A Different Spin on Organic Agriculture

The director of the Urubamba Agriculture Office referred us to Ing. Ciro Palomino Rivas, an expert in organic agriculture. After sending him an email on Tuesday, I received a very warm response the following day. Absolutely incredible after what I've come to expect when attempting to contact professionals by email. Saturday morning Daniel and I went to meet Ing. Palomino Rivas at his organic agriculture store in Cusco. We told him about our project in Media Luna and how agriculture had appeared as one of the most pressing problems in the community. The fact that the high price of chemical fertilizer and the damage it does to the soil entraps the residents of Media Luna, and other agriculture based communities for that matter, in a vicious cycle of spending more and more of their earnings on chemical fertilizers whose amounts need to increase every planting season to produce the same crop yield.

He gave us an introduction to the process of restoring the soils of the Sacred Valley to an organic state and also provided an overview of his products. Such products, he claims, work to restore the soil in one planting season rather than the five-year process discussed by other agriculture professionals. However, there is a high initial cost to switching to his products because the first year demands a large amount of product to treat the soil. Each following year the amount decreases and saves money in the long term compared with the use of chemical fertilizer. A primary difference between his products and chemical products is that improving the quality of the soil is the objective of organic fertilizer rather than individual crop growth. So instead of designing products that are crop specific, the organic alternative aims to restore the soil to a state that would benefit all crops.

Although the information he provided us is useful, it was surprising that there may be such an efficient way to convert the fields of Media Luna to organic fertilizers. So surprising that we know we need to find case examples of such transitions to ensure that the products really work that well and that he's not just saying what's necessary to obtain Media Luna as a major client.

Organic Agriculture

Some progress was made this week, despite an unsuccessful trip to Cusco on Wednesday. Daniel and I traveled to Cusco Wednesday morning to visit the Agriculture department at the University of Cusco and to meet a contact given to us by the director of the Agricultural office in Urubamba. The contact is the owner of a store devoted to organic agricultural products.

He was traveling for the week but we were given his business card and contact information. We then went to the University of Cusco to see whom we could find from the Agriculture department. To our dismay, we discovered that the Agriculture Faculty resides on the other side of Cusco, about 40 minutes away from the main campus. After waiting about 30 minutes for a bus to take us there, we decided to go another day because we wouldn’t arrive at the other campus until 1pm, just as the leisurely Peruvian lunch hour begins. We saw the Cusco counterpart to the Agricultural office of Urubamba and went in to see if we could find anyone but everyone was on lunch.

Wednesday night we finally got in touch with Zenobio, the president of Media Luna, and set up a meeting for the following morning. Thursday morning we met Zenobio at his chacra, located outside of Media Luna. The first order of business was discussing the date for the next assembly. Since we’ve completed the survey, I’ve compiled the results of the survey into a presentation needs to be shown to the community members of Media Luna. Also since the completion of the survey, the assembly date has continued to be postponed. Due to a number of holidays and days set to work on community projects the assembly is now supposed to take place the first weekend in November, however it is unclear whether it will be Sunday November 1^st or the following weekend. Regardless, we haven’t been able to do much without the occurrence of the assembly.

On a positive note, he showed us the mix of compost and manure that he uses as an organic form of fertilizer. When using organic fertilizer, the process of preparing the land for planting is much more time consuming and effort intensive. Instead of spending a week preparing the soil with fertilizer, Zenobio told us that he treated the soil with the organic fertilizer for six months before planting. He also told us that he planted 3 days after his aunt, who used chemical fertilizers, and his corn crops are taller and healthier than hers. We also discovered that there is a piece of communal land in the community (about 4,000 square meters) that can be used as part of a “transitioning to organic” pilot project.

Agriculture in Media Luna

The residents of Media Luna primarily rely on agriculture as a source of food and income. Through the results of the survey, it is becoming apparent that the problems with crops have a serious affect on the well being and livelihood of the families living in Media Luna. The two principal factors that affect the production of crops are the availability of water and fertilizer.

The irrigation system of Media Luna is based on taking turns. There are several irrigation streams that run throughout the community with smaller canals leading to different fields. The smaller canals' access to the stream water is shut off on certain days by blocking the water flow with a metal panel. One day certain community members irrigate their fields; the next day another group of community members irrigate their fields. While the system is the best that can be done at this time, the overall lack of water consensus is that no one receives enough water to satisfy the needs of the crops.

The fertilizer or abono as it's called here, is relatively expensive (90-95 soles, around $30, for 50 kg); therefore, the individual families aren't able to buy a sufficient amount of it. Our idea is to determine a simple and inexpensive (possibly organic) way for the community members to create their own fertilizer. We hope that in addition to the homemade fertilizer being cheaper, that it will also have less of a negative impact on the environment. As the fertilizers currently used are mainly chemically based, an organic alternative will not only last longer but will be better for the fields and the surrounding environment overall.

In order to make sure that the needs of the soil and crops will be met, I've been working to establish contact with someone who specializes in this field. The University of Cusco has a department devoted to Agriculture and Zoology (Agonomia y Zootecnia) and seems like a good source to explore. However, unlike many U.S. university websites (the websites I'm used to searching) the emails of most professors are not listed on the Peruvian university websites. So the two that are listed will receive an email from me and hopefully will be able to provide information or direct me to someone who can.

The idea of teaching the Media Luna residents how to make their own fertilizer seems to be a sustainable plan. They should have a great interest in this project, as a major complaint we've heard is that the fertilizer from the stores is too expensive. We just need to make sure that the fertilizer will be as effective if not more effective than the products they currently use.