Hello,
Our team is revising our farm training manual for conservation agriculture, concentrating on field crops, and we wish to include a short (1 hour) session on including trees on a farm. If you have only 1 hour to teach the importance of trees and encourage farmers to include trees, what would you teach?
Thanks!
Dave Hynes
Hi Dave!
This is a good question… I teach an agroforestry class at ECHO in Florida and I tend to focus on the different uses of trees and perennials first, to inspire people as to why they would want to take the time to grow their own. I.e. mulch, food, fuelwood/timber, barriers (wind, grazers), and fodder. After that, teaching some basic principles of how we find trees functioning in creation can be of help- (i.e. the ground is covered in the forest from leaf litter, nutrients are recycled, perennials and annuals grow together, forests hold moisture, ect.). Lastly, some simple examples of applied agroforestry could be helpful as examples (Alley cropping, SALT, home gardens, or FMNR). I believe pictures can go a long way.
In my opinion, the principles are much more important than a specific method, because they are much more adaptable to a particular context, so I keep that as an emphasis.
1 hour is a short time, so using the most basic examples of each of these topics might be best and those who are interested can investigate or trial in more complex ways.
As a fun little tidbit, depending on my audience I will integrate references to trees in the narrative of the Bible (Garden of Eden, Tree of life, the cross was referenced as a tree), which has been a way to integrate the spiritual component of life to my lectures.
I hope that is helpful. My context is mostly training aspirational workers, so feel free to adapt what I said to your audience. I’m sure others will have good insights as well.
The number one importance of trees in any environment, I would think, is not that plants need soil, but that soil needs plants!! As soon as you put some trees in the ground (that work in your area and soil conditions), the soil becomes SO MUCH better! My sandy soil in Florida is black and rich all around any of my trees…especially the nitrogen fixing trees!
Recently I have been asking farmers here in rural Haiti who made the first garden. When they figure it out or give up and I tell them it was God, I ask them what God put in his garden. They usually have no idea but I point them to what Genesis 2 says or get them to go look it up. My follow-up question for them has been something like, if God planted trees in his garden and you hack all the trees out in your garden, do you think you are smarter than God?
I can’t say that this has been an effective tool yet, probably partly because I don’t think being ignorant or unintelligent is really very bothersome to most subsistence farmers here and most of them have not yet had that “on, no, we are going to starve if we don’t change things” realization, so there isn’t much motivation to change. I wonder though if it might be a more effective message in a place where people have more motivation to change or have a greater degree of respect for God’s intelligence.
Hi Dave,
You are welcome to use the intro to syntropic agroforestry training that I have posted at https://academy.forests4farming.org. Just create a free account and you can watch the first 1 hour of video. It covers the emerging field soil science and the symbiosis that occurs between soil microbes and plants. And most importantly, the fact that soil microbes create plant available fertility. So that trees (if managed correctly) can help create fertility where soil was previously poor.
If you want to use the presentation, just email me and I can help you get the right format (video vs text). I just ask that you present it as is and give credit.
Thanks for the thoughtful replies! They have given us food for thought, and I think we will stick with some basic concepts to get our trainees thinking about how to use trees on their farms.
Blessings,
Dave H
Great! What part of the world are you in? An obvious point is to really think hard about your audience and their context - chat to the farmers beforehand, in order to answer the real questions. What are the barriers that so far have stopped them planting trees on their farms? Is it that they never thought about it, or are there some other factors? Do they not own the land? Do they not want to shade their crop? Do they fear thieves coming for the fruit? are there fires often? Do they not have enough space to spare? Have they already tried and failed? Is cost an issue? Are seedlings readily available? Is it too dry and time consuming to plant in some areas? Are they doing livestock, or cropping? What sort of trees are appealing to them - e.g. fodder for animals, fruit for staff areas, living fences, areas of biodiversity, shade, beauty. Here in Zimbabwe the lack of trees on farms is a leased land issue, plus staff constantly harvesting trees which are planted, for firewood, plus not wanting shade on their crops. The livestock farmers are really keen for trees for both shade and fodder for their livestock. This is only along fencelines, though, not many farmers want to reduce the speed of grass growth through shading on their paddocks. Trees on fencelines really help with heat stress in the cows, as well as some more difficult micro-nutrients. We have some high-protein pods trees, and some others which are very toxic, so it’s good to come with lists of appropriate tree species. They’ll also want to know cheap and quick ways to get to the end goal, so a list of fast-growing options is also useful.
Some haven’t thought about the link between rainfall and trees - the microbes transpired by trees which help to cloud-seed. If they realise trees can bring the rain, that’s a really appealing point to farmers in dry areas.
Another thing I think is useful is to think about water-harvesting on the farm. Is water leaving the farm? Can it be re-directed? If there are dips in the landscape to catch rainwater, trees will be more successful there.
Brazil has a bad rap for deforestation but it is not a fair reputation! They have amazing environmental laws. The farms near the Amazon have to keep 80% of their farm completely wild. Further away the percentage is less, but it’s always 20% or more. If the rest of the world could emulate this and have 20-50% wild (not just trees, but the full biodiversity) that would be an absolute win.