permaculture

["Myk Rushton" <permaculture@wave.co.nz>]

Greetings

I think Marsha has now been chastised enough for what appears to have
been an honest mistake.

Marsha, Your piece although very large is interesting and I find it
difficult to believe that having read it that any resemblance to
Permaculture is coincidental.

I think your strategy of encouraging farmers to experiment with 1Ha of
land using your techniques is an excellent idea - giving the farmers
something which they can compare for themselves whilst continuing to
practice modern pharming techniques and providing you with more
research information. The projected second year autonomy for the
farmer must also be a great incentive to them?

How are the yields harvested? Is this kind of large scale polyculture
farming only possible where there is a lot of available labour?

What other types of water retention to you use? Swales, passive
swales, cisterns, berms...?

Thanks for the interesting insight into your work - despite it size!
:)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Marsha Hanzi" <hanzibra@svn.com.br>
To: "permaculture" <permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2000 10:54 AM
Subject: En: Polyculture / Castor


Dear Friends at the  Permaculture List,

Please find annexed for your interest  a resume(with photographs) of
the
first field trials of dyland polycultures with castor as main cash
crop
 hosted by my husband who is the director of the castor oil plant
here-- any
resemblance with Permaculture is mere coincidence...  ;-)  )  In the
first
year the polycultures produced the double of conventional field
management,
in terms of income, without mentioning the large quantitiy of
foodstuffs
produced for the farmer´s table.  The results are exciting, and plans
are
being made to implant some 80 trial fields next year, in major dryland
bioregions of the state of Bahia, Brazil...

Marsha Hanzi
Instituto de Permacultura da Bahia
http://www.geocities.com/oliarte