Agriculture in the Mutul
Agriculture in the Mutul suffers from the tropical and equatorial location of the Divine Kingdom. Mainly, acidic soils poor in nutritive elements, consequence of the rapid decay of vegetals due to the high humidity and hot climate. Intensive rains, especially in the Mutuleses Provinces under the effects of a Monsoon effect reinforce the chemical and nutritive impoverishment of soils. Aluminium, a common elements in the planet's soils, will in an acidic environment inhibate the growth of the plants' roots which is of great consequences for the Mutul as it is estimated that around 30% of its total surface area is too acidic for even subsistence farming to be viable.
All of these natural limitations have been great vectors of development for Agronomy, with proto-Chaan and other peoples of the Mutul's antiquity developing complex and intensive methods of farming to compensate for their soils poor quality, as well as multiplying the numbers of cultivars grown in farms to limit the dangers of diseases and insects, permanent threats in a country with no winter or dead season to speak of.
The Divine Throne is infamous for its form of indirect control of its agricultural sector, often resumed by the saying "Letting the bird fly within its cage" and its staunch resistance to the green revolution, the development of which were only adopted slowly and on a case-by-case basis. K'uhul Ajaw Jasaw Chan K'awiil V has explained the century-long hard stance on the question by revealing an official ranking of "Environmental Concerns" in 1995. "Soil depletion" was ranked higher than the Chemical pollution of wetlands.
Despite all of these factors, human engineering as allowed for the Mutul' agricultural potential to shine through and brightly. With a wide surface of Agricultural land (0.64 hectares per inhabitants) combined with an intensive support from the government, the Mutulese agricultural output is the largest in Oxidentale.
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 Oxidentale 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.
Spices
Kakaw
The kakaw bean or simply kakaw is the dried and fully fermented seed of Theobroma cacao. Native from Oxidentale, Kakaw is one of the most culturaly important edible product in the Mutul, even moreso than maize. It was first domesticated 5,300 years ago in the Ucayare Forest before reaching equatorial northern Oxidentale some 1000 years later. Archeological evidence suggests that long before the flavor of the kakaw became popular it's the sweet pulp, used in making a fermented (5.34% alcohol) beverage, that first drew attention to the plant.
Cacao trees grow in a limited geographical zone, of about 20° to the north and south of the Equator. A range in which the Mutul fit in its entirety, making the Divine Kingdom especially suited to produce Kakaw. Cocoa harvest is not restricted to one period per year and a harvest typically occurs over several months. There are many different varieties of Kakaw, and many different kind of production from subsistence agricultors keeping one or a few kakaw trees in their orchard garden as a complement to their revenues, to large plots of lands dedicated in priority to the culture of Kakaw known as a Kakawnal. Despite these large difference, it can be expected that, annually, the Mutul will produce around two million tonnes of Kakaw beans.
Once harvested, fermented, roasted, and dried, the kakaw is then either exported to the internationale markets for further process or sold to Mutuleses "Chocolate Mills". At these mills, the Kakaw is grinded and can be mixed with a variety of ingredients such as cinnamon, chili peppers, almonds, vanilla, and other spices to create drinking chocolate. Mutuleses producers also harvest the Kakaw pulp which can be processed into alcoholic liquor.
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, made by smoke-drying Yjakab peppers, which is a very ancient method of conservation of the aliment. In fact, entire dishes can be made 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.
Annatto
Annatto (Mutli: Kiw'i) is an orange-red condiment and food coloring derived from the seeds of the Kiw'it'e It is often used to impart a yellow or orange color to foods, but sometimes also for its flavor and aroma. Its scent is described as "slightly peppery with a hint of nutmeg" and flavor as "slightly nutty, sweet and peppery".
The condiment is typically prepared by grinding the seeds to a powder or paste. Similar effects can be obtained by extracting some of the color and flavor principles from the seeds with hot water or oil, which are then added to the food.
Historically, the Mutuleses did not began to cultivate Annatto to use it as a condiment. Instead, it served as a dye for ritual and decorative body painting, used as a sunscreen, an insect repellent, for medical purposes, and manuscript painting. In the modern days, beside ritual bodypaints, these applications of the Annatto seeds have mostly phased out of use.
Vegetables
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.
Fruits
Uniw
The Uniw is the fruit of a tree also called Uniw that most likely originated from the Mutul and is famous for containing one single large seed. As a subtropical species, avocados need a climate without frost and with little wind. In the Xukalpuh system, they are grown at the same stage as Zon fruits.
The Uniw is famous for having a markedly higher fat content than most other fruits. It was as such vital thorough the Mutul pre-modern era and still serves as an important staple in the diet of consumers who have limited access to other fatty foods (high-fat meats and fish, dairy products).
The fruit is not sweet, but distinctly and subtly flavored, with smooth texture. Generally, avocado is served raw, though some cultivars can be cooked for a short time without becoming bitter. It is used as the base for the Mutulese sauce made from grinding together the fruit with sugar and lime juice. They are also commonly served mixed with white rice, in soups, stews, salads, or on the side of chicken and meat.
While commercial orchards produce an average of seven tonnes per hectare each year, with some orchards achieving 20 tonnes per hectare, it is relatively rare for Mutuleses farmers to grow only Uniw on their plot of land. Ultimately, the Mutul produce around 3.5 millions of tonnes of Uniw annually.
Plantains and Bananas
The term "plantain" is loosely applied to any banana cultivar that is usually cooked before it is eaten. However, there is no botanical distinction between bananas and plantains. Cooking is also a matter of custom, rather than necessity, for many bananas. In the Mutul, like in other parts of the world where bananas varieties are relatively few, the distinction is based solely on the intended use as food. Bananas, or dessert Bananas, are intended to be eaten raw while cooking Bananas can themselves be either non-plantain cooking bananas (J'ahas) or true plantains (Kinia). The Mutuleses imported all of these varieties from Pulau Keramat and the Kahei islands during the height of their colonial empire. Because of their year-round production, they were mostly aimed to help feed workers and small producers during the hunger season.
Depending upon cultivar and ripeness, the flesh can vary in taste from starchy to sweet, and texture from firm to mushy. Both the skin and inner part can be eaten raw or cooked. The greener, less ripe bananas contain higher levels of starch and, consequently, have a "starchier" taste. On the other hand, yellow bananas taste sweeter due to higher sugar concentrations. Plantains are used in various stews and curries or cooked, baked or mashed in much the same way as potatoes. Banana hearts, raws or stewed, can also be used as a vegetable with a flavor resembling that of artichoke.
But behind the adoption of bananas in the Mutul there is more than just the fruit. Banana leaves are large, flexible, and waterproof and make for great disposable food containers for various dishes. When used so for steaming or grilling, the banana leaves protect the food ingredients from burning and add a subtle sweet flavor. For these reasons, Banana leaves have become cosubstantial with Tobil and Pibil and are thus ubiquituous in the Mutul. Since the 1990s, the Divine Throne has also encouraged the development of Banana paper and Banana fibers manufacturing, to avoid wasting the stems and trunks that are discarded after the harvests and, in the long term, limit Synthetic fiber production. Despite the great progresses made, banana paper remain less popular than other alternatives among the Mutuleses.
In total, the Mutul produce around 10 million tons of bananas, all varieties taken together, per year.
Pineapple
Called Pach' in Mutli, the pineapple has been a widely distributed and stable component of the Mutulese diet since at least the K'uy Dynasty. In the Divine Kingdom, it is prepared and sold on roadsides as a snack and its juice is used in the concotion of cocktails as well as the fermented beverage known as Patpach'. The habit of using Pineapple leaves to create lustrous lace-like luxury textiles was also taken from the Pulaui after the Mutuleses introduced Pineapples to the archipelago.
In 2019, the Mutul produced 1.7 millions of tonnes of Pineapples, a very large portion of which was exported rather than consumed locally.
Uch'un
The Uch'un is the fruit of the Uchunt'e, a small, sparsely branched tree native to Northern Oxidentale but has become naturalized thorough the tropical regions of the world. In cultivation, it grows rapidly, fruiting within 3 years which makes it especially appreciated by farmers practicing the Xukalpuh system.
Two kinds of Uch'un are commonly grown. One has sweet, red or orange flesh, and the other has yellow flesh. Either kind, picked green, is called a "Yax Uch'un" which can be eaten cooked, but not raw due to its poisonous latex content.
Both the Yax Uch'un fruit and its latex are rich in papain, a protease used for tenderizing meat and other proteins. The unripe fruits may also be used to make sweets or preserves. Otherwise, ripe Uch'un is preferably eaten fresh.
In 2018, the Mutul produced 2 million tonnes of Uch'un.
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 (Kinia). 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 12 to 30 million tons of Zon fruits per year.
Sak Zon
The Sak Zon, the "Oxidentalese Apple" or, more literally, the "White Zon", is an ovoid drupe with a thin, inedible skin turning from green to yellow when ripe, and an edible pulp, which can range in flavor from bland to banana-like to peach to pear to vanilla flan. The pulp can be creamy-white in green-skin varieties or a beige-yellow in yellow-skin varieties and has a smooth texture similar to ripe avocado.
Unlike the "true" Zon, white sapote is a member of the family Rutaceae, to which citrus belongs. This confusion come from the fact Zon is merely used in Mutli to describe all soft, sweet fruit.
In modern Mutul, the production of White Zon is rather rare and reserved to private gardens where it is grown as a backyard tree or as an agricultural shade. Farmers nonetheless have taken the habit of extracting its seed oil to be used as an attractive and lethal bait for insects as it has the great quality of killing on the spot rather than at some distance after ingestion of the poison.
It is best best to eat the "Oxidentalese apples" uncooked. Cooking makes them limp and less flavorful. They can be eaten alone or combined with other fresh fruits in salads for added interest. Puree peeled, seeded sapote and mix with orange juice or milk and a few drops of vanilla to make a refreshing drink. They freeze very successfully, and can then be kept indefinitely. It is thus possible to find frozen Sak Zon in some Mutuleses markets, but even then the fruit remain a very rare sight as anything but a subsidence food.
Ek Zon
The Black Zon is a a species of persimmon tomato-like fruit with an inedible skin that turns from olive to a deep yellow-green when ripe and a pulp which is white and inedible when unripe but assumes a flavor, color and texture often likened to chocolate pudding when ripe.
Trees are normally found below 600 meters, but are not particular about soil, and can tolerate light frosts. They are sensitive to drought, requiring irrigation in dry areas, but are quite tolerant of flooding. The range in size of tree and hairiness of leaves; size, shape, seediness, flesh color and sweetness of fruit; and time of fruiting suggest that considerable genetic variability exists. Selections have been made and propagated across the world.
Like other Oxidentaleses fruits, they can be eaten by spooning out the flesh. A sprinkle of lemon juice is often added to improve flavour. It's most common use indsutrially is as a flavour for ice-creams, milk shakes, and other transformed sweet desserts.
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.
Guava
The Guava (Mutli: Wut) is another fruit native to the Mutul and is popular plant to grow in private gardens or inside homes because it is one of the few tropical fruits that can grow to fruiting size in pots indoors. When grown from seed, guava trees can bear fruit in two years, and can continue to do so for forty years, making it ill-suited to the Xukalpuh system, even if it can be found inside Pol Kot. Guava wood and leaves are also popular for meat smoking. The entire fruit is a key ingredient in punch, and the juice is often used in culinary sauces (hot or cold), ales, candies, dried snacks, fruit bars, and desserts, or dipped in chamoy.
Despite its popularity as part of the subsistence program promoting the culture of homegrown fruits and other plants in the Mutul, "Wut" is not really commercially exploited because of its ill-fit with the Xukalpuh system. Nonetheless, the Mutul still produce around 2 millions tonnes of guava every year.
Kanix
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.
Cash crops
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.
Sisal
The Sisal is the name of both a species of flowering plant and the stiff fibre used in making rope and various other products. It is sometimes referred to as "sisal hemp", as it is somewhat analogue in its use to Cannabis sativa.
Apart from ropes, twines, and general cordage, The importance of which are diminishing with competition from polypropylene and the development of other haymaking techniques, sisal is used in low-cost and specialty paper, dartboards, buffing cloth, filters, geotextiles, mattresses, carpets, handicrafts, wire rope cores, and macramé.
A Sisal plant can produce several pounds of edible flowers. During their harvests, farmers may also collect the sap and ferment it. By distillation, this fermented sap will be use to create siyalemb'al.
Sisal occupies 6th place among fibre plants, representing 2% of the world's production of plant fibres. In 2014, the Mutul produced around 120,000 tonnes of Sisal fibers.
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.
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.
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