The ancient secret of Amazonian Terra Preta

Terra Preta. A fine example of self-sustainable agriculture with highly sofisticated soil management developed by native cultures. Is this knowledge all lost?

There is a region in the Amazon basin that has hectares of a type of soil that doesn’t lose fertility and it’s manmade, pre-Columbian actually. This dark soil is surrounded by sterile soil typical of the rainforest area. In this soil are remains of unfired clay pottery chards, fish bones, slow-burnt vegetable debris converted to charcoal, animal manures and high levels of soil microorganism activity including micorizzhae. The soil rich in hummus would not leach nutrients and also seems to stay stable over hundreds of years. Could disease brought to America by Europeans wipe out the elder generations causing the knowledge of the amazonic terra preta to be lost?

Half a century later we are re-discovering the agricultural value of BioChar and it's carbon sequestering properties. BioChar made by pyrolisis (combustion of biomass in absence of oxigen) yields a material very similar to Terra Preta.

Pre-Columbian Indians in the Americas made amazing contributions in agriculture and also breed some of the most important crops of the world like corn, potato, tomato, peppers, cocoa bean, sunflower, peanuts and beans. In North America they developed methods like the Iroquois 3-sisters system , the invention by the Incas of cultivating in terraces and raise beds that have proven over time not only to be very productive techniques of agriculture but water conservation and erosion control. They could have discovered the secrets of self-sustainable agriculture and the Terra Preta remains as silent proof waiting for it's secret to be unlocked.