Conuco
/ koh-NOO-koh /
Growing & TerroirTaino
Definition
The Taino method of raised-mound agriculture, in which tobacco was cultivated alongside cassava, maize and sweet potatoes on mounds of soil built to prevent erosion and preserve fertility.
Why it matters
Conuco farming shows tobacco was already a deliberately cultivated, mound-grown crop in the Caribbean well before European contact, not a wild plant that colonists happened upon.
In context
"The tobacco grown on a conuco differed from modern varieties, believed to have been a wild or semi-domesticated strain with smaller leaves and a more potent flavor."
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