The trouble with blogs...

Is that you have to have time to post...Because we spent our first week on orientation, we have only two weeks to complete all data collection and analysis, both very time consuming processes so no one has had time to post anything, let alone anything of consequence. So, here I am with a brief, apologetic post...We've had a remarkably productive week with wonderfully dry (but hot and humid) weather which has been a great boon to the ag team because we've been mapping with the GPS all week. Today we finished mapping all of the agricultural fields and animal husbandry areas so we'll be better able to calculate how much land is under cultivation, what current production is and how much it might be increased which is our primary goal for the year.

The other thing we've been doing over the last couple of days is getting to work with several of the colegio students who helped us for a while with the GPS project but we found there were too many of us for one GPS so the colegio students each took a video camera or still camera and set out to document the agricultural program from their perspective. The process worked out to be pretty simple: The students with the video cameras simply explained verbally what they were documenting while filming; the photo students had a small digital recorder into which they could explain what pictures they were taking. We haven't had time yet to look much at what they produced but what little I looked at last night was wonderfully interesting. We'll leave all the footage and photos with the school where there is a volunteer from Kentucky who is teaching digital technology to the students so they can develop short videos or other digital projects. It seemed like a lot of fun for the students so it will be interesting to see what they can do with it. Below are a few of the pictures they took.

The health team has been conducting interviews in the community and at the colegio on reproductive histories and anticipated family size to try to gauge demographic changes that have or are likely to change in the current generation. They've also had several very useful interviews with medical personnel at the clinic, in addition to the interview with Arturo, mentioned earlier.


Conducting a brief interview with Nancy, the English teacher
Nancy is a volunteer English teacher who works with the sustainable agriculture program in the mornings. She admits to knowing not much about agriculture but is enjoying the activity and the learning.









Recently harvested dry beans They planted about a hectare of dry beans three months ago and are now harvesting them (we had some for lunch--excellent!). Beans are eaten regularly and in the region because they are an inexpensive protein source and the several varieties are tasty...







Harvesting yuca (manioc) Yuca is a common staple crop in this region with a super advantage. It's ready to harvest in about 6 months but can be left in the ground for an additional 6 months thus serving as something of a reserve. If planted in succession, it's possible to have a continuous yield of a high quality starch source. They grow what's called "sweet" yuca here which means it's ready to eat with minimal processing, something like a potato. The "bitter" varieties require extensive processing to remove the toxic components.

January 3, 2010

Learning about multi-cropping

We are in full swing with research now. The health team had a tour of the health clinic and three hour interview with Arturo yesterday; Arturo is the permanent health worker at the clinic (physicians and nurses come and go on an annual basis). This interview on the basic health status and infrastructure of the area helped them finalize their research questions so they'll have specific research tasks for the next two weeks.

The agriculture team began mapping the agriculture fields at the colegio today; we map them every year and conduct interviews on what was grown in them over the past year so we can document the broad process of development through time. A key part of our effort this year is to try to collect enough data to estimate production potential in the fields. Our central research question this year is focused on trying to understand, at least in broad strokes, the relationships among food security, sustainable agriculture, and food self sufficiency. Most of the people who live in this area produce coffee and cacao as cash crops and, plantains, yuca (manioc), and rice as subsistence crops. Because the population density is pretty low is this region, it appears that most people can produce enough food to eat a reasonable diet. Arturo from the clinic reports that childhood stunting is pretty low in this region (childhood stunting is a pretty good measure of the nutritional health of a population). If population increases or if people begin to devote more of their land to cash crops that could change. The Colegio established their sustainable agriculture program in part to produce food for the students and the lodge and in part to understand better what's involved in sustainable agriculture in this region. Part of what we're doing is documenting this process from year to year.

Every year, they experiment with new animals and crops. This year's primary animal husbandry experiment is African sheep which are smaller but more tolerant of hot, humid conditions typical of this region. The most notable thing about them is their complete lack of wool, having hair instead which of course makes them look rather naked... They're housed in a former chicken coop and seem pretty content, one of the females having just given birth to a new lamb, which is jet black with a fluffy white tip on it's tail.

More soon, John







African sheep