Vea la versión en español a continuación
People who speak different dialects of the same language can understand each other. Unlike different languages, the dialects of those tongues are “mutually intelligible.” Americans and the British understand each other (almost always), because the US and the UK speak dialects of the same English language.
However, it’s complicated, as David Shariatmadari explains. Shariatmadari, non-fiction books editor at the Guardian, starts with the old joke: a language is a dialect with an army. The classic example is Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, which are all fairly similar, but for political reasons and national pride their governments use the schools and the media to maintain the uniqueness of these languages, which are often mutually intelligible.
Arabic is an example in the other direction. Spoken in some 20 countries with important differences between each nation, the Arab countries consider themselves speakers of one language, based on a shared tradition in classical Arabic literature, and other ties.
Shariatmadari doesn’t mention Quechua, a native language still spoken in the Andes, in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. The Inca Empire (Tawantinsuyu) used Quechua as the official language, because it was already widely spoken in the Andes. As the language expanded it was influenced by languages previously spoken in the Andes, acquiring broad divisions from the start. These differences are so great that Quechua is generally described as a group of languages, or a language family.
After the Spanish conquest, sixteenth century Catholic clergy encouraged the Quechua language, because it was already widely spoken, and could be used for missionary work. The missionary Domingo de Santo Tomás published a grammar of Quechua in 1560. This may have introduced some uniformity into the Quechua language, or languages.
The Dutch linguist Willem Adelaar classifies the varieties of Quechua into four main groups:
Quechua I—spoken in Central Peru
Quechua IIA—Northern Peru
Quechua IIB—Ecuador (where it is called “Kichwa”)
Quechua IIC—Bolivia and Southern Peru
In other words, there are many distinct dialects of Quechua, and some of them may be mutually unintelligible, making them languages in their own right. According to Adelaar’s classification, Ecuadorian Kichwa and Bolivian Quechua both belong to the broad “Quechua II” group.
In 2022, with Paul and Marcella, from Agro-Insight, we visited the province of Cotopaxi, in the Andes of Ecuador, Where the agronomists Diego Mina and Mayra Coro study the lupin bean with several communities. Diego and Mayra took us to a Kichwa-speaking community, Cuturiví Chico, where we got a chance to find out if the local people understood the (Bolivian) Quechua version of our video on lupines. During a meeting with the community, Diego and Mayra invited them to watch the video, explaining that it had been filmed in Bolivia.
As the Quechua version of the video played, I watched the audience for their reaction. They smiled in appreciation. After all, videos in Quechua or Kichwa are equally rare. The farmers were absorbed in the 15-minute video all the way to the end.
Afterwards, Diego asked if they understood it. One person said he understood half. Another said “More than half, maybe 60%.” Then Diego asked the crucial question, “What was the video about?”
The villagers neatly summarized the video. Diseases of the lupin bean could be controlled by selecting the healthiest grains as seed, and burying the sick ones. But the video had also sparked their imaginations. One said that in a previous experience they had learned to sort healthy seed potatoes, and now that they had seen the same idea with lupin beans, they wondered if the seed of broad beans could also be sorted, to produce a healthier crop.
Diego still felt that the farmers hadn’t quite understood the video, so he showed the Spanish version. But this time, the reaction was muted. People watched politely, but they seemed a bit bored and at the end there was no new discussion. They basically understood the video the first time.
Language and dialect are valid concepts, but “mutual intelligibility” can be influenced by visual communication, enunciation, and motivation. For example, in this video, carefully edited images showed people separating healthy and diseased lupin beans, which may have helped the audience to understand the main idea, even if some of the words were unfamiliar.
Clarity of the speech also counts; this video was narrated by professional broadcasters, native speakers of Quechua, so the sound track was well enunciated. Motivation also matters; if a topic is of interest, people will strain to understand it. Lupin beans are widely grown in Cuturiví Chico, and these farmers really wanted to know about managing the crop’s diseases.
Whether Ecuadorian Kichwa and Bolivian Quechua are separate languages or dialects of the same tongue is still up for debate among linguists. Fortunately, people also communicate visually (for example, with excellent photography); they understand more if the words are carefully and distinctly pronounced, and if the listeners are motivated by a topic that interests them.
After this experience, we filmed four videos in Ecuador, and sent the Spanish versions of the scripts to be professionally translated, in writing. When I read them, I finally felt that Ecuadorian Kichwa and Bolivian Quechua are different enough to be called two separate languages. On the Access Agriculture website, we now list Quechua and Kichwa.
Even if Ecuadorian Kichwa and Bolivian Quechua are separate languages, they are closely related ones. Sometimes it is possible for an audience to understand a video in a language closely related to their own. This is because people also communicate visually (for example, with excellent photography); they understand more if the words are carefully and distinctly pronounced, and if the listeners are motivated by a topic that interests them.
Watch the video
You can see the video, Growing lupin without disease, in Quechua, Spanish, and English (besides other languages).
Further reading
Shariatmadari, David 2019 Don’t Believe a Word: The Surprising Truth about Language. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Adelaar, Willem F. H. 2004. The Languages of the Andes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Note on names
The lupine bean (Lupinus mutabilis) is called chocho in Ecuador, and tarwi in Bolivia.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Diego Mina and Mayra Coro for introducing us the farmers in Cotopaxi, and for sharing their knowledge with us. Thanks also to Mayra and Diego, and to Eric Boa and Paul Van Mele for their valuable comments on a previous version of this blog. Diego and Mayra work for IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement) with the AMIGO project. Our work was funded by the McKnight Foundation’s Collaborative Crop Research Program (CCRP).
Photos
Photos by Paul Van Mele and Jeff Bentley. Map from Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quechua_(with_country_names).svg.
¿IDIOMA O DIALECT? ES COMPLICADO
Jeff Bentley, 13 de marzo del 2021
Cuando la gente habla diferentes dialectos de una misma lengua, se entiende. A diferencia de los idiomas distintos, los dialectos de esas lenguas son “mutuamente inteligibles”. Los estadounidenses y los británicos se entienden (casi siempre), porque los Estados Unidos y el Reino Unido hablan dialectos de la misma lengua inglesa.
Sin embargo, es complicado, como explica David Shariatmadari, editor de libros de no ficción en The Guardian. Él comienza con el viejo chiste: un idioma es un dialecto con un ejército. El ejemplo clásico es el danés, el noruego y el sueco, que son bastante similares, pero por razones políticas y de orgullo nacional sus gobiernos usan las escuelas y los medios de comunicación para mantener cierta separación entre estas lenguas, que a menudo son mutuamente inteligibles.
El árabe es un ejemplo en la otra dirección. Hablado con importantes diferencias en una veintena de países, los países árabes se consideran hablantes de una sola lengua, basándose en su tradición compartida de la literatura árabe clásica, entre otras cosas.
Shariatmadari no menciona al quechua, un idioma nativo que todavía se habla en los Andes, en Ecuador, el Perú y Bolivia. El Imperio Inca (Tawantinsuyu) usó el quechua como su idioma oficial, porque ya se hablaba sobre buena parte de los Andes. A medida que el idioma se expandió, se influenció por otros idiomas que ya se hablaban en los Andes, así adquiriendo profundas divisiones desde el inicio. Las diferencias son tan grandes que generalmente se describe al quechua como un grupo de idiomas, o una familia de idiomas.
Después de la conquista española, los cleros católicos del siglo XVI fomentaron el uso del idioma quechua, porque ya se hablaba ampliamente y servía para el trabajo de evangelización. El misionero Domingo de Santo Tomás publicó una gramática del quechua en 1560, lo cual posiblemente introdujo un poco de uniformidad al idioma, o los idiomas quechua.
El lingüista holandés Willem Adelaar clasificó las variedades del quechua en cuatro grupos:
Quechua I—hablado en el Perú central
Quechua IIA—en el norte del Perú
Quechua IIB—en Ecuador (donde se llama “kichwa”)
Quechua IIC—Bolivia y el sur del Perú
En otras palabras, hay muchos dialectos distintos del quechua, de los cuales algunos son mutuamente inteligibles. Por lo tanto, son idiomas. Según la clasificación de Adelaar, el kichwa de Ecuador y el quechua Bolivia pertenecen al grupo grande “quechua II”.
Con Paul y Marcella, de Agro-Insight, visitamos la provincia de Cotopaxi, en los Andes del Ecuador, donde trabajan los ingenieros agrónomos Diego Mina y Mayra Coro, quienes investigan el chocho (lupino) con algunas comunidades. Diego y Mayra nos llevaron a una comunidad kichwa-hablante, Cuturiví Chico, donde pudimos averiguar si la gente local entendería la versión de nuestro video en quechua sobre lupino o tarwi. Durante una reunión con la comunidad, Diego y Mayra les pidieron que observen el video explicándoles que se había filmado en Bolivia.
Mientras se reproducía la versión quechua del video, observé la reacción del público. Sonrieron del puro gusto de ver el video. Después de todo, hay pocos videos en quechua o kichwa. Los campesinos estuvieron bien metidos en el video de 15 minutos hasta el final.
Después, Diego les preguntó si lo habían entendido. Uno de ellos dijo que había entendido la mitad. Otro dijo: “Más de la mitad, quizá el 60%”. Entonces Diego hizo la pregunta crucial: “¿De qué trataba el video?”.
Resumieron claramente el video. Las enfermedades del lupino podían controlarse seleccionando los granos más sanos como semilla y enterrando los enfermos. Pero el video también había despertado su imaginación. Uno de ellos dijo que en una experiencia anterior habían aprendido a clasificar semilla sana de papa, y ahora que habían visto la misma idea con el lupino, se preguntaban si la semilla de las habas también podría clasificarse, para producir una cosecha más sana.
Diego aún dudaba si los agricultores habían entendido bien el video, así que les mostró la versión en español. Esta vez la reacción fue más silenciosa. La gente parecía un poco aburrida, y al final no hubo ninguna nueva discusión. Pues, ya lo habían visto
La diferencia entre idioma y dialecto es real, pero la “inteligibilidad mutua” a menudo se influye por la comunicación visual, la pronunciación clara, y la motivación. Por ejemplo, en este video, las imágenes cuidadosamente editadas mostraban a personas que separaban los granos de lupino sanos de los enfermos, lo que puede haber ayudado a la audiencia a entender la idea principal, aunque desconocían algunas de las palabras.
La claridad del discurso también cuenta; este video fue narrado por locutores profesionales que hablaban quechua como lengua materna, por lo que estaba bien enunciado. La motivación también importa; si un tema es de interés, la gente se esfuerza por entenderlo. Los lupinos se cultivan ampliamente en Cuturiví Chico, y estos agricultores realmente querían saber cómo manejar las enfermedades del cultivo.
Después de esta experiencia, filmamos cuatro videos en Ecuador, y enviamos los guiones en español a una traductora profesional, para hacer las versiones en kichwa. Cuando leí los guiones en kichwa, vi que el kichwa ecuatoriano y el quechua boliviano merecen ser considerados dos idiomas distintos. En la página web de Access Agriculture, el menú incluye quechua y kichwa.
Aun si el kichwa de Ecuador y el quechua de Bolivia son dos idiomas distintos, son parientes cercanos. A veces es posible para una audiencia entender un video en otro idioma, si es parecido al de ellos. Porque la gente también se comunica visualmente (por ejemplo, con una excelente fotografía); entienden mejor si las palabras se pronuncian con cuidado y nitidez, y si los oyentes están motivados por un tema que les interesa.
Para ver el video
Puede ver el video, Producir tarwi sin enfermedad, en quechua, español, e inglés (además de otros idiomas).
Lectura adicional
Shariatmadari, David 2019 Don’t Believe a Word: The Surprising Truth about Language. Londres: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
Una nota sobre los nombres
El lupino (Lupinus mutabilis) se llama chocho en el Ecuador, y tarwi en Bolivia.
Agradecimientos
Gracias a Diego Mina y Mayra Coro por presentarnos a la gente de Cotopaxi, y por compartir su conocimiento con nosotros. Gracias a Mayra y Diego, y a Eric Boa y Paul VAn Mele por sus valiosos comentarios sobre una versión previa de este blog. Diego y Mayra trabajan para IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement), con el proyecto AMIGO. Nuestro trabajo fue financiado por Programa Colaborativo de Investigación de Cultivos (CCRP) de la Fundación McKnight.
Fotos
Fotos por Paul Van Mele y Jeff Bentley. Mapa de Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Quechua_(with_country_names).svg.
Vea la versión en español a continuación
Farmers find their peers exceptionally convincing, and good extensionists know this.
My wife, Ana, and I joined a farmer exchange visit this past 22 September. It was a chance for smallholders to see what their peers are doing on their farms. We went with about 20 farmers from around Tiquipaya, a small town in the valley of Cochabamba, Bolivia. Except for two older men and two children, the group was made up only of women, organized by María Omonte (agronomist) and Mariana Alem (biologist), both of Agrecol Andes.
Half an hour after our chartered, Bluebird bus left the town square of Tiquipaya we were climbing up a gravel road in first gear. The farmers stopped chatting among themselves, and began looking out the window, at the arid hillsides and a panoramic view of the city of Cochabamba, on the far end of the valley. The passengers’ sudden interest in the scenery made it clear that even this close to home, this was their first trip to these steep hillsides above the community of Chocaya.
When the bus stopped, we were met by Serafín Vidal, an agronomist, also with Agrecol Andes. Serafín took the group to see an agroforestry site, an orchard belonging to a farmer who Serafín advises. The farmer wasn’t there, but Serafín explained that in this system, 200 apple trees are planted in lines with 200 forest trees, like chacatea (blue sorrel) and aliso (alder), mostly native species. The idea is to mimic the forest, which builds its own soil, with no plowing, no pesticides (not even organic ones), and no fertilizer, not even manure or compost.
“Don’t bury anything” Serafín said, “not even leaves. They decompose too quickly if you bury them. Just prune the forest trees and line up their branches in between the apples and the other trees.”
The farmers were quiet, too quiet. They seemed unconvinced by this radical idea. Finally, one farmer was bold enough to give a counter-example. He said that far away, in the lowlands of La Paz Department, farmers dig a trench and fill it with logs and branches. They bury it and plant coca, a shrub with marketable leaves. Because of the buried logs, the land stays fertile for so long that even the grandchildren of the original farmer will not need to fertilize their soil.
“Coca,” Serafín murmured, and then he paused. Growing the coca shrub is not like planting apples, but a talented, veteran extensionist like Serafín often prefers a demonstration to an argument. He dug his hand into the soil between the trees, under the leafy mulch. “This used to be poor, red soil. But see how the soil between the trees has become so soft that I can dig it up with my hand, and it’s rich and black, even though it has not been plowed.” Serafín spread out a couple of dozen small bags of seed of different plants: maize, beans, vegetables … all crops that you can plant in between the rows of trees, like the plants that grow on the forest floor.
The audience was respectfully silent, and still unconvinced, but Serafín had another trick up his sleeve. He handed the floor over to a local farmer, Franz Dávalos, who led us uphill to his own agroforestry plot, with alder, and the native qhewiña (Polylepsis spp.), a tree with papery, reddish bark and twisted branches.
The group was mostly bilingual in Spanish and in Quechua, the local language, and had been switching back and forth between both languages. But now Franz began to speak only in Quechua. The simple act of speaking in the local language can let the audience feel that the speaker is confiding in them, and Franz soon had them laughing as he explained how his neighbors grew flowers, like chrysanthemum, to cut for the urban market. In the dry season they irrigate with sprinklers. The neighbors were baffled that Franz didn’t irrigate during the two driest winter months, June and July. He didn’t want to fool the apple trees into flowering too early. It meant that for a couple of months, his patch looked dry and bare. But now his three-year-old apple trees were blooming and looking healthy, as were his other trees, bushes, aromatic plants, tomatoes and beans.
The visiting farmers were from the floor of the valley, practically in sight of this rocky hillside, but it might as well have been a different country. The flat fields of the valley bottom have flood irrigation and deep soil, but exhausted by centuries of constant cultivation.
One of the visitors explained that she was a vegetable farmer and that “we have already made big changes. I apply chicken manure to my soil and I have to spray something (like a homemade sulfur-lime mix) because the aphids just won’t leave us alone.”
In other words, these people from the valley bottom were commercial, family farmers, far into their transition to agroecology, based on natural pesticides and organic fertilizers to restore the degraded soil. And they had to build up the soil quickly, because they were growing vegetables year-round. They couldn’t just give up applying organic fertilizer and wait for years until trees improved the soil.
Franz understood completely. He said that he also sprayed sulfur-lime but then he said “just try it. Try agroforestry on a small area, even if you just start with one tree.”
It was a cheerful group that boarded the bus to go down the mountain. They liked Franz’s suggestion of experimenting on a small scale, even with such a startling new idea as agroforestry.
Paleontologist Richard Fortey says that scientists are usually so reluctant to accept the ideas of younger colleagues that “science advances, one funeral at a time.” (Fortey was quoting Max Planck). Smallholders are a little more open to new ideas. As farmers continue to contribute to agroecology, they will discuss and experiment. It is not reasonable to expect all of them to accept the same practices, especially when they are working in different places, with different crops and soils.
But a word from an innovative farmer can help to make even radical ideas seem worth testing.
Related Agro-Insight blogs
Apple futures (where we’ve met Ing. Serafín Vidal before)
Related videos
EXPERIMENTOS CON ÁRBOLES
Por Jeff Bentley, el 24 de octubre del 2021
Lo que más convence a los agricultores, es otro agricultor, y los buenos extensionistas lo saben.
Con mi esposa, Ana, participamos el pasado 22 de septiembre en una visita de intercambio de agricultores, una oportunidad para que vean lo que hacen sus compañeros en sus terrenos. Fuimos con unos 20 agricultores de los alrededores de Tiquipaya, una pequeña ciudad del valle de Cochabamba, Bolivia. Con la excepción de dos hombres mayores y dos niños, el grupo estaba formado sólo por mujeres, organizado por María Omonte (agrónoma) y Mariana Alem (bióloga), ambas de Agrecol Andes.
Media hora después de que nuestro viejo bus saliera de la plaza del pueblo de Tiquipaya, estábamos subiendo a 10 km la hora por un camino ripiado, pero bien inclinado. Las compañeras dejaron de charlar entre ellas y empezaron a mirar por las ventanas a las áridas laderas y una vista panorámica de la ciudad de Cochabamba, en el otro extremo del valle. El repentino interés de los pasajeros por el paisaje dejaba claro que, incluso tan cerca de casa, era la primera vez que viajaban a estas inclinadas laderas de Chocaya Alta.
Cuando el micro se detuvo, nos recibió Serafín Vidal, ingeniero agrónomo, también de Agrecol Andes. Serafín llevó al grupo a ver un sitio agroforestal, un huerto que pertenece a un agricultor al que asesora. El agricultor no estaba allí, pero Serafín explicó que en este sistema se plantan 200 manzanos en línea con 200 árboles forestales, como la chacatea y el aliso, con énfasis en especies nativas. La idea es imitar al bosque, que construye su propio suelo, sin arar, sin fumigar (ni siquiera con plaguicidas orgánicos) y sin estiércol.
“No entierren nada”, dice Serafín, “ni siquiera las hojas. Se descomponen demasiado rápido si las entierran. Sólo poden los árboles del bosque y alineen sus ramas entre los manzanos y los otros árboles”.
La gente estaba callada, demasiado callada. Parecían no estar convencidos de esta idea radical. Finalmente, un agricultor se atrevió a dar un contraejemplo. Dijo que muy lejos, en Los Yungas de La Paz, los cocaleros cavan una zanja y la llenan con troncos y ramas. Lo entierran y plantan coca, un arbusto comercial. Gracias a los troncos enterrados, la tierra se mantiene fértil durante tanto tiempo que incluso los nietos del agricultor original no necesitarán fertilizar su suelo.
“Coca”, murmuró Serafín, y pausó. Cultivar arbustos de coca no es como plantar manzanos, pero un veterano y talentoso extensionista como Serafín suele preferir una demostración a una discusión. Metió la mano en la tierra entre los árboles, bajo el grueso mulch, el mantillo, el sach’a wanu. “Antes, esto era un suelo pobre y rojo. Pero miren cómo el suelo entre los árboles se ha vuelto tan blando que puedo cavarlo con la mano, y es rico y negro, aunque no haya sido arado”. Serafín extendió unas 20 bolsitas de semillas de diferentes plantas: maíz, frijol, hortalizas … todos los cultivos que se pueden sembrar entre las hileras de los árboles, tal como las plantas que crecen en el piso del bosque.
El público guardaba un respetuoso silencio, y todavía no estaba convencido, pero Serafín tenía otro as en la manga. Cedió la palabra a un agricultor de la zona, Franz Dávalos, que nos condujo cuesta arriba hasta su propio sistema agroforestal, con alisos y la nativa qhewiña (Polylepsis spp.), un árbol de corteza rojiza, como papel, con ramas retorcidas.
La mayoría del grupo era bilingüe en español y en quechua, el idioma local, y había alternado entre ambas lenguas. Pero ahora Franz empezó a hablar sólo en quechua. El simple hecho de hablar en el idioma local puede dar confianza al público, y rápidamente Franz los hacía reír mientras explicaba cómo sus vecinos cultivaban flores, como el crisantemo, para vender como flor cortada al mercado urbano. En la época seca riegan por aspersión. Los vecinos se preguntaban porque Franz no regaba durante los dos meses más secos del invierno, junio y julio. Es que él no quería que los manzanos florezcan demasiado temprano. Por eso, durante un par de meses, su parcela parecía seca y desnuda. Pero ahora sus manzanos de tres años florecían y estaban obviamente sanos, al igual que sus otros árboles, arbustos, y otras plantas como aromáticas, tomates y frijoles.
Las agricultoras visitantes eran del fondo del valle, prácticamente a la vista de esta ladera rocosa, pero bien podría haber sido otro país. Las chacras planas del fondo del valle tienen riego por inundación y un suelo profundo, pero agotado por siglos de cultivo constante.
Una de las visitantes explicó que ella era agricultora de hortalizas y que “ya hemos hecho muchos cambios. Aplico gallinaza a mi suelo y tengo que fumigar algo (como sulfocálcico) porque los pulgones no nos dejan en paz”.
En otras palabras, estas personas del piso del valle eran agricultores comerciales y familiares, que estaban en plena transición hacia la agroecología, basada en plaguicidas naturales y fertilizantes orgánicos, para restaurar el suelo degradado. Y tenían que recuperar el suelo rápidamente, porque cultivaban verduras todo el año. No podían dejar de aplicar abono orgánico y esperar años hasta que los árboles mejoraran el suelo.
Franz lo entendía perfectamente. Dijo que él también fumigaba sulfocálcico, pero luego dijo “pruébenlo. Prueben la agroforestería en una pequeña superficie, aun si empiezan con un solo árbol”.
Fue un grupo alegre el que subió al micro para bajar del cerro. Les gustó la sugerencia de Franz de experimentar a pequeña escala, incluso con una idea tan nueva y sorprendente como la agroforestería.
El paleontólogo Richard Fortey dice que los científicos suelen ser tan reacios a aceptar las ideas de los colegas más jóvenes que “la ciencia avanza, un funeral a la vez”. (Fortey citaba a Max Planck). En cambio, los agricultores familiares están un poco más abiertos a las nuevas ideas. A medida que los agricultores sigan contribuyendo a la agroecología y la agroforestería, discutirán y experimentarán. No es razonable esperar que todos ellos acepten las mismas prácticas, sobre todo cuando trabajan en lugares diferentes, con cultivos y suelos distintos.
Pero una palabra de un agricultor innovador puede ayudar a que incluso las ideas radicales parezcan dignas de ser probadas.
Blogs previos de Agro-Insight blogs
Manzanos del futuro (donde ya conocimos al Ing. Serafín Vidal)
Videos sobre la agroforestería
SLM 03 Agroforestería con grevillea
Vea la versión en español a continuación
Youth around the world are leaving agriculture, but many would stay on the farm if they had appropriate technologies and better social services, as Professor Alejandro Bonifacio explained to me recently.
Dr. Bonifacio is from the rural Altiplano, the high plains of Bolivia. At 4,000 meters above sea level, it is some of the highest farmland in the world. Bonifacio has a PhD in plant breeding, and besides directing an agricultural research station in Viacha on the Altiplano, he teaches plant breeding part-time at the public university in La Paz (Universidad Mayor de San Andrés).
The university attracts many rural youths. Every year Bonifacio asks his new class of students to introduce themselves one-by-one and to tell where they come from, and to talk about their parents and their grandparents.
This year about 20% of the students in Bonifacio’s class are still living on the farm, and taking their classes online. Another 50% are the children or grandchildren of farmers, but are now living in the city. Many of these agronomy students would be more interested in taking over their parents’ farm, if not for a couple of problems.
One limitation is the lack of services in the rural areas: poor schools, bad roads, the lack of clinics, and no electricity or running water. While this is slowly improving, Covid has added a new twist, locking young people out of many of the places they liked to go to, and not just bars and restaurants. One advantage of city life is having access to medical attention, but this past year the students said it was as though the cities had no hospitals, because they were full of Covid patients. Classes were all on-line, and so the countryside began to look like a nicer place to live than the city. Many students went home to their rural communities, where there was much more freedom of movement than in the city.
Dr. Bonifacio told me that even when the youth do go home, they don’t want to farm exactly like their parents did. The youngsters don’t go in for all the backbreaking work with picks and shovels, but there is a lack of appropriate technology oriented towards young, family farmers, such as small, affordable machinery. Young farmers are also interested in exploiting emerging markets for differentiated produce, such as food that is free of pesticides. Organic agriculture also helps to save on production costs, as long as farmers have practical alternatives to agrochemicals.
Fortunately, there are videos on appropriate technologies, and Professor Bonifacio shows them in class. Today’s youth have grown up with videos, and find them convincing. Every year, Bonifacio organizes a forum for about 50 students on plant breeding and crop disease. He assigns the students three videos to watch, to discuss later in the forum. One of his favorites is Growing lupin without disease, which shows some organic methods for keeping the crop healthy. Bonifacio encourages the students to watch the video in Spanish, and Quechua or Aymara. Many of the students speak Quechua or Aymara, or both, besides Spanish. Some feel that they are forgetting their native language. “The videos help the students to learn technical terms, like the names of plant diseases, in their native languages,” Bonifacio says.
During the Covid lockdown, Prof. Bonifacio moved his forum online and sent the students links to the videos. In the forum, some of the students said that while they were home they could identify the symptoms of lupine disease, thanks to the video.
Bonifacio logs onto Access Agriculture from time to time to see which new videos have been posted in Spanish, to select some to show to his students, so they can get some of the information they need to become the farmers of tomorrow.
Kids who grow up on small farms often go to university as a bridge to getting a decent job in the city. But others study agriculture, and would return to farming, if they had appropriate technology for family farming, and services like electricity and high-speed internet.
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Videos to teach kids good attitudes
Videos from Access Agriculture
Check out these youth-friendly videos with appropriate technology. Besides videos in English, www.accessagriculture.org has:
ENSEÑAR A LOS AGRICULTORES DEL MAÑANA CON VIDEOS
Por Jeff Bentley, 23 de mayo del 2021
Por todas partes del mundo, los jóvenes abandonan la agricultura, pero muchos seguirían cultivando si tuvieran tecnologías apropiadas y mejores servicios sociales, como me explicó recientemente el docente Alejandro Bonifacio.
El Dr. Bonifacio es originario del Altiplano de Bolivia. A 4.000 metros sobre el nivel del mar, es una de las tierras agrícolas más altas del mundo. Bonifacio tiene un doctorado en fitomejoramiento y, además de ser jefe de una estación de investigación agrícola en Viacha, en el Altiplano, enseña fitomeoramiento a tiempo parcial en la universidad pública de La Paz (Universidad Mayor de San Andrés).
La universidad atrae a muchos jóvenes rurales. Cada año, Bonifacio pide a su nueva clase de estudiantes que se presenten uno por uno y digan de dónde vienen, y que hablen de sus padres y sus abuelos.
Este año, alrededor del 20% de los estudiantes de la clase de Bonifacio siguen viviendo en el área rural, desde donde se conectan a las clases virtuales. Otro 50% son hijos o nietos de agricultores, pero ahora viven en la ciudad. Muchos de estos estudiantes de agronomía estarían más interesados en trabajar el terreno sus padres, si no fuera por un par de problemas.
Una limitación es la falta de servicios en las zonas rurales: colegios deficientes, carreteras en mal estado, la falta de clínicas, luz y agua potable. Aunque esto está mejorando poco a poco, Covid ha introducido cambios, porque los jóvenes ya no pueden ir a muchos de los lugares que les gustaban, y no sólo las discotecas y los restaurantes. Una de las ventajas de la vida urbana es tener acceso a la atención médica, pero este último año los estudiantes dijeron que era como si las ciudades no tuvieran hospitales, porque estaban llenos de pacientes de Covid. Las clases eran todas en línea, por lo que el campo empezó a parecer un lugar más agradable para vivir que la ciudad. Muchos estudiantes se fueron a sus comunidades rurales, donde había más libertad de movimiento que en la ciudad.
El Dr. Bonifacio me dijo que, incluso cuando los jóvenes vuelven a casa, no quieren trabajar la tierra tal como lo hacían sus padres. Los jóvenes no se dedican al trabajo agotador con palas y picotas, pero hace falta la tecnología adecuada orientada a los jóvenes agricultores familiares, por ejemplo, la maquinaria pequeña y asequible. Los jóvenes agricultores también quieren explotar los mercados emergentes de productos diferenciados, como los alimentos libres de plaguicidas. La agricultura orgánica también ayuda a ahorrar costes de producción, siempre que los agricultores tengan alternativas prácticas a los productos agroquímicos.
Afortunadamente, existen videos sobre tecnologías adecuadas, y el Dr. Bonifacio los muestra en clase. Los jóvenes de hoy conocen los videos desde su infancia, y los encuentran convincentes. Cada año, Bonifacio organiza un foro para unos 50 estudiantes sobre el fitomejoramiento y las enfermedades. Asigna a los alumnos tres videos para que los vean y los discutan después en el foro. Uno de sus favoritos es Producir tarwi sin enfermedad, que muestra algunos métodos orgánicos para mantener el lupino sano. Bonifacio anima a los estudiantes a ver el video en español y en quechua o aymara. Muchos de los estudiantes hablan quechua o aymara, o ambos, además del castellano. Algunos sienten que están olvidando su lengua materna. “Los videos ayudan a los alumnos a aprender términos técnicos, como los nombres de las enfermedades de las plantas, en sus idiomas nativos”, dice Bonifacio.
Durante la cuarentena de Covid, el Dr. Bonifacio trasladó su foro a Internet y envió a los estudiantes enlaces a los videos. En el foro, algunos de los estudiantes dijeron que mientras estaban en casa podían identificar los síntomas de la enfermedad del tarwi (lupino), gracias al video.
Bonifacio entra en la página web de Access Agriculture de vez en cuando para ver qué nuevos videos se han publicado en español, para seleccionar algunos y enseñárselos a sus alumnos, para que aprendan algo de la información que necesitan para ser los agricultores del futuro.
Los hijos de agricultores suelen usar a la universidad como puente para conseguir un buen trabajo en la ciudad. Pero otros estudian agronomía, y volverían al agro, si tuvieran tecnología apropiada para la agricultura familiar, y servicios como electricidad e Internet de alta velocidad.
Historias relacionadas en el blog de Agro-Insight
Videos to teach kids good attitudes
Sin tierra, sin agua, no hay problema
Videos de Access Agriculture
Vea algunos de estos videos apropiados para agricultores jóvenes en https://www.accessagriculture.org/es. Incluso, Access Agriculture tiene:
It’s a simple matter to play a soundtrack about farming on the radio. The tricky part is making sure that the program connects with the audience, as I learned recently from Gideon Kwame Sarkodie Osei at ADARS FM, a commercial station in Kintampo, a town in central Ghana.
Since 2010 Gideon has been pleased to be part of an effort by Farm Radio International (FRI) that supported radio stations in Ghana, including ADARS FM, to reach out to farmers. With encouragement from FRI, Gideon started a weekly magazine show for farmers, where he plays Access Agriculture audio tracks. The magazine, Akuafo Mo, means “Thank You Farmers” in the Twi language. Before he started the show, Gideon (together with FRI) did a baseline study of the farmers in his audience. He found that they had more time on Monday evenings. Farm women do more work and have less time than most people, but they told Gideon that they were usually done with their chores by 8 PM, so that’s when he airs Akuafo Mo, every Monday for an hour.
The show starts with recorded interviews, where farmers explain their own knowledge of a certain topic, like aflatoxin, which is so important that Gideon had several episodes on this hidden toxin that can contaminate stored foodstuffs. After the interviews, Gideon plays an audio track, to share fresh ideas with his audience. Gideon has played Access Agriculture audios so often he can’t remember how many he has played. “It’s a lot more than 50,” he explains.
Gideon plays a portion of the audio in English, and then he stops to translate that part into Twi, the language of the Ashanti people. Every week there is a guest on the show, an extension agent who can discuss the topic and take questions from listeners who call in.
Gideon’s experience with the magazine inspired him to start listener groups, in coordination with FRI. Visiting listener communities, Gideon found that some did not have a radio set. So, with project support, he bought them one. “We give them radio sets so they can come together weekly and listen to the magazine,” Gideon told me. He has 20 groups, each with 12 to 30 people. Five groups are only for women, especially in areas where males and females don’t casually mingle. The other listener groups have men and women.
Gideon visits at least some of the groups every week. Because of these visits, Gideon is now downloading videos as well as audio from Access Agriculture. “Sometimes I see if they have electricity, and I rent a projector, to show them the video they have heard on the air.” Gideon says. “This is my initiative, going the extra mile.”
Some of the farmers are learning to sell their groundnuts, maize and other cereals as a group, netting them extra money and helping them to be self-sustaining.
Gideon is also a trainer for FRI. Before Covid, he would travel to other towns and cities in Ghana, meet other broadcasters, and go to the field with them to show them how to improve their interview skills and to craft their own magazine shows. Now he continues to train broadcasters, but online.
Working with the farmer listening groups gives Gideon insights into farmers’ needs and knowledge, making his magazine so authentic that 60,000 people tune in. That experience gives Gideon the confidence to train other broadcasters all over Ghana.
When I was in Ghana a few years ago, I met excellent extension agents who told me how frustrated they were to be responsible for reaching 3,000 farmers. It was impossible to have a quality interaction with all those farmers.
However, there are ways to communicate a thoughtful message with a large audience, for example with a good radio magazine.
Gideon has creatively blended his own expertise with resources from two communication-oriented non-profit organisations: Farm Radio International and Access Agriculture. Hopefully, his experience will inspire other broadcasters.
Videos in the languages of Ghana
Find videos and soundtracks in these languages of Ghana: Buli, Dagaari, Dagbani, Ewe, Frafra, Gonja, Hausa, Kabyé, Kusaal, Moba, Sisaala, Twi, Zarma and English.
If Covid has idled you, this might be the time to take a tip from Marco Polo, and write a book or an article.
In 1271, a 17-year-old Marco set out for China and Mongolia with his father, Niccolò and his uncle, Maffeo Polo. At the court of Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, Niccolò presented Marco as the great Khan’s servant. The Khan liked Marco right away, and sent him to various cities in China, perhaps as a tax collector, or as an official in the royal salt monopoly, or maybe just to report back.
Even then, Marco had a gift for storytelling, and he reported back to the Khan in detail of the people and things he had seen. Marco kept notes to remind him of what to tell the Khan.
Twenty-four years after leaving Venice, the three Polos arrived back home again, but they were soon dragged into a pointless war with Genoa. As a noble, Marco was obliged to outfit a galley. But when he and his sailors ventured into the Adriatic Sea they were captured by the Genoese, who took him to prison. For centuries, Genoa had been competing with Venice for the trade in salt and other goods in the Mediterranean, so the city states were arch rivals.
The Genoese recognized Marco as a noble (in no small part because he would tell anyone who would listen that he was a Venetian nobleman). So, Marco was placed into a reasonable comfortable captivity, for at least a year, and perhaps as long as three, waiting for his family to ransom him.
Marco beguiled his fellow jail mates with tales of exotic lands, and soon came to the attention of another prisoner of war, Rustichello da Pisa, a notary and a romance writer.
Rustichello realized the power of Marco’s story and the two became collaborators. Marco sent for, and received the notes he had written to report back to the Khan, and he dictated his story to Rustichello, who wrote it up (in French, oddly enough). In the words of historian Laurence Bergreen, in prison, Marco Polo found the freedom to write his story.
Hand-written copies of the book slowly appeared all over Europe, in English, Spanish, Italian and other languages. Marco himself, who had returned from Asia with a fortune in pearls and jewels sewed into the hems of his clothing, also hired scribes to copy his book. Each one was a bit different; Marco may have kept adding to his book each time he had it copied. At a time before the printing press, when a book could cost as much as a house, and a library might have only 100 volumes, a copy of Marco Polo’s Travels was a valuable gift. Marco would give copies to important people he wanted to impress.
Marco died in 1324, but his book lived on, and it was one of the first books (after the bible) to come off the printing press, almost two centuries after it had been written. The Travels appeared in print first in German, in 1477 and Christopher Columbus owned a Latin version, in which he wrote detailed notes in the margins.
China had thrown off Mongol rule not long after Kublai Khan died in 1294, and then closed itself off from the west for centuries. But Marco’s book inspired voyagers like Columbus and Magellan to seek a sea route to China.
Marco Polo was not the only European to visit Asia. His own father and uncle went not once, but twice, yet they appear as minor characters in Marco’s story.
Traveling and writing have both changed a lot since Marco stepped onto the Silk Road to China, but some principles remain the same: keep good notes and be observant; report back in a narrative style and write it up. It may be helpful to have a collaborator. Take advantage of any time or space you get, to write.
If Marco had merely travelled to China and not met Rustichello, the Polos would have been largely forgotten. Marco Polo is famous not because of his trip, but because of his book about his trip, in spite of all the technical limitations of publishing in the 13th and 14th century.
Further reading
Bergreen, Laurence 2009 Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu. London: Quercus. 415 pp.
Related Agro-Insight blogs
Illustrations
Caravana de Marco Polo, from the Atlas Catalán of Carlos V, 1375.
Map, The Route of Marco Polo’s Journey, by SY.
