First Inga Alley Harvest in Africa
Mrs Antoinette Mendo has become the first farmer in tropical
Africa to harvest a crop, using an exciting
new technique called Inga Alley Cropping. She obtained more than 3 times the
yield of maize that was grown on an adjacent plot, farmed in the traditional
way. If the Inga method were to be widely implemented, it would help improve
the livelihoods of millions of poor slash and burn farmers and help save
millions of acres of rainforests.
In most tropical forest areas the traditional method of
slash and burn farming is no longer sustainable. Due to population pressure the
poor farmers are forced to move and farm on new plots that are becoming less
and less fertile. Thus in some areas of tropical hillsides, land that was once
lush tropical forest now appears completely barren, unable to support either
forests or agriculture. Inga Alley Cropping can prevent this continual
destruction and provide farmers with more secure, sustainable livelihoods.
It works by cleverly imitating the natural recycling process
of the forest eco-system. The Inga trees are grown in alleys and when they’ve
reached a certain height their branches are pruned and laid within the alley.
Seeds are then sown within the decomposing mulch, while the trees rapidly
re-grow. As the Inga mulch continuously re-cycles the nutrients and minimises
erosion, the plot is able to maintain its fertility. This means that the farmer
can get higher yields and continue to farm on the same plot year after year.
Usually slash and burn farmers have to move every 3 years or so, burn another
area of rainforest and start a new plot because they have exhausted the
fertility of their old one.
Mrs Mendo was helped to start her plot in by Gaston Bityo, who runs the NGO ‘Volunteers
Serving Development’ and by the UK
charity ‘Rainforest Saver’ (www.rainforestsaver.org)
. Twenty more Cameroonian farmers have also started Inga plots and if
sufficient funding can be found, the potential benefits of using the Inga
system in the tropical areas of Africa, Central and South America, and South-east Asia are immense. Regions in which both peoples and forests are
currently struggling for survival could be transformed into places, where both
humans and forests are once again thriving.
All the farmers need are the Inga seedlings and the necessary training
and they can begin to improve both their livelihoods and the environment. All
that Rainforest Saver and their partners need are the funds to make this
happen.
