From research outputs to development outcomes—selected stories - Water Scarcity, Livelihoods and Food Security - page 183

Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other partners in the 1990s, they
developed the Quesungual slash and mulch agroforestry system (QSMAS),
named for the village where it was developed. As a community, the farmers
resolved to proscribe burning. They harvested useful timber in the secondary
forest, slashed the rest and planted their crops directly into the dried, slashed
vegetation. The benefits were such that after just one season, adopting farmers
increased the area of the system on their farms. Other farmers in the region
followed suit. Now 90 percent of the 120 farmers in the watershed have
stopped slash and burn and over 60 percent use QSMAS.
Project PN15 reviewed the data collected in the FAO QSMAS project
1995-2005. Based on the analysis, PN15 then carried out research to: (1)
measure and quantify the ecological and economic consequences of adopting
QSMAS; (2) identify technical and socio-economic factors that control
adoption of QSMAS; and (3) foster scaling out of QSMAS to other parts of
Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala.
Project PN15 showed that QSMAS improved soil fertility, increased soil
microflora, increased soil water-holding capacity and, hence, increased the
tolerance of crops to drought. Crop yields and, hence, family incomes
increased. There was less erosion and less risk of landslides during heavy rain,
and moreover there was less pressure on primary forest. During the strong El
Niño drought in 1997, crops in the QSMAS suffered less drought damage than
crops in slash-and-burn systems. In the following year there was little erosion
and no landslides during Hurricane Mitch, which dumped up to 1600 mm of
rain in four days in the area.
QSMAS had a huge impact on the livelihoods of smallholder farmers (those
who farm only 1 hectare). The most dramatic effect was the increased
tolerance of crops to drought at the end of the rainy season, when rainfall is
irregular and crops are filling their grain. Moreover, the restored forest
environment protects the soil and buffers crop-production system and makes
food supply resilient to unusually dry or wet years. Farmers now have a more
sustainable source of wood supply for fuel and construction.
PN15 did not discover or invent QSMAS, but took its place in the longer-
term trajectory of a self-propelled innovation process. Work on QSMAS
continues in other forms and with other sources of funding.
Citations relevant to this story are: Pavon et al., 2006; Castro et al., 2008;
Castro et al., 2009; CPWF, 2012a.
Opportunity in adversity: Collective fish culture in seasonal
floodplains in Bangladesh (PN35)
Past efforts to increase the productivity of seasonal floodplains focused on
increasing water productivity during the dry season when farmers were able to
plant food crops. A community fishers' society in Beel Mail entered into a
leasing arrangement with the local authorities which allowed them to fish
during the flood season when the land is inundated. Before the society was set