User:Char/sandbox1

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

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. 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 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.

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 {[wp|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.