Irrigated taro pondfields (loʻi kalo)
Terrazas de regadío de taro (loʻi kalo)
- Date
- c. 1100-1500 · confidence low
- Place
- Waipiʻo Valley, Hawaiʻi Island, Hawaii, United States
- Credited to
- Polynesian farmers of Hawaii
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Flooded, stepped plots fed by ditches from streams, in which taro (kalo) is grown, the staple of the Hawaiian diet. They allowed intensive harvests in the wet valleys of the islands.
The start of irrigation in Hawaii is dated within wide margins (from c. 1100-1200 to c. 1400) depending on the valley; Waipiʻo is the most-cited example.
What it led to
- production of poi and surpluses for the chiefdoms
- population growth in irrigated valleys
- the agricultural basis of the ahupuaʻa system