Indigenous territories and agrodiversity: the Mazahua milpas of Mexico

Indigenous territories have been of interest to different disciplines. Particularly, they are the focus of attention regarding biological diversity, ecological services and the governance of peoples over their territories. This study shows the relationship between the elements that integrate the milpa in a Mazahua territory in the State of Mexico. People have cultivated land for centuries and conserved at least seven maize landraces and their different varieties; some of them are at risk of being lost. We carried out an ethnographic study based on direct and participatory observation, transects and interviews. We analyse the milpa as a result of the interactions of different elements of the territory, which have an impact on its agrodiversity.

It can be said that there is not a milpa but milpas which are related to environmental, social, economic and cultural factors. Milpas as multiple cropping systems are cultivated in several crop arrangements having as basis maize landraces, beans, squash, faba beans, wheat, oats and other crops. Edible and other uses of weeds (medicine, forage, ornamental) are also an important part of milpas; they are locally appreciated and therefore are not removed from crop land. Land is cultivated using local and external inputs, and receiving, organic and non-organic management. So that, by focusing on milpa, we observe the dynamics of inter-relationships among peoples´ interests, local knowledge, ecological elements and forest resources.

There are more agrodiverse milpas, but there are also less agrodiverse ones; some of them tend to be cultivated under monocropping, which could not only result in the loss of maize diversity, but also other crops, useful weeds and domestic animals, in addition to the loss of a millenary agriculture system, and its environmental and complex socio-cultural values. Thus, to conserve biocultural diversity such as milpas, it is necessary to support campesino livelihoods.