We have been totally disconnected from where we come from and who we are on this planet. It is so sad to see that most of today's children believe that food comes from a carton in the supermarket rather than nature. It has gotten to the point where people consider nature as an entity to fear and conquer rather than the source of our being and well being.
Here in Panama I see so many people leaving their land, selling it for any possible money to pay their drinking debt or merely have $$$ mostly unaware of their property´s actual worth. This phenomenon was one of the reasons why the Panamanian real estate market shot up so tremendously. Poor farmers where selling their land for peanuts to eager expats taking advantage of the opportunity to relieve their home tax burdens. So these farmers then hurry to set up in the city where they struggle, work in ill paying jobs and perhaps even end up stealing to get buy. People especially young people do not see the importance of their land. They don't realize that everything they need can be found there.
The other day my husband found two enormous books that answered all our prayers regarding organic land use, they were manuals on organic agriculture written pure and simple on all possible topics. One was a manual on animal husbandry and related topics, while the other was on agriculture. Both written in Spanish and for all climatic regions. These are the most extensive books that I have seen on the subject. However, together they cost close to $300. What concerned us is that the people that most benefit from this knowledge, the poor landowners, do not have access to this type of information.
We have a farm where we cultivate organic produce for our own consumption and the excess we sell as organic baskets to a small clientele. Around our land are numerous poor people who don´t even have latrines or showers. They bathe in a small creek that goes dry in the dry season. This is also the same creek that they use as a toilet, as do numerous people up the creek as well as down the creek. These people make pottery for a living so that they may walk about 5km to the nearest store to buy food which in most cases are cans, dry beans and UHT milk. These people don't cultivate their land except for the occasional yucca and plantain plants. Some also have scrawny little chickens running around. Most however have been fooled to believe that they land is worthless for farming or that it costs a lot of money in fertilizer and pesticides to make anything grow.
One of our neighbours does grow some crops, however he first uses herbicides to kill anything on the soil prior to planting and then sprayes pesticides to kill anything after planting. I'm sure that this is no different from a farmer in a developed country. The difference is though that, one; tropical soil cannot handle this kind of treatment before quickly degrading into something useless, and second; this farmer needs to be relatively well off the be able to pay for all these products.
Tropical soils need to be handled with care, and ironically the easiest and cheapest management of tropical soils is the healthiest and most productive. Soil organic matter is of prime importance, it is necessary to maintain it above all costs. How to do so? Mulch, compost, don't till! Always maintain soil covered, leave dead plants there! Always fertilize with mature compost of plant as well as animal origin. Don´t over till the soil once biological organisms have made their homes in the soil due to the enrichment of soil organic matter, leave them there! Protect them at all cost!
When we bought our farm and began our agricultural project which I call the Tierra Viva Project, there was not one earthworm to be found. And even though we have never added a single one, we found our soil full of them only a year after beginning the projet in a given area.
It is worth mentioning that charcoal is also a major help in managing tropical soils. Charcoal prevent a lot of nutrient leaching and enhances growth of soil organisms. I researched this many years back when I did a research project on a phenomenon called Terra Preta.
In summary, poor landowners would benefit from taking advantage of their own land to supply their own food and perhaps even shelter.
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