Presentation: Survey Results & Agriculture Plan of Action

This morning there was a meeting in Media Luna that was attended by members from nearly half of the families in the community, about 40 people. We presented the results from the survey as well as our plan to improve the quality of life in Media Luna through the optimization of agriculture. One method to improve agricultural production that we've identified is to covert the soil of Media Luna from chemical fertilizers to organic. The first components of this transition include finding an agriculture specialist that could assist us in the finalization of our proposal to the Municipality of Urubamba, such proposal aims to obtain state funds for the project (the municipality offers amounts up to 1,000,000 soles, about 300,000 US dollars for public infrastructure projects). It is imperative that funds for this project are obtained from the municipality or from a government agency because the project requires a large initial investment to cover soil analyses, the processes deemed necessary to improve the condition of the soil (there are many stones in the soil and the community believes that a tractor or some type of machinery is necessary to remove the stones and improve the overall soil quality), and the organic fertilizer products. Daniel has estimated the general cost of the transition to be about 50,000 soles.

An initial pilot project on a parcel of communal land is the best way to demonstrate the effectiveness of organic agriculture as well as teach the community how to create their own compost, a form of organic fertilizer that will eventually be sufficient to prepare the land for planting. The length of time necessary to convert the land is still unclear, from what we've been told it can take as little as one year or as long as five years. This is a subject matter that will be cleared up with a soil analysis. It is very possible that some pieces of land will take less time and others more time, depending on their location in the community.

The majority of the community realize that the land is dying from the chemically based products they use and are interested in pursuing an organic alternative. They agreed that we should continue with the project and that they would participate little by little, not 100 percent at first but that they wanted to see how a pilot project on communal land advances and determine from there if they want to participate in the transition project on their own land. A few community members voiced their doubts about organic products, because they are accustomed to using chemical products and feel more comfortable continuing to do so.

Although I now have only one week left in Urubamba, we hope to complete our proposal to submit to the municipality by the end of next week, ideally with the assistance of an agriculture professional.

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.