stews. The common bean is a highly variable species that has a long history of cultivation. The wild P. vulgaris is thought to be native to Norumbia, but was brought to Oxidentale very early during Prehistoric times. P. vulgaris is cultivated in the Mutul on the same plots as corn by using the latter as support, but the practice became less and less used with the agricultural revolution because of the manpower requirement. In total, the Mutul produce on average 5 millions tons of green beans per year. This production is divided between dry, fresh, and green beans. To note that there's an important production of beans in the Mutul aimed toward self-consumption and is thus not counted in official numbers as it never enter commercial circuits.
Squashes
The family Cucurbitaceae has many species used as human food.Cucurbita species are some one of the most important of those, with the various species being prepared and eaten in many ways. They are cultivated for their fruits which are not only edible but also need little or no preparation and can often be stocked for long period of times. The flowers and young leaves and shoot tips can also be consumed. In 2010, the Mutul produced around 1 million tons of squashes.
Sweet Potatoes
a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the morning glory family, the sweet potato is a root vegetable and is another native of the tropical areas of the Western Hemisphere. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of Convolvulaceae, I. batatas is the only crop plant of major importance. Once reliant on tree-cropping for the culture of this foodsource, alongside others like tomatoes or chili, the Mutuleses have long since evolved their production scheme toward more industrial methods. In 2010 the Mutul had 3 millions hectares of land dedicated to the culture of sweet potatoes, producing 34 millions tons of the tuber.
Cotton
Coton has been cultivated in Oxidentale for millenias to make soft and lightweight textiles, its climate fitting very well the plant's requirement in water and temperature. Cotton clothes were considered a luxury good and only the Mutuleses elites could afford them. Wealthy and veterans soldiers favored armors consisting of short cotton jackets packed with rock salt. Cotton armor is so much more effective than any other protection.
Cotton and spices were the two "pillars" of the Mutulese Trade system with Ochran. This preceded the invention of the automatic loom, industrialization would only reach the Mutul in the middle of the 19th century after decades of political upheaval. Ultimately, the Divine Kingdom became an important source of cotton for other economies and managed to protect its booming industry against foreign competitors.
Despite its stride toward an eco-responsible and sustainable agriculture, the Mutul is not considered to be a producer of Organic cotton as most of its cultures involve the use of Genetically modified crops and of synthetic fertilizers. This does not prevent resellers to categorize most of the Mutul's production as "Mutulese" or "Oxidentalese" Organic, arguing that Mutuleses farmers rarely use pesticide and generally grow cotton in low-scale productions in the cotton's natural environment, limiting their ecological footprint. Such debates are especially proeminent in countries like Sante Reze, where the demand for organic and eco-friendly products is especially high.
In 2016, the Mutul reached a production of 6 millions tons of cotton.
Sugarcane
sugar cane refers to several species and hybrids of tall perennial grass that are used for sugar production. It is native to the warm temperate tropical regions of the Vespanian Ocean, but first arrived in the Western Hemisphere through Latin colonisation of Belfras and was exported to the Mutul from there.
The Mutul offers excellent condition for the culture of sugarcane, with an average yield per Hectare of 90 tons. Limits to the development of its culture however, are numerous. While it knew an important growth spur during the Eastern Wind (1930-1955), this expansion was stopped as both the Occidentalists and Traditionalists were warry of its extensive nature as well as its plantation-based system which had favored the enrichment of the Occidentalist-alligned landowners. Futhermore, the development of Biofuels was stunted in the Divine Kingdom despite investments on the topics because of resistances from farmer and workers who dreaded to see the number of hectares allocated to internal food production be reduced in favour of biofuel production for export to Sante Reze. Decrees and concessions given to the Three Blessed Courts to address both issues have led to the de-facto fixation of surfaces dedicated to the culture of sugar cane at around 120,000 hectares for an annual production of around 10 to 12 million tons.
Spices
Chili pepper
Capsicum fruits have been a part of human diets since about 7,500 BC, and are one of the oldest cultivated crops in the Western Hemisphere. There are five domesticated species of chili peppers. Capsicum annuum, native from the Mutul, includes many common varieties such as the popular bell peppers. Capsicum frutescens is a wild chili pepper native from Sante Reze and is very small and pungent compared to the other cultivars. Capsicum chinense are genetically closely related to the previous species and has birthed many of the world's hottest pepper cultivars. The other two species are Capsicum pubescens and Capsicum baccatum.
Though there are only a few commonly used species, there are many cultivars and methods of preparing chili peppers that have different names for culinary use. Green and red bell peppers, for example, are the same cultivar of C. annuum, immature peppers being green.
Peppers are commonly broken down into three groupings: bell peppers, sweet peppers, and hot peppers. Most popular pepper varieties are seen as falling into one of these categories or as a cross between them.
Chili pepper pods are, technically, berries. When used fresh, they are most often prepared and eaten like a vegetable. Whole pods can be dried and then crushed or ground into chili powder that is used as a spice or seasoning. Chilies can be dried to prolong their shelf life. Chile peppers can also be preserved by brining, immersing the pods in oil, or by pickling. Many Mutuleses dishes use the entire chili such as the famous smoke pepper. In fact, entire dishes only by using spices and chilies.
In the Mutul, chili peppers will typically be cultivated in orchard gardens on in terraces. 3 millions tons of green peppers are produced annually, a ninth of which is dedicated to the creation of dried peppers (around 334,000 tons per year).
Vanilla
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Vanilla (Mutli: Chizibik) is a spice derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla, primarily obtained from pods of Vanilla planifolia. According to tradition, it's the Tatinak of the Chik'in Kingdom who were the first people to cultivate vanilla which remain in high demand thorough Mutulese history. So much so that Mutuleses traders who settled thorough the Vespanian Ocean began to experiment cultivating vanilla in their orchard gardens, but these first attempts at introducing the vine to new continents proved fruitless and the interests of the Nuk Nahob to maintain their monopoly over Vanilla production prevented botanists to take a deeper look at the plant peculiar pollinisation. Hand Polinisation of Vanilla was only discovered in the 1840s by Arthuristans entrepreneurs who quickly developed the culture of vanilla which spread thorough the Malaio and Ochranese continents with Onekawa-Nukanoa, Pulau Keramat, Ankat, and Zanzali all overtaking the Mutul as major vanilla producers until the Divine Kingdom finally adopted the practice of hand pollinisation.
Nowadays, the production of vanilla in the Mutul depends on two distinct models. Most Pet Kot and other Orchard Gardens often grow Vanilla "naturally", relying on pollinisation by wild orchid bees of the Eulaema genus as they lack the manpower to do otherwise. There are also, especially in western Mutul, commercial orchards dedicated to the culture of Vanilla, often coupled with the culture of chocolate. These orchards have the funds and manpower required to practice large-scale hand-pollinisation alongside other agronomic practices that facilitate harvest and increases bean quality without falling into over-pollinisation, which has negative effects on the plant. It can be expected that, annually, the Mutul produce between 600 and 800 tons of Vanilla.
Vegetables
Fruits
Zon
mamey sapote (Mutli: Zon) is another species of trees native to the Mutul. Its fruit, technically a berry, can be eaten raw or made into milkshakes, smoothies, ice cream and fruit bars and its flavor is a mix of sweet potato, pumpkin, honey, prune, peach, apricot, cantaloupe, cherry, and almond. However, most of the products made out of the Zon's fruits 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.
Seedling Zon trees begin to bear fruit after 7 years or longer and introduce uncertainty on the quality of the fruits as they may vary from their parent. As a result, Zon is mainly propagated by grafting which allow trees to bear fruits after only 3 or 5 years and ensure the preservation of the parents' characteristics even if that also has the unfortunate consequence of making cultures weaker to diseases.
Mature trees may bear 200 to 500 fruits per year. Twice this amount may be obtained from large trees. Zon are grown mainly at the second stage of the Xukalpuh system, alongside other fast-growing fruit-bearing trees such as bananas (J'ahas) or plantains (H'aas). There are many different kind of cultivars of Zon, with fruits of different size or gustative qualities but, on average, it is estimated that the Mutul produce around 15 million tons of Zon fruits per year.
Sak Zon
Ek Zon
Chiko Zon
The Chiko Zon is a long-lived, evergreen tree native of the mangroves ecoregions of the Mutul. It's fruit is a large berry with an exceptionally sweet, malty flavor. The unripe fruit is hard to the touch and contains high amounts of saponin, which has astringent properties similar to tannin, drying out the mouth.
From germination, the sapodilla tree will usually take anywhere from five to eight years to bear fruit. The sapodilla trees yield fruit twice a year, though flowering may continue year round. As a result, a tree can produce around 2000 fruits per year.
Chiko Zon seeds are part of a large-scale recycling program, the Divine Throne offering buy-back for every 20 seeds returned. This is because the oil extracted from these seeds can be used in biofuel and can thus be sold back to extractors who then export their production to biofuel producers around the world. These are not the only seeds being recovered by the program, but they are emblematic of it.
The wood of the Chiko Zon tree is also highly seeked after by Ébénistes, which mean farmers around the Mutul are careful to preserve the tree trunks when the time to replace production come. Similarily, Chiko Zon latex is still used in some regions of the Mutul to make local chewing gum.
Others
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.
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.