Food Security

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-019-00901-6

ORIGINAL PAPER

More than just corn and calories: a comprehensive assessment

of the yield and nutritional content of a traditional Lacandon Maya
milpa
Tomasz B. Falkowski 1 & Adolfo Chankin 2 & Stewart A. W. Diemont 3 & Robert W. Pedian 3

Received: 30 May 2018 / Accepted: 12 February 2019

# International Society for Plant Pathology and Springer Nature B.V. 2019

Abstract
The traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) of Lacandon Maya is expressed in their swidden (i.e., slash-and-burn),
sequential agroforestry system. Successional pathways are initiated through controlled burns of secondary forest and
by cultivating milpa: a swidden polyculture agroecosystem dominated by maize (corn; Zea mays). While past
research demonstrated that traditional Maya milpas yield large quantities of corn that can meet caloric requirements
for Lacandon communities, no studies have comprehensively quantified the yields of other crops cultivated in
Lacandon milpas or assessed whether they can meet other nutritional requirements for local people. Using a case
study approach, this research measured the agricultural yields and nutritional content of all foods (including crops
and wild game) harvested from a traditional Lacandon milpa. Following traditional Lacandon agroforestry manage-
ment practices, we performed a controlled burn of secondary forest and planted crops and trees in an experimental
milpa in Lacanja Chansayab, Chiapas, Mexico. Over 3 years, we harvested, weighed, and calculated the nutritional
content of all foodstuffs obtained from the milpa. Assuming an average family size of 5.3 individuals, yields from
an average-sized milpa can meet most United States Food and Drug Administration daily value nutritional require-
ments per capita, including calories, fat, carbohydrates, fiber, sugar, protein, vitamins A and C, calcium, iron, zinc,
and niacin. Diets derived exclusively from milpa may be deficient in saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, calcium, and
iodine, and harvests vary intra- and inter-annually. Lacandon farmers can supplement these harvests by foraging in
their managed forest. These results underscore the potential of Lacandon agroforestry management to provide rural
smallholder farmers in the Lacandon rainforest with food sovereignty while maintaining nearby forest cover to
conserve biodiversity and other ecosystem services.

Keywords Agroforestry . Food security . Food sovereignty . Mexico . Traditional ecological knowledge

1 Introduction
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article The Lacandon Maya constitute an indigenous group who have
(https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-019-00901-6) contains supplementary
resided in the Lacandon Rainforest region of Chiapas, Mexico
material, which is available to authorized users.
since at least the late 1700s (Palka 2005). In 1972, the
* Tomasz B. Falkowski
Mexican government granted the Lacandon Maya
tbfalkow@syr.edu 621,324 ha of land around the major Lacandon communities
of Lacanja Chansayab, Naha, and Metzabok. They continue to
1 farm and manage land in this Comunidad Zona Lacandona
School of Integrative Plant Science, Cornell University, 135 Plant
Science Building, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA (Lacandon Community Zone) (Calleros-Rodríguez 2014).
2 Lacandon Maya traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is
Lacanja Chansayab, Chiapas, Mexico
3
partially expressed through their multi-stage swidden (i.e.,
Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, State University
field and fallow, slash and burn) agroforestry system, which
of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, 1
Forestry Dr., Syracuse, NY 13210, USA allows them to conserve the surrounding tropical moist forest

while still obtaining the food and other goods and services
they need (Nations and Nigh 1980; Falkowski et al. 2015).
TEK such as the Lacandon Maya’s, is defined as Ba
cumulative body of knowledge, belief, and practice, evolv-
ing by accumulation of [knowledge, which is] handed down
over generations through traditional songs, stories and
beliefs…[concerning] the relationship of living beings (in-
cluding human) with their traditional groups and with their
environment^ (Berkes 2008).
Milpa management mimics the characteristics and process-
es of natural ecosystems, including the maintenance of diver-
sity, accepting environmental change, and recycling matter
and energy (Toledo and Barrera-Bassols 2009). Thus, milpa
management limits the use of external inputs, is productive,
and protects the natural environment (Diemont et al. 2005).
Milpa cultivation is also a culturally important practice that is
fundamental to the social status of Lacandon farmers, who are
judged in part by their ability to provide for their families (de
Frece and Poole 2008). These characteristics make it
socioecologically sustainable within the context in which it
was developed (Rubio and Ordóñez 2008). We provide more
detail about Lacandon Maya agroforestry in Section 2.1.
The poverty rate in Chiapas is 74.7%: the highest in the
country (Consejo Nacional de Evaluacion de la Politica de
Desarrollo Social 2012). This has resulted in a high degree of
malnutrition (47%), particularly among rural smallholders and
children in the Lacandon Rainforest region of south-eastern
Chiapas (Juarez and Gonzalez 2010; Sanchez-Perez et al.
2007). Mexico’s indigenous population, 67% of whom live in
rural areas, are particularly impoverished, lack access to social
services and basic infrastructure, and suffer high illiteracy rates
relative to the dominant mestizo population (de Frece and Poole
2008; Poole et al. 2007). The economic and sociopolitical mar-
ginalization of these rural indigenous peoples is one of the main
drivers of conflict in the region (Homer-Dixon 1996).
Several factors have been linked to the malnutrition of rural
smallholders, which has been called the Bhungry farmer
paradox^ in the Global South (Bacon et al. 2014). Some argue
that low crop yields from traditional smallholder
agroecosystems can result in rural poverty (Bernstein and
Herdt 1977; Phalan et al. 2011; Tittonell and Giller 2013).
According to this perspective, traditional agroecological man-
agement cannot match the productive capacity of more inten-
sive agriculture, making the former incompatible with interna-
tional and national commodity market economies and trapping
rural smallholders in a cycle of poverty. This, in turn, drives
environmental degradation due to extensive land cover con-
version. These researchers and policymakers argue that rural
smallholders can overcome this poverty trap by intensifying
their agroecological management and maximizing yields. This
can include reducing the biodiversity of their agroecosystems
to focus on cultivating commercial cash crops, using fertilizers
and pesticides, and mechanizing labor inputs.
Falkowski T.B. et al.
Others argue that traditional agroecosystems, like those of
the Lacandon Maya, are both productive, culturally important,
and can help conserve biodiversity because they do not rely
upon external energy inputs (Giraldo 2018; Paulino 2014;
Perfecto and Vandermeer 2008). They claim that hegemonic
socioeconomic forces continue to marginalize indigenous
peoples and poor rural smallholders, relegating them to farm
infertile land prone to environmental degradation. According
to this view, rather than empowering rural smallholders, inten-
sifying agricultural production in these regions will force them
to continuously add expensive external inputs, such as chem-
ical fertilizers and pesticides, rather than rely upon traditional
management strategies that would minimize crop losses and
increase socioecological resilience (e.g., diversification).
Bacon et al. (2014) noted that food insecurity among rural
smallholders is common, but generally seasonal. They pro-
vide an empirical case study detailing several interrelated fac-
tors that contribute to the hungry farmer paradox, including
annual precipitation cycles, crop price fluctuations, inter-
annual droughts, and low income derived from cash crop pro-
duction (such as coffee). They also demonstrated several ways
to address this problem: increasing agricultural production by
cultivating larger areas, improving crop storage, and diversi-
fying agroecosystems, particularly with perennial fruit trees.
Finally, they concluded that there were insufficient data
assessing how smallholder agroecological management is
linked to food security or lack thereof.
We also observed a lack of empirical research regarding the
productivity of traditional agriculture. Most of the existing
analyses only consider the yields of a few crops – particularly
grains – ignoring both the productivity of the entire
agroecosystem and the importance of diversity in ecological
agriculture (Affholder et al. 2013; Lobell et al. 2008; Van
Ittersum et al. 2013). Furthermore, most food security research
has focused on the yields and total caloric value of these rather
limited sets of harvested crops. Total calories are but one var-
iable in determining whether agroecological management can
meet the nutritional needs of rural smallholders. Calorie-rich
diets can still be nutritionally-poor (Pinstrup-Andersen 2009).
In the case of traditional Maya milpas, most data are fo-
cused on maize (i.e., corn) (Zea mays) (Cowgill 1960, 1961,
1962; Redfield and Villa Rojas 1962; Villa Rojas 1945;
Diemont and Martin 2009; Nations 1979; Nations and Nigh
1980; Schwartz 2015). Some research has documented the
yields of the other two crops, besides corn, which are com-
monly planted in Maya milpas and staples of traditional
Mesoamerican diets: beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) (Arias
Reyes 1995; Cowgill 1961; Teran and Rasmussen 2009) and
squash (Cucurbita spp.) (Cowgill 1961; Teran and Rasmussen
1994). While these crops are undoubtedly critical for Maya
farmers’ subsistence given their prevalence in Maya milpas,
many more crops are planted in this traditional agroecosystem
(Ford and Nigh 2016).
More than just corn and calories: a comprehensive assessment of the yield and nutritional content of a traditional Lacandon Maya milpa
To fill this knowledge gap, we used a case study approach
to systematically and empirically assess the yields of all the
food crops harvested from an experimental Lacandon Maya
milpa. This quantitative assessment provides a holistic over-
view of crop and wild game yields from this agroecosystem in
contrast to past studies, which have focused on corn and cal-
ories. Furthermore, we considered a broad range of nutrients
in order to evaluate whether Lacandon Maya milpas could
meet the nutritional requirements and ensure food security
for smallholder farmers and their families. Because little is
known about the temporal distribution of crop availability
and harvests in Lacandon milpas, we also assessed how the
productivity of this milpa changed over time. These data are
critical to determining whether Lacandon milpa cultivation
may still result in seasonal food insecurity intra-annually or
be sensitive to interannual socioecological changes.
2 Methodology
2.1 Description of the Lacandon Maya agroforestry
system
Near the end of the dry season, Lacandon farmers begin the
cycle of agroforestry management by cutting vegetation on
small patches of land that were previously cultivated, but had
since been left in order to regenerate soil fertility. The farmers
then burn this land, keeping the fire at low intensity to prevent
it from spreading and to promote the production of black car-
bon, which serves as a soil amendment (Diemont et al. 2011;
Diemont and Martin 2009; Nigh and Diemont 2013).
The first agroforestry stage is a milpa, or kor in Lacandon
Mayan. The Lacandon Maya agroforestry system can also be
referred to as the milpa cycle, which includes the milpa field
stage of agricultural production described below (Ford and
Nigh 2009). For the purposes of this article, we will use the
latter meaning of the term. Corn (maize) is the primary milpa
crop, both in terms of its yield and its contribution towards
meeting Lacandon nutritional needs. Lacandon farmers recog-
nize up to six cultivars of corn: white (sak nar and nu kux sak
nar in Lacandon Mayan), yellow (k’an nar), rojo (chak nar),
short (k’aba nar), and black (ek nar), all of which serve dif-
ferent cultural uses and functions. White (sak nar) corn is the
most common. It is very hard and rot-resistant, allowing for
long-term storage when dried, but also requires to be boiled
along with alkaline substances so that it can be consumed.
This process, known as nixtamalization, is typically per-
formed using lime, wood ash, or snail shells (Pappa et al.
2010). Red corn (Chak nar) is nearly as commonly planted
and is also a hard field corn. Black corn (Ek nar) is similarly
rot resistant. Yellow (K’aba nar) and white (nu kux sak nar)
corn are both less rot resistant and therefore less commonly
cultivated.
While corn is the dominant milpa crop, Lacandon farmers
also plant a diverse polyculture in their milpas at the onset of
the rainy season around May (see Nations and Nigh (1980),
Contreras et al. (1999), McGee (2002), Diemont (2006), Cook
(2016), and Ford and Nigh (2016) for various lists of crops
planted in Lacandon Maya milpas). Most crops are cultivated
for personal consumption, but Lacandon farmers will cultivate
and sell others, such as tobacco and sugar cane, at local mar-
kets (McGee 2002). Lacandon farmers harvest crops continu-
ally throughout the year (Falkowski et al. 2015). They weed
their milpas as often as once a week and use the dried weeds as
an organic soil amendment (Diemont and Martin 2005).
Lacandon farmers also actively plant particular tree species
or facilitate the establishment of seedlings dispersed from
nearby forests. This is typically done near the end of milpa
cultivation. Many of these trees provide not only provisioning
ecosystem services, including food, fuel, and medicine, but
regulating and supporting services, including carbon seques-
tration, pest control, maintenance of soil fertility after deple-
tion due to milpa cultivation, nutrient cycling, soil stabiliza-
tion, habitat, and seed dispersal (Diemont and Martin 2009;
Diemont 2006; Falkowski et al. 2016).
After about five years, milpa production begins to decline
as a result of cultivation, increasing weed cover, and depletion
of soil nutrients. Lacandon farmers will either burn and replant
it to increase productivity, or leave it to continue to the
acahual, or fallow shrub stages. These periods of time include
the robir, which typically lasts two years, and the jurup che,
which lasts approximately another two years (Diemont and
Martin 2009; Falkowski et al. 2015). Lacandon farmers will
continue to manage the plots by selectively trimming and
planting desirable timber species and extracting resources
such as medicinal plants, food, and firewood (Nations and
Nigh 1980). After the jurup che, they will either burn the plot
once again and replant it as milpa, or allow it to progress
toward the early secondary forest stages: pak che kor and
mehen che (Diemont and Martin 2009). Pak che kor literally
translates to Bplanted tree milpa^ and may contain more direct
consumables, such as pineapple (Ananas comosus), Choco
palm (Astrocaryum mexicanum), and firewood, than subse-
quent stages (Falkowski et al. 2016). Farmers may allow the
system to progress to advanced secondary forest, nu kux che,
which is often older than 40 years, or burn and replant it as
milpa again if they believe the soil has recovered from the
previous cultivation period. Lacandon farmers still take an
active management role in forest plots. For example, they
clear areas around desirable tree species to reduce competition
for light and nutrients. Lacandon extract resources from all
stages by gathering medicinal and edible plants, cutting timber
for building and firewood, fishing and harvesting snails in
rivers and streams, and hunting for peccary, agouti, and mon-
keys (Diemont and Martin 2009). Some of the land is never
disturbed and maintained as primary forest, called kax or tam

che in Lacandon Mayan, to act as seed sources, regulate water
cycles, and provide wildlife habitat (Diemont and Martin
2009; Nations and Nigh 1980).
2.2 Study site
The Lacandon Rainforest region is classified as tropical moist
forest according to the Holdridge life zone system. A short dry
season lasts from January through April (Servicio
Meterologico Nacional 2010). Rainfall averages approximate-
ly 2300 to 2600 mm per year and the mean temperature is
24.7 °C. We conducted all field sampling in experimental
milpas in the Lacandon Maya community of Lacanja
Chansayab, Chiapas, Mexico (16.6026°N, 90.9149°W,
500 m above sea level) (Fig. 1). Most of the soils near the
study site are clayey luvisols and humic acrisols associated
with calcareous rendzinas (Diemont and Martin 2009;
INEGI 1990; Levy Tacher and Golicher 2004).
The site was located on flat terrain. We established five
600 m2 milpa plots totaling 0.3 ha as part of another, larger-
scale restoration study. The localized nature of this study lim-
ited variation in site conditions and land-use history. We
Fig. 1 Map of study site and experimental milpa plots (top left inset) and Lacanja Chansayab, Chiapas, Mexico (bottom left inset)
Falkowski T.B. et al.
situated the plots at random locations within a 1 ha clearing.
We made sure each plot was separated from other plots and the
surrounding secondary forest by cutting 5 m wide buffer strips
around each one to minimize edge effects.
2.3 Field methods
A Lacandon farmer and a co-author of this article (Chankin)
managed the sites according to traditional Lacandon Maya
agroforestry practices over the duration of the study. We ap-
plied traditional methods to prepare, plant, and harvest the
milpa plots. In May of 2013, we slashed and burned the plots
to clear them for planting (Nigh and Diemont 2013). We
planted a mixture of annual crops in the experimental plots
in June of 2013. We also planted several native trees and
shrubs that would provide food during the agroforestry stage
of the milpa system. These same species provide regulating
and supporting ecosystem services such as attracting pollina-
tors and seed dispersing animals, improving conditions for
later successional plant species, and enhancing soil fertility
during the acahual and secondary forest stages. This
More than just corn and calories: a comprehensive assessment of the yield and nutritional content of a traditional Lacandon Maya milpa
management included regular weeding, hunting wildlife that
damage crops, and harvesting.
All crop and non-crop foodstuffs were traditionally har-
vested as was necessary and appropriate. We weighed the
harvested game animals and crops with a hanging spring
scale. We continued quantifying the yield from these milpas
from July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2017.
2.4 Quantitative analysis
Using the USDA Food Composition (United States
Department of Agriculture 2016) and Plants for a Future
Species (Plants for a Future 2012) databases, we identified
the nutritional information per unit mass of each food harvest-
ed in the milpa plots, including both wild game animals and
crops (Electronic Supplementary Material). We tabulated total
bulk calories (kcal); total, saturated, and trans fats (g); choles-
terol (mg); sodium (mg); total carbohydrates (g); dietary fibre
(g); sugar (g); protein (g); vitamin A (IU); vitamin C (mg);
calcium (mg); iron (mg); zinc (mg); and niacin (mg) per kilo-
gram of foodstuff. We used international units (IU) as a mea-
sure of vitamin A, because some data did not differentiate
between retinol and beta carotene, which had different mass
equivalents. Of these, all but zinc and niacin must be listed on
food labels approved by the United States of America Food
and Drug Administration (U.S. Department of Health and
Human Services 2013). We also included zinc and niacin in
our analysis because Mexican children commonly suffer zinc
deficiency (Rosado et al. 1995). Additionally, Wright (2006)
suggests that the diets of the Pasión Maya, which were based
on traditional Maya agriculture, may have been deficient in
niacin, protein, vitamin C, and iron based on osteo-
archaeological research.
To evaluate whether the Lacandon Maya milpa could pro-
duce enough food to meet the caloric and nutritional require-
ments established by the United States Food & Drug
Administration (USFDA) (United States Food & Drug
Administration n.d.), we calculated the percent daily values
(DVs) met by average milpa yields. We multiplied the total
harvested mass of each food (i.e., crops and hunted game) by
its nutrient density (nutritional content per kilogram; see the
supplementary information for further details about the nutri-
tional information used, including proxies if direct nutritional
information was unobtainable). We standardized these nutri-
tional values for harvests from our 0.3 ha study area to calcu-
late the mean daily nutritional content provided by a typical
2.33 ha Lacandon Maya milpa area (average of milpa areas
listed in Diemont (2006)) over the 1095 day study period.
Although plots were spatially distinct, they were all clustered
and managed by one farmer. We thus decided to pool the
harvests from individual plots and consider them collectively
in the quantitative analysis. Finally, we divided these daily
nutritional yields by the USFDA daily reference values to
determine how many individuals a typical milpa could support.
As per Boremanse (1998), we assumed the average Lacandon
family size as 5.3 people. In order to assess how milpa yields
changed from the first to the second year of cultivation, we
compared the crop yields from July 1 through June 30, 2014–
2015, 2015–2016, and 2016–2017. All computations were per-
formed in R (R Development Core Team 2014).
3 Results
Over the course of the project, 37 different non-timber prod-
ucts, including crops, medicinal plants, and wild game animals,
were harvested from the study milpa (see Supplementary
Material). The type and number of crops harvested from the
milpa varied from year to year. In 2014–2015, 2015–2016, and
2016–2017, 20, 24, and 29 crop species were harvested, re-
spectively (Table 1). Seventeen crops were harvested in every
year of the study. The yields of some crops, such as chayote
(Sechium edule), varied considerably from year to year, while
others, such as corn, were planted consistently and yielded
quantities that were fairly stable over the course of the study
(Figs. 2 and 3).
The multimodal temporal distribution of milpa crop and
game harvests corresponds to the distribution of milpa harvest
nutritional content (Fig. 4). Harvested milpa foods met most
of the percent DV nutritional requirements of an average-sized
Lacandon Maya family (Table 2). Over the entire study peri-
od, milpa crop DVs exceeded 530% for all nutrients except
saturated fat, cholesterol, sodium, calcium, and iodine.
Percent DVs fluctuated from year to year, but consistently
met DV requirements over all three years of the study.
A few crops and wild game species accounted for most of
the harvested nutrients (Table 3). Corn alone provided at least
half of the total calories, total fat, saturated fat, sodium, carbo-
hydrates, dietary fibre, protein, iron, zinc, and niacin obtained
from Lacandon milpas. It is essential to meet daily require-
ments for iron, zinc, and niacin (Table 4). Other crops, includ-
ing sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), plantain (Musa X
paradisiaca), and wild game species, such as paca
(Cuniculus paca) and armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) were
also necessary to supplement to ensure a balanced milpa-based
diet that includes cholesterol, vitamins A and C, and calcium.
4 Discussion
4.1 Food security and sovereignty
Intra-annual crop yields obtained from our experimental milpa
plots were inconsistent. Various crops were harvested at differ-
ent times throughout the year (e.g., sugarcane was primarily
harvested in April, while beans were mainly harvested in
 Falkowski T.B. et al.

Table 1 Total standardized quantities (kg ha−1) of crop plants and wild game harvested from a Lacandon Maya milpa annually and over the entire
duration of the study. Results show summed harvest quantities pooled from all study plots over the time period listed in column headings

Common name Scientific name Crop grouping July 2014– July 2015– July 2016– July 2014–
June 2015 June 2016 June 2017 June 2017

Crops
American nightshade Solanum americanum Fruit – 40 60 100
Beans Phaseolus vulgaris Legume/podded vegetable – 70 103.3 173.3
Chayote Sechium edule Root vegetable/Fruit 495 360 86.7 941.7
Chile Capsicum spp. Fruit – – 6.7 6.7
Chives Allium schoenoprasum Bulb 73.3 56.7 156.7 286.7
Chiwa squash (flower) Cucurbita spp. Flower 10 3.3 5.3 18.7
Chiwa squash (fruit) Cucurbita spp. Fruit – 20 46.7 66.7
Cilantro Coriandrum sativum Herb 10.3 3 14 27.3
Corn (Maize, ear) Zea mays spp. Cereal 1343.3 1663.3 1496.7 4503.3
Epazote Chenopodium ambrosiodes Herb – 0.7 5.7 6.3
Jamaica flower Hibiscus sabdariffa Flower – – 40 40
Jicama Pachyrhizus spp. Legume/Podded/Root vegetable 10 – – 10
Mustard Brassica juncea Herb – – 23.3 23.3
Onion Allium cepa Bulb 96.7 306.7 283.3 686.7
Papaya Carica papaya Fruit 450 36.7 86.7 573.3
Peanut (Groundnut) Arachis hypogaea Legume/Podded vegetable – – 23.3 23.3
Pineapple Ananas comosus Fruit 6.7 15 10 31.7
Plantain Musa X paradisiaca Fruit 1266.7 540 1086.7 2893.3
Scallions Allium fistulosum Bulb 43.3 3.3 – 46.7
Squash (flower) Cucurbita pepo Flower – – 10 10
Squash (fruit) Cucurbita pepo Fruit 220 270 560 1050
Sugarcane Saccharum officinarum Grass (stem used for sweetener) 220 553.3 536.7 1310
Sweet potato Ipomoea batatas Tuberous root vegetable 173.3 153.3 226.7 553.3
Taro Xanthosoma spp. Corm 70 66.7 90 226.7
Tomato Solanum lycopersicum Fruit 268.3 103.3 456.7 828.3
Watermelon Citrullus lanatus Fruit NA 20 20 40
Yam Dioscorea spp. Tuberous root vegetable 26.7 56.7 170 253.3
Yuca (Cassava) Manihot esculenta Tuberous root vegetable 230 300 300 830
Wild game
Agouti Dasyprocta punctata – – 16.7 – 16.7
Armadillo Dasypus novemcinctus – – – 56.7 56.7
Crab Sesarmidae spp.? – – – 26.7 26.7
Fish Tilapia family – – – 16.7 16.7
Paca Cuniculus paca – 40.0 73.3 33.3 146.7
Pocket gopher Orthogeomys hispidus – – 5.0 13.3 18.3
Raccoon Procyon lotor – – – 33.3 33.3

September and stored for later use). Most crops were harvested
seasonally on an annual basis (e.g., squash, tomato), while ani-
mals were hunted in milpas more sporadically and at several
times throughout the year. Large quantities of some crops, such
as papaya (Carica papaya), were harvested after windstorms
toppled trees and crop stalks. Corn was the most consistently
harvested crop given its dominance in the milpa. However, even
corn was commonly harvested during a particular period at the
end of the rainy season in October through December (called ka’
wi’ in Lacandon Mayan). These harvest periods primarily
depended on annual precipitation seasonality and the growth
rates of individual crop species. Hunting wild game was also
inconsistent, though it was also tied to precipitation seasonality,
crop phenology, and wildlife reproductive cycles. Fish and crabs
were only found in milpas early in the rainy season when
ephemeral streams can form in or near the milpa site.
More than just corn and calories: a comprehensive assessment of the yield and nutritional content of a traditional Lacandon Maya milpa

Fig. 2 Monthly totals of crops

harvested from all pooled
Lacandon Maya milpa plots over
the duration of the study period.
Note scale change with species.
Refer to Table 1 for a list of
common names

Fig. 3 Monthly totals of fish and
wild game animals harvested
from all pooled Lacandon Maya
milpa plots over the duration of
the study period. Note scale
change with species. Refer to
Table 1 for a list of common
names
Despite the sporadic nature of specific, individual
harvests, the nutritional content obtained from them col-
lectively were fairly stable throughout the year, indicat-
ing this agroecosystem can minimize seasonal food insecu-
rity. This stability is demonstrated by the relative constancy of
the nutritional content of milpa harvests from our experimen-
tal site compared to variability in the harvests of specific food
items. Harvest diversity ensures that even if a particular crop is
destroyed or unproductive, Lacandon farmers can still ensure
food security for their family and avoid the seasonal food
insecurity experienced by many rural smallholders who use
non-traditional methods of commodity crop cultivation in the
region. Traditional Lacandon milpas can include 50 to 100
different crop species and cultivars (Diemont 2006; Ford and
Nigh 2016; McGee 2002; Nations and Nigh 1980). This di-
versity can further increase the agroecosystem’s productive
capacity and resilience in the face of environmental variability,
thereby ensuring food security for Lacandon farmers.
Additionally, Lacandon farmers store foods for later consump-
tion during periods of low productivity, as evidenced by the
dominance and variety of corn cultivars stored (e.g., white and
red corn) planted in milpas. These results underscore the im-
portance of increasing the number of fruit trees and crop di-
versity in smallholder agroecosystems to minimize seasonal
food insecurity as suggested by Bacon et al. (2014).
Lacandon farmers generally abandon their milpas after
three to five years’ cultivation due to declining crop yields
associated with either declining soil fertility or increasing
weed encroachment. However, we did not observe any con-
clusive interannual declines in productivity in our milpa plots
over the three years of the study. Yields changed differently
over time depending on the crop. Chayote was the only crop
which declined continuously from year to year. Other crop
yields, such as corn and taro (Xanthosoma spp.), remained
relatively stable over the study period. Other yields, such as
Falkowski T.B. et al.
for papaya, plantain, and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) os-
cillated inter-annually. Finally, the yields of some crops, in-
cluding beans and yams (Dioscorea spp.), increased continu-
ously. Regardless of these inter-annual changes in crop yields,
milpa harvests consistently provided enough nutrients to en-
sure food security for Lacandon farmers and their families,
thereby demonstrating this agroecosystem’s resilience.
The constant yields may have been a result of our intense
management of a small experimental site, which would be
difficult to maintain in a larger milpa, or due to the fact that
we only observed three years of cultivation, which may be
insufficient to reduce soil fertility at the site. We did
not directly relate yield data to biophysical variables,
including soil fertility, the number of each crop planted,
and climate. Finally, while Lacandon milpa management
may maintain the productive capacity of a site for up to
five years, non-traditional milpa management, which re-
places labour inputs with herbicides, tends to permit
only a maximum of three years of cultivation in a given
plot before ruderal herbaceous vegetation outcompetes
annual crops (Nigh and Diemont 2013).
Our measures of corn yields were within an order of mag-
nitude of previous estimates, further corroborating these his-
torical findings concerning Maya milpa productivity. On the
low end, Cowgill (1960) reported yields of 855 kg ha−1 in
Petén lowland smallholder milpas. Alternatively, Nations
and Nigh (1980) reported yields as high as 2800 kg ha−1 in
Lacandon Maya milpas. Our findings more closely corrobo-
rated the findings of Redfield and Villa Rojas (1962),
Schwartz (2015), and Villa Rojas (1945), who reported milpa
yields of 1144, 1700, and 1358 kg of corn per hectare, respec-
tively. Corn yields alone could meet the caloric needs for 6.6
people even though we observed a mean yield of
1500 kg ha−1, which appears to be well below the maximum
yield capacity of a traditional Lacandon Maya milpa.
More than just corn and calories: a comprehensive assessment of the yield and nutritional content of a traditional Lacandon Maya milpa

Fig. 4 Monthly nutrient totals

obtained from all harvested crops
pooled from all Lacandon Maya
milpa plots over the duration of
the study. Note scale change with
nutrient. Iodine is not shown
because all values were zero.
Vitamin A contents for harvested
Solanum americanum were
outliers and therefore not included
in the figure
 Falkowski T.B. et al.

Table 2 Mean fraction (as

percentage) of daily requirements Nutrient 2014–2015 2015–2016 2016–2017 2014–2017
for an individual generated by a
typical 2.33 ha Lacandon Maya Calories 2052 2185 2534 2257
milpa as extrapolated from our Total fat 571 670 1013 751
study plots. Results show mean Saturated fat 320 349 677 449
percentage daily values pooled
from all study plots over the time Cholesterol 68 163 299 177
period listed in column headings. Sodium 181 204 239 208
A value of 100 means the Carbohydrates 3039 3082 3472 3198
nutritional content of milpa
Fiber 3603 3746 4397 3915
harvests fully meets the daily
requirements of an individual as Sugar 3752 2479 3805 3346
per the United States Food & Protein 1823 2332 2793 2316
Drug Administration (i.e., a value Vitamin A (with S. americanum) 6697 174,986 263,833 148,505
of 530 is needed to meet the
nutritional requirements of a Vitamin A (without S. americanum) 6697 4758 8490 6648
typical Lacandon family) Vitamin C 8010 3904 7415 6443
Calcium 336 395 593 442
Iron 1573 1849 2163 1862
Iodine 0 0 0 0
Zinc 1348 1592 1739 1560
Niacin 1884 2104 2409 2133

Table 3 Primary food sources of

nutrients provided by Lacandon Nutrient Food Quantity of Percent of total harvest
Maya milpa harvests. The listed each nutrient quantity for each nutrient
foods collectively contributed up
to 50% of nutritional content of Total calories (kcal) Zea mays 3,698,363 58.11
the total milpa harvest over the Total fat (g) Zea mays 48,028 69.73
entirety of the study period for Saturated fat (g) Zea mays 6758 53.37
each of the respectively listed
nutrients (unless one crop Cholesterol (mg) Cuniculus paca 35,640 47.50
represents more than 50% of Dasypus novemcinctus 12,580 16.77
nutritional contribution, in which Sodium (mg) Zea mays 354,637 50.26
only that crop is listed). The total
Carbohydrates (g) Zea mays 752,439 55.63
quantity of each nutrient these
crops provided over the duration Dietary fiber (g) Zea mays 73,967 53.59
of the study is listed (in the Sugar (g) Musa X paradisiaca 130,200 55.19
corresponding units for each Protein (g) Zea mays 95,448 58.44
nutrient which are noted in
parenthesis in the first column). Vitamin A (with Solanum americanum 999,999,990 95.52
The percentage this accounted for S. americanum) (IU)
in the total nutritional content of Vitamin A (without Ipomoea batatas 23,550,420 50.25
the milpa harvest is noted in the S. americanum) (IU)
rightmost column. Because Vitamin C (mg) Musa X paradisiaca 159,712 29.30
Solanum americanum contributed Carica papaya 104,748 19.22
an overwhelming majority of the Cucurbita spp. 60,795 11.15
Vitamin A content provided by Calcium (mg) Zea mays 70,927 11.38
Lacandon milpas, we also
presented the second highest Cucurbita spp. 66,150 10.61
contributor (Ipomoea batatas) as Phaseolus vulgaris 63,960 10.26
well Solanum americanum 63,000 10.10
Ipomoea batatas 49,800 7.98
Iron (mg) Zea mays 27,459 58.10
Zinc (mg) Zea mays 22,393 67.87
Niacin (mg) Zea mays 36,750 61.10
More than just corn and calories: a comprehensive assessment of the yield and nutritional content of a traditional Lacandon Maya milpa

Table 4 Mean fraction (as percentage) of daily requirements for an diverse nutritional profile of traditional Lacandon milpa har-
individual provided by all food except Z. mays obtained from a typical
vests suggest that diets derived from traditional Lacandon
2.33 ha Lacandon Maya milpa as extrapolated from our study plots
annually and over the entire duration of the study. Results show mean milpas may be more deficient in saturated fat, calcium, cho-
percent daily values pooled from all study plots over the time period listed lesterol, sodium, and iodine as opposed to the zinc and niacin
in column headings. A value of 100 means the nutritional content of milpa deficiencies typical of rural populations in the broader
harvests fully meets the daily requirements of an individual as per the
Lacandon region of Chiapas reported by Rosado et al.
United States Food & Drug Administration (i.e., a value of 530 is needed
to meet the nutritional requirements of a typical Lacandon family). The (1995). However, there have not been any empirical assess-
rightmost column lists the percent change from the milpa harvest results ments of the nutritional health of Lacandon Maya populations
in Table 2 if corn was not included in the totals to assess this. Even so, these deficiencies can be overcome by
Nutrient 2014–2017 Percent change from additional foods provided by the other stages in Lacandon
total milpa harvest agroforests, which likely complement nutritionally those
obtained from the milpa.
Calories 946 −58.06 Lacandon traditional ecological management extends into
Total fat 228 −69.64 later fallow stages with farmers continuing to manage and
Saturated fat 210 −53.23 harvest timber and non-timber forest products from secondary
Cholesterol 177 0 and primary forest stages (Naranjo et al. 2004; Nations and
Sodium 104 −50.00 Nigh 1980). For instance, milpa harvests tended to be defi-
Carbohydrates 1419 −55.63 cient in saturated fat, which is unsurprising given that harvests
Fiber 1817 −53.59 are largely plants in the milpa. We included animals hunted in
Sugar 3254 −2.75 milpas, increasing the percent DV of total and saturated fat.
Protein 963 −58.42 Lacandon farmers hunt granivores in milpas primarily to de-
Vitamin A (with 148,198 −0.21 fend their crops, but also plant particular trees that attract game
S. americanum) species. However, most hunting occurs in the uncultivated
Vitamin A (without 6341 −4.62
S. americanum)
secondary forest plots of Lacandon agroforests. Using profits
Vitamin C 6443 0 made by selling surplus crops at local markets, farmers also
Calcium 392 −11.31 purchase cooking oils to supplement their saturated fat intake.
Iron 780 −58.11 The historic Lacandon likely overcame iodine deficiencies by
Iodine 0 0 consuming freshwater fish and eggs. Modern Lacandon can
Zinc 501 −67.88 supplement this additionally using iodized salt (Haldimann
Niacin 830 −61.09 et al. 2005).
Although only 2.33 ha of milpa are required to support
most of the nutritional needs of Lacandon smallholder fami-
lies (i.e. 0.44 ha/person), at least 28 ha are needed to allow for
Similarly, our measurements of other milpa crop continuous milpa cultivation assuming a full 60 year fallow
yields tended to be commensurate with previously ob- cycle is maintained and milpas are actively managed for five
served quantities. We observed average annual bean har- years. All of this can be maintained by a single farmer and
vests of 86.7 kg ha−1, which was more than Arias Reyes their family because most active management takes place in
(1995) and Teran and Rasmussen (2009), who only observed early successional stages (i.e., milpa). Furthermore, assuming
11 and 51 kg ha−1, respectively, but an order of magnitude a total Lacandon Maya population of 734 individuals (based
lower than Cowgill (1961), who measured a mean bean har- on population estimates provided by Kashanipour and McGee
vest of 747 kg ha−1. Whereas we observed a mean annual (2004) and Ross (2002)), we calculate that approximately
squash harvest of 372.2 kg ha−1, Cowgill 1961 observed 3872 ha of agroforests are needed to sustain the current
1000 kg ha−1. This wide variability is likely a function of Lacandon Maya population, with 323 ha devoted to milpa
individual farmers’ management choices. We observed that, cultivation at any given time. This estimate accounts for ap-
while nearly all milpas were dominated by corn, the preva- proximately 6% of the Lacandon Community Zone. Even
lence of other crops (e.g., tobacco, sweet potato, tree crops, including non-Lacandon residents in our calculations, increas-
etc.) differed markedly among milpas, even within our ing regional population estimates to 16,879 (as per Calleros-
experimental system managed by one farmer. Rodríguez (2014)), the land necessary for agroforestry
The milpa is the most intensively-managed Lacandon (89,172 ha) is still far less than the total area of the
Maya agroforestry stage. It is also likely the most productive Lacandon Community Zone. By comparison, Ford and Nigh
in terms of crop yields. Our study demonstrated that nearly all (2016) estimated that approximately 0.3 ha of milpa needed be
of the nutritional requirements of Lacandon Maya families can cultivated to support a single Lacandon. De Jong et al. (2000)
be met with milpa management. Our observations of the calculated that agricultural land cover accounted for 668 ha of

Lacandon territory in 1996, but this total does not include
secondary agroforest cover, which was listed as secondary
forest and shrubs. They found that this land cover occupied
18,943 ha of the Lacandon territory. Our estimate is very
rough, and assumes no primary forest is maintained, manage-
ment of a given milpa is maintained for a full five years with-
out fail and successional agroforestry sequences occur on
60 year cycles exactly. However, it underscores the potential
role this agroecosystem can play in addressing food insecurity
and mitigating the rapid land use change occurring in the
Chiapan Lacandon Rainforest, both of which are associated
with a burgeoning population. The Lacandon Rainforest re-
gion’s total population grew from 12,000 in 1960 to over
300,000 in 1996 (Homer-Dixon 1996). However, mature for-
est cover in the region declined by 31% from 1976 to 1996,
while agricultural land cover increased by 21% over the same
time period (De Jong et al. 2000).
In addition to ensuring food security, it is also important to
consider traditional milpa management’s role in providing
food sovereignty. While food security addresses meeting basic
nutritional requirements without necessarily being concerned
with the nature or origin of the food, food sovereignty empha-
sizes Bthe right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropri-
ate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable
methods, and their right to define their own food and agricul-
ture systems^ (Nyéléni 2007). For Lacandon Maya farmers,
milpa cultivation is more than an activity to procure food. It is
part of a cultural script passed down over centuries from gen-
eration to generation that fundamentally defines, enacts, and
reinforces their identities and relationships with the other
members of their ecological and social communities (de
Frece and Poole 2008). Furthermore, it is said that Maya Bdo
not make milpa to live, but live to make milpa^ (McGee
2002). Maya cosmology is interwoven into milpa manage-
ment, thus making milpa a spiritual act or sacred duty, com-
memorating their creation (de Frece and Poole 2008; McGee
2002). It also provides them with culturally-important foods
that permeate their diets and traditions. For example,
according to Maya legend, their ancestors were made
from corn (Bassie-Sweet 2000), which is also one of
the central crops in the milpa and provides most of
the nutritional content they need. Thus, Lacandon TEK
is important to the cultural integrity of Maya communi-
ties and the ecological integrity of Mexican tropical
lowland ecosystems and explains why many have vehe-
mently opposed development efforts to increase the pro-
ductivity of their agroecosystems using methods that are
incongruent with traditional management (de Frece and
Poole 2008).
Despite their value, various socioeconomic pressures are
disincentivizing traditional Maya milpa management. For ex-
ample, the Chiapan government is offering payments to cease
traditional burning practices given the assumption that this
Falkowski T.B. et al.
land use change emits carbon and contributes to climate
change (Alexandrova et al. 2014; Nigh and Diemont 2013).
Intergenerational knowledge transfer is also being disrupted as
young people begin to forgo learning about traditional agro-
ecological management in favor of working in the burgeoning
service industries that tourists demand (McGee 2002).
4.2 Limitations
Using a case study approach allowed us to thoroughly and
comprehensively quantify the full range of foods harvested
from our experimental site. However, it also prevents us from
drawing far-reaching conclusions regarding the productivity
of Lacandon milpa agroecosystems at large, as we could not
account for variability in productivity resulting from differ-
ences in management and local environmental conditions.
Further work is necessary to determine whether the yields of
other Lacandon milpas are similar to those we observed.
Additionally, our study was limited to a Lacandon-
managed milpa. Milpa is a term broadly used to characterize
maize-dominated small-scale Mesoamerican agroecosystems
which are cultivated by nearly 2 million households and cover
approximately 6 million ha (Bellon et al. 2014). The conclu-
sions we draw regarding the sustainability and viability of
Lacandon agroforestry are not necessarily applicable to these
other forms of milpa management. For example, Ford and
Nigh (2016) noted a more than three-fold difference between
the maize yields harvested from milpas managed by Maya
groups in different regions of Mesoamerica, with Lacandon
Maya milpas being the most productive. Additionally, Collier
and Quaratiello (2005) argued that the milpa management of
smallholders (many of whom are indigenous to other regions
of Chiapas or Mexico themselves) who settled in the
Lacandon Rainforest region in the latter half of the twentieth
century and make up a majority of the local population, is
better adapted to the more fertile soils and milder weather of
their previous lands as opposed to the nutrient-poor, weath-
ered soils and intense climate of the tropical lowland moist
forest in south-eastern Chiapas. Finally, the Lacandon Maya
have stable land tenure and a large amount of land relative to
their population, contrasting with the often tenuous land ten-
ure (the government is threatening many communities that
settled within the borders of what has since become the
Montes Azules Biosphere Reserve with relocation) and rela-
tively limited land accessible to non-Lacandon smallholders
(Collier and Quaratiello 2005; Weinberg 2002). All these fac-
tors may contribute to food insecurity among the diverse and
numerous rural smallholders in the Lacandon Rainforest
region.
The nutritional information we analysed was primarily de-
rived from unprocessed, raw foods. However, Lacandon
Maya prepare and cook most of the crop products and meats
we considered. While processing can make some nutrients in
More than just corn and calories: a comprehensive assessment of the yield and nutritional content of a traditional Lacandon Maya milpa
some foodstuffs available for humans, it can also reduce their
total nutritional content. For instance, much of the corn, which
contributes a majority of the total nutritional content of all
milpa yields, is field corn. This field corn is nixtamalized,
decreasing its B vitamin content and raising the bioavailability
of niacin and calcium (Pappa et al. 2010). Corn is subsequent-
ly processed into cornmeal for traditional foods such as torti-
llas, tamales, and pozol. Furthermore, we assumed none of the
harvested food was lost to spoilage and the total harvested
mass was edible (except in the case of corn, with harvested
mass that we converted to edible mass based on empirical data
from Atran et al. (1993)). These assumptions overestimated
the total available nutritional content of milpa harvests.
However, even assuming that half of the nutritional content
of harvested foods is lost during processing, this still ensures
sufficient caloric, carbohydrate, fiber, sugar, protein, vitamin
A, vitamin C, iron, zinc, and niacin content for an average-
sized Lacandon Maya family.
While most milpas are approximately 2.33 ha in size, the
total area of our experimental plots was only 0.3 ha. As a
result, we extrapolated our findings to a larger area. Many
agricultural systems tend to have yield economies of scale.
That is, the financial and labour costs required to maintain
larger cultivated areas tend to decrease and eventually plateau
with increasing area (Duffy 2009). As a result, it may be that
larger milpas may be even more efficient in producing high
crop yields than the data we extrapolated and report here.
However, traditional agroecosystems, like those of the
Lacandon, are unlikely to benefit significantly from econo-
mies of scale because they do not utilize external or energy-
intensive inputs. They do this in part for practical reasons,
namely that their diverse polycultures and knowledge-
intense form of management preclude the use of large machin-
ery. They also recognize that increasing the size of their milpas
would either increase the amount of labour they would need to
exert or force them to utilize technologies and management
strategies that may reduce the resilience and health of their
agroecosystems. Many traditional farmers are opposed to such
changes because their subsistence depends upon the sustain-
ability of their land management methods, which rely upon
detailed and extensive traditional ecological knowledge as
opposed to external energy inputs (Falkowski et al. 2015).
Therefore, our results may not underestimate the yield
per unit area of Lacandon milpas due to the small size
of our experimental plots.
While size of our plots may not influence crop yield per
unit area, our plots probably suffered edge effects, despite the
buffer zones we cleared around them. Our milpa plots were
cultivated on a plot of land surrounded by secondary forest.
This forest shaded the milpas, provided habitat for animals
which may have eaten crops and themselves been hunted,
and acted as a seed source for plants that competed with crops.
Such edge effects are inherent to Lacandon milpas because
they are cultivated within a larger landscape matrix including
agroforest, secondary forest and primary forest patches.
However, because our multiple plots were separated, their
total perimeter length (500 m) was greater than it would be
for a single, continuous plot of the same area (89.44 m). Thus,
our observations may have underestimated the yields per hect-
are of an actual equivalently-sized milpa.
5 Conclusions
These results underscore the importance of considering a
range of crops and nutrients in quantifying the productivity
of traditional agroecosystems. Future studies should avoid
assessments that overlook the importance of diversity to these
systems’ function and viability. While corn is a dominant crop
in milpas and an essential nutrient source for Lacandon
farmers’ families, other crops are essential for maintaining
food security, food sovereignty, and the resilience of the
agroecosystem. In the case of the Lacandon Maya, future
work could quantify the foods harvested from secondary for-
ests to determine whether they complement the nutritional
deficiencies associated with an entirely milpa-based diet.
Our findings show that the traditional agroecosystem man-
agement of the Lacandon can ensure food security for their
families. Rather than be discounted as a cause of poverty for
rural smallholders, traditional milpa management should be
celebrated as a valuable land management system that sustains
their livelihoods. The diversity of milpas may preclude indus-
trial intensification in this agroecosystem, but it ensures resil-
ience and adaptability in the face of environmental and eco-
nomic uncertainty.
It is important to note that traditional Maya milpa manage-
ment provides other ecosystem services than food provision,
including supporting services such as habitat for diverse bio-
logical communities, regulating services such as pollination
and soil fertility, and cultural ecosystem services such as sense
of place and education. Thus, Lacandon TEK is an important
example of sustainable socioecological management.
However, this important TEK will be lost if its value is not
fully recognized by land managers, government agencies, and
scientists alike.
Acknowledgements We thank the members of the Lacandon Maya com-
munity of Lacanja Chansayab, Chiapas, Mexico for their openness and
patience. National Science Foundation Award 1231334 awarded to PI
Stewart Diemont and National Geographic Society Award 71235
awarded to PI Tomasz Falkowski partially funded this work.
Compliance with ethical standards
Conflict of interest The authors declared that they have no financial
conflict of interest. One of the authors, Adolfo Chankin, is a Lacandon
Maya farmer.

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1016/j.fcr.2012.10.007.

Stewart Diemont is an Associate
Professor in the Department of
Environmental and Forest
Biology at the State University
o f N e w Yo r k , C o l l e g e o f
Environmental Science and
Forestry, where he teaches
courses on ecosystem restoration,
ecological modelling, and sustain-
able design. He holds degrees in
anthropology, environmental sci-
ence, and ecological engineering.
Dr. Diemont’s research is at the
intersection of human and natural
systems. He works with
Mesoamerican village communities to better understand how traditional
ecological knowledge can contribute to resilient ecosystem design. He
considers ecosystems in a multidisciplinary manner, looking at plant and
bird communities, soil health, system energetics, and human use. He has
applied this approach to urban and rural systems in the US and Latin
America, focusing often on the intertwining of food systems and ecosys-
tem restoration.
Falkowski T.B. et al.
Robert W. Pedian received his
B.S. in Conservation Biology at
the State University of New York
Environmental Science and
Forestry in Syracuse, NY. He has
a minor in Native Peoples and the
Environment and is interested in
the interface between humans
and their local environment. He
has spent the past two years
researching traditional Lacandon
Maya agroforestry in Chiapas,
Mexico. He is interested in how
this traditional ecological knowl-
edge system and others around
the world are adapting to climate change and how the mutual collabora-
tion between these knowledge holders and western scientists can help
solve the environmental issues of today.