OpenGeofiction
Agricultural landuse patterns for central Kojo (Advice needed)
Posted by Leowezy on 13 October 2016 in English.After seeing more and more great posts on here about the work people are inspired to by Luciano’s current challenge, I stepped back for one second and thought about why I haven’t had the motivation to go along with this month’s challenge. I realised the reason was pretty simple; I have no realistic, well thought-out vision for how exactly agriculture in (central) Kojo is supposed to look like.
A short disclaimer in the beginning; to the north, in more mountainous areas, I’m slowly developing a more realistic land coverage, and I imagine agriculture there to focus mostly on cattle and hay (if any), and in the eastern portion, though relatively flat, I also mostly envision quite dense forest coverage. The complete western half of the country is a story on it’s own, as I’ll try to shape it into a mix of very sparely populated, not very fertile grassland, prairie, heath etc… if you have any advice on that as well, your comments are of course very welcome ;) On the coasts I haven’t really gotten to anything agricultural yet, but I think I will have many real life examples for the swampy river delta area around Jaka (looking at you, Netherlands!) and the rest should work out with the respective hinterland.
What I’m really struggling with however is the central, densely populated part of the country. For example, when I mapped some fields around Rō, really the only thing I could come up with was looking at how big farms in central and western Europe are (since I want Kojo to have an “old-world”, non-griddy character) and then randomly assigning all kinds of crops. It looks “good” as a “background” for the city, but doesn’t really tell a story.
Looking at this climate chart I should try to stay vaguely in between Chicago and Atlanta climate wise; if I remember correctly that map was purposefully a bit “off” of real world values, as too many countries would’ve found themselves in a way to hot climate, and instead gives more space to temperate climate zones. At 35° North Kojo would be on one height with northern Africa or central Japan, so either a very hot and dry or a humid subtropical climate.
Now, looking around Atlanta (I consider Chicago to be somewhat too continental, I think it would be too far of a stretch to have regular snow fall in central Kojo), I don’t really understand what I see there on real world OSM. Of course, no offense to anyone living there, I’m sure it makes a lot more sense to you, but I’m looking at it and just don’t see how I can (or should) transfer these patterns. Perhaps the topology is different.
So, to bring this unconnected rambling to an end; I’m in desperate need for tips on what agriculture in central Kojo is likely to look like. The area is rather fertile, especially along the rivers, although I don’t think hyper fertile loam would have been carried that far south during a glacial period. The area receives more and steadier rainfall than say a Mediterranean country, but is warmer than central and probably western Europe. However it’s not tropical yet. It’s not a “new-world” country, and plot sizes and arrangements are rather irregular. Population density during medieval ages would have been comparatively high, leading to an intense degree of land usage, untouched areas basically don’t exist. On a last note; I really like that some users (most notably one already mentioned in this diary) come up with “new”, original agricultural practices adapted to their nations’ climate and culture. However, since Kojo is a continental nation, I don’t think it would make sense for an isolated agricultural practice to be invented there (and only there), and then stay there without spreading throughout large parts of Uletha.
Please help xD
Discussion
Comment from Ūdilugbulgidħū on 13 October 2016 at 22:51
So, I’m slightly confused. Are you not thinking of something like Japan? That is an old-world country, 35 degrees latitude (but there are areas further north that are cooler), with a fairly maritime climate and areas of agriculture around strongly urbanised centres? If you’re not finding the information in OSM, what about having a look at places in google earth where vegetation cover is easier to see - even if you can’t identify exactly what the landuse is.
Comment from Portopolis on 13 October 2016 at 23:26
i am personally going to start blasting my country with rice farms along densely populated river delta’s throughout Hoppon. I feel like following Vietnams model (Look at the major river deltas) and having high density of farms around cities and rivers could give you an Idea. https://www.google.com/search?q=rice+terrace+farming&newwindow=1&espv=2&rlz=1C1CAFA_enUS614US615&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiT8NC59tjPAhWFOT4KHSBNC1wQ_AUICCgB&biw=1680&bih=944
I would personally try to emulate this sort of growth in a few areas. One major thing is out here in Texas we have very large farms unlike third world countries. How is your farming Industry, If you have read books like Fast Food Nation farming is heavily controlled by large corporations. I want Hoppon to be a mix of Large Corporations (10%) buying up some regions and then 1000’s of small farm areas in other regions untouched by corporate power (90%).
Comment from Leowezy on 14 October 2016 at 10:24
@udi, I think Kojo wouldn’t be AS tropical as Japan is; as mentioned, with the current climate “consensus” everything is slightly tweaked towards a slightly more temperate climate. Following your advice I’ve just taken a look at northern Honshu (around Hirosaki); I see mostly green rice and vegetable fields, mostly rectangular and in regular structures of up to a kilometer each. Now I’m sure I can come up with different patterns I like more, but in the end it boils down to the question whether rice would actually grow here? I feel like Kojo would be way to dry. Perhaps I could have a wide band of rice paddies along the rivers, and in the back there would be vegetables and wheat?
@Portopolis I think that’s the absolutely most realistic approach for Hoppon you could go for; compared to Kojo Hoppon is about 6° further south and way more exposed to wet ocean currents. Again, I’m just not sure whether the climate in Kojo could support a strong dominance of rice…
Comment from Ūdilugbulgidħū on 14 October 2016 at 11:13
In terms of rice cultivation you can have dry ‘upland’ rice as well as paddyfield rice, I think? And even in drier areas you can have rice paddy cultivation - with irrigation. Perhaps these rivers running from the mountains played a big part in agriculture in the past, and you could look at something cooler and more continental, like northern China rather than Japan.
So I’m sure you could feasibly grow rice if you wanted. It might more depend on how you want to set out your history. Rice cultivation could give you a long cultural connection. Wheat, barley and perhaps potatoes and maize might be more agricultural developments you could build into your country’s more recent history.
Comment from Leowezy on 14 October 2016 at 11:35
I think I’ll go with this idea of rivers playing a big role in irrigation then, that will make for some interesting land use patterns. Maybe the advent of some of the crops you mentioned would have actually played an important part in early Kojolese history, as it would give the territories with no access to the rivers the means of a much higher food output… much to think about, I’ll need to see when these crops were first used in my neighbouring countries.