Developing countries benefit from mixed agriculture
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Mixed cultivation and cooperative farming appear to be giving new hope to farmers in northern Nicaragua that they will be able to better feed themselves in the future, says Swissaid. The aid organization receives a little more than one-third of its CHF16.9 million budget from the Swiss government’s Agency for Development and Cooperation.
The group in a statement 17 February points to its 10-year-old project in Juguapa, quoting a local farmer.
“‘We’re not afraid any more.’ A bad harvest in previous years meant the farmers had very little to eat. ‘Now, we’ve diversified cultivation and grow different foodstuffs. If there is a problem with one product, we can still generate enough income from the other products. We have something on the table to eat every day.'”
The popularity of terroir products, including wines, is increasing in Switzerland because of the better flavour they can offer, but also because the mixed cultivation from which they sometimes come may be better for the land long-term.
They can also be better for the people who farm this way: fewer chemicals, more natural solutions. Several Swiss wine grape growers, notably around Geneva and nearby canton Vaud, continue to do mixed farming.
The aid group cites two UN organizations that “commissioned expert reports about hundreds of projects in various African countries where small farms converted to organic cultivation methods. The result is impressive: productivity rose by 116% over a total area of about 2 million hectares. For example, income from maize grown in Kenya increased by 71%, and income from beans rose by 158%.”
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