9528458 Sandor Generations of Zuni farmers have used a storm runoff harvesting system to grow maize and other crops in the area of the present day Zuni Indian Reservation in the West-central New Mexico. As with other Pueblo tribes of the semiarid southwest U.S. Zuni methods of runoff farming use on fertilizer or irrigation in the conventional sense. Farmers credit ephemeral stormwater flows, which they divert onto well placed fields, with supplying moisture and nutrients to produce crops. The goal of this three year study is to analytically describe agroecological structure and function of Zuni runoff fields. System inputs to be evaluated are moisture, nutrients, and soil materials derived from natural watersheds upslope from fields and transported by ephemeral runoff. System output will be evaluated as productivity both in terms of immediate crop yield and long-term productivity, reflected in agricultural soil quality. The approach to be used in this project is based on two key areas of research on sustainable land use: monitoring long-term condition of agricultural soils and developing management practices that conserve ecosystem resources. The Zuni area, farmed for over two thousand years, provides information valuable to both endeavors: the Reservation contains some of the oldest identifiable agricultural land in the U.S. Studies here extend knowledge about effects of agriculture on landscapes into a time frame envisioned in the concept of sustainability, complementing modern long-term ecological and agricultural experiments. This research will also contribute to basic understanding of such semiarid ecosystems. It will have applications to sustainable agriculture development in other arid and semiarid areas, and to revitalization of a sustainable agricultural system for Zuni. The project is a partnership between the Zuni Tribe and an interdisciplinary research team, including scientists from New Mexico, Iowa State University, and University of Wyoming. The Zuni Tribe's curre nt plan for redevelopment of a sustainable agarian economy has direct applications for the work.
