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Re: Small-farmer Sust. Agric. Economics-HONDURAS



>Date: Tue, 23 Apr 1996 11:29:17
>To: Inter-American Fndt Office for Central America <iafcen@igc.apc.org>
>From: David Leonard <davel@azstarnet.com>
>Subject: Re: Small-farmer Sust. Agric. Economics-HONDURAS
>
>Here are some observations and data accumulated from 5 years as
hillside-farming technologies advisor with the USAID/LUPE (Land Use
Productivity and Enhancement) Project in Honduras which targets low-income
campesino families growing mostly basic grains on slopes of 15-75%.  LUPE
developed, validated, and continues diffusing an extensive hillside-farming
technology plan including practices for soil management (conservation +
productivity), basic grain production, household gardens, and environmental
education.  The project currently assists roughly 15,000 hillside families
using some 1000 well trained "contact farmers" and "contact homemakers" as
grass roots extensionists supervised by a core of professional extensionists.
>
>Your post asks for cost/benefit documentation re campesino organic and
sustainable agriculture compared to high-input, high-cost Green Revolution
systems generating chemical contamination, etc.  You might consider
broadening this context, since not all "organic" agriculture is sustainable
ecologically, socially or economically.  For example, many campesino farmers
in Central America continue using traditional "organic", non-chemical
methods that are very ecologically destructive.  Soil erosion and
degradation are markedly accelerated by "organic" practices like slash and
burn without adequate fallow periods, non-contour planting, severe
overgrazing, and deforestation.  At the other extreme, El Salvador, Costa
Rica, and parts of Guatemala have a high percentage of campesino farmers
using chemical inputs in an inefficient, excessive, and damaging manner
along with harmful soil management practices.
>
>Re cost/benefit documentation of sustainable ag practices, the LUPE Project
teamed up with TROPSOILS (a university CRSP program for collaborative
research) to run a 3-year trial (1993-95) to monitor and compare runoff,
sediment, and nutrient losses on 3 small-farm fields (about 2000 sq. meters
each) on 55-63% slopes (as opposed to the much smaller and less realistic
USLE plots). The location was southern Honduras under a bi-modal 5 to
6-month rainfall of 1800-2500 mm with a maize-sorghum interplanting system.
The treatments were:
>
>1. Traditional practice of field burning before planting 
>2. Crop residue maintenance
>3. Crop residue maintenance plus vetiver grass barriers
>
>Preliminary results for the the 2nd year showed that crop residue
maintenance (about 60% ground cover) alone reduced sediment losses by about
72 fold (about 98.5%) on a 60% slope.  Soil fertility losses of nitrogen and
phosphorus on the burned plot were roughly 95 kg/hectare of nitrogen and 70
kg/ha of phosphorus (P205 basis).  Reduced runoff and sediment losses also
offer dramatic off-farm benefits by reducing dam and reservoir siltation,
flooding, damage to roads, and contamination of marine estuariaries.
>
>The detailed 3-year results of the TROPSOILS trial will be published next
month as the Masters thesis of grad student Jimmy Smith working under Dr.
Tom Thurow (Dept. of Rangeland Ecology and Mgt.) at Texas A&M University
(Tel. 409-845-6430, E-mail: t-thurow-tamu.edu).
>
>You've already mentioned most of the key benefits of campesino sustainable
ag development projects on income, jobs, urban migration, food security, and
the environment.  When evaluating the cost/return, the true on-farm
productivity benefits will be considerably underestimated if you simply
compare improved yields with baseline yields.  The true cost of doing
nothing is actually much more serious, since baseline crop yields will
continue falling due to on-going and uncontrolled erosion-generated soil
degradation that reduces fertility, tilth, water-holding capacity, and
beneficial biological activity.  Note that yield-reducing soil degradation
proceeds much more rapidly than soil loss, itself, since the erosion process
selectively extracts a soil's most productive components (humus and clay
particles).
>
>If I can be of further help, please contact me.
>
>Regards
>
>David Leonard
>Consultant in hillside-farming systems and agro-nutrition
>Tucson, AZ
>E-mail: davel@azstarnet.com
>Tel. (520)318-4799
>FAX: (520)318-4809
>
>
>
>At 01:15 PM 4/22/96 -0700, you wrote:
>>The Economics of Small-Farmer Sustainable Agriculture. 
>>
>>This is a request for information and/or ideas about  documenting
>>the microeconomic aspects of peasant farmer organic and sustainable
>>agriculture and marketing (as opposed to the high cash-cost green
>>revolution model characterized by high dependence on external

>>resources, chemical contamination, etc.) in
>>Honduras, Central America, Latin America, and elsewhere in the
>>world. 
>>
>>We are looking for literature, studies, papers, reports, cases,
>>etc. that  document the costs, changes in production, labor
>>requirements, transition times, etc. of moving
>>towards more sustainable agricultural practices such as those that
>>conserve and improve soil quality, conserve and improve water
>>management, reduce harmful chemical use, increase crop and other
>>biodiversity, depend more on local resources,
>>etc.  
>>
>>The purpose of this request is to help us at the Inter-American
>>Foundation (IAF) assist grassroots organizations and NGOs that we
>>support in Latin America to better document the economics of
>>small-farmer sustainable agriculture.  One purpose of this 
>>documentation effort is to attract increased interest and support
>>from national and international funders, banks,  and other
>>agencies, and make the case for a small-farmer agroecological
>>development model that strengthens food security, provides
>>income/jobs, reduces rural emigration, and recognizes the unique
>>social, economic,food security, and environmental role peasant
>>farmers play in Central America and other rural societies  - in
>>contrast to the current structural adjustment, privatized,
>>economies-of-scale, export oriented, free-trade, model that
>>currently dominates policy
>>circles. 
>>
>>In Honduras we have done some initial consultation with a variety
>>of NGOs and sustainable agriculture networks which have told us
>>that documenting the economics of peasant farmer sustainable
>>agriculture (of which there are many good examples in Honduras) is
>>vital for increasing outside support but few groups are doing it
>>and there are a variety of pitfalls and difficulties in the
>>documentation process.  For this reason we are looking for examples
>>of other attempts at documentation so as to pass on lessons
>>learned. 
>>
>>
>>
>