Discussions regarding green manure cover crops in Indonesia
(2/10/02 - 2/12/02)

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postings: 4
countries: Honduras, Philippines
organizations/institutions/companies: COSECHA, ILRI-SEAT, CIDICCO

From: Roland Bunch
To: Mulch-L@cornell.edu
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002
Subject: Indonesian gm/cc's

Dear Friends,

It has often been said, even in the literature, that Southeast Asian farmers don't have, and aren't particularly interested in having, "viny legume" green manure/cover crop systems. I don't know where the "viny legume" terminology came from, nor do I understand the importance of the designation (unless it's a way of trying to make a distinction between those species that could be included within some definitions of "agroforestry" and those that cannot), but this idea has popped up in a number of places. After it was discovered a few years back that farmers in northern Vietnam and Thailand have dozens of such systems, using soybeans, cowpeas, mungbeans, rice beans, tephrosia, mucuna, lablab beans and even fava beans, the claim was narrowed a bit to southern SE Asia, or even insular SE Asia.

I just returned from Indonesia (the southern tip of Sumatra), and it turns out that gm/cc's are alive and well (in fact, apparently spreading) in insular SE Asia, or at least on parts of two islands, a fact I discovered during only four days out in the villages, doing a program evaluation.

What I found was that farmers were growing edible legumes in their paddy fields during the season when they didn't have enough water to grow paddy there. During visits to three villages, I found something like 20 paddy fields planted in legumes. Most of them were cowpeas (Vigna unguiculata), but some of the fields were planted to mungbeans (Vigna radiata).

Of course, one could presume that the farmers were just doing this to add to their larders, and Vignas' relative drought resistance was an added plus, and that they weren't, in fact, planted at least in part to fertilize the soil (a minimum requirement for qualifying as a green/manure, by some definitions). But when we talked with farmers, several interesting points came out. First of all, this was an old practice, largely abandoned during the last twenty years. That abandonment had occurred because with chemical fertilizer, the farmers felt they no longer needed the fertility enhancement brought by the legumes. Secondly, they are now reviving the practice, because fertilizer prices have increased so much that the practice is once again profitable. In both instances (the practice's disadoption and then its revival--"readoption"?), the changes occurred in large part because this practice is, as a matter of fact, seen as an important way of maintaining or improving soil fertility. Ergo, these ARE green manure/cover crops.

Thirdly, one of the villages was a group of resettled Balinese (complete with Balinese temples, religion, etc.) They said they had brought the practice from Bali. Thus it exists (or has existed within people's memory) on at least two Indonesian islands. Fourthly, people knew about the jackbean, and said that people still use it as a green manure/cover crop, AND consume it, further north on Sumatra.

Lastly, I was also interested in the lunch we were served our last day in the villages. One of the reasons it was said that farmers were not interested in planting viny legumes in insular SE Asia was that they did not like to eat beans. Nevertheless, just by chance (we in no way had prejudiced the contents of the lunch), we were served a very tasty traditional dish that featured large chunks of soybean tofu and mungbean sprouts together with several vegetables, all smothered in a peanut sauce. Even in Central America, I don't know of any traditional dishes that combine the products of no less than THREE "viny legumes".

So, once again, we find that green manure/cover crop systems tend to be "invisible" to many agronomists.

So also, by the way, are dispersed tree systems...

Sincerely, Roland Bunch
COSECHA
Tegucigalpa, Honduras

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Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2002
To: MULCH-L@cornell.edu
From: Milton Flores-Barahona
Subject: Re: Indonesian gm/cc's

Buen día Rolando,

gracias por el fax que enviaste el otro día... simpatico no?

También quisiera que me informaras sobre tus colaboradores en Indonesia. Aunque hemos contactado a muchas personas (110) que se supone conocen sobre el tema de avcc para que llenen el cuestionario, parece que al verlo se intimidan y no llenan ni siquiera parte del cuestionario. Yo creo que está muy complicado, pero eso fue lo que decidieron los colegas cuando se acordó empezar el proyecto de documentar casos de avcc en el mundo.

Las direcciones que le diste a Marcel, ya han sido contactados pero no hemos tenido respuesta. sin embargo, seguimos intentando. Te agradeceré si em envías el nombre y la organización con la cula hiciste el trabajo de evaluación, a ver si tenemos suerte en contactarlos.

Hasta cuando estarás en Honduras/ talvés platicamos esta seman o la próxima?

Milton Flores
CIDICCO
Tegucigalpa, Honduras

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Date: Mon, 11 Feb 2002
From: Pezo, Danilo
Subject: RE: Indonesian gm/cc's

Dear mulchers,

I want to support the observations made by Roland Bunch, based on his recent mission to Indonesia (Southern Sumatra).

The Crop-Animal Systems Research Network (CASREN), a project led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), working with several partners in South East Asian countries and China, with the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), has observed that the use of grain legumes (e.g., cowpea, mungbean, peanuts) is part of the cropping systems traditionally practiced in three of the five sites where CASREN operates (Northeastern Thailand, West Java in Indonesia and Central Luzon in the Philippines). These legumes are important not only for the farm households' food security, but also for improving soil fertility, and contributes significantly to animal feeding.

Recently, we published a review article showing the key role legumes play in the so-called Food-feed Systems practiced in Asia (Devendra et al, 2001. Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Science 14(5) 733-745).

Regards,

Danilo A. Pezo
Animal Nutritionist
ILRI-SEAT
c/o IRRI. DAPO Box 7777
Metro Manila, Philippines

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From: Rolando Bunch
MULCH-L@cornell.edu
Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002
Subject: Re: Indonesian gm/cc's

Priority

Estimado Milton,

Si, siento mucho no haber llegado, pero nos surgio una emergencia de ultima hora que tuve que atender.

La organizacion con la cual estuve trabajando en Indonesia fue ADRA, y su director es Bruce Ewart. Su direccion es P. O. Box 1221, Jakarta 10012, Java, Indonesia. Su fax es (62) 21-830-0903. No tengo el e-mail, porque lo acaba de cambiar.

Pero pienso que a lo mejor seria mejor contactar a Danilo Pezo (pezo@cgiar.org), porque no solo es investigador (y por lo tanto entendera mas lo que ustedes quieren y porque), sino porque sabe de TRES sistemas (en Sumatra, en Java y en las Filipinas) y parece que los ha estudiado bastante.

Atentamente, Rolando Bunch