{"id":166743,"date":"2025-01-07T10:24:53","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T15:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/?p=166743"},"modified":"2025-01-07T10:24:53","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T15:24:53","slug":"growing-corn-in-the-desert-no-irrigation-required","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernfarmer.com\/2025\/01\/growing-corn-in-the-desert-no-irrigation-required\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing Corn in the Desert, No Irrigation Required"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was originally published by Reasons to be Cheerful<\/a>, and is reprinted with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n

When Michael Kotutwa Johnson goes out to the acreage behind his stone house to harvest his corn, his fields look vastly different from the endless rows of corn you see in much of rural North America. Bundled in groups of five or six, his corn stalks shoot out of the sandy desert in bunches, resembling bushels rather than tightly spaced rows. \u201cWe don\u2019t do your typical 14-inch spaced rows,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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Kotutwa Johnson with a harvested ear of Hopi white corn. Courtesy of Michael Kotutwa Johnson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Instead, Kotutwa Johnson, an enrolled member of the Hopi tribe, practices the Hopi tradition he learned from his grandfather on the Little Colorado River Plateau near Kykotsmovi Village in northeastern Arizona, a 90-minute drive from Flagstaff: \u201cIn spring, we plant eight to 10 corn kernels and beans per hole, further apart, so the clusters all stand together against the elements and preserve the soil moisture.\u201d For instance, high winds often blow sand across the barren plateau. \u201cThis year was a pretty hot and dry year, but still, some of the crops I raised did pretty well,\u201d he says with a satisfied smile. \u201cIt\u2019s a good year for squash, melons and beans. I\u2019ll be able to propagate these.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dry farming has been a Hopi tradition for several millennia. Kotutwa Johnson might build some protection for his crops with desert brush or cans to shield them from the wind, but his plants thrive without any fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, mulch or irrigation. This is all the more impressive since his area usually gets less than 10 inches of rain per year.<\/p>\n

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Hopi corn fields look vastly different from the tight rows typically seen across North America. Courtesy of Michael Kotutwa Johnson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the era of climate change, the practice of dry farming is met with growing interest from scientists and researchers as farmers grapple with\u00a0droughts<\/a>\u00a0and unpredictable weather patterns. For instance, the\u00a0Dry Farming Institute<\/a>\u00a0in Oregon lists a dozen farms it partners with, growing anything from tomatoes to zucchini. However, Oregon has wet winters, with an annual rainfall of over 30 inches, whereas on the plateau in Arizona, Johnson\u2019s crops get less than a third of that. Farmers in Mexico, the Middle East, Argentina, Southern Russia and Ukraine all have experimented with dry farming, relying on natural rainfall, though conditions and practices vary in each region.<\/p>\n

For Kotutwa Johnson, it\u2019s a matter of faith and experience. Between April and June, he checks the soil moisture to determine which crops to plant and how deep. He uses the traditional wooden Hopi planting stick like his ancestors, because preserving the top soil by not tilling is part of the practice. \u201cWe don\u2019t need moisture meters or anything like that,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe plant everything deep, for instance, the corn goes 18 inches deep, depending on where the seeds will find moisture,\u201d relying on the humidity from the melted winter snow and annual monsoon rains in June.<\/p>\n

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full_link<\/a><\/p>\n
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READ MORE<\/p>\n

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Sweet corn is on a decades-long decline.<\/p>\n

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His harvest looks unique, too. \u201cWe know 24 varieties of indigenous corn,\u201d he says, showing off kernels in indigo blue, purple red, snow white, and yellow. His various kinds of lima and pinto beans shimmer in white, brown, merlot red and mustard yellow.\u00a0Studies<\/a>\u00a0have shown that indigenous maize is more nutritious, richer in protein and minerals than conventional corn, and he hopes to confirm similar results with his own crops in his role as professor at the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Arizona, and as a core faculty member with the fledgling\u00a0Indigenous Resilience Center<\/a>,\u00a0which focuses on researching resilient solutions for Indigenous water, food and energy independence. He earned a PhD in natural resources, focusing on Indigenous agricultural resilience, not least to \u201chave a seat at the table and level the playing field, so mainstream stakeholders can really hear me,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m not here to be the token Native; I\u2019m here to help.\u201d For instance, he attended COP 28, the 2023 United Nations climate change conference in Dubai, to share his knowledge about \u201cthe reciprocal relationship with our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not here to be the token Native; I\u2019m here to help.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kotutwa Johnson was born in Germany because his dad was in the military, but he spent the summers with his grandfather planting corn, squash, beans and melons the Indigenous way in the same fields he\u2019s farming now, where he eventually built an off-grid stone house with his own hands. \u201cAs a kid, I hated farming because it\u2019s hard work,\u201d he admits with disarming honesty, followed by a quick laugh. \u201cBut later I saw the wisdom in it. We\u2019ve done this for well over 2,000 or 3,000 years. I\u2019m a 250th-generation Hopi farmer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike many other Indigenous tribes, the Hopi weren\u2019t driven off their land by European settlers. \u201cWe\u2019re very fortunate that we were never relocated,\u201d Kotutwa Johnson says. \u201cWe chose this land, and we\u2019ve learned to adapt to our harsh environment. The culture is tied into our agricultural system, and that\u2019s what makes it so resilient.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the Hopi tribe doesn\u2019t own the land. Legally, the United States holds the title to the\u00a01.5 million acres<\/a>\u00a0of reservation the Hopi occupy in Northwestern Arizona, a fraction of their original territory. Kotutwa Johnson estimates that only 15 percent of his community still farms, down from 85 percent in the 1930s, and some Hopi\u00a0quote<\/a>\u00a0the lack of land ownership as an obstacle.<\/p>\n

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Hopi corn growing. Courtesy of Michael Kotutwa Johnson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like on many reservations, the Hopi live in a food desert, where tribal members have to drive one or two hours to find a major supermarket in Flagstaff or Winslow. High rates of diabetes and obesity are a consequence of lacking easy access to fresh produce. \u201cIf you\u2019re born here you have a 50 percent chance of getting diabetes,\u201d Kotutwa Johnson says. \u201cTo me, this is the original harm: the disruption of our traditional foods. By bringing back the food, you also bring back the culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Traditionally, Hopi women are the seed keepers, and the art of dry farming starts with the right seeds. \u201cThese seeds adapted to having no irrigation, and so they are very valuable,\u201d Kotutwa Johnson says. He is fiercely protective of the seeds he propagates and only exchanges them with other tribal members within the community.<\/p>\n

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Left to right: A variety of Hopi beans, a squash growing and an old Hopi corn variety from an 800-year-old seed. Courtesy of Michael Kotutwa Johnson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In that spirit, he was overjoyed to receive 800-year-old corn ears from a man who recently found them in a cave in Glen Canyon. Kotutwa Johnson planted the corn, and about a fifth actually sprouted. He raves about the little white corn ears he was able to harvest: \u201cIt\u2019s so amazing we got to bring these seeds home. It was like opening up an early Christmas present.\u201d<\/p>\n

From a traditional perspective, \u201cwe were given things to survive,\u201d he says. \u201cIn our faith, we believe the first three worlds were destroyed, and when we came up to this world, we were given a planting stick, some seeds and water by a caretaker who was here before us.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kotutwa Johnson\u2019s stone farm house. Courtesy of Michael Kotutwa Johnson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He doesn\u2019t believe that climate change can be stopped. \u201cBut we can adapt to it, and our seeds can adapt.\u201d This is a crucial tenet of Hopi farming: Instead of manipulating the environment, they raise crops and cultivate seeds that adjust to their surroundings. His crops grow deep roots that stretch much farther down into the ground than conventional plants.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur faith tells us that we need to plant every single year no matter what we see,\u201d even in drought years, he explains. \u201cSome years, we might not plant much, but we still plant regardless because those plants are like us, they need to adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dry farming is \u201cnot very economically efficient,\u201d he admits. \u201cEverything is driven towards convenience nowadays. We\u2019re not trying to make a big buck out here; we\u2019re here to maintain our culture and practice things we\u2019ve always done to be able to survive.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Kotutwa Johnson does not sell his produce. He keeps a percentage of the seeds to propagate and gives the rest to relatives and his community or trades it for other produce.<\/p>\n

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Roasted corn in a Hopi pit. Courtesy of Michael Kotutwa Johnson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But his vision far surpasses his nine acres. He wants to pass on his dry farming methods to the next generation, just as he learned them from his grandfather, and he often invites youth to participate in farming workshops and communal planting. That\u2019s why he recently started the Fred Aptvi Foundation, named after his grandfather, to focus on establishing a seed bank and a Hopi youth agricultural program that incorporates the Hopi language. Aptvi means \u201cone who plants besides another,\u201d Kotutwa Johnson explains. \u201cIt\u2019s about revitalizing what\u2019s there, not reinventing it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story was originally published by Reasons to be Cheerful, and is reprinted with permission. When Michael Kotutwa Johnson goes out to the acreage behind his stone house to harvest his corn, his fields look vastly different from the endless rows of corn you see in much of rural North America. Bundled in groups of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2058,"featured_media":166749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":[33284],"meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33067],"tags":[33218,33079,33224],"article-theme":[33317],"class_list":["post-166743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-farm","tag-culture-heritage","tag-plants-crops","tag-water","format-republication","article-theme-general"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nGrowing Corn in the Desert, No Irrigation Required - Modern Farmer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This story was originally published by Reasons to be Cheerful, and is reprinted with permission. 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