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| More than 20 kinds of corn have been identified in the vicinity of Chelemhá. Photo/© Knut Eisermann. |
Most local farmers use the slash-and-burn method. This means that a piece of secondary shrub or primary forest is cut down and burned. Corn and beans are planted a few days after burning. Agriculture is mainly focused on these two species. Wind and air erosion takes away a good part of the nutritious ash. This kind of agriculture is not sustainable: low efficiency land use and population increase cause a permanently growing need of land. The annual deforestation rate in Guatemala of 1.7% (FAO 2003) is one of the highest in Latin America.
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| Passion fruit grow eminently in Chelemhá. Photo/©: Knut Eisermann. |
One of the members of UPROBON lives in Chelemhá since 1997. He carries out field experiments with a variety of new cultivations in the vicinity of the local farmers. Without burning, he successfully cultivates corn, beans, carrots, celery, fennel, red beets, spinach, asparagus, tree tomatoes, Peruvian carrot, different kinds of cabbage, strawberries, blueberry, raspberries, spices and medical herbs, several kinds of passion fruit, plums, avocadoes, apples, pears, peaches, anonas, naranjilla, vine and tea. The cultivation of hazelnuts, gooseberries, currants, and rhubarb is in experimental state.
The experiences gained are transmitted to schoolboys and girls from the neighboring communities during guided tours in the experimental plots. UPROBON lends land to local farmers for growing corn under the condition they refrain from burning, in order to convince them of the advantages of the alternative method. Seedlings of resident broadleaf trees are planted in some parts of the corn fields.
References
FAO (2003): State of the world’s forests 2003. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome.
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