Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
follow-up sessions every two months. Have growers sampled weeds? Are new
practices being implemented? How effective are they? How much do they
cost?
The framework for training based on weed types, sampling methods, and
discussions of practices was developed by scientists, but has only advanced by
incorporating coffee farmers' opinions and ideas. Scientists learn key words
used by farmers, and farmers adopt scientists' vocabulary to refer to new eco-
logical concepts. Standard weed scouting procedures have permitted compar-
isons between different fields and groups. Farmer groups have proposed that
different weed species be used as ground cover depending on location. The
approach has been successful in generating discussions about weed types and
the importance of ground cover for soil conservation.Many farmers have tried
selective weeding instead of total weeding. However, farmer groups have
established few experimental plots to test alternative weed management prac-
tices. These farmers of low-yielding coffee may be stating that weed studies
are not very important until they improve other problems, such as low coffee
plant density and vigor, that have a greater impact on yields and profitability
than do weeds.
Cover crops in Central America: farmers show other farmers
Velvetbeans are aggressive annual vining legumes of the genus
Mucuna
. They originated in Asia and were introduced into Florida via the
Caribbean in the 1870s for use as a cover crop in citrus groves. [See Buckles
(1993, 1994) for more details on the rise and fall of
Mucuna
in the USA and
Central America.] From 1900 to 1920 nearly 1500000 ha were planted with
Mucuna
spp.as green manure and animal feed in the southern USA.Numerous
studies and extension bulletins were also completed on velvetbean in this
period. By the 1940s velvetbean had disappeared in the southern USA due to
the availability of cheap nitrogen fertilizers and the spread of soybean.
In the 1920s banana companies introduced velvetbean into Central
America. They promoted its use in association with maize that was cultivated
by banana workers on company lands. After maize harvest, mules used for
banana transport grazed these fields.
When mules were replaced with tractors, the use of velvetbean declined on
banana plantations, but spread to peasant fields. From the late 1930s
onwards, the use of velvetbean for weed control and as a green manure has
spread among communities of Guatemala, Belize, southern Mexico, and
Honduras. In Atlantida, Honduras, from the 1970s to the early 1990s the
number of maize producers using velvetbean increased from 10% to over
60%, largely based on farmer-to-farmer communication (Buckles, 1994). The
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