[Sdpg] PR Polycultures in the Brazilian drylands Tuesday, Dec 12, 6 pm Meiner Oaks (near Ojai) Also in LA Dec 9 And Santa Barbara Dec 14

Thu Dec 7 22:21:13 PST 2006

PR Polycultures in the Brazilian drylands  Tuesday, Dec 12, 6  pm Meiner Oaks
(near Ojai) 
Farmer and Cook Restaurant Dinner and Talk see details below in PR

Also in LA Dec 9  contact David Kohn 323 667 1330 info at sustainablehabitats.org
for possible Evening Event www.sustainablehabitats.org  

And Santa Barbara Dec 14, 7pm Santa Barbara City College East Campus, Room
A-162, 721 Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara, CA For more information, please call
(805) 962-2571, email at margie at sbpermaculture.org  $5 donation

Contact: Margie Bushman
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
(805) 962-2571, email: margie at sbpermaculture.org

SANTA BARBARA PERMACULTURE NETWORK AND  Ojai Permaculture Guild 
Presents:

Polycultures in the Brazilian drylands:
A new version of an old tradition
with Brazilian Permaculture Teacher Marsha Hansi 

Tuesday, Dec 12 , 2006

Dinner, Slide Show and Talk 
Evening Lecture 6 - 8:30 pm 
Farmer and Cook Restaurant Meiner Oaks (nar Ojai)

        Although Brazil is best known for its vast rainforests, it is also
home
to an immense semi-arid 
region 900,000 square kilometers and growing! Located in the Northeast part of
the country, this region, the Sertão, is composed of hundreds of
micro-climates
and specific ecosystems, rich in fauna and flora. 
It is also densely populated 10 million inhabitants and highly degraded.

        A recent survey estimated that 40% of this region is degraded with 25%
in danger of desertification, but this estimate is based on meager
evidence, at
best. The fact is that with the arrival of "modern" farming and
cattle-raising,
this region has suffered intensive removal of the native vegetation, called
Caatinga, exposing the shallow and fragile soils to hot constant winds and
sheet erosion. The traditional farmers planted small (half-hectare) plots in
the heart of the native vegetation, thus maintaining biodiversity and natural
windbreaks.

On Tuesday, Dec 12 , at 6pm, join the Santa Barbara Permaculture Network and
Ojai Permaculture Guild in presentation an evening with Brazilian Permaculture
Marsha Hanzi  Teacher,  no host Dinner 6pm followed by talk and Slide Show
7pm
on Polyculture in the Brazilian drylands.

        Marsha www.marsha.com.br has been involved with the Green movement
since
her days in Switzerland, and was the founder of the first Brazilian
Permaculture institute ( of Bahia), in 1993, after having done the PDC and
Advanced courseswith Max Lindegger and Lea Harrison in Hawaii and with Bill
Mollison and Scott Pittman in Porto Alegre. Her main motive for getting into
Permaculture has been
the question of Brazil´s agricultural model, participating in the founding of
the Brazilian agroforest movement, inspired by the successional model of Ernst
Gotsch. In 2003 Marsha moved to a piece of bare sand in the drylands, where
she
is now implanting the "Marizá Epicenter for Culture and Agroecology", a space
open to courses, events, visits, nestled in a newly-planted cashew-based
agroforest ( 15 acres).

        The Polyculture Model is, in part, an adaptation of the old model
which
in itself is an imitation of the local ecosystem, including the factors of
density, biodiversity, and dynamism. As in the local ecosystem, there is a
variety of legume trees to help fix nitrogen, considerable organic mass when
the rains come, and woody ground cover (from tree prunings) during drought,
protecting the land long after other organic material has decomposed. This
guarantees permanent root masses which capture any drop of rain, and leaf
surface to capture the dew that is an important source of humidity in this
climate. 

Permaculture is a design system based on ecological principles for creating
sustainable human environments, and is one of the most holistic, integrated
systems analysis and design methodologies found in the world.  Originally
coined from the words PERMAnent agriCULTURE, it has evolved to one of
permanent
or sustainable culture with consciously designed landscapes that mimic the
patterns of nature.

The event  takes place at the Farmer and Cook Restaurant  339 El Roblar Dr ,
Meiners Oaks (near Ojai) www.farmerandcook.com, Tues Dec 12, no host Dinner
 6pm
and 7pm Slide Show and Talk cost is $5 donation for Slide show. For more
information, please call (805) 962-2571, email at margie at sbpermaculture.org ,
or visit www.sbpermaculture.org.  Sponsors: Santa Permaculture Network and
Ojai
Permaculture Guild

-end-

Polycultures in the Brazilian drylands: A new version of an old tradition 

http://ag.arizona.edu/OALS/ALN/aln48/hanzi.html

by Marsha Hanzi

"[The polyculture model tested in]this project is financed by the local castor
bean industry, which was interested in having a steadier supply of raw
materials. These first demonstration fields have given spectacular results:
one
farmer harvested the equivalent of 1,400 Reais (about 700 dollars) from one
hectare alone. This is about double the regional average income per
hectare..."
The drylands of Brazil 
The Drylands Polyculture Project 
Author information 
Additional web resources 
The drylands of Brazil

Although Brazil is best known for its vast rainforests, it is also home to an
immense semi-arid region (900,000 square kilometers and growing!). Located in
the Northeast of the country, this region, the Sertão, is composed of hundreds
of micro-climates and specific ecosystems, rich in fauna and flora. It is also
densely populated (10 million inhabitants) and highly degraded. The
landholdings are a mixture of many smallholdings (5-30 hectares) and large
cattle ranches, often owned by absentee owners. The local people are a mixture
of original indigenous inhabitants with Portuguese, with a strong oral
tradition that many were actually Jewish refugees fleeing from the Inquisition
(hiding their identity by changing their names). Although the Indian tradition
is virtually extinct in the region, the form of agriculture practiced until
today by many smallholders is the traditional (and extremely destructive)
slash-and-burn.

A recent survey estimated that 40% of this region is degraded with 25% in
danger of desertification, but this estimate is based on meager evidence, at
best. The fact is that with the arrival of "modern" farming and
cattle-raising,
this region has suffered intensive removal of the native vegetation, called
Caatinga, exposing the shallow and fragile soils to hot constant winds and
sheet erosion. The traditional farmers planted small (half-hectare) plots in
the heart of the native vegetation, thus maintaining biodiversity and natural
windbreaks. When the short rainy season was over, the rest of the year was
spent hunting the local fauna. With the advent of tractors, however, these
plots grew to 2-3 hectares or more, exposing the land, and virtually
eliminating the Caatinga. With the arrival of commercial farming, some 20
years
ago, when many farmers began to plant for money instead of for subsistence,
the
bank credit system demanded that these plots be planted with monocultures and
maintained with commercially produced chemicals. This had the effect of drying
the land even more (and dragging many would-be "modern" farmers to bankruptcy,
since this model is much more expensive than the traditional one). Although
the
yearly precipitation averages continue to be more or less the same as historic
values, there are now perceptible changes in the climate: the rains are coming
ever more violently and unpredictably and the period of droughts is becoming
longer and hotter.

The Sertão now depends on a totally unsustainable form of agriculture,
based on
corn and beans, which only produce well two years in five, or less. To
compensate for the bad years, the farmers run cattle and goats and hunt native
fauna, with which the remaining Caatinga is blessed. Unfortunately, in most
regions, due to overstocking, this has affected the local ecosystem to a point
where it is having difficulty regenerating even in rainy years, creating a
downward spiral into desertification. Together with the growing climate
instability, this situation has provoked social and economic instability,
forcing millions of these dryland inhabitants to migrate into the urban
centers. This migration is a major cause of the violent slums for which Brazil
is famous.
The Drylands Polyculture Project

It was in this dramatic scenario that the Drylands Polyculture Project was
born. It was observed that despite its apparently barren prospects, the Sertão
is a rich and prosperous land, producing many local and adapted crops and
fodder plants. The problem was not the climate-as is usually implied-but the
agricultural model, based on slash-and-burn, or worse, European practices of
cleancropping and tilling, totally inappropriate for local conditions. In the
old days, the small fields were never left bare, being a rich and dense
mish-mash of short-, middle- and long-term crops of varying heights (corn,
beans, tree cotton, castor bean, pumpkins, native cucumbers, cowpeas, sesame,
sunflowers, peanuts, cassava; some of these crops reached tree height). Thus
the overall destructive effects of the slash-and-burn were limited to small
areas, and compensated for by this mixture of crops.

The Polyculture Model is, in part, an adaptation of the old model which in
itself is an imitation of the local ecosystem, including the factors of
density, biodiversity, and dynamism. As in the local ecosystem, there is a
variety of legume trees to help fix nitrogen, considerable organic mass when
the rains come, and woody ground cover (from tree prunings) during drought,
protecting the land long after other organic material has decomposed. This
guarantees permanent root masses which capture any drop of rain, and leaf
surface to capture the dew that is an important source of humidity in this
climate. These systems have demonstrated beyond a doubt that where there is
vegetation there is water, and not the contrary-the denser the systems have
been planted, the more humid they have remained, long into the dry season.

Using this local model of biodiversity, density, and dynamism, various
combinations were implemented which contained the following elements:
drought-hardy forage plants which guarantee some production even in El Niño
years (such as Opuntia cactus); leguminous trees, some native, some adapted,
such as Gliricidia and Leucaena; plants to fix nitrogen and produce biomass in
general (jack beans (Canavalia) and pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan), and the
above-mentioned leguminous trees); short-term catch crops (radishes, sesame)
planted in furrows with a bit of compost or manure, and legume trees to
replace
them; castor bean (the main cash crop, resistant to drought); rows of corn;
and
cowpeas filling in the rest of the space. Ideally , there needs to be one
plant
every ten centimeters, especially in poor soils where the plants do not fill
out well and/or during the first year. Cassava can also be included in this
scheme, replacing one of the corn rows. Cane grass could be an important
element because it is an excellent mulch grass when properly managed, but has
not been included because the farmers fear its potential invasiveness and do
not want to plant it.

The fields are planted with cactus just before the rains come, four meters
between rows, one meter between plants. This effectively marks the field
(which
can become quite complex!) so that the farmer can orient the rest of the crops
properly. Normally, in the same row as the cactus, castor bean is planted in
the dry soil, when the first signs of approaching rain appear (native cactus
flowering, etc.) When the rains come, seeds of fruits, legumes, and fine
hardwoods are planted together with the cactus, for the future agroforest, and
sesame is interplanted with the castor bean, since the geometry of the two
plants (castor bean round, sesame tall and straight) combines well and
efficiently uses the space. The four meters between the castor bean rows are
densely planted with food and legume crops, interspersed with leguminous trees
that will shade and protect the space in the dry season.

The second year, when the rains are due again, the process is repeated, this
time pruning the leguminous trees and any other plant (castor bean, pigeon
pea)
which survived the dry season and using the prunings as mulch to protect the
soil. As a result, the soil is gradually built up, improving in fertility over
the years.

Thus, from the same field, year after year, the farmer will harvest some
vegetables, corn, beans and cowpeas, sesame, pigeon pea, and (as the trees
mature) fruits for his table, while having castor bean for sale and fodder for
his animals (taking care not to rob the field of its biomass! Any fodder
harvested must be returned in the form of manure). In the worst years he may
harvest mostly fodder plants, but this will guarantee that he will always have
meat and milk to eat and income from the sale of the animals to buy other
food,
thus avoiding total collapse of the system. We believe that with this system
even in the worst years he should also have some castor bean crop, giving
enough income to get through the bad times and not have to migrate.

A second phase of this project will be the conservation of food for the dry
season, especially hay for the animals and dried leaf meal for the humans.
(This dried meal, produced from leaves of crops such as cowpeas, pigeon peas
and cassava, is added to such foods as bean dishes and soups. Besides being
tasty, it helps counter vitamin A deficiencies, which are common on the
region.) Of course the family will also need ample cisterns to guarantee
drinking water for the family and animals, an aspect which is being intensely
addressed by local NGOs.

These polycultures are so healthy that absolutely no form of artificially
produced chemical is necessary to maintain them. They have proved to be
resistant to insects and other diseases, even when growing side-by-side with
infected fields. The biomass and presence of legumes eliminate need for
manures, which become an element of luxury, used, when available, to increase
the production of the short-term crops.

This polyculture model, as developed by Ernst Gotsch, a Swiss
farmer/researcher
who has been developing agroforest models for Brazil for the last 15 years, is
more than ten years old. However, the project of large-scale planting of
demonstration fields only began this year. The project is financed by the
local
castor bean industry, which was interested in having a steadier supply of raw
materials. These first demonstration fields have given spectacular results:
one
farmer harvested the equivalent of 1,400 Reais (about 700 dollars) from one
hectare alone. This is about double the regional average income per hectare
and
compares very favorably to the state's minimum salary of 150 Reais per
month or
1,800 Reais per year. Furthermore, this sum does not include the armfuls of
corn and pumpkins that the farmer gave to his many curious visitors, and the
food he harvested for his own table during this first season. He is so happy
with the results that he plans to plant 10 hectares in the model next season.
Thirty of his neighbors are also planning to try out the model. Not all the
demonstration plots gave such spectacular yields, sometimes due to the
severely
degraded soils, sometimes due to the farmer not implementing the model as
designed (they find it hard to believe that they can plant so densely and
still
harvest something!) But ALL plots produced significantly better than the
conventional plots, and all promise to weather over this first dry season with
some vegetative cover. This means that the soil is being protected and
improved, promising better results for the coming year.

The success of these field runs has caught the attention of the state
agriculture department and the local extension service, and even of one local
bank, which is considering changing policy to demand the polyculture model
as a
condition for financing. When the next rains come, there are plans to plant
300
demonstration plots, with the direct involvement of the extension agents who
then will be responsible for spreading the model even further.

With this simple yet powerful technique, we hope, in the space of a few years,
to substantially lessen the tide of land degradation and mass migration from
the Brazilian drylands, thus helping to rescue this rich area from social and
economic collapse.

Author information

Marsha Hanzi is the founder of the Bahian Permaculture Institute. She works
with a multi-disciplinary team in helping farmers and new communities develop
sustainable systems. In existence since 1992, the Institute has been
responsible for training numerous professionals in agroforest techniques and
sustainable design. They offer traineeships to students from around the world.
The Institute will also host the Second Latinamerican Permaculture Congress at
the end September 2001 in the Chapada Diamantina Mountains of Bahia.

Marsha Hanzi mhanzi at yahoo.com> 
www.marsha.com.br 

Special: Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture
http://www.fao.org/sd/epdirect/epre0039.htm
>From the FAO's Sustainable Development database, this online document is
extracted from "Human Nature: Agricultural Biodiversity and Farm-based Food
Security" by Hope Shand, an independent study prepared by the Rural
Advancement
Foundation International (RAFI) for the Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations (December 1997). 

Cultivating Diversity: Agrobiodiversity and Food Security
http://www.undp.org/seed/food/pages/publications/4.2/culdivagro.pdf
This 1998 report, prepared by the World Resources Institute and available from
the United Nations Development Programme web site, summarizes the
importance of
agrobiodiversity to food security, productivity, and ecological
sustainability.
It proposes guidelines to help meet the worldwide need for food while
safeguarding opportunities for farmers and their communities. NB: this is a
large document!

Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
(805) 962-2571
sbpcnet at silcom.com
www.sbpermaculture.org

"We are like trees, we must create new leaves, in new directions, in order to
grow." - Anonymous

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