WHO WE ARE SERVICES RESOURCES




Most recent stories ›
AgroInsight RSS feed
Blog

Killing the soil with chemicals (and bringing it back to life) August 14th, 2022 by

Vea la versión en español a continuación

Paul, and Marcella and I were filming recently in Quilcas, a village in Junín of the central Andes of Peru. A farmer and a former president of the community, Marcelo Tiza was spending the day with us. As we were admiring the mountain peaks and the green hillsides surrounding the community, we noticed that the steep slopes were divided up into a faint green checker board pattern, like a patchwork of abandoned fields. Then don Marcelo remarked offhand that all of that land had once been farmed, but that the soil had been destroyed by chemical fertilizer.

According to the community, these hillsides had always been cultivated, in a long rotation called “turns,” where they divided their high lands into several large fields, each with the same harvest potential. They would open one field the first year and divide it into family parcels of land to plant potatoes. The next year, they would open another big field for potatoes, and the first one, where they had already harvested potatoes, would be planted in other Andean tubers, or broad beans, or some other crop. Then the land would rest for five years, until the land became fertile again and people would plant potatoes again.

Then in the 1970s, the people of Quilcas began to use chemical fertilizer to boost their potato yields. Some people could afford chemical fertilizer, and those who couldn’t would apply sheep manure to their land. But after just 25 years of using chemical fertilizer, the communal land had been ruined. By 1999, community members noticed that even after they let the land rest for five years, it no longer recovered its fertility. It was missing its thick cover of vegetation and plants like trébol de carretilla that local people recognized as the signs of healthy land, ready to plant.

So the people of Quilcas moved their communal land higher, from about 3,800 meters above sea level to nearly 4,000. Having learned their lesson, the people prohibited the use of any chemical fertilizer or pesticides on these lands. The community regulations prohibited the use of chemical fertilizer or other chemicals in the communal fields, and people who broke these rules could be fined or even lose their rights to the lands.

Since 2000, the community of Quilcas (in collaboration with the NGO Yanapai) has also learned to use a long rotation of fodder crops (grasses and legumes). For several years, they plant potato in rotation with other tubers, as well as with barley and oats. Then the land is rested for several years, by planting a cover of fodder crops, which enrich the soil.  They have perfected the system in the individual lands near their homes, in the lower parts of the community (at about 3,500 meters above sea level).  And now they are experimenting with planting fodder above the villages, in the soil spoiled by chemicals. The first yields have been good, and people are encouraged. Ecological farming may be able to restore soils that have been ruined by the intense use of chemicals.

Paul and I have devoted much of this blog to the power of individual farmers to perform creative experiments. But farmer experiments can be more powerful than we have given them credit for. This story highlights the ability of communities to notice change that unfolded over several decades, at the level of whole landscapes, and to proactively experiment with ways of restoring the soil their lives depend on.

Related Agro-Insight blog stories

200 guinea pigs

Silent Spring, Better living through biology

A revolution for our soil

Scientific name

Trébol de carretilla is Medicago polymorpha or Medicago hispida (English “burr medic”)

Acknowledgements

The visit to Peru to film various farmer-to-farmer training videos, including this one, was made possible with the kind support of the Collaborative Crop Research Program (CCRP) of the McKnight Foundation. Thanks to Edgar Olivera, Raúl Ccanto, Jhon Huaraca and colleagues of the Grupo Yanapai for introducing us to Quilcas and for sharing their knowledge with us. Edgar Olivera and Paul Van Mele read and made valuable comments on an earlier version of this story.

MATAR EL SUELO CON QUÍMICOS (Y DEVOLVERLE LA VIDA)

Jeff Bentley, 14 de agosto del 2022

Hace poco, Paul, Marcella y yo filmábamos un video en Quilcas, en el departamento de Junín, en los Andes centrales del Perú. Un agricultor y antiguo presidente de la comunidad, Marcelo Tiza, estaba pasando el día con nosotros. Mientras admirábamos las cumbres de los cerros y las laderas que rodeaban la comunidad, nos dimos cuenta de que las inclinadas faldas del cerro estaban divididas en un borroso tablero de ajedrez verde: un mosaico de campos abandonados. Entonces don Marcelo explicó que en el pasado toda esa tierra sí había sido cultivada, pero que el suelo había sido destruido por los fertilizantes químicos.

Según la comunidad, esas laderas siempre se habían cultivado, en una especie de rotación por “turnos” donde dividían sus tierras altas en varios sectores, cada uno con casi la misma capacidad productiva. Abrían un sector el primer año y lo dividían en parcelas familiares para sembrar papa. El siguiente año, abrían otro terreno grande para papas, y en el primer campo, donde habían cosechado las papas, se sembraba otros tubérculos andinos, o habas, u otro cultivo. Luego la tierra descansaba por cinco años, hasta volverse fértil y se podía sembrar papas de nuevo.

Luego, en la década de 1970, la gente de Quilcas empezó a usar fertilizantes químicos para aumentar el rendimiento de las papas. Algunas personas podían darse el lujo de aplicar esos químicos, y las que no podían hacerlo, ponían guano de oveja a sus tierras. Pero tras sólo 25 años de uso de fertilizantes químicos, la tierra comunal se había arruinado. En 1999, los miembros de la comunidad se dieron cuenta de que, incluso después de dejar descansar la tierra durante cinco años, ya no recuperaba su fertilidad. Le faltaba su espesa capa de vegetación y plantas como el trébol de carretilla, que la población local reconocía como signo de una tierra sana, lista para sembrar.

Así que la gente de Quilcas trasladó sus campos comunales más arriba, de unos 3.800 metros sobre el nivel del mar a casi 4.000. Habiendo aprendido su lección, la gente prohibió el uso de cualquier fertilizante químico o plaguicida en estas tierras. Los estatutos de la comunidad prohíben el uso de fertilizantes y agroquímicos en tierras comunales, caso contrario el comunero será sancionado, hasta con la separación de la comunidad.

Desde el año 2000, la comunidad de Quilcas (en colaboración con la ONG Yanapai) también ha aprendido a usar una larga rotación de cultivos forrajeros (gramíneas y leguminosas). Durante varios años, siembran la papa en rotación con otros tubérculos, y cebada y avena. Luego la tierra descansa por varios años, con una cobertura de pasto cultivado, lo cual enriquece el suelo.  Han perfeccionado el sistema en las tierras individuales cercanas a sus casas, en las partes bajas de la comunidad (a unos 3.500 metros sobre el nivel del mar).  Y ahora están experimentando con la siembra de forraje en tierras más altas, hasta en los terrenos arruinados por los productos químicos. Los primeros rendimientos han sido buenos, y la gente está animada. La agricultura ecológica podría restaurar los suelos destruidos por el uso intensivo de químicos.

Paul y yo hemos dedicado gran parte de este blog al reconocer a los agricultores individuales y sus experimentos creativos. Pero los experimentos de los agricultores pueden ser más poderosos de lo que les hemos atribuido. Esta historia pone de relieve la capacidad de las comunidades para darse cuenta del cambio que se ha producido a lo largo de varias décadas, a nivel de paisajes enteros, y para experimentar proactivamente con formas de restaurar el suelo del que dependen sus vidas.

Previamente en el blog de Agro-Insight

200 cuyes

Silent Spring, Better living through biology

Una revolución para nuestro suelo

Nombre científico

Trébol de carretilla es Medicago polymorpha o Medicago hispida

Agradecimiento

Nuestra visita al Perú para filmar varios videos, incluso este, fue posible gracias al generoso apoyo del Programa Colaborativo de Investigación de Cultivos (CCRP) de la Fundación McKnight. Gracias a Edgar Olivera, Raúl Ccanto, Jhon Huaraca y colegas del Grupo Yanapai por presentarnos a Quilcas y por compartir su conocimiento con nosotros. Edgar Olivera y Paul Van Mele hicieron comentarios valiosos sobre una versión previa de este relato.

The nitrogen crisis July 3rd, 2022 by

Nederlandse versie hieronder

The European Union, along with most countries across the world, has agreed to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases to curb the negative effects of climate change, which are already apparent. Under the Green Deal, the EU aims to be climate neutral by 2050. Besides investments in more sustainable energy production and consumption (transport, housing …), further improvements are also needed in the food sector. But there is little consensus on how farmers should be supported.

Looking at the demographic trends in rural Europe, the proposed solutions will need to consider farm size. From 2005 to 2013, across Europe the number of farms with less than 50 hectares of land steadily decreased, while those between 50 and 100 hectares remained more or less stable. Those over 100 hectares slightly increased. Yet more than half of the farming population in Europe is older than 55 years (EuroStat, 2021). Meanwhile, the younger farmers have invested in labour-saving equipment, for example to work the larger holdings, acquiring high debts along the way. Further investment in climate mitigation will require proper support so that when the older farmers retire, the next generation will be able cope with the ever-increasing pressure of bank loans.

The war in Ukraine has triggered a sharp rise in the price of artificial fertilizers, making chemical-based farming less profitable. It is estimated that globally only one third of the applied nitrogen from chemical fertilizers is used by crops. Combined with the mounting pressure on farmers to help mitigate climate change by reducing carbon and nitrogen emissions, farmers are keen to optimise the use of animal manure.

While animal and human manure has been used to keep soils fertile for thousands of years, something has gone wrong in the recent past.

In a German documentary on the Aztecs, called Children of the Sun, ethnologist Antje Gunsenheimer describes some ancient human manure management. The central market in Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital, had public toilets where urine and faeces were collected separately in clay pots. Dung traders sold the composted dung as fertilizer, while the urine was used for dying fabric and leather tanning.

From the earliest days of farming in Europe, animals were kept on deep bedding of straw. But nowadays most animals in Europe are kept on a metal grid, and the mix of urine and dung is collected in large, underground reservoirs. When excrement and urine from cows or pigs mix, a lot of methane gas (CH4) and ammonia (NH4) is produced. The old practices of using straw as bedding, as well as innovative designs to separate the dung form the urine, is getting some renewed attention in livestock farming, because when separated, greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by up to 75%.

Bedding with crop residues such as wheat straw may provide substantial benefits.

Engineers in the Netherlands, the USA, Israel and various other countries are researching how best to adjust modern livestock sheds. Some promising examples include free walk housing systems that operate with composting bedding material or artificial permeable floors as lying and walking areas. Other sustainable techniques that are being explored include the CowToilet, which separates faeces and urine. As converting housing systems may be costly and therefore only adopted slowly by farmers, it is important to also experiment with better ways of applying liquid manure.

In modern livestock systems, urine and manure are mixed with the water used to wash the pens. Getting rid of this slurry, or liquid manure, has become a main environmental concern. When liquid manure is applied to the soil, much of the nitrogen evaporates as nitrous oxide or N2O, a greenhouse gas 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Another fraction is converted to nitrates (NO3), which seep through the soil and pollute the ground water. While manure used to be a crucial resource, it has now become a waste product and an expense for farmers.

Making better use of animal waste will be crucial for the future of our food. One key factor is the lack of soil organic matter and good microbes, that can help capture nitrogen and release this more slowly to benefit crops.

Solutions that are financially feasible for farmers will require the best of ideas, with inputs from farmers, soil scientists, microbiologists, ecologists, chemical and mechanical engineers, as well as social scientists.

Practices that help to build up soil carbon will be crucial to reduce the environmental impact of animal manure and fertilizers. Ploughing is known to have a detrimental effect on soil organic matter, as it induces oxidation of soil carbon. Reduced tillage or zero tillage for crop cultivation, and regenerative farming to make animal farming more sustainable, has been promoted and used in the USA and other parts of the world, and could be explored more intensively in Europe.

Also, there will be a need to revive soil micro-organisms, as these have been seriously affected by the use of agrochemicals and the reduced availability of soil organic matter. The expensive machines that are currently used by service providers to spread or inject liquid manure in farmers’ fields could equally be used to inject solutions with good micro-organisms that will help to capture nitrogen to then release it to crops, and build up a healthy soil.

Human creativity will be required to help come up with solutions that are economically feasible for farmers in the near future. To make this happen as fast as possible, more investments are required in research that truly addresses the fundamentals of the problems. Still, far too much public money is invested in research on new crop varieties, livestock feed, and the application of agrochemicals, all of which are to the benefit of large corporations.

Photo credit: The photo on the straw bedding is by Herbert Wiggerman.

More reading

Galama, P. J., Ouweltjes, W., Endres, M. I., Sprecher, J. R., Leso, L., Kuipers, A., Klopčič, M. 2020. Symposium review: Future of housing for dairy cattle. Journal of Dairy Science, 103(6), pp. 5759-5772. Available at:  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022030220302988

Related blogs

Capturing carbon in our soils

Reviving soils

Effective micro-organisms

A revolution for our soil

Repurposing farm machinery

Related videos

Good microbes for plants and soil

Organic biofertilizer in liquid and solid form

Coir pith

Mulch for a better soil and crop

Vermiwash: an organic tonic for crops

Inspiring platforms

Access Agriculture: hosts over 220 training videos in over 90 languages on a diversity of crops and livestock, sustainable soil and water management, basic food processing, etc. Each video describes underlying principles, as such encouraging people to experiment with new ideas.

EcoAgtube: a social media video platform where anyone from across the globe can upload their own videos related to natural farming and circular economy.

 

De stikstofcrisis

De Europese Unie heeft, samen met de meeste landen in de wereld, afgesproken de uitstoot van broeikasgassen te verminderen om de negatieve gevolgen van de klimaatverandering, die nu al merkbaar zijn, te beperken. In het kader van de Green Deal streeft de EU ernaar tegen 2050 klimaatneutraal te zijn. Naast investeringen in duurzamere energieproductie en -consumptie (vervoer, huisvesting …) zijn ook verdere verbeteringen nodig in de voedselsector. Maar er is weinig consensus over hoe landbouwers moeten worden ondersteund.

Als we kijken naar de demografische tendensen op het Europese platteland, moet bij de voorgestelde oplossingen rekening worden gehouden met de omvang van de landbouwbedrijven. Tussen 2005 en 2013 is in heel Europa het aantal landbouwbedrijven met minder dan 50 hectare gestaag gedaald, terwijl het aantal bedrijven tussen 50 en 100 hectare min of meer stabiel is gebleven. Het aantal bedrijven met meer dan 100 hectare is licht gestegen. Toch is meer dan de helft van de landbouwbevolking in Europa ouder dan 55 jaar (EuroStat, 2021). Ondertussen hebben de jongere boeren geïnvesteerd in arbeidsbesparende apparatuur, bijvoorbeeld om de grotere bedrijven te bewerken, waarbij ze onderweg hoge schulden hebben gemaakt. Voor verdere investeringen in klimaatmitigatie is goede ondersteuning nodig, zodat wanneer de oudere boeren met pensioen gaan, de volgende generatie het hoofd kan bieden aan de almaar toenemende druk van bankleningen.

De oorlog in Oekraïne heeft geleid tot een sterke stijging van de prijs van kunstmest, waardoor landbouw op basis van chemische stoffen minder winstgevend is geworden. Bovendien wordt naar schatting wereldwijd slechts een derde van de stikstof uit kunstmest door de gewassen gebruikt. In combinatie met de toenemende druk op landbouwers om de klimaatverandering te helpen beperken door de uitstoot van koolstof en stikstof te verminderen, zijn landbouwers erop gebrand het gebruik van dierlijke mest te optimaliseren.

Hoewel dierlijke en menselijke mest al duizenden jaren wordt gebruikt om de bodem vruchtbaar te houden, is er in het recente verleden iets misgegaan.

In een Duitse documentaire over de Azteken, genaamd Children of the Sun, beschrijft etnologe Antje Gunsenheimer hoe men in de oudheid met menselijke mest omging. De centrale markt in Tenochtitlán, de Azteekse hoofdstad, had openbare toiletten waar urine en uitwerpselen gescheiden werden opgevangen in kleipotten. Mesthandelaren verkochten de gecomposteerde mest als meststof, terwijl de urine werd gebruikt voor het verven van stoffen en het looien van leer.

Vanaf de begindagen van de landbouw in Europa werden dieren gehouden op een diep strobed. Maar tegenwoordig worden de meeste dieren in Europa op een metalen rooster gehouden, en wordt het mengsel van urine en mest opgevangen in grote, ondergrondse reservoirs. Wanneer uitwerpselen en urine van koeien of varkens zich vermengen, ontstaat er veel methaangas (CH4) en ammoniak (NH4).

De oude praktijk van het gebruik van stro als strooisel en innovatieve ontwerpen om de mest van de urine te scheiden, krijgt hernieuwde aandacht in de veehouderij, omdat bij scheiding de uitstoot van broeikasgassen tot 75% kan worden verminderd.

Bedding with crop residues such as wheat straw may provide substantial benefits.

Ingenieurs in Nederland, de VS, Israël en diverse andere landen onderzoeken hoe moderne stallen het best kunnen worden aangepast. Enkele veelbelovende voorbeelden zijn huisvestingssystemen met vrije uitloop die werken met composterend strooiselmateriaal of kunstmatige doorlaatbare vloeren als lig- en loopruimte. Andere duurzame technieken die worden onderzocht zijn onder meer het CowToilet, dat uitwerpselen en urine scheidt. Aangezien het ombouwen van stalsystemen kostbaar kan zijn en daarom slechts langzaam door boeren wordt overgenomen, is het belangrijk om ook te experimenteren met betere manieren om vloeibare mest toe te dienen.

In moderne veeteeltsystemen worden urine en mest vermengd met het water dat wordt gebruikt om de boxen te wassen. Het wegwerken van deze gier, of vloeibare mest, is een belangrijk milieuprobleem geworden. Wanneer vloeibare mest op de bodem wordt gebracht, verdampt een groot deel van de stikstof in de vorm van stikstofoxide of N2O, een broeikasgas dat 300 keer krachtiger is dan koolstofdioxide. Een ander deel wordt omgezet in nitraten (NO3), die door de bodem sijpelen en het grondwater verontreinigen. Terwijl mest vroeger een cruciale hulpbron was, is het nu een afvalproduct en een kostenpost voor de landbouwers geworden.

Een beter gebruik van dierlijk afval zal van cruciaal belang zijn voor de toekomst van ons voedsel. Een belangrijke factor is het gebrek aan organisch materiaal en goede microben in de bodem, die kunnen helpen stikstof vast te leggen en langzamer vrij te geven ten voordele van de gewassen.

Om oplossingen te vinden die voor de landbouwers financieel haalbaar zijn, zullen de beste ideeën moeten worden uitgewisseld, met bijdragen van landbouwers, bodemwetenschappers, microbiologen, ecologen, chemische en mechanische ingenieurs en sociale wetenschappers.

Praktijken die helpen bij de opbouw van koolstof in de bodem zullen van cruciaal belang zijn om de milieueffecten van dierlijke mest en meststoffen te verminderen. Het is bekend dat ploegen een nadelig effect heeft op het organisch materiaal in de bodem, aangezien het de oxidatie van koolstof in de bodem induceert. Verminderde grondbewerking of nulgrondbewerking voor de teelt van gewassen, en regeneratieve landbouw om de veehouderij duurzamer te maken, worden in de VS en andere delen van de wereld gestimuleerd en toegepast, en zouden in Europa intensiever kunnen worden onderzocht.

Ook zullen de micro-organismen in de bodem nieuw leven moeten worden ingeblazen, aangezien deze ernstig zijn aangetast door het gebruik van landbouwchemicaliën en de verminderde beschikbaarheid van organisch materiaal in de bodem. De dure machines die momenteel door dienstverleners worden gebruikt om vloeibare mest over de akkers van de landbouwers uit te strooien of te injecteren, zouden ook kunnen worden gebruikt om oplossingen met goede micro-organismen te injecteren die stikstof helpen vastleggen om het vervolgens aan de gewassen af te geven, en een gezonde bodem op te bouwen.

Menselijke creativiteit zal nodig zijn om in de nabije toekomst oplossingen te vinden die economisch haalbaar zijn voor landbouwers. Om dit zo snel mogelijk te laten gebeuren, zijn meer investeringen nodig in onderzoek dat de fundamentele problemen echt aanpakt. Nog steeds wordt veel te veel overheidsgeld geïnvesteerd in onderzoek naar nieuwe gewasvariëteiten, veevoer en de toepassing van landbouwchemicaliën, die allemaal in het voordeel zijn van grote bedrijven.

A better way to make holes June 12th, 2022 by

Vea la versión en español a continuación

Eleven heads think better than one, as I saw recently in the northern Andes. While filming a video with Paul and Marcella, local people in Ancash, Peru were telling us that they plant pasture seed by “making a hole” and sprinkling in some grass seed and a bit of composted manure. It sounded pretty mundane until I saw someone do it.

Local livestock owners, Feliciano Cruz and Estela Balabarca, took us to see them plant grass in their pasture. Don Feliciano grabbed what looked like a pick, swung it into the ground and pulled up a perfect, fist-sized plug of sod. With a practiced hand, he moved quickly across the pasture, swinging his pick, with lumps of sod flying over his shoulder. In a second or two he could make a perfect, round hole about three inches deep (10 cm).

Doña Estela sprinkled some dry manure into the hole, and added a bit of rye grass seed she had harvested herself, and that was it. The seed wasn’t buried, but enough earth fell in from the sides of the hole to gently cover it.

When the seed sprouts at the bottom of its little hole, it is protected from the wind and animals, but will let in the rain water. Don Feliciano calls his invention the sacabocada (bite-taker), because it takes little bites out of the soil. He designed it to have a way to plant improved fodder grass without plowing the soil.

In a previous blog (The committee of the commons) I mentioned the CIAL, a committee for local, farmer experimenters. I asked don Feliciano how he invented the bite-taker. He said that in the CIAL, they realized that they need to avoid plowing, to conserve the soil. So, they designed a tool, based on the pick, but it made a big crack in the earth, and it did not release the clod. So the CIAL members kept talking about how to improve the bite-taker.

Don Feliciano said these discussions were “almost like a game,” until they came up with the idea of welding a short tube to a pick head. That design worked. The CIAL got the municipality to fund them to make 25 copies for 25 soles (about $6) each. Don Feliciano is not sure how many people use the bite-taker, but we did hear about the technique from at least one other community member.

The CIAL itself was an innovation, created by a team in Colombia, to bring together farmers and agronomists to dream up fresh ideas. The CIAL reached this corner of Peru through Vidal Rondán, an adult educator who read about the farmer committee, and contacted its creators for advice. He organized several of the CIALs. Nearly 25 years later, this community of farmers in the northern Peruvian Andes is still using the CIALs as a way to bring people together to stimulate creative thought.

In agricultural development, useful ideas, like CIALs, tend to blossom and then die, instead of evolving. This is partly because it is more rewarding to think of new tools and give them cool names than to tinker with an old concept. Like the bite-taker, the CIAL may have deserved a wider application than it got. But then, the bite-taker and the CIAL are both still available to be dusted off, or to provide inspiration for the next Big Idea.

Related Agro-Insight blogs

The committee of the commons

Moveable pasture

Further reading

Ashby, Jacqueline Anne 2000 Investing in farmers as researchers: Experience with local agricultural research committees in Latin America. Cali, Colombia: CIAT.

Video on another idea for research in rural communities

Succeed with seeds

Acknowledgements

The visit to Peru to film various farmer-to-farmer training videos with farmers like don Feliciano was made possible with the kind support of the Collaborative Crop Research Program (CCRP) of the McKnight Foundation. Thanks to Vidal Rondán of the Mountain Institute for introducing us to the community.

MEJORES AGUJEROS PARA SEMBRAR PASTO

Jeff Bentley, 12 de junio del 2023

Once cabezas piensan mejor que una, como confirmé hace poco en el norte de los Andes. Mientras grabábamos un video con Paul y Marcella, la gente de Ancash (Perú) nos contaba que ellos sembraban los pastos “haciendo un hueco” y echando algunas semillas de pasto y un poco de estiércol compostado. Sonaba bastante mundano hasta que vi a alguien hacerlo.

Los ganaderos locales, Feliciano Cruz y Estela Balabarca, nos llevaron a ver cómo sembraban el pasto. Don Feliciano agarró lo que parecía una picota, la clavó en la tierra y sacó un tapón de césped, del tamaño de un puño. Con una mano experta, se movió rápidamente sobre el pasto, moviendo la picota de arriba para abajo, con trozos de césped volando sobre su hombro. En un segundo o dos pudo hacer un agujero perfecto y redondo de unos 10 cm de profundidad.

Doña Estela esparció un poco de estiércol seco en el agujero y añadió un poco de semilla de ray gras que ella misma había cosechado, y eso fue todo. La semilla no se enterró, pero cayó suficiente tierra por los lados del agujero para cubrirla ligeramente.

Cuando la semilla brota en el fondo de su agujerito, queda protegida del viento y de los animales, pero deja entrar el agua de la lluvia. Don Feliciano llama a su invento la sacabocada, porque saca pequeñas bocadas de la tierra. Lo diseñó para poder sembrar pasto forrajero mejorado sin arar la tierra.

En un blog anterior (Comité campesino) mencioné el CIAL, un comité de experimentadores locales y campesinos. Le pregunté a don Feliciano cómo había inventado la sacabocada. Me dijo que en el CIAL se dieron cuenta de que necesitaban evitar arar el suelo, para conservarlo. Así que diseñaron una herramienta, basada en el pico, pero que hacía una gran grieta en la tierra, y no soltaba el terrón. Así que los miembros del CIAL siguieron hablando de cómo mejorar la sacabocada.

Don Feliciano dijo que estas discusiones eran “casi como un juego”, hasta que se les ocurrió soldar un tubo corto a la cabeza de la picota. Ese diseño funcionó. El CIAL consiguió que la municipalidad les financiara la fabricación de 25 ejemplares por 25 soles (unos 6 dólares) cada uno. Don Feliciano no está seguro de cuántas personas usan la sacabocada, pero nos enteramos de la técnica por al menos otro miembro de la comunidad.

El CIAL en sí mismo fue una innovación, creada por un equipo de Colombia, para reunir a agricultores y agrónomos con el fin de experimentar con nuevas ideas. El CIAL llegó a este rincón de Perú a través de Vidal Rondán, un educador de adultos que leyó sobre el comité de agricultores y se puso en contacto con sus creadores para pedirles consejo. Él organizó varios de los CIALes. Casi 25 años después, esta comunidad de agricultores del norte de los Andes peruanos sigue usando los CIALes como forma de reunir a la gente para estimular el pensamiento creativo.

En el desarrollo agrícola, las ideas útiles, como los CIAL, tienden a florecer y luego morir, en vez de evolucionarse. Esto se debe, en parte, a que es más gratificante pensar en nuevas herramientas y darles nombres atractivos que retocar un concepto antiguo. Al igual que la sacabocada, el CIAL podría haber merecido una aplicación más amplia de la que tuvo. Pero tanto la sacabocada como el CIAL siguen estando disponibles para ser desempolvados, o para servir de inspiración para la próxima Gran Idea.

Otros blogs de Agro-Insight

Comité campesino

Pasto movible

Lectura adicional

Ashby, Jacqueline A., Ann R. Braun, Teresa Gracia, M. D. P. Guerrero, Luis Alfredo Hernández Romero, Carlos Arturo Quirós Torres, y J. A. Roa. 2001.La comunidad se organiza para hacer investigación: experiencias de los comités de investigación agrícola local, CIAL en América Latina. CIAT: Cali, Colombia

Video sobre otra idea para investigación en comunidades

Succeed with seeds

Agradecimientos

Nuestra visita al Perú para filmar varios videos agricultor-a-agricultor con agricultoras como don Feliciano fue posible gracias al generoso apoyo del Programa Colaborativo de Investigación de Cultivos (CCRP) de la Fundación McKnight. Gracias a Vidal Rondán del Instituto Montaño por presentarnos a la comunidad.

 

 

 

Moveable pasture June 5th, 2022 by

Vea la versión en español a continuación

Ideas for agricultural development are a bit like fads. They come and then fade away, for no apparent reason. One such idea was the local agricultural research committee, or CIAL, which has been largely ignored in recent years. But where the CIAL has survived, it is still be quite functional. I mentioned in a previous blog (The committee of the commons) that the CIAL has led to lots of innovation in the community of Cordillera Blanca, in the Peruvian Andes, where this committee continues to function after more than 20 years.

Every functional innovation we saw in the community seemed to be related to the CIAL. For example, Paul and Marcella and I met community member Trinidad León (see Paul’s blog Farming as a lifestyle) while she was herding her sheep home through the bofedales, the high Andean wetlands.

We found a place to get out of the wind behind doña Trinidad’s stone cottage, where she explained that 30 years ago, overgrazing was a problem in the community. Back then, there was no grass like what we see now. This surprised me, because this rocky pasture at 4000 meters above sea level was thick with native needle grass when we saw it. Rotational grazing, moving the animals to let the pasture rest, had allowed this meadow to recover.

Rotational grazing is just one of the ideas that the CIAL and the community have experimented with over the years, working with different extensionists from The Mountain Institute, an NGO.

Doña Trinidad was not a member of the CIAL, but her husband was, and she knew well what the committee researched. Doña Trinidad explained how an agronomist named Doris Chávez worked with the community for several years, starting in about 2013, to discuss ways to improve pasture.

Previously, the couple would move their corral periodically, and allow it to seed itself in native pasture. Through their interaction with the CIAL, they saw the opportunity to use the corral as a place to grow fodder, not just to allow pasture to grow naturally. At planting time, they plow the soil and plant it with oats or barley, which they cut to feed to their animals. Later, the harvested barley patch grows into natural pasture, which the sheep graze. The following year, the land can be fenced within a corral again, to gather manure. So there is a three-year rotation: corral, oats and barley, pasture, before starting over again with the moveable corrals.

The CIAL is a committee of farmers, men and women, who test new ideas and share the results back with their community. The farmers themselves adapt the ideas, and from what we saw, they can be very successful. The oats and barley field is a healthy, emerald-green patch growing on the site of last year’s corral. Doña Trinidad takes a sickle and cuts an armful to feed to her cattle later that afternoon.

Agroecology, with its emphasis on co-construction of knowledge, is now gaining importance across the world. Researchers today might take inspiration from the CIAL, as a way to stimulate community research, especially for agroecology.

Further reading

Ashby, Jacqueline Anne 2000 Investing in farmers as researchers: Experience with local agricultural research committees in Latin America. Cali, Colombia: CIAT.

Acknowledgements

The visit to Peru to film various farmer-to-farmer training videos with farmers like doña Trinidad was made possible with the kind support of the Collaborative Crop Research Program (CCRP) of the McKnight Foundation. Thanks to Vidal Rondán of the Mountain Institute for introducing us to the community.

Video on another idea for research in rural communities

Succeed with seeds

Jeff Bentley, 5 de junio del 2022

PASTO MOVIBLE

Las ideas para el desarrollo agrícola son un poco como las modas. Vienen y luego se desaparecen, aparentemente sin razón. Una de esas ideas fue el Comité de Investigación Agrícola Local (CIAL), que ha sido ignorado en los últimos años. Pero donde el CIAL ha sobrevivido, sigue siendo bastante funcional. En un blog anterior (Comité campesino) mencioné que el CIAL ha dado lugar a muchas innovaciones en la comunidad de Cordillera Blanca, en los Andes peruanos, donde este comité sigue funcionando después de más de 20 años.

Todas las innovaciones funcionales que vimos en la comunidad parecían estar relacionadas con el CIAL. Por ejemplo, Paul, Marcella y yo conocimos a Trinidad León, miembro de la comunidad (véase el blog de Paul Farming as a lifestyle), mientras arreaba sus ovejas a casa a través de los bofedales, los humedales altoandinos.

Encontramos un lugar para salir del viento detrás de la cabaña de piedra de doña Trinidad, donde nos explicó que hace 30 años el sobrepastoreo era un problema en la comunidad. En aquel entonces, no había pasto como el que vemos ahora. Esto me sorprendió, porque este pasto rocoso a 4.000 metros sobre el nivel del mar estaba lleno de ichu nativo cuando lo vimos. El pastoreo rotativo, que consiste en mover a los animales para dejar descansar el pasto, había permitido que esta pradera se recuperara.

El pastoreo rotativo es sólo una de las ideas que el CIAL y la comunidad han experimentado a lo largo de los años, trabajando con diferentes extensionistas del Instituto de Montaño, una ONG.

Doña Trinidad no era miembro del CIAL, pero su marido sí era, y ella conocía bien lo que investigaba el comité. Doña Trinidad explicó cómo una agrónoma llamada Doris Chávez trabajó con la comunidad durante varios años, a partir de 2013, para discutir formas de mejorar los pastos.

Anteriormente, la pareja movía su corral periódicamente, y permitía que se auto-sembrara en pasto nativo. A través de su interacción con el CIAL, vieron la oportunidad de usar el corral como un lugar para cultivar forraje, no sólo para permitir que los pastos crezcan de forma natural. En la época de siembra, aran la tierra y la siembran con avena o cebada, que cortan para alimentar a sus animales. Más tarde, la parcela de cebada cosechada se convierte en un pasto natural que las ovejas pastan. Al año siguiente, la tierra puede volver a cercarse dentro de un corral, para recoger el estiércol. Así pues, hay una rotación de tres años: corral, avena y cebada, pastos, antes de volver a empezar con los corrales móviles.

El CIAL es un comité de agricultores, hombres y mujeres, que prueban nuevas ideas y comparten los resultados con su comunidad. Los propios agricultores adaptan las ideas y, por lo que vimos, pueden tener mucho éxito. El campo de avena y cebada es una parcela sana, una mancha verde esmeralda que crece en el lugar del corral del año pasado. Doña Trinidad toma una hoz y corta un bulto para alimentar a su ganado esa misma tarde.

La agroecología, con su énfasis en la construcción conjunta del conocimiento, está ganando importancia en todo el mundo. Los investigadores de hoy podrían inspirarse en el CIAL, como forma de estimular la investigación comunitaria, especialmente para la agroecología.

Lectura adicional

Ashby, Jacqueline Anne 2000 Investing in farmers as researchers: Experience with local agricultural research committees in Latin America. Cali, Colombia: CIAT.

Agradecimientos

Nuestra visita al Perú para filmar varios videos agricultor-a-agricultor con agricultoras como doña Trinidad fue posible gracias al generoso apoyo del Programa Colaborativo de Investigación de Cultivos (CCRP) de la Fundación McKnight. Gracias a Vidal Rondán del Instituto Montaño por presentarnos a la comunidad.

Video sobre otra idea para la investigación con las comunidades rurales

Succeed with seeds

Sowing experiments April 24th, 2022 by

For nearly a century, from 1839 to 1924, the US government distributed free seeds to any citizen who wanted them. As told in First the Seed, by Jack Kloppenburg, seeds of field crops, vegetables and even flowers were sourced from around the world (often by the US Navy). The seed was multiplied in the USA, and mailed through the post by members of Congress to their constituents. The program was wildly popular and by 1861, the first year of the American Civil War, almost two and a half million seed packages (each with five packets of seed) were being shipped each year to farmers and gardeners.

As Kloppenburg explains, given the botanical knowledge of the time, and the limited ability of formal agricultural research in the United States, the free seed for farmers “was the most efficient means of developing adapted and improved crop varieties.”

I recently saw a little window into this seed program. On 7 April 2022, The Times-Independent (a newspaper in Moab, Utah), published a replica of their page one from exactly 100 years earlier. One short story, “Seeds Go Quickly” showed just how much people loved free seed. The little story reads:


SEEDS GO QUICKLY

In last Thursday’s issue, The Times-Independent announced that a quantity of government seeds had been received by this office for distribution to the people of Moab, and inviting those who wanted some of the seeds to call for them. Within a few minutes after the paper was delivered to the post office, local people commenced to call for the seeds, and there was a continuous demand until the supply was entirely exhausted.


I hadn’t realized that newspapers also helped to distribute the seed. In 1922, Moab’s local newspaper did not bother telling its readers what the “government seed” was. They knew it well, even though today the program is forgotten. Kloppenburg says that the government seed was not only free, but of high quality, better than what private companies were then able to supply. This partly explains the rush of townspeople clamoring seed at The Times-Independent office, but farmers’ love of innovation was also a reason for the excitement. The farmers and gardeners who swung open the glass door of the newspaper office didn’t know what kind of seed was in the little packages. There was some mystery there: each package contained several packets of different seed. Each packet was just a handful of seed, enough to try out, but not enough to plant a field.

The free seed sparked thousands of farmer experiments over decades, which formed the basis of modern, North American agriculture.

The development of the adapted base of germplasm on which American agriculture was raised is the product of thousands of experiments by thousands of farmers committing millions of hours of labor in thousands of diverse ecological niches over a period of many decades.

Jack Kloppenburg, First the Seed, page 56

In the early 1800s seed companies were small, but they were growing. By 1883 these companies organized as the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) and immediately began to lobby against government seed. Free seed was so popular that it took ASTA forty years, until 1924, to finally convince Congress to kill the program, at the height of its popularity.

Since 1922, companies have largely wrested control of seed from farmers, who once produced and exchanged all of the seed of field crops. It’s worth remembering that small gifts of seed sparked farmer experiments that shaped American agriculture.

Further reading

Kloppenburg, Jack Ralph, Jr. 1990 First the Seed: The Political Economy of Plant Biotechnology, 1492-2000. Cambridge University Press.

Related Agro-Insight blogs

The times they are a changing

Remembering an American king

Dick’s Ice box

Videos on using your own seed

Farmers’ rights to seed: experiences from Guatemala

Farmers’ rights to seed – Malawi

Succeed with seeds

Maintaining varietal purity of sesame

Harvesting and storing soya bean seed

Storing cowpea seed

Well dried seed is good seed

Rice seed preservation

Design by Olean webdesign