What did farmers have to do in ancient Maya?

Answer 1

The three regions the ancient Maya lived in were very different from each other. The southern/central lowlands were covered with tropical rainforest. Rainforests do not have rich soil. This made it harder for the Maya to grow food there.

Maya farmers used a method called slash and burnbefore they began planting crops. Slash and burn farming was a lot of hard work for Maya farmers. First, the farmer cut down all the trees in the area he wanted to plant crops in. Cutting down the trees was the "slash part" of the slash and burn farming method.

Next, he burned the tree stumps, and the trees he had cut down. The ashes from the fires mixed with the soil. The ashes made the soil rich, or fertile. Fertile means good for growing things.

After this, the farmers planted seeds in the soil and waited for their crops to grow. The crops they grew included maize (corn), squash, beans, chili peppers, and cacao (cocoa), which is used to make chocolate.

Farmers in the highlands used the slash and burn farming method, also. There were forests in the highlands, but they were not tropical rainforests. This is because the highlands were drier than the southern/central lowlands. They were drier because there are not many rivers or swamps in them. The southern/central lowlands have rivers running through them, and many swamps. The lowlands receive a large amount of rain - sometimes up to 160 inches of rain in one year!