Organic farming

Supporting Backpackers Paradise it is supporting our project of developing organic farming techniques that can benefit local farmers.

Our garden is like a experimentation field where we test organic farming methods.

The goal is to create a model of organic garden that anyone could do, using what is available in our environment.

We are looking for products that can be on farm process to stimulate the local economy.

The food security is a big concern for the future of a community like Sarteneja. Fishing is deceasing every years and some people return to the family farms.

Our biggest inspiration: Maya mountain research farm in the south of Belize.

Organic pesticide made with the leaves of a common local tree had given good results and is given to locals farmers.

A community meeting with Sustainable Harvest International in Sarteneja was organized and sponsored by Backpackers Paradise.

Toad friendly garden, semi natural habitat, conservation of the biodiversity to control pests.

Composting, mulching,agro forestry, permaculture are our guide lines.

our garden

Planting Hope – The Story of Sustainable Harvest International from myriadmedia on Vimeo.

The tropical soil are very poor. The fast decomposition rates and the quick absorption by the plants don’t let time to the nutriments to accumulate into the soil.

In fact all the nutriments are in the vegetation, it is why tropical forest grow on a 10 cm deep soil. When this land is cleared for agriculture, the farmers think it is very rich but in fact the nutriments will be consumed in 2 years by the crop .

The traditional slash and burn method used by the Maya to clear lands for agriculture can not be sustainable today. If using the slash and burn, ashes from burned trees will give nutriments to the crop for 2 years, but then the farmer must move to an other parcel and let the forest regrow for 10 years at least.

Today the slash and burn still widely spread and the use industrial fertilizers has replaced the move to an other parcel for getting enough food for the crop.

The tropical rains wash those chemicals away and pollut the ground waters connected to the sea.

The next year, more and more industrial fertilizers must be added to the soil. Their prices never stop to raised, making the profits for the farmers always thinner.

By clearing large parcels for mono cultures crop, the biodiversity drops and the hazardous chemicals, pesticides and herbicides are the only way to control pest on a short term basis.

Finally, the ones that benefit from the agriculture is primary the corporations that produced all the chemicals sold to the farmers.

Organic farming is a long term benefit for the Earth and for its people. It is an environmental and social issue.