Nourishing the Planet

Dragon Fruit (photo credit:Serious Eats)

By Fred Bahnson

When government extension agents first came to Juan Bautista’s Yucatan village of Chun-Yah, a tiny pueblo in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, they told him he should start growing pitaya, also known as dragonfruit. Originating in Meso-America, this cactus is now cultivated in parts of Asia, Australia, and Israel. The fruit is tasty, the plant is easily propagated, and it thrives in places with long dry seasons like the Yucatan.

Bautista and other farmers in Chun-Yah followed the agronomists’ instructions, clear-cutting nearby forests and building elaborate trellis systems made of concrete and wire to support the vine-like pitaya. Soon after the project began, the funding to maintain those trellises disappeared. The agronomists were at a loss as to how pitaya could be grown otherwise, and they left Chun-Yah. That was 15 years ago.

Rather than give up on pitaya, which by now was their main cash crop, the farmers of Chun-Yah decided to grow it in their milpas, the traditional Mayan field.

I recently visited Juan Bautista in his milpa. Standing there in the shade of a mango tree, I realized that this was no ordinary farm field—it was an intensively managed forest garden, a food-producing ecosystem built in nature’s image.

In traditional Mayan agriculture, maize has been the milpa’s main crop. But numerous sister crops also provide balance to both the farmer’s diet and the milpa ecosystem itself: beans, squash, melons, chiles, medicinal plants, pineapple, trees for fruit and lumber, plus the myriad fauna that call the milpa their home.

So what did Juan Bautista and the farmers of Chun-Yah do differently once the agronomists left? They essentially exchanged concrete trellises for living ones.

Pitaya is an epiphyte, meaning that it pulls moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, and debris that collects on the host plant, on which it depends for structural support. Instead of clear-cutting forest to plant pitaya, the farmers cut trees selectively, leaving Mexican Cedar and other lumber-producing tree crops for later harvest. They then select the host trees on which pitaya will grow, cutting them at head height to allow for easy harvesting of the dragonfruit. The host trees remain alive, their roots holding soil in place while bringing up nutrients from the sub-soil. Regular pruning of the trees provides mulch for other crops. The farmers plant pitaya and other food crops into this living forest system—a well-planned, well-managed agro-ecological system.

There is no irrigation in Chun-Yah. Other than a little fertilizer for the host trees, the only input is the knowledge and labor of farmers who have created this forest ecosystem. Growing pitaya on the concrete trellises was fine, but the only crop produced was the pitaya. Growing pitaya in the polyculture of the milpa means that Juan Bautista gets his cash crop plus all the benefits the milpa brings, with little drop in yield.

There are three main pitaya harvests between June and October. Through the Chun-Yah cooperative, Bautista sells his fruit locally in Quintana Roo. On his three hectares he harvests around 12 tons of dragonfruit per year. At $1/kilo, he’s earning $12,000 annually, almost double Mexico’s median annual household income of $7,297. And all that food coming from his milpa means a lower grocery bill than most city dwellers.

Thanks to their ingenuity, the farmers of Chun-Yah haven’t had to leave their farms to work in el norte, and they are able to live comfortably on several hectares each.

And those agronomists who left 15 years ago? They have returned to learn how to grow pitaya from the farmers of Chun-Yah. Which is proof that these Mayan villages and their ancient agricultural arts are not just vestiges of a lost way of life; they are crucial models that could teach us “moderns” how to farm in ways that work with, not in spite of, our surrounding ecosystems.

Fred Bahnson traveling as a Kellogg Food & Society fellow at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. His writing has appeared in Orion, The Sun, and Best American Spiritual Writing 2007 (Mariner). He lives with his wife and two sons on a farm in Transylvania County, North Carolina.

Sylvia Banda, founder of Sylva Professional Catering Services, with her husband (Photo: Business Week).

Sylvia Banda was tired of seeing traditional Zambian meals, such as chibwabwa (pumpkin leaves) and impwa (dry garden egg plant) snubbed for Western-style foods in her country. As a result, she founded Sylva Professional Catering Services  in 1986 and in its success, created a market for local farmers and emphasized traditional cooking methods. Her business is presented by Winrock International as a model for other aspiring entrepreneurs to follow (see Innovation of the Week: Winrock International and Sylva Professional Catering Services Limited).

Ironically, Sylvia doesn’t officially own her business. Sylva catering is in her husband’s name because of lending policies that discriminate against women. Sylvia founded Sylva Professional Catering Training College in 2001 and Sylva Food Solutions in 2003, to respond to the growing need for skilled service employees and locally grown raw ingredients. Her training sessions teach farmers, mostly women, to grow traditional vegetables. Her catering and restaurant business purchases the resulting crops, ensuring that there is a market for the vegetables produced by the newly trained farmers. In this way, Sylvia is able to grow her business while keeping the majority of the profit within the community.

“When I first met some of these families, their children were at home while school was in session,” said Sylvia during a Community Food Enterprise Panel and Discussion hosted by Winrock International in Washington, D.C. in January. “They told me that they didn’t have money to pay for education. But after becoming suppliers for my business, the families can afford to send their children to school and even to buy things like furniture for their houses.”

Sylvia makes sure to follow up with the farmers that participate in the program and provide her restaurant with supplies, ensuring that they continue to follow her strict production standards, which include hygiene and consistent pricing practices. It also allows her to see the marked improvements to their daily lives that her partnership with them provides.

Still looking to expand her business model in a way that empowers her employees and local farmers, Sylvia recently released a Zambian cookbook, complete with a list of the nutritional benefits of each homegrown ingredient. She also uses her growing national notoriety to work with NGOs to increase funding for farmer training and support and plans to turn the Sylva Guest House into a full service restaurant and hotel.

Check out a video from our visit to Kristof and Stacia Nordin’s Permaculture project outside Lilongwe, Malawi:

(photo credit: Bernard Pollack)

This is the third in a three-part series of blogs about my visit with DISC project schools in Mukono District, Uganda. You can read the first two by clicking here and here.

One thing you immediately notice upon meeting Edward Mukiibi and Roger Serunjogi is their passion for kids and agriculture. Their eyes both lit up whenever they talked about the students who are part of DISC, Developing Innovations in School Cultivation, a project they founded after graduating from Makere University in Kampala. When we met Edward, he had just gotten back from the World Food Summit in Rome, where he was representing Slow Food International’s Youth Delegation. He works during the week at the Ugandan Organic Certification Company. Roger is a school teacher and administrator at Sunrise School, where DISC launched its pilot project in 2006.

Edward says that after fulfilling their goals of being able to go to university, he and Roger wanted to “help other people realize their dreams.” And they wanted to spread their “passion for producing local foods to the next generation.” By focusing on school gardens, Edward and Roger are helping not only feed children, but are also revitalizing an interest in—and cultivation of—African indigenous vegetables. The schools don’t use any hybrid seeds, but rely on what is locally available. Students and teachers at DISC project schools are taught how to save seed from local varieties of amaranth, sumiwiki, maize, African eggplant, and other local crops to grow in school gardens. They learn how to both dry the seeds and how to store them for the next season. With support from Slow Food International, DISC is establishing a seed bank to, according to Edward, “preserve the world’s best vegetables.”

Improving nutrition is especially important for boarding school students, who eat all of their meals at school. These children come from all over Uganda and DISC tries to make them feel at home by growing varieties of crops that are familiar to them from both the lowlands and highlands. According to Edward, “a child needs to see what she’s used to” in order to appreciate its importance.

At both day and boarding schools, students work with school chefs to learn how to cook foods—giving them the opportunity to understand food production literally from farm to table. And unlike most other schools in Uganda, DISC project schools get local fruits with their breakfast and can harvest their own desert at lunchtime. DISC is planning the “Year of Fruits” for the next school year, which begins in January or February depending on the school—each school will be planting its own fruit trees on campus.

Roger explained that in addition to the monkeys who live around Sunrise School and who like to eat some of the crops from their garden, the biggest challenges for DISC involve transportation and equipment for the schools. Because DISC doesn’t have its own vehicle, the coordinators, who need to evaluate gardens and make sure that the children are actually getting the food they help grow, often have to scramble to find transportation. And they lack good ways for the schools to communicate with one another about disease outbreaks and other problems.

But as the project receives more interest—from teachers, students, parents, and policy-makers (the local extension officer for the National Agricultural Advisory Services is a member of the local Slow Food convivium)—and more funding, they’re likely to overcome these challenges and make farming a more viable option for youth in Mikuni and other parts of Uganda.

Danielle (center) with Elizabeth Katushabe (left), Project Officer for PENHA and her colleague, Mary Louise Massuma. (photo credit: Bernard Pollack)

Uganda, like Tanzania and Kenya, has a rich history of pastoralism. For centuries, nomadic herders have bred and raised cattle to withstand the region’s high temperatures and low rainfall. But because of expanding wildlife areas and national parks for wildlife conservation and tourism, and an effort to “modernize,”  pastoralists—and the indigenous breeds of cattle they raise—are in danger of going extinct.” In fact, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that almost one breed of cattle goes extinct every month. In Uganda, the population of Ankole cattle—which is resistant to disease and can withstand high temperatures—is declining rapidly as livestock keepers switch to more exotic breeds.

But the Pastoral and Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa (PENHA) is trying to “bridge the gap between policy-makers and pastoralists,” says Elizabeth Katushabe, a program officer with PENHA. She says that often the government has been “biased” against nomadic pastoralists. Although many political leaders come from pastoralist communities, many are supporting policies that drive herders and livestock keepers off the land. But Ms. Katushabe says by holding meetings and workshops with Parliamentary leaders and pastoralists, PENHA is “trying to put it into their [policy makers] hearts to protect pastoralists.” And their efforts are paying off.

Although the government has encouraged livestock keepers to raise Freesian cattle because they produce more milk, they’ve also worked with the Ankole Cow Conservation Association, through the Ugandan Wildlife Authority, to allow some herders to bring Ankole cattle into national parks to graze, helping conserve and protect the cattle as well as the livestock keepers’ way of life.

But it’s not only government leaders that PENHA has to convince. They also have to persuade poverty-stricken herding communities that herding can be profitable. Ms. Katushabe says “poverty is PENHA’s biggest challenge.” These communities think that the only way to make money is to adopt exotic breeds of cattle, but PENHA is helping to change that attitude by building a market for indigenous breeds. PENHA is hoping to start radio programs that will educate herders and consumers alike about the nutritional qualities of the meat and milk from indigenous breeds, including leaner meat and milk with higher butter content.

In addition, PENHA emphasizes the role herders can play in protecting the environment—their rotational grazing practices can help protect wildlife, sequester carbon in soils, and preserve biodiversity.

PENHA is also working to mobilize women’s groups. Most women aren’t allowed to own their own livestock, but PENHA is training women to raise goats, which men don’t think are important. The goats provide not only food and milk, but an important source of income and empowerment to women.

By giving livestock keepers a voice, PENHA is helping ensure that indigenous breeds of cattle and the pastoralist way of life don’t go extinct.