PERMACULTURE a different kind of agriculture for dessert conditions by Carlos A. Itza, Belize

1 DAY

The first day is always the day in which everything is unique new and exciting, especially when you see new faces and hear new stories of many indigenous brothers. It becomes more vivid in our minds the sad stories of how globalization and climate change is changing our communities. I will not enter into details because that is part of the class.

But the first day, just as the last, that I’m sure that will cause an impression in my life, for I’m already seeing it, meanwhile I pen this thoughts or reflexion.

The welcoming and the tour thru the STAR School is just exciting for the first stay, for it demonstrate us on a model of Alternative energy that is available and usually not too generalized in the whole country of the USA for other sources of energy has been prefer over the depletion and destruction of Mother Earth, fossil fuel. The school is supported with many models of solar, wind and water harvesting techniques, which is the heart of sustaining a School in the middle of the desert.

For a subtropical person, the place is in the heart of nowhere, because my little understanding of desert areas is that “people have resources hidden under the desert that they have perfected there art of extracting and surviving under those conditions”, but we have become so accustomed to the abundance of rain and vegetation, but not the people of the desert, for their techniques and appreciation is different and unique.

Once the whole place was toured, in our mind, we strongly know that the School model needs to be heard all over Belize, even though strong efforts has been made, little has been integrated to the level of the school.

The next activity was to settle our living conditions under a tent. The first experience of its kind, and only until then have I learnt to appreciate all the comfort of urban life and that day for the longest night I have experienced and have had to experience the full constellation of Orion and many other star formation that I have ever seen. I was wondering if the school name came because everyone experienced with my own each the same things I was seeing.

I don’t know about my comrade, but I slept like a baby the first night, after hours of battling with many thoughts of home and many projects that could be promoted on what we have seen. Also I forgot to mention that the only noise that could be felt is that of the mind, for no other figure and object was visible to the naked eye. Only until then, we are able to understand that we are spiritual beings trying to make sense with our carnal mind.

Day 2

The first day of class, I would have made a better introduction of all persons and professions and life stories, but this not a novel, it is just a brief reflexion, in synthesis, all persons have a very interesting, charismatic, respectful and interesting story to tell.

Interesting was the example provided by Louie on the use of a string ball past from person to person and introduction of themselves, but the life lesson is that “we are all interconnected to one another at different levels, even those things that we are not able to reason”, for every time we do a good or bad action many are affected in the web. How true is become that mother earth always reciprocates our actions and this is the wisdom of our people.

A wise woman that incorporate into the group shared her experienced as a healer and how her gift is being utilized to help others, while assisting her community and passing it to her new generation. She emphasized the importance of being part of the web and the importance that we should place to our relationship.

Another important element of the whole exercise has been that we have the power to make change things for a better world but we become complacent and imitators of people that do not understand all the ramification of their short sighted actions with a long term consequence to nature.

The other session involved more information on comparisons and coming to the sense of understanding the difference use for synthetic chemicals and those modelling nature.

Day 3

In this class, we learnt that permaculture is about designs, especially those that are the expression of mother earth. This are the most stable and nature print, nature is teaching us how it wants to be treated,

In the modern world, we tend to create things because we think they are beautiful, but in permaculture it has to do with sustainable harmony, between our living conditions and nature. This is summarized in the 3 ethics of permaculture; care of the earth, care of the people and limit of growth, the last one has to with the fact that growth should be proportional proper development, not disproportionate.

We have been thought differently by external culture, but in this class, we learnt that when you are able to determine the need you are able to determine how to supply it and have more power of making changes. Many times the least change can have the greatest effect.

It should be noted that there is a principle know as redundancy, this means than in a balanced system, every essential needs provided in 2-3 different ways. Therefore it should be the modus operandi when we want to establish a system that mimics nature and obtained a desired balanced. Many elements in the system are also know to have a stacking function or multipurpose, multiuse.

The yield obtained from a system is only limited by our minds. Systems are able to produce sufficient to suffice the need of a given population, but it generally depends on the speed at which some of the produce or element moved thru the system. Like water, if the velocity is not reduced thru storage or harvest and lost then it yields less and less.

Water is not a problem, in permaculture we have learnt to transform the problem into a solution; many people tend to have difficulty in seeing this because:

-        They make the problem bigger

-        The problem is defined narrowly and while solving it, they create more problems

-        Problems should be solved like solving multiple problems

Problems becomes the result of acting forces, which in effect is counteracted by restraining forces, when both reach a balance they become a reconciling force, which in conflict management is called compromise. When we are able to face a lot of restraining force, it then permits us to be more creative. This is the creative force that indigenous people have utilized in order to advance or that previous civilization.

Day 4

The day began as the day that after many years I had not felt the scent of a kitchen and the knife of an amateur chef, but it was a responsibility laid on me and my colleagues, and we were going to do it to the best of our ability. What more fast and tasty than a burritos.

This day was reserved for a field day. During the rocky travel and the dusty road, after passing thru the desert, we reached to a semi complete mansion on the middle of the wilderness, which had many hidden treasures. This is the place that would reveal to us many new technologies and infrastructures that is changing the place and would be changing the world.

Our host, gave us a warm welcome to their homes and mansion, and began explaining on the vision for the place and the fundamentals of preserving the energy in the building, which includes 5 major things; insulation.

the next process was a tour thru the whole building and then to its surrounding innovative technologies, we were surprised that the building was constructed with many indigenous patterns, the orientation of the sun, so as to enjoy all its benefits during the summer and winter, the building harvested water using high storage capacity water tanks with all engineering arrangements, the roof, rooms and floors were designed to capture and preserve the maximum energy to provide the best comfortable conditions for its inhabitants.

The seedling nursery was another infrastructure that was shown, it was netted with a shaded clothe of about 70% permeability, water supply for seedlings in trays made of a resistant plastic and with very cool temperatures, the presenter made emphasis that other protection is utilized in the winter that avoids the plants to freeze during the winter, it was amazing to see the amount of seedling and work put into the whole process of seedling production and hardening of plants prior to field planting.

Another of the building was the workshop attached along a green house, the workshop was very equipped with electronical equipments and materials utilized in the construction of the same shed and other techniques for concreting the walls that ensures high resistant pressure and provides insulation to the building.

The attached greenhouse was being harvested and utilized for tomato production among other veggies, it was important to note that the bed for plants were composted and enhanced with microbiological chemical formulas and the plant surrounded with a container on the base, which served as a protection against pest and diseases. The maximization of the space was being conducted, thru the use of plastic netting arranged in horizontal strands at equidistance and the growth of varieties of undermined growth. One of the most important agronomic practices for tomatoes involved, apart from tutoring with the net, the elimination of  ....... from undesired branches.

An important bioremediation area for the composting and treatment of bathroom and kitchen water was observed, the treatment is named Watson, which involves the establishment of a catmint device and the use of earthworms and aerobic process that ensuring biodegrading of waste material into compost,

The other place visited was a small ? acre plot bedded and planted with different veggies, using a double digging or lasagne method combined with a French bio intensive production system,

Day 5

This was the day that we had the opportunity to learn many of the general importance of planting fruits trees. We began with all the benefits of a tree including; medicine, food, shelter, weapon, historical memory, erosion prevention, carbon fixation, water conservation, nutrient extraction, recreation, beauty, oxygen, compost and many other that cannot be mentioned because of our lack of knowledge on listing more benefits; considering that there are more benefits than the need of a tree, that is, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water, nutrients and soil.

Trees has been demonstrated to be one of the most important elements that influences the water cycle and especially in benefiting in precipitation in a given area.

In the case of free tree, it is widely recognized the importance of land restoration using fruit trees, since it plays a more vital role in food security and feeding programmes, and participating communities are more able to be sensitive in participating, since there is a product in matters of 2-3 years compared with trees with other building purpose.

Other important consideration for this type of trees is that there are maintenance practices that need to be considered, and that is, grafter trees are more promoted because of the short term expected results, instead of rearing plant from a botanical seed, which can take several years before obtaining any fruits. Two important components of grafted plants is the root stock, this is the base, the base plants, and the selection of the rootstock is one of the most initial steps for a successful orchard. The second portion is the scion, the top part; this is the part that will do all the future production of the tree, since this accelerates the velocity of fruit production. Also the amount of planting material that you can extract from one single tree can be humongous.

The method of grafted can vary, depending on the type of tree, but whatever the method, that of compatibility of the rootstock and the scion is the most important element, just like the human body being performed an organ transplant, rejection will definitely demonstrate the need to initiate the process again of grafting or looking with another match.

The transplanting method of taking a tree from the nursery to the field and planting it is important, since many times we try to provide the best conditions “in situ” under the roots, but methods in this part of the area has demonstrated that root pruning and planting of the tree using the same soil as much as possible make the plant adapt faster and survive adverse climatic conditions, whatever mulching and fertilizing should be done at the top or during cultivation of the plant. This ensures that the plant is able to distribute its root as much as possible and not grouping it in the favourable area of watering. The branches of trees are able to indicate more or less a direct proportion to the root development occurring underneath. During the planting method, rootstock must not be covered by soil, nor does the scion enter the ground, because the scion can develop its root and outgrow the rootstock, which is not encouraged.

After a plant has acquired a certain development, the pruning practice is encouraged, pruning involves the elimination of lateral or apical growth of a plant, the main purposes involves the elimination of dead, diseased, damaged, deformed, the root stock sucker and for reshaping a tree. The tools utilized include by-pass pruners, saw pruners and budding/grafting knife, with an experienced hand for conducting it. It is important to note that pruning should be done near a bud of a branch or stem, since too separated will make the area died and ultimately infect systematically the plant, which tends to die.

Planting fruits trees is the way forward in recovering many lost land and school gardens, because it starts to reconnect children with the land and the environment.

Even though I was not present in the presentation in the evening sessions, some experiences drawn from drawn from Belize, is that Biochar has been utilized in Belize for soil enhancement and orchid cultivation. Biochar is obtained in similar process to that of charcoal and its properties is well recognized in soil enhancement, nutrient and water retention. The International convention for Biological Diversity has accepted Biochar production and utilization as a method for conservation and Carbon credit, due to the positive impact it creates in acting as a long term carbon sequestration method.

Day 6

It would serves as a laughable subject, but Design and construction of permaculture is limited or inspired by women, either you want to accept it or not, every single part of the construction, especially where women are present, has to take into consideration her need and the rest can include any knowledge, science or the most profound wisdom. The contrary and you might enjoy a miserable life. The only way around it is that, it only takes a woman to convince a woman, so the next time, hire a women permaculture designer in the final draft.

Another important wisdom on the presentation was that equilibrium and stability in a population is achieved because every member is a contributor in the system, a system with any element that is not proactive in contributing is always heading to downfall. Each element generally has multifunctional a multitaskers. It is also notable that it takes very good habitats to maintain a culture but little bad habits to destroy a culture.

If we were to conduct a human settlement and determine what it takes to build one, we would have to mentioned that two important part would include; infrastructure and invisible elements or the tangible and intangible , but every single one is so important, missing would have continues impact of the settlement and would stunt its development.

Permaculture in the context of this element can then be described as a continuous process of transforming mass into energy and vice versa in the form of a repetitive cycle by using all element in the most efficient manner, due to the fact that you combine knowledge for decision making protocols in harmony with nature and its pattern by providing problem solving. A system that has no problem and cannot solve its problem with ultimate fail and be unsustainable.

Challenges and impediments for development will always be present when designing; this can include money, land owning and natural systems. Each natural system generates a product that can be used by another entity that ensures the system productivity.

In the design therefore, that we were talking about, there are different elements, which includes physical environmental, biological, spatial, technical, conservational, cultural, legal, social and patterning, that needs to be taken into consideration.

DAY 7

In this day, understanding many things about water is going to be key and the most elemental element of systems that are affected by it. Water moves in a system in many different ways and in a bigger context, water is part of the watershed which ends having a natural design.

Water in nature when it moves in distorted natural system can be very destructive, therefore reading runoff and preventing erosion is going to be part of the analysis. Erosion is the expression of water damage. Water spends a lot of energy thru its movement from very high mountainous areas to the lowest portion until reaching the oceans. It is important to note that water should not be captured in the transport area, but it should be captured at the source or sinks run off, the bottom portion. The reason being that the transport area has a high level of energy of water movement, because it has initiated the process of picking up particles, dug areas within its movement and has eroded the bank channels. At the end a pattern is established, this is recognizable in classifying the types of erosion; sheet, gully and rill erosion.

To capture the water, for usage the energy needs to be reduced, depending on the natural area, the rate of erosion on a bare soil is 80 times greater than soil covered with vegetation and in order to store water, the requirement is not to construct big container, but it has been determined that soil is the best container for storing water.

In the movement of water, it is important to understand that water moves particles from one place to another, the process result in deposition of particles from one area to the next; this is where alluvial and illuvial soils are created, similar to practices of the Nile river utilized thousands of years ago by the Egyptians.

The class was very technical and interesting, since the movement of water is key in creating sustainable and long lasting infrastructures that will withstand the changes of externalities.

DAY 8

This was a day that we would enjoy at a place hidden in the Valley.

We were moved by the wonder of the place and its majestic mountains full of vivid lines and a gracious invitation to alpinist. The mountains were just hidden the wonders between its hand, the river melted thru the stones and giving life where it touched.

We then reached to the place where an apple orchard and bee box laid in unison for providing a juicy harvest when the time comes. One of the most important elements for this day was going to be the greatest pollinators on earth, the bees.

Bees are the greatest socialized insects that have been used for many generations by humans, they have many unique characteristics and should be well understood before working with them, and some of this uniqueness is that they have a civilized social structure. In the highest hierarchy is the Queen. The Queen is the hormone machinery that controls all activities in the hive by emanating a certain hormone when she desires certain mode in the hive.

There is one queen per hive, but there is always succession of new queens when the times come, in commercial production humans intervene to maintain an optimum production, the renew of the queen every year or two. The first to emerge.

Bees can be grown indigenously without entering massive commercialization, since the massive production has created the Sudden death syndrome, the traqueal and varroa mite and other natural enemies that needs to be controlled many often times.

Many of the benefits of the bees can be enumerated with a long list, but it cannot be disputed that they are the best pollinators in the world, and many fruit trees would not be able to fructify without their intervention.

Day 9

The day began with a very favourable conditions working under the sun, this day was reserved for having firsthand experience in building a passive solar energy house made out of clay and sand.

It all began with a site visit and the observation of the work already initiated in initiated construction in 2 structures and a big house, which does not have to envy any other structure, because the structures observed were wonderful and very accommodating.

It all started with the mixing and kneading with our bare feet the best ration mixture to be used in a hearth and for the foundational wall of a new building. After each mixture was completed, the throw and play game started, as a community were showed the ability of moving a lot of mixture thru a human chain, while other were the busy builders. After many play, we were able to raise the structure to a desired high and the activity was taking its toll on us, since it was a tiring and good experience, we learnt what can be achieved if we are able to unite and help one another.

Day 10

This class was reserved exclusively for the purpose of getting to know all the medicinal plants that are utilized by indigenous people. There are over 500 species of plants in Arizona; each one has a unique purpose. Some include: Yaka, Mullin, globe Malow, Lemon Berry Bush, Russian Thistle, Marabolis, Rabbit bush, Homima, Showy rush pink, Common Purslane, Field Mint, Chinch Weed, Wiwa and Rocky Mountain Bee plant. Plants in the indigenous environment have multiuse’s, including food, medicine, and basketry and very important spiritual uses.

This class was also conducted along with a Midwifery talk and the importance that they plan in having a healthy population, including all the practices of women labour and the recognizing all the symptoms.

Day 11

This was reserved for the final presentation, where students were to integrate all their knowledge in putting a proposal of a designated area. All recommendation provided for the area would have to pass thru the Board of Directors of the organization hosting the event. The participants and the hosting body was glad on the professional recommendation provided and many modification mentioned to existing trials, infrastructural development and planning exercise, they are requesting to be the host next year.

Overall comments

-        The event was a unique experience from the Normal agronomic classes received in many institution, due to the fact that it offers core values, lessons learnt, indigenous perspective of farming and harmonious practices for natural ecosystems

-        The TNAFA is a very important organization in New Mexico that is fighting for indigenous well being, and they have many contacts that can provide assistance in partnering in many excellent initiatives, including the Seed Saving and Alternative energy solutions.

-        The course is well integrated and can be provided to many extension officers or technical officers that work indigenous areas, and those wanting to understanding traditional knowledge.

-        Training materials acquired from the training copy attached:

o  Video – The world according to Monsanto

o  Video- Seed Savings

o  Video- Nut and Bolt of Soil Web

o  Video- Garden Design in Arid Area (Double Lasagne Garden Design)

o  Video- A silent Forest

o  Booklet – Watershed Restoration Principle

o  Book – Enduring Seeds – Native American Agriculture and Wild Plant Conservation by Wendell Berry

-        Organic heirloom seed planting material (50 seed specimens)

o  Russian Mammoth sunflower

o  Sun Gold habanero

o  Sun Moon and Stars Watermelon

o  Hopi Yellow Meat Watermelon

o  Navajo Winter Squash

End