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Canela traditional harvests include peanuts, corn, sweet potato, yams, pumpkin, feijão-de-corda (Phaselous sp.), bitter manioc (wayput-re), sweet manioc, cotton, gourds and other produce. The most common products today - manioc, rice and beans - were adopted after contact with the national society, as were bananas, oranges, mangoes, watermelon, pineapple, papaya, tobacco, sugarcane and other items.

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Among the Ramkokamekrá, in the small galley-forests of their lands, riverside gardens used to be cleared with stone axes and burned. These traditional gardens produced less than 25% of the food consumed, while gathering, fishing, and hunting supplied the rest. At the end of the 1830s, the relocation of the Canela in areas which represented about 5% of the lands that they used to occupy forced the Canela to practice more extensively the system of swidden agriculture, following the regional model, in order to obtain greater quantities of food products.

At the end of the 1940s, the economy of both groups became deficient, depending on outside support in order to maintain itself. The Canela came to depend significantly on the food supplies provided by the indigenist agency and to practice the system of "halving" with non-indigenous peoples, working on their lands in order to keep half of the production. In the beginning of the 1990s, however, among the Ramkokamekrá the gardens came to supply sufficient food for their survival, without need of the system of partnership, which they saw as an humiliating experience. They continue, nevertheless, to suffer from na insufficient production during the lean months from September to December. The gardens begin producing in January, and the height of production occurs with the rice harvest in the month of May. Já os Apanyekrá não alcançaram esse retorno à auto-suficiência, entretanto mantiveram mais plantas nativas que os Ramkokamekrá e cultivavam suas roças de modo menos influenciado por métodos sertanejos.

The challenge faced at the moment by the Canela Ramkokamekrá is one of guaranteeing sufficient food production in such a way that the kinds of food available don't come to an end in September. Thus, they wouldn't have to consume the first manioc tubers, after only a year of growth, and hence little developed. With a sufficient production of manioc, they could consume only the tubers cultivated two or three years before. Several families have been trying to produce a surplus which can be commercialized with the non-indigenous people of the interior or in the markets of the cities.

Fortunately, for the time being the riverside forests on the Indigenous Land present a possibility for producing sustenance for the the Ramkokamekrá population which has been expanding for some time, through the practice of swidden agriculture. An additional source of funds is the pensions for retired people from Funrural, which has become a significant form of economic aid ever since the 1980s. Besides that, there are several people who are retired for health reasons, mothers who receive aid, and students with educational fellowships in the village of Escalvado. In addition, in 2001, there were 8 Ramkokamekrá Indians employed by the Funai (the National Indian Foundation), 3 by Funasa (the National Health Foundation) and four indigenous teachers in the municipality.

Traditionally there was a tendency for sisters to make their gardens in the same area, following the pattern of the extended house in the village. However, politically motivated men try to attract male followers to their garden areas. Thus, factions are formed, although the Canela are discrete as far as political rivalries go. The power of potential chiefs emerges, nevertheless, from the "direction" of a garden place.

Presently, there are two large "garden communities" in the Ramkokamekrá group, each with a circle of houses, which house 80% of the population. There are also at least four smaller groupings. Even so, each family has a house in the main village, Escalvado, and it is to the village that they return for the annual festivals. Lately, however, there has been a movement back to the village on the part of the families who have children who regularly attend the school in Escalvado. These families spend more time in the main village, and only go every now and then to their gardens to get vegetables.