Chinampas of Mexico: Most Productive Agriculture EVER?

Permaculture instructor Andrew Millison journeys to the legendary chinampas of Mexico City, known as the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco. We visit Lucio Usobiaga, who heads up the Arca Tierra project, which is restoring the health and viability of the chinampas while introducing contemporary concepts like Syntropic Agriculture, Agroforestry, and Permaculture. The chinampas are the last vestiges of the ancient agricultural system of the Aztec and pre-Aztec civilizations. This video examines the situation, and explores what can be learned from them.

Credits (corrected):
Written & Directed by Andrew Millison

Saskia Madlener
Assistant Director
Producer

Daniel Cespedes
Editor, Cinematography & Aerial Photography

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[Bondebillforlife]

This is basically natural aquaponics. I love it, minimal effort for maximum produce. While also sustainable and organic.

[afrz]

I always felt that chinampas and xochimilco should be expanded and become a cultural landscape with farmer markets.
Mexico should take advantage of its pre European agricultural methods and implement many cultural landscape throughout the country.

[ziyuchan]

I visited Xochimilco in 1996 and was blown away by the system. Since then I returned a few more ocassion to fully absorb the living systems. This encounter has helped me to incorporate the principles into the ecosystem restoration initiative on the island of Borneo, in the tropical region. So much to learn from the Chinampas.

[asadewitt]

I did some archaeological research on the collapse in Chinampa agriculture from the prosperous Aztec times to post-colonization times. One of my main findings was that the Chinampas system required a high degree of political orchestration to function. There is evidence for times of high and low use periods during Aztec power, and they can be correlated with times of strong and weak governance. When the Spanish came in, the Aztec governance system was of course decimated, and therefore the Chinampas system greatly receded. The reason they can be so product is from a highly organized and efficient labor system with a common goal and greater vision. The Area Tierra program seems to be filling in this gap, providing a modern and integrated structure for the Chinampas system to once again rise to prominence as an incredibly efficient, abundant, and ecologically diverse system that supplies food to the residents of Mexico City.

[Janoschlp]

This topic is so fascinating! Goes to show the ancient peoples knew more than we give them credit for. Meanwhile modern agriculture leaves the soil drained of all nutrients and dry.

[aaaaallllld]

we have our garden plot in a boggy area right next to a stream in southern Wisconsin - water is at the soil surface until early summer. we built a chinampa-style garden (raised areas for growing, lower areas in between) and it has worked AMAZINGLY. thanks to another youtube creator for introducing me to chinampas a few years ago, and thanks to you for deepening my understanding!!

[marcheck]

Having municipal wastewater flowing into the canals might slowly kill the chinampas. It is not the pathogens that I think we should be afraid of, but inorganic pollutants like salts and heavy metals. Unlike organic effluents these things don't decay easily and will accumulate continuously. Sitting in a basin also means that there are no outlets to flush them out.

[charlesward]

“Water management is a history of bad decisions.” The man nailed it!

[wister]

I've been around the world and it breaks my heart how many Americans are utterly ignorant of how interesting, vibrant, and mystical Mexico truly is!

[julieheath]

Spectacular system. I'm so impressed.

When I was about 3yrs old my family did a boat tour on the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco. It is one of my earliest memories. I reached for the lilies and fell out of the boat... but mom was ready and immediately yanked me to safety.

How awesome to connect that memory with this Ag system.

[quinto]

They still exist?? OMG, Andrew you're a legend for making this video, and Lucio for reviving them. And all the people who helped. Thank you!!

[luddity]

This system should work well in Florida and Mississippi.

[gustavovillegas]

As a Mex American I am in love with our indigenous history and was lucky enough to visit the Chinampas a year ago. The knowledge of our ancestors is immense, thank you for sharing our culture with the rest of the wider world. I love this, we must protect the chinampas for all future generations

[Lomudh]

This systm reminds me of our ''Polder''system we have in the Netherlands, where we claimed parts of the sea to use for agri culture, with simular canals and some also use willow trees, every year big tractors dig out the canals to feel up the land. where we graze alot of cows on freshly grown grass. You might take a look a dutch agriculture for a video. You chinampa video was very educational! keep up the good work. Kind regards form the Netherlands

[b_uppy]

Believe there is a similar, indigenous South American version where they used canals (with dug out ditches) to help moderate temperatures and protect plants from nightly freezing. These ditches create traps for the cold air while allowing the water to radiate heat to the plants at night. This was studied and found to be more productive than 'conventional' agriculture and the farmers were finding it more profitable as well as providing more employment for the locals. It was a big win-win.
Think this would be great in New Orleans, for rebuilding instead of dumping.
That's so wonderfully lush. The beautiful boats are great, too.

We had black soil like that growing up in most of the places where I lived. It's good soil.

We need to also preserve and rebuild the soil that we have. We need to convince more farmers to do no-till *with cover crops.* Notably some insurance companies will not insure a crop if covercropping is used. We need to eliminate that loophole. We need to de-complicate insurance requirements for federal monies for farming...

[JonathanRodriguez-nznw]

I was devestated the last time i went to Xochimilco, so much of it was urbanized. It should be a place where the agricultura and axlotl the government should protect it by relocating and getting housing for the people living in poor conditions there and restoring the area, but Mexico is plagued by corruption. I just hope that one day it will get the protection it deserves

[andresamplonius]

There's a similar system in the Altiplano, the highlands around lake Titicaca at 3, 800+ meters over sea level. They're called Waru-warus or Camellones. The water moderates temperatures at night and the mud is used as fertilizer. Very old camellones are being reused

[kimnenninger]

Great video. It really hits home how we modern people know very little about real farming. We can do mono crop farming but we are unable to think beyond chemical use.
I do dry farming in southern Arizona. Not many people are trying to do dry farming here because it takes a lot of thinking and labor. Most people buy a green house and use lots of water and chemicals to make their plants grow. Unfortunately, Arizona no longer has the water to support this kind of resource intensive farming.
I hope that we all can learn a better way to grow food before it is too late.

[basantprasadsgarden]

I have also tried to built a Chinampa like system, but at a very small scale
My garden gets flooded during the rainy season, and I am unable to grow anything during that time, so I dug out a trench and deposited the soil some the both sides of the trench, besides this, I can also take advantage of high ground water table in my garden
Now I have planted Turmeric over the raised beds and Lotus in the trench, and as the waters will rise during the monsoon season, I will release native catfish into it

[mariolys]

Beautiful, inspiring! Mexico it’s so rich of true wealth.