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Report 5 (of 6): Beans Means
Biodiversity - Nicaragua
Introduction
Peasants have taken control of their
livelihoods and the environment by forming a non-governmental
organisation (NGO) in Nicaragua in order to halt expansion
of agriculture land into the rainforest. Using bean
fertiliser and cover crops to enrich the soil and
increase productivity of the land, the peasants set
up an effective promotion scheme to share their knowledge
to thousands more in the area and in this way made
permanent farming possible, creating food security
and stopping the destruction of the forest.
The Atlantic coast region of Nicaragua
contains the largest tropical rainforest reserves
in Central America. The land has suffered exploitation
at the hands of external corporations who cut the
forest for its timber and from campesinos (small-scale
farmers, peasants) seeking new, fertile land for agriculture.
To protect the land, in October 1991 the Nicaraguan
government declared a 7500 sq. km area of the Atlantic
coast's indigenous territory as a national reserve,
which was later recognised as the Bosawas Biosphere
Reserve by UNESCO. The reserve consists of dense primary
tropical rainforest and is home to 13,000 indigenous
people and 12 animal species under threat of extinction;
18 species are already extinct in the Central American
region.
Despite this protection, illegal logging
and population incursion into the Bosawas continued.
Economic mismanagement and unsound government policies
resulted in a vicious cycle of increasing poverty
and environmental destruction. For example, a government
credit policy valued pasture as an improvement over
forested land.[1] The campesinos, with no alternative means of
making a living, pushed further and further into the
reserve to find new fertile land.
The campesinos practised slash and
burn methods and shifting cultivation. Under this
method, when yields drop new fields are opened up
by clearing more of the forest. Jesús Garcia Ordońez,
a farmer in the municipality of Siuna, explains why:
"The soils here are very
fragile because the topsoil is only 5 to 10 centimetres.
From experience we know that on land freshly cleared
and burned, the first harvest is good but in the second,
the following year, the corn plants hardly grow. What
happens is that the land is bare and with the hard
rains that fall during nine months of the year, the
topsoil is washed away and what is left is a clayish
red soil which only yields a terrible grass that even
the cows won't eat." [2]
The campesinos became aware of the
problem arising from these farming methods, seeing
fertile land being turned into barren land. So, with
the National Union of Farmers and Ranchers (UNAG),
they started the Campesino to Campesino Programme
(PCaC) to resolve common problems in 1992. Soil conservation
and communication were top of the agenda. In August
1993, three farmers took part in a study visit to
a farmer in a neighbouring community who were using
leguminous cover crops as green fertiliser.
| "In 1992 I participated in
a gathering of campesino experimenters and I
also visited the farms of a number of campesinos
in the Pacific Region of Nicaragua who were
experimenting with soil conservation practices.
With those experiences, I motivated a group
of 12 farmers from my community to try what
I had learned. Without anybody telling us what
to do, we ploughed a 1˝mz. (manzana = approx.
a hectare) area with nearly a 35 per cent slope
and went to work. We wanted to see if the idea
of ploughing would work as well as that of terracing.
We cleared the land, ploughed, and began to
level the terrain. Then we put tree trunks and
rocks as barriers. When the first rains fell
they took with them all the topsoil because
it was shallow and thin and we had ploughed.
The lesson is that these soils should not be
ploughed or cleared, much less if they are on
a slope. Furthermore, you shouldn't copy the
experiences from one zone to another because
each zone has its own characteristics ... we
decided to make an experiment out of our mistake;
what we did was to plant almost the entire field
with the velvet bean, except in a small area,
which we wanted to use for comparison. We planted
the beans in May 1993 and let them go to seed.
In May 1994, the seeds germinated again and
based on the experiences we had learned from
other places, by the end of October we decided
to chop the fertiliser bean plants when they
were flowering. When the organic matter had
rotted we planted the parcel of land with corn.
The harvest in this parcel was 4,500 lbs/mz.
and in the area where we hadn't planted the
fertiliser bean it was about 500 lbs/mz ...
You can always learn from a mistake, and we
learned to use the fertiliser bean as we saw
its real value in restoring and protecting the
soil of the humid tropics." Jesús García Ordońez
(Source: The Spirit of Innovation - a Key to
the Future) |
From this they learnt how Friuho
buono fertiliser bean could restore and conserve
soil fertility and set about adapting it to their
local conditions. For every 5000 hectares of legume-planted
agricultural land, approximately 15,000 hectares of
land are preserved for natural regeneration and the
growth of secondary forest.
Exchanges continued and farmers were
trained in new techniques including investigating
the characteristics of the soil and terrain, terracing,
and learning to make compost heaps.
Further experiments were undertaken
to address the challenges of farming in the humid
tropics in particular, the difficulty of planting
on the same plot every year, gradual loss of soil
fertility, abandoning field burning, conserving areas
for natural forest regeneration, diversifying production
and gaining secure land tenure. Hard physical work
was required in the hot season and there were no immediate
returns. Many campesinos had to leave their farms
during the dry season to work on coffee or banana
plantations, returning only when the planting season
is about to begin. Regardless, the experiments continued.
- Intercropping - corn, rice and
other crops in the same plot every year;
- Green manuring - planting corn,
cassava, intercropped with pigeon pea (Cajanus
cajan) and cutting the pigeon pea plants to
fertilise the soil and maintain sufficient organic
matter;
- Ground cover - planting cowpeas
(Vigna) as a ground cover to cut in July
and planting rice without burning or ploughing;
planting velvet beans (Mucunas) when the
corn tassels or the first small ears emerge; leaving
the corn stalks standing to help the beans grow
better and control the weeds later; planting velvet
beans in the rice stubble; planting red beans (Phaseolus
vulgaris) in the oat stubble after harvest,
etc. [3]
- Organic fertilisers
- Natural insecticides made from
chilli peppers, garlic, onion, tobacco, and other
local resources as a substitute for expensive chemical
products.
These experiments proved that it is
possible to plant diverse crops without burning the
soil and that soil fertility can be increased. Learning
continued to take place between communities, farmers
visited each other to learn about the bean and techniques.
Over 10 years, 80 families adopted the bean fertiliser
and most rotate up to 10 different crops on their
land, (such as chickpeas, bananas, yucca, rice, coffee,
cacao, ginger etc). The use of green fertilisers increased
the average yield of corn per hectare from 974 kilos
to some 2600 kilos. The planting of fertiliser beans
guarantees the basic food supply even during drought
years and the diversity of crops has improved the
dietary health of the locals.
Communication is the Key
What started as exchanges of information
and experiences of particular techniques stimulated
group experimentation and communication. Hundreds
of farmers attended workshops (focusing on seed selection,
the use of natural insecticides, alternative techniques
for ploughing, planting and fertilising etc) and a
network of farmer promoters grew.
Farmer promoters are volunteers who
conduct experiments in their own fields and share
their knowledge and experience with others. Each takes
responsibility for guiding a group of experimenting
farmers from his/her community and visiting them regularly
to help with planning, implementing and interpreting
their experiments. They also organise exchanges between
farmers and give training as required, using workshops,
videos, photo presentations, visits, poems, songs
and theatre to communicate experiences. The active
role of the farmers created an environment of mutual
respect and support, motivating others to do the same,
spreading education and building the community. Successful
results spoke volumes and interest grew steadily.
Experienced promoters overcame long
distances between farms with poor transport infrastructure
to train more than 600 farmers. Through their involvement
in the programme, farmers experimented, assessed results
and developed solutions themselves.
A challenge remaining is to harness
links between the campesinos and indigenous peoples.
The latter live in harmony with the forest, and still
see the campesinos as destroyers. Culture differences
renders communication difficult and still needs to
be bridged.
Expanding Efforts
Community efforts expanded into forest
management, fire prevention, seed collection and farm
planning.
Avoiding fires
Traditionally farmers burned fields
to get rid of weeds. As a result of the Campesino
to Campesino programme and the use of the fertiliser
bean, the farmers carried out a campaign during the
summer of 1996 to prevent fires in the zone, something
that has never been done before in these territories.
Overburning of the land has led to a loss of nutrients
in the soil and so farmers feel their efforts would
have been in vain if burning continued. Forest fires
are prevented and controlled by local fire-fighting
squads.
Collecting forest seeds
As a result of the interchanges, farmers
have been motivated to obtain seeds in order to plant
trees. They have attempted to set up tree nurseries
and to enrich areas of natural regeneration through
direct seeding. This has previously been done by outside
organisations and this is the first time that farmers
are doing it on their own initiative.
Organising the farm
The organic matter that the velvet
bean produces enables farmers to plant on the same
land year after year, settling permanently on their
farms and subsequently to plan and manage land for
the long term. Maps and sketches are proving to be
valuable tools for land use planning and farmers are
learning how to make better use of these. (Source:
The Spirit of Innovation - a Key to the Future)
Protecting the Forest
A natural consequence of the programme
was the introduction of forestry activities to increase
biodiversity protection, never previously considered
important. Another exchange in 1995 to learn about
pine forests gave farmers more ideas. Greater ownership
of the resources and interest in managing the forest
led them to conclude that it is economically better
to grow and maintain the forests rather than let loggers
destroy them.
Biodiversity in the area now enjoys
the protection resulting from reforestation activities.
Three hundred producers have put aside between 3.5
and 14 hectares of protected forest each. Thousands
of trees have been planted along regeneration corridors
that links their lands to the biosphere reserve with
plans to plant a further 10,000 trees from 20 different
species. Seed and plant banks have been created in
some communities. A project is being explored with
the World Bank to install a plant for the extraction
of essential oils from different species (allspice,
ginger, lemongrass and cinnamon), to derive income
from the forest without destroying it.
Over 10 years peasants have created
a movement to replicate their experience and disseminate
their knowledge, involving more than 300 peasants
who work with 80 communities. Knowledge of sustainable
agriculture techniques has been passed on to more
than 3000 families in the area. The group has metamorphosed
further with several cooperatives undertaking projects
in housing, water and sewage facilities, education,
reforestation and fire prevention with other communities.
Communities from several countries are now learning
from their experience.
The PCaC have solved significant problems
with sustainable alternatives, the fertiliser bean
pivotal in helping to stabilise crop production and
so relieve pressure on the reserve. The programme
helps to unite and create a basis for a healthy, secure
community. It succeeds because it addresses not just
the symptoms of deforestation but the causes, driven
by the people who develop and promote methods appropriate
for the local customs and environment.
Acknowledgements
This case study draws heavily on the
extensive article written by Abelardo Rivas Espinoza
and Eduardo Zamora González
Further Information
National Farmes and Cattle Ranchers
Union/Unión Nacional de Agricultores y Ganaderos (UNAG)
is an independent,non-governmental self-help organization
of farmers and ranchers working to support development
in agriculture through sustainable farming methods,
by providing technical agricultural services, through
construction of homes, schools, and basic community
services, and through co-ordinating international
assistance to cooperative small farms in Nicaragua.
San Juan, UNIVAL 1/2 c al Sur Casa # 523
Tel: +505 2774888 / 2707942
Fax: +505 2774676
E-mail: unag@unag.org.ni
http://www.unag.org.ni/
Articles on Project
UN Development Programme article
- Campesino to Campesino Programme of the Municipality
of Siuna (PcaC) - Nicaragua
www.undp.org/equatorinitiative
Article in Spanish
One World - Towards a social movement of farmer
innovation: Campesino a Campesino Henri Hocdé,
Jorge I. Vasquez, Eric Holt, Ann R. Braun
http://www.oneworld.org/ileia/newsletters/16-2/26-27162.pdf
Forest, Trees and People; The spirit of innovation
- a key to the future
Experience of the Campesino to Campesino Program (PCaC)
in the buffer zone of the BOSAWAS Reserve by
Abelardo Rivas Espinoza & Eduardo Zamora González
http://www-trees.slu.se/newsl/35/35abelar.htm
Extensive article on the project
Over the years the project has worked with and been
supported by various international agencies including
Oxfam Great Britain, the European Union, Save the
Children, national NGOs and government departments,
catholic church , municipalities and United Nations
Development Programme.
General Information
One World ILEIA Newsletter
http://www.oneworld.org/ileia/toc.htm
Lots of articles on sustainable farming
Why do farmers go for fertiliser
bean? (Vol. 11 No. 1 p. 7)
http://www.oneworld.org/ileia/newsletters/11-1/11-1-7.htm
Technical article on results of comparative study
on farming practices and the economic results of two
groups of farmers from the Atlantic region in Honduras.
Farmer-to-farmer extension: lessons from the field
Selener, D., Chenier, J. and Zelaya, R. 1997.
The International Institute of Rural Reconstruction
(IIRR) New York
You can purchase from IIRR at the website http://www.iirr.org/
United States Office
333 East 38th Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY
10016,
USA.
Tel: +1 212 880 9147
Fax: +1 212 880 9148
E-mail: nyc.office@iirr-us.org
Farmer Led Extension Concepts and Practices
Edited by Vanessa Scarborough, Scott Killough, Debra
A Johnson and John Farrington
ISBN 1853394173
1997 Ł14.95/US$26.95
ITDG Publishing This books serves as an invaluable
introduction to farmer led approaches, as well as
a mine of ideas for extension managers and project
staff seeking to promote agriculture development
ITDG Publishing
103-105 Southampton Row
London WC1B 4HH
Tel +44 (0)20 7436 9761
Fax +44 (0)20 7436 2013
Email: orders@itpubs.org.uk
Website: http://www.itdgpublishing.org.uk/
[1] The Spirit of Innovation - a Key to the Future
[2] The Spirit of Innovation - a Key to the Future
[3] The Spirit of Innovation - a Key to the Future
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