milpa

[ mil-puh ]

noun

1. (in certain tropical regions) a tract of land cleared from the jungle, usually by burning, farmed for a few seasons, and then abandoned.

Word History and Origins

Origin of milpa¹

1835–45, Americanism; < Mexican Spanish < Nahuatl mīlpan, equivalent to mīl ( li ) cultivated field + -pan locative suffix

Example Sentences

One is a giant monoculture Iowa farm, and the other is the milpa, this polyculture system that was the way corn was grown during its rise in Mesoamerica.

From Los Angeles Times

What attracted us to the milpa was not just this romantic ideal of ancient wisdom.

From Los Angeles Times

In the tropical lowlands of Mexico and Central America, Indigenous Maya farmers have been practicing milpa agriculture for thousands of years.

From Salon

Milpa farmers adapted to drought by gently steering forest ecology through controlled burns and careful woodland conservation.

From Salon

The knowledge of milpa farming empowered many rural farmers to navigate climate changes during the notorious Maya Collapse – two centuries of political disintegration and urban depopulation between A.D.

From Salon