Agrarian System of the Wayana (French Guyana)

Cassava: A high varietal diversity for a species of major importance in Amerindian culture

Many crop and multiple varieties of each crop are cultivated within a parcel, supporting both intraspecific and interspecific diversity. This strategy of minimizing risk by cultivating a diversity of crops and varieties in space and time enhances harvest security and promotes diet diversity.

The central crop of the farming system is cassava (Manihot esculenta), followed by sweet potato (Ipomea batatas). Many other plants are also cultivated, for instance: banana (Musa sapientum), sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum), maize (Zea mays), yam (Dioscorea trifida, D. bulbifera), water melon (Citrillus lanatus) and several Cucurbitaceae, cotton (Gossypium barbadense), pineapple (Ananas comosus), dasheen (Colocasia antiquorum), cocoyam (Xanthosoma sp.), lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus) and cucumber (Cucumis sativus).

The Wayana have used and conserved many cultivars of cassava and, to a lesser extent, of sweet potato. During household surveys, respectively 70 and 13 different cultivars have been named. Cassava is at the root of food consumption and products stemmed from processing are numerous, as cassava (a sort of “pancake” used like bread), couac (flour), tapioca (to make sauce) or cachiri (beer). Cachiri, made from cassava mixed with sweet potato, is a drink of fundamental importance in Wayana culture. There are several types of cachiri depending on the varieties of cassava and sweet potato used. The diversity of product processing is based on diversity of species and cultivars, and therefore the associated cultural practices and knowledge system in many ways sustain this high varietal diversity.

Inter-relations between the cultivated area and adjacent ecosystem as a single agro-ecosystem

A number of ecological interactions and ecosystem properties emerge from such diversified spatial and temporal crop arrangements. In enhancing plant diversity in the cultivated area, the system provides alternative habitat and food sources for many organisms that perform various beneficial ecological functions. In the same way, agricultural-natural ecosystem interfaces are of key significance and general ecological services are accrued by natural vegetation growing near the cultivated plot. Many plants within or around traditional cropping systems are wild or weedy relatives of crops. In fact, farmers often favoured certain weeds in or around their fields that may have positive effects on soil and crops such as soil improvement and pest repellents, or that serve as food, medicines, ceremonial items, etc.

Many indigenous peoples of the America's are highly integrated in their surrounding environment of which they feel they are part. There is a very close relationship between humans and nature. In the same way, there is not a clear frontier between domesticated and wild, between cultivated area and forest surrounding. For instance, fallow areas are visited many years after abandoning them, to collect products (for instance fruits, or cassava tubers for more recent fallow) and plant material (in situ conservation of cassava genetic resources). They are sometimes also planted with fruit trees to attract game for hunting. On the other hand, wild plants in the forest are sometimes favored in order to enhance production of non wood forest products (fruits, bark or leave for medicinal use, etc.) for further gathering.

Clearly, traditional agriculture commonly encompasses the multiple uses of both natural and artificial ecosystems, thus it appears that crop production plots and adjacent ecosystems are de facto integrated into a single ingenious agro-ecosystem.