Dear Editor,
Let’s go straight to the meat of the matter and try to separate fact from fiction.
1. Guyana’s coastline is below sea level: The sea did not rise and cover the land. The rains fell and the water was not able to flow into the sea fast enough due to silting, and hence the flood.
2. Move to higher ground: That is an option provided the farmer is willing to live off the leaves of the trees in the forest. Contrary to popular belief, Guyana does not have fertile soil; behind the mudflats of the coastal region lies a belt of white sand and laterite. Laterite is that red rust loam that they use to build dirt roads; it contains some iron, aluminum and a few other minerals, but otherwise is poor in plant nutrients.
3. Bring in the Dutch to solve the problem: The Dutch are world renowned for building massive dikes and gateways to keep the sea out from flooding their country. These are high-tech systems and cost billions of dollars. Even so, they have started to build their houses on floating pontoons. The Dutch will not just walk in and say we are here to solve your problem, poor starving brother. They will come with a proposal and a price tag of millions of dollars.
This problem can be solved with the resources we have and Ventiver and lemon grass.
We have got to change over to no-till farming and cultivation; it is simple and requires less work. You Tube is filled with no-till farming practices. The administration needs to get a laptop, a portable projector and a canvas screen and go out to the various communities and show these videos to the farmers.
There are even You Tube videos of the great Japanese agroecological master, Mr Masanobu Fukuoka, demonstrating his technique. He calls his system “No work Farming,” meaning, do not do any work that is not necessary. As an example he said that farmers have been planting rice in flooded fields for so long, that they no longer know why they are doing it. He said it was done to prevent weeds from growing. He demonstrates his technique of making rice paddy balls and throwing them right on top of his field ground covering of clover.
He has not tilled his field in 25 years, he uses no fertilizer except some chicken poop and rice straw, and he uses no pesticides.
4. Ethanol: I never believed in it as a solution to our energy crisis; some of the largest ethanol companies in America are now going bankrupt, even though they were heavily subsidized.
There is a new process being tried out right now, called Thermal Depolariza-tion. It grinds up all kinds of waste matter including sewage sludge, and converts it into oil and coal tar; the waste byproduct is water. Now that’s interesting.
There are many videos of no-till farming on You Tube and one of the TDP process.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPPZv90bQk4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWf9nYbm3ac
Yours faithfully,
Joe Coxall
Comment extracted from
Stabroek News
website.
The farmers, who are growing cash crops, can benefit immediately from no till farming. They begin by tilling their crop beds to mix in some cow manure, dry leaves, and rice straw.
The beds should be 18 inches high and 4 feet wide, then cover completely with mulch, which can be rice straw, cardboard, wood chips, coconut fiber. Avoid trampling on the beds, which will compact the soil, open the mulch and begin planting your seeds and young plants.
Keep adding more and more mulch, as required. The soil will need Nitrogen from time to time, so spread some chicken poop on top of the mulch and let it work itself naturally into the soil. That’s it, no more tilling ever.
As for rice farming, the Agriculture schools can experiment with a one hectare field. They should till the land, not plow it, then broadcast some chicken poop and grow the field with some sort of ground covering.
Now I do not know what types of ground covering plants we have in Guyana, but the daisy plant comes to mind. When planting season comes, you make mud balls with the paddy seeds and spread it on the field, you then flood the field for about a week, to weaken but not kill the ground covering, this allows the rice plants to come up, then drain the fields, and allow the rice to grow. If there is not sufficient rains, then flood the field once per week but drain the water off at the end of the day.
After harvest cover the field with the rice straw, again throw some chicken poop and plant soy beans. This is the basic principle.
Now the yield may not be the same as a plowed field, if this is done on previously plowed land. But in time the result will improve, without the use of fertilizers or pesticides.
The entire process can be found in the book “One straw revolution” of which I have an ebook copy, and willing to share.
Joe.
Throughout my recent Blogging career, I have revealed many simple but practical technologies, which these poor farmers can use right now.
I am pretty sure that most of these farmers are illeterate to semi illeterate. They are farming the same way that their forefathers did and will never change, because they do not know any better, so it is the “educated” administrators who continue to misguide these hard working folks.
I would propose setting up a model village, where we build rammed earth homes, the trenches are lined with lemon grass,which will trap the silt and plastics and other garbage from blowing into the trenches. Set up fish ponds, chicken tractors, potted gardens, solar cookers and solar dryers, sawdust and rice husk cookers, Methane composters,natural composting, vermiculture, no till farming.
Then invite students, villagers and farmers to see an entire “living machine” where everything is recycled and nothing is wasted, not only that, they get hands on practice, since it will be a village that is dynamic, with live people, demonstrating the principles.
What they are doing instead,is haveing some “unfortunate students” wasting their time in Agriculture schools, they have no jobs when they get out. Out of all the farmers affected by the floods, I am willing to bet that they cannot show me a single agriculture student turned farmer.
My proposed system will teach men, women and children, to build their own homes, raise their own fish, chickens and vegetables. and maintain their own communities.
They would have developed a total skill, while providing their own food and shelter, then take it from there, who wants to pursue academics, or who wants to be a farmer, the choice is yours.
Joe.
….Joe u have a lot of hare-brained theories ,, that is NOT adaptable to those who live and farm in GY ,, that aside ,,is it mandatory that we live on the farm ?????? or could we live ,, in the hills and,, farm on the fertile lands wherever they r ! many people could be gainfully employed with just a little bit from the prefrontal cortex ,,,,,
farming “patterns” must evolve ,, with the weather ,, the decision of the farmers to cultivate the fields just b4 the “rain season”is the decision of those who have in in them to be stupid or just looking for free money from the GOVT !
to be in harmony with nature as is the case that is now mandatory to survive this that is now a “pattern” the hydromet personnel must be more proactive ,,since they can not wish away the rains nor where we live ,, they have to pin down the rain season to educate the farming community when to begin and end the farming season to coincide with the new seasonal “patterns”,,, it is,, at last some relief to note that the head of state has now accepted that the current quagmire is indeed a “pattern”,,, one that is not going anywhere soon ,, hence the
need for a paradigm shift of the whole life style of all who habitate on the “rim” of the “basin”….
while the govt putting together the needs as suggested by u ,, “laptop projector and canvas screen” the rains coming down buckets a drop !
the total economic development plan ,, as is being engineered by the “experts” in the “peoples” interest ,, is void of cohesion and is making them look like chickens with out heads !…. none of it makes any sense to even begin to look at their stupidity ! the D&I people have no understanding of what they r dealing with ,,and will continue to waste the tax payers money ,,on their hare-brained schemes of trying to pump out the water from the land !
plz allow me to “REPEAT” what i have been saying since 2000 ! the water from the head of the Amazon rivertakes “one month” from it’s source to it’s mouth,, a meandering of more than 4000 miles ,, during which time it drains the largest water shed on the planet ,, and just so happens that we are part of the landscape that must be drained to keep outr feet dry ,, when the rains come !,,
to have a handle on any thing that is considered a pattern one have to fully understand the dynamics of the phenomena at hand,, failing to fully comprehend this is what we now have and will continue to have ,, as long as we keep up ,, the “and-aid and stop gap” idiocy !
how much more must be said abt what obtains ,, now ,, for the past 4 years ,, and what certianly looks like what will be for another 400 years !,,,,
is it atall possible that someone,,anyone perhaps could make the govt ,, see where they need to re-calibrate their development plan ,, and start today to re-orient those of us who live on the “rim of the “basin” that it is no longer a viable life enduring decision to continue to live in the face of what is the ultimte of stupidity !…
Hare-brained? Maybe. Maybe not. But no more hare-brained than proposing that water flows UPHILL in OPEN channels from the lower Balbina Reservoir OVER the HIGHER Sierra Acaria mountain range into Guyana’s south.
Let the harebrained ideas flow forth. It’s called brainstorming. We can weed out the bad ones and try out the good ones.
Mikey, all of my hare brained schemes are being used right here in the USA and many other parts of the world, by environmentally conscious folks, while in Guyana there are still those who believe that a great rich white saviour will one day arrive and modernise the entire country and lift everyone from the depths of poverty. Keep waiting my friend, or do something in the meantime.
Instead of only rambling on this blog site, put anyone of my hare brained ideas on youtube and you will come up with dozens of examples of practical systems that work, and would cost pennies.
One of the problems with our lack of development as a people and as a country, is our willingness to dismiss ideas like mine as silly and not worth the effort, even though it can be done for pennies useing local resources.
One the other hand, if a couple of foreign consultants come in and say they will do the same things I propose but with hitech systems and methods costing millions of dollars, folks will say brilliant idea, what is the government waiting for? this is what the country needs, just pay the money and lets get it done.
Sometimes, I often imagine these consultants, flying back home on the plane and saying to each other. “I cannot believe how easy it was to con those natives, and get paid 10 times as much for a system that they could have built themselves”
Joe.
… ur attempt to discredit me with ur comments on more that just one time is enough for me to silence u for ur comments ,, the Serra Acarai,, where the head waters of the Trombetas arise near the borders of GUYANA-suriname borders and the serra de Tumucumaque,,,
here’s something to think abt
physics ,, the laws thereof ,, dictates that water has no shape or form ,, if it c’tan go “here” it will them go “there”
i wish i could get some there where u r ,, to help u to saty healthy so that at least ur mind can be of some use to u ,,
where have i,, if u can so prove ,, that i said anything anytime abt water flowing over SERRA ACRAI ????????? ur comments here ,, is as useless as used tiolet paper !
Still waiting patiently, MT. Still waiting to know how water can flow UPHILL over the Sierra Acaria (mountain range that separates Brazil from Guyana’s south) into South Guyana. If you can find some valley in the Sierra Acaria low enough for the water to flow into Guyana, ah will stap baddering yuh…
Howdy, Joe. And happy New Year.
Fact or fiction depends on how serious we are about our country. From what I have seen, nearly ALL of Guyana’s problems can be solved with the resources it has.
Your # 1. Heavy rain periods is nothing new to Guyana. Not all resulted in prohibitive flooding. Overlay those that didn’t with those that did and we may find the solution.
Your 2: I live in the middle of farmland NJ. The soil is red sand. They install a layer of imported top soil and that’s it. I grow my own veggies every year in soil just like that along the Linden/Soesdyke highway (which I have farmed as well). Where there’s a will, bro, there’s always a way. But that ‘will’…that is the elusive thing.
Your 4: Ethanol is screwed in America because they want it out of corn, an important staple on the one hand, and a low yielder on the other, and that will will never work. They have to introduce a new crop: either cane, or that cellusic grass (I forgot its name) which will entail draining a swamp somewhere or flooding a piece of desert, both of which are entirely doable. The thing about this is i/ It calls for new thinking (critical in the case of Guyana) and ii/ It depends on where American energy is headed. It may not be liquid, after all.
I look forward to being able to do my bit for my home country very soon.
Johan, a happy new year to you too my friend. You know, the soil in New Jersey and many parts of America is fertile. I have seen home garden tomatoes from NJ as big as a grapefruit. I kid you not.
It is not the color of the soil that makes it infertile, the experts said that it is the very same tropical rainfall that washed out the nutrients out of our tropical soils. I beleive this because I know that you can slash and burn a field in the jungle, and you will get two crops of cassava, then that’s it, you need to go cut some more jungle.
At the same time they are saying that the sands of the Sahara, are fertile,since the nutrients were never washed away by water, which it lacks.
Soil experts have come a very long way in understanding that the land is made up of a living, breathing, intelligent ecological subculture, that works in harmony to keep the land fertile until we as humans upset the balance in our mad rush for increased productivity.
I do believe that we can go into the sand bar region, dig 3 feet pits, line it with plastic, then fill it with good composted top soil and begin no till crop cultivation that will be sustainable with careful and thoughtful maintenance.
Nature fertilizes the soil from top down, not from bottom up, so we only need be concerned with the first 3 feet of top soil.
People do have short memories, but I do remember that a number of folks responded to Fat Boys call to grow more food, and started farming along the HIghway, they got some pineapples, of which there no markets for, but little else.
Once armed with the knowhow, then we can tell the people to venture out into the land, with clear instructions of what to do. They will only need a few but essential tools, a tiller, a mulcher, and a PH soil tester, among other things.
But to tell an ill informed individual to Go Invest is inviting disaster. Save them the pain, just tell them to go slit their throats.
Joe.
The grass you are talking about is switch grass. They are also experimenting with algea. The drawback of Ethenol production is that it burns more carbon releasing biofuels, than it produces in gas.
Ok so you are commenting five times on your original comment. Really, you are so full of useless ideas.
What a scientific discovery. You should be given a Nobel prize.
No-Til farming-to save guyana from hungar.
very healthy debate…minus the insults, nice to see you guys are reading a lot , and doing some research, all adds up to an elevation of the thought process… keep it up…
JoeCoxall, Basically no till is only feasible for a couple of crops, and for the rest good quantities of pre emergence herbicides, crop and herbicide rotation. Try that on the Guyana coastal deposits. Where climate soil and topography only favours rice.
we tried no tillage here and it didn’t work
Wonder if the land cleared behind Buxton is in use for farming? Seems like as good a place as any to start.