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  • From: christopher nesbitt <christopher.nesbitt@mmrfbz.org>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Standard Polycultures
  • Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:49:45 -0600

Hi Sean,

My experience with tropical polycultures suggests that there are really no regional models that are infinitely replicable. I am managing about 15 acres of stacked polyculture with roughly 700 species, and microclimates on that acreage make certain species better choices, and others poor choices. In a few miles from here are other soil types and drainage patterns (and associated plant assemblies) that would make reproducing the guilds we have here impossible.

One farm I saw in Cata, Venezuela (north coast, one watershed over from Chuao) had species we use here, but less species. They have a pronounced dry season, like we do, and rainfall patterns very similar, but that land was managed for cacao production, as a cacao dominant cacao polyculture, with cacao being the financial anchor crop that subsidized the initial investment in timber species. Parts of the farm were over 70 years old, and were pro

Another farm I saw up in Quebrado Azul in Venezuela had coffee as an anchor crop and used erythrina edulis for shade ("chachafruto" has a high protein edible seed), and E edulis likes higher elevations than other locations and cannot grow (sadly) at lower elevations. A useful tool, chachafruto, but not one for all locations.

In Panama I saw a "polyculture" of cacao, cordia ("sam wood"/"laurel"), plantain with pigeon pea as a pioneer species. The value of the samwood at 20 years was worth more than the value of ALL the cacao, plantain and pigeon pea harvested from that land in 20 years. This was not a farmers land, it was a project of Centro Agricultura Tropical Investigacion y Ensenanza, so the records were very well kept, and the economics were impressive to the Belizean cacao farmers who went there with me, but it was extremely simple as a "polyculture".

One farm one kilometer from here in Belize we did a plant survey in an area 25x25 meters and found 21 species of plant, not including the cacao. There were three very distinct cultivars of cacao in that area, and maybe 4 species of coffee (my taxonomy on coffee is not good, so coffee was counted as one specie). Is that replicable? No, not by most farmers, both because the species selection is too intensive for many farmers to manage in terms of botanical and systemic literacy, and because of the inverse proportions between production for economic return, on the one hand, and biological diversity and staggered needs over the calendar year. Such a system is less desirable if the goal is to integrate into a cash based export model.

In Costa Rica at Escuela Agricultura Region Tropical Humeda I saw polycultures of less than 8 species designed for pig raising, and others for dairy goats.

All of these "polycultures" target specific needs/markets and take advantage of their unique climate.

While I could find land with similar characteristics, drainage, soil types, orientation to equator, with topographically induced microclimates, the other variable of the needs of farmers are not uniform. Not every farmer has the same needs, and their needs will play a large role in defining what components are useful for any polyculture. Some farmers raise food for pigs and would like a higher percentage of the breadnuts (both the artocarpus and the brossimum, here) and bananas, the spondias, chaya, etc, and others provide for markets and want cacao, coffee, ginger, cocoyam, cassava, and yet others provide mostly for themselves, and will have a much wider range of species than someone who is market oriented (since the two ands of the scale on models are high production levels of a few species and low production levels of many species).

Also, harvest cycles need to be considered. Some farmers may have a 5 year horizon, and will focus on cacao, coffee, etc, and others may be planning on timber harvests as long as 30 years in the future. A 60 year old farmer has to be pretty forward thinking to plant out mahogany (and they do exist), but planting out spondias and "breadnuts" for pigs is a fairly easy decision in terms of calories expended to calories returned.

So, I wouldn't say it is desirable or undesirable to have a single model, just that land and individual farmers needs, which are evolving, will dictate what is appropriate for that farmer, on that piece of land, at that time. Having a good understanding of the needs of the farmer, the capability of the land and the various species available will do a LOT to make a single model hard to implement.

I do collaborate with people, so if anyone is working in a lowland humid tropical environment and would like to pick my brain, I have 20 years of design work behind me and have visited hundreds of farms in Belize and the neighboring countries. There is some info on our web page www.mmrfbz.org, but not much.

Best wishes,

Christopher



On Dec 23, 2008, at 1:06 PM, sean forde wrote:

In his wonderful book "Edible Forest Gardens", Dave Jacke describes
one of the processes for designing effective polycultures as
"guild-build." It is a pretty intensive process that requires desired
species niche analysis and other techniques that eventually will
produce a list of plants that will provide functions for you the
gardener, and will support each other. I am sure that most of the
folks on this list are familiar with it.

Jacke hints that over time, the guild-build process should yield
certain "standard" polycultures appropriate for various regions. One
could then take one of these "off the shelf" and implement the guild
on his site.

A couple of questions:
* Are Jacke's predictions yet true? Are standard regional polycultures
emerging and being documented, shared, and implemented "off the shelf"
?
* Do folks agree that this is a desirable thing?
* What tools would facilitate the development of standard
region-appropriate polycultures?
* Are there any websites out that allow collaboration in the
development of polycultures? If not, do folks think that such tools
would be a good thing? Would you use them?

Thanks,

-Sean
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_____________________________
Christopher Nesbitt

Maya Mountain Research Farm
San Pedro Columbia, Toledo
PO 153 Punta Gorda Town, Toledo
BELIZE,
Central America

www.mmrfbz.org







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