Transforming rural livelihoods in place of slash and burn

Empirical evidence has accumulated over the life of the Cambridge Inga Projects, and continues to accumulate in the succeeding projects, that the alley-cropping techniques described here carry the potential for a fundamental transformation in the livelihoods of subsistence farmers and their families.  These transformations are much more fundamental than those implicit in the Green Revolution (GR) technologies of the 1960s and '70s.  Moreover, and more importantly, the technologies described here are characterised by the complete absence of external debt in their implementation. 

The family's investment is in effort over the establishment and care of the developing agroforestry system; it does not enmesh them into externalities and the need for borrowed capital.  GR technologies did not, in general, attempt major changes in the food production systems themselves; rather, they sought to improve the performance of individual components of those existing systems; typically, by the intensive use of agro-chemicals.

In particular, the ability of farmers to produce food and (crucially) cash-crops close to the family dwelling, in place of the hours of walking to distant and temporary forest swiddens, carries implications for the family economy as a whole.

In the context of classic shifting cultivation in rain-forests, this transformation alone, permitting as it does, and for the first time, the involvement of the whole family in its own agricultural economy, caries far-reaching implications.  The three case-histories annexed above illustrate this.

The value of persistence in a single community

Experience is indicating that, where a substantial number of families within a community are involved, the adoption process appears to be reinforced.  This, in turn, engenders the potential for a replication of the techniques into neighbouring communities in a manner which will be far more cost-effective than in a piecemeal strategy with scattered individuals.

The overall approach to the introduction of these techniques 

At present, these projects are being implemented by partner NGOs and institutions with whom trustees have been working for many years.

Experience reinforces common-sense that project implementation is as much about planting ideas as about planting the trees upon which those ideas are based.  In the modern cliché, it is as much about "hearts-and-minds" as about trees in alley configuration.  The quality of partnership with the NGOs concerned, and their sense of "ownership" of the technology, are absolutely indispensable components in this implementation strategy.  Their advice will be sought first and foremost in the choice of other NGOs in their own, or neighbouring, countries.  They have their own contact networks; they tend to know each other well, and above all, to know which other NGOs are unlikely to possess the commitment required to carry a demonstration facility through development to its final practical use.

At first glance, it might seem more appropriate to deploy a "scatter-gun" policy across as wide a swathe of the neotropics as possible. This view is understandable, but may be seriously mistaken.  Experience shows us that it is the quality of collaboration that is crucial to success, and much less so its location, even at country level.

Collaborative interchanges have already taken place between, on the one hand, key individuals from Peru, Brazil, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Belize; and on the other, the key operators in Honduras.  It is intended to strengthen this network and to deploy it further afield, as and when funding permits.

An integrated strategy

The strategy now being implemented by both NGOs in Honduras is principally composed of the following elements :

1. A sustainable, low-input subsistence agriculture based upon Inga alley-cropping.
2. A sustainable, low-input cash-cropping agriculture, based upon Inga alley-cropping, and enabling the involvement of the whole family in its own economy (where and when appropriate).
3. Environmental education to reinforce i) and ii) above; and iv) below (when it can be incorporated into the strategy).
4. The development of a small-farm carbon-sequestration strategy, to be facilitated, monitored and certified by the NGOs concerned:  The "8-hectare model" currently under discussion between the partners.

This is, broadly, the community-based strategy that will be implemented in the future.