I just bought a 12 acre land in Nigeria on the outskirts of Lagos to convert to agroforestry. Watching your videos has brought clarity as to how to go about things. You made such an excellent point about the need to make a living through agroforestry.
Im so glad these videos are helpful for you. I also have some good articles on my blog. Here's one helpful for getting started. www.sdvforest.com/agroforestry/rewild-regenerate-or-reforest
Absolutely. It's not fair to expect farmers --especially in the global south where deforestation is rampant--to "just plant trees." People need to eat and afford a decent life.
Hi there Brian. We already have teak and other hardwood trees native to our area (laurel, cedron) planted. I would love to plant ebony because it is endangered, but havent been able to find it here yet. We planted them about three years ago, when the pioneers like banana and cassava were already well established. Hardwood tree saplings generally need some shade for protection until they begin to get a thicker bark and branches. At any rate, the point I was trying to make is always to be planting with your succession in mind. And when the time comes to begin phasing out pioneers, don't forget the reason for them is to nurse longer lived true trees. But it's always a good idea to keep colonizing other areas with bananas and yuca to keep easy to harvest food on the table!
I see a good livingh soil ground cover in both of your systems but it looks like it is mowed in some way. How are you managing the ground cover like that? How much area do you practice this on and how much labor or machinery does it entail?
Hi. Good question. When we started here, it was nothing but grass, really tough invasive stuff from Africa. There was no other vegetation to use as mulch. First, we used horses to clear up as much grass as possible before planting the first round of trees and pioneers. Every two months, we mowed to keep the grass and vines from overtaking the small trees. What a headache, using the big weed wacker. But of course we couldn't use the horses once the trees were planted. Horses love to eat banana leaves. Goats would eat everything. Now that things are more established and our target trees are getting taller, we still mow for maintenance, but much less often, a couple times per year. In between, we clean around the trees with machete and always thickly mulch, which helps a lot. The grass still gets pretty high in between mows, but having plants to mulch with is key. You really have to watch out for vining plants here, they are quite aggressive and will smother even mature trees! But we remove those with a knife. I think in the early stages of converting a pasture back to forest in the tropics, mowing is a necessary evil. But you can defintely back off quite a bit once the system gets set up.
@@kristenkrashatsuenodevida7699 Oops. Sorry my ignorance. Are they edible like the common moringa? Do you know what factors make this yellow flower variety to grow better in Ecuador?
No problem. Not sure why, but many flowering plants here in the cloud forest are yellow or red. This is also edible. I put the leaves in soup and stir-fry and the flowers are edible too, taste a bit like a green bean.
I just bought a 12 acre land in Nigeria on the outskirts of Lagos to convert to agroforestry. Watching your videos has brought clarity as to how to go about things. You made such an excellent point about the need to make a living through agroforestry.
Im so glad these videos are helpful for you. I also have some good articles on my blog. Here's one helpful for getting started.
www.sdvforest.com/agroforestry/rewild-regenerate-or-reforest
Beautiful video. Love your passion and energy!
Thanks so much Kevin! I'm energized to share what we're doing with the world here. I'll do my best to keep making the videos better.
Sounds good, reasonable and realistic for those of us in the southern hemisphere
Nice that you are giving it a profitable take since we need people to be able to live from this systems.
Absolutely. It's not fair to expect farmers --especially in the global south where deforestation is rampant--to "just plant trees." People need to eat and afford a decent life.
when will you plant teak/ebony etc
Hi there Brian. We already have teak and other hardwood trees native to our area (laurel, cedron) planted. I would love to plant ebony because it is endangered, but havent been able to find it here yet. We planted them about three years ago, when the pioneers like banana and cassava were already well established. Hardwood tree saplings generally need some shade for protection until they begin to get a thicker bark and branches.
At any rate, the point I was trying to make is always to be planting with your succession in mind. And when the time comes to begin phasing out pioneers, don't forget the reason for them is to nurse longer lived true trees. But it's always a good idea to keep colonizing other areas with bananas and yuca to keep easy to harvest food on the table!
@@kristenkrashatsuenodevida7699 many thanks for your response Live long and may your land prosper.
I see a good livingh soil ground cover in both of your systems but it looks like it is mowed in some way. How are you managing the ground cover like that? How much area do you practice this on and how much labor or machinery does it entail?
Hi. Good question. When we started here, it was nothing but grass, really tough invasive stuff from Africa. There was no other vegetation to use as mulch. First, we used horses to clear up as much grass as possible before planting the first round of trees and pioneers. Every two months, we mowed to keep the grass and vines from overtaking the small trees. What a headache, using the big weed wacker.
But of course we couldn't use the horses once the trees were planted. Horses love to eat banana leaves. Goats would eat everything.
Now that things are more established and our target trees are getting taller, we still mow for maintenance, but much less often, a couple times per year. In between, we clean around the trees with machete and always thickly mulch, which helps a lot. The grass still gets pretty high in between mows, but having plants to mulch with is key.
You really have to watch out for vining plants here, they are quite aggressive and will smother even mature trees! But we remove those with a knife.
I think in the early stages of converting a pasture back to forest in the tropics, mowing is a necessary evil. But you can defintely back off quite a bit once the system gets set up.
What about coconut
Hi Kristen, thats not a moringa tree.
Yes. it is moringa. The variety that does best here in NW Ecuador has yellow flowers. If shape of the leaf you will see that it is moringa.
@@kristenkrashatsuenodevida7699 Oops. Sorry my ignorance. Are they edible like the common moringa? Do you know what factors make this yellow flower variety to grow better in Ecuador?
No problem. Not sure why, but many flowering plants here in the cloud forest are yellow or red. This is also edible. I put the leaves in soup and stir-fry and the flowers are edible too, taste a bit like a green bean.