Discussions on potential green manure/cover crops
for Kalimantan, Indonesia
(11/6/03 - 11/13/03)

postings: 7
countries: Honduras, Indonesia, Nigeria, Thailand, United States (New York, Hawaii)
organizations/institutions/companies: Cornell University, COSECHA, ILRI/IITA, McKean Rehabilitation Center, University of Hawaii(?), World Education, Yayasan Adi Citra Lestari

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From: Matt Zimmerman
To: MULCH-L@cornell.edu
Subject: GM/CCs Kalimantan/Indonesia
Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003
Organization: World Education Indonesia

Dear Mulchers:

We are currently applying the Farmer Field School approach to work in two locations in Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), Indonesia. One location is with shifting cultivators (Dayak) and the other is on peat lands with sedentary farmers (Melayu). We are hoping to work with farmers in these locations to develop ways to shorten/improve the fallow and/or generally to improve soil/reduce weeds. There still are plenty of trees around in the both locations and almost no tradition of keeping livestock in the former location. For those reasons we think using fast-growing nitrogen fixing trees such as leucaena, gliricidia, sesbania, crotalaria, etc. would not be attractive (ie. not needed for fuel wood or fodder). We suspect gm/ccs that can be eaten by people will have a better chance of success. We already plan to try mung beans and peanuts - both of which are common and desirable in these areas. We are not expecting great soil-improving benefits from peanuts, but mung beans show promise.

First, we are trying to find out if the following crops already exist in Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo): rice bean (Vigna umbellata); cowpeas (V. unguiculata); Lab-lab bean (Dolichos lab lab or Lablab purpureus); lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus); runner bean (P. cocineus); fava bean (V. fava); common bean (P. vulgaris); and soybeans. We realize velvet bean (Mucuna spp.) can not be eaten, but perhaps it will be attractive for other reasons. Are they commonly grown and/or eaten by Dayak, Melayu, transmigrants, etc. and is there a good market for them? Has there been any research on these crops - especially how farmers integrate them into farming systems; pest and disease issues; rhizobium availability? Finally, for those that show promise, where can we get good, clean seed? If we can't get absolute confirmation that a given legume already exists in Borneo is it totally out of the question to transport seeds (even if gauranteed free of disease, virus, etc.) from another island? Other information/contacts/materials/suggestions that might be helpful in this regard? Thanks for any information/ideas you are able to provide. As we explore these possibilities over the next several years, we will be happy to share any reports/data that are generated for those who are interested.

Kind regards,
Matt Zimmerman
Country Representative
World Education
Jl. Tebet Dalam IV. D, No. 5A
Jakarta 12810
INDONESIA

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From: Tarawali, Shirley (ILRI/IITA-Ibadan)
Subject: RE: GM/CCs Kalimantan/Indonesia
To: MULCH-L@cornell.edu (MULCH-L)

Dear Matt
For information about cowpea (not specific to your region of interest) you might like to check the website of IITA www.iita.org (http://www.iita.org) - under the information section you will find a recently published proceedings.

Shirley Tarawali
IITA
(Nigeria)

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To: MULCH-L@cornell.edu
Subject: Re: GM/CCs Kalimantan/Indonesia
Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2003
Organization: World Education Indonesia

Dear Shirley:

Thanks for the information and link. As far as you know are cowpeas ONLY good under dry conditions? I mean can they perform well under wet conditions?

Thanks.
Matt Zimmerman
Country Representative
World Education
Jakarta 12810
INDONESIA

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From: william cook
To: Matt
Cc: mulch-l@cornell.edu
Subject: Cowpeas
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2003
Matt,

Cowpeas are not generally "happy" when flooded, otherwise no problem.

BillCook
Honolulu

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From: Klaus.Prinz
To: MULCH-L@cornell.edu
Subject: Re: GM/CCs Kalimantan/Indonesia
Date: Sat, 8 Nov 2003

Dear Matt,
If ricebean is available in your area, these can usually well be relay-intercropped with maize. How are the climatic conditions? I will separately mail an paper on this system.

Greetings,

Klaus Prinz
P.O.Box 53
Chiang Mai 50000
Thailand

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From: Rolando Bunch
To: Mulch-L@cornell.edu (MULCH-L)
Subject: Smallholder practices that are "invisible"
Date: Fri, 07 Nov 2003

Dear Matt,

I am sending this to mulch-L, because it may be of interest to more than just yourself.

There is a very strong tendency for smallholders' practices that we have not studied in the university or come to learn of from some other source, to be "invisible". Sometimes this is quite understandable. Once, while looking for ways of maintaining soil fertility in southern Ghana, I all of a sudden realized that all the weeds in a maize field looked the same--they were all of the same species. I asked the farmers what was happening, and it turned out that they were leucaena plants (which leucaena species, I am not sure). They were intercropping 30,000 leucaena plants/ha in their maize fields, to maintain fertility. And they had planted maize (plus leucaena) in the same field for 20 years straight with no fallow and improving soil fertility. In this case, it was not at all strange that no local agronomist had ever noticed this system.

But how do you explain the fact that for years I never realized farmers all over the world are using what some agroforesters now call "dispersed tree" systems. Now I return to places I knew well ten years ago, and find farmers using dispersed trees almost everywhere I go. Ten years ago I didn't realize such a thing existed, at least as an intentional farmer practice. And even though I was aware of perennial home gardens, it wasn't until the '90's that I began noticing what species were being used in home gardens around the tropical world (precious few annual vegetables and a surprisingly high amount of foods rich in calories).

Green manure/cover crops also tend to be invisible. I have been told, time after time, that no farmers in a given area used gm/cc's. And time after time I find not just one, but often five or ten gm/cc's in the indicated area. This has been especially true in SE Asia. I was told 10 years that SE Asians didn't use gm/cc's. Then when I identified some eleven systems I had seen myself in N Vietnam and another eight or ten in Thailand, people began saying, "OK, they exist in peninsular SE Asia, but not in insular SE Asia. Then word of rice beans and mungbeans and lablab beans began filtering out of the Philippines, so the Indonesians told me, "Well, at least here we don't have any, because people don't traditionally eat beans." My first trip to Sumatra, I found four gm/cc's in use the first two days out in the field, and we had a lunch, at a small roadside restaurant picked at random, that included soybean tofu, mungbean sprouts and meter-long bean pods (Vigna unguiculata). It's true, there were no beans, in the sense of dried beans eaten as beans. But...

So I am not surprised that people in Kalimantan aren't able to come up with much information about local gm/cc's. But how can we get it, in such cases?

The easiest way to find out if some gm/cc's are being grown in an area, is to look at restaurant menus in popular establishments and go to local markets. In the grain sections of markets we will often be surprised at the variety of beans we will find. Some of these beans may not be used as gm/cc's, but are rather just cash crops for the farmers. But epecially since the Indonesian government reduced (eliminated?) its fertilizer subsidies, a lot of farmers are using these beans to fertilize their soils along with the other reasons they grow them. Of course, it is good to ask the merchants which beans come from where, what volume of them they handle in a given year, and what the prices are.

The second way to discover gm/cc's is merely to go to the field, walk through farmers' fields, and be observant. Any rather leafy plant, legume or otherwise, that seems to be overly abundant, or in a strange place, is a good candidate as a possible gm/cc. Right after I learned that Tithonia was a phosphorus accumulator, I began seeing it all over Central America, in places that were not natural, as I found out. Farmers in many parts of the Sahel were using Bauhinia species that agronomists didn't even know the scientific name of.

Another technique I use to pull gm/cc practices out of farmers is to ask how they maintain their soil fertility. If they are not using chemical fertilizer, or only very small amounts, and use no fallowing, or very short ones (less than 4 years), then you can be pretty sure that some sort of gm/cc is being used (unless they have atypically large amounts of animal manure available). That is, if soil fertility is being more or less maintained, then they have to be doing something to achieve that--regular use of large quantities of chemical fertilizer, huge amounts of animal manure or coffee pulp, long-term fallows or, through a process of elimination, some sort of gm/cc.

Sincerely, Roland Bunch
CCOSECHA
Tegucigalpa, Honduras ______________________________________________________________________
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003
From: Abigail Moore
Subject: Re: GM/CCs Kalimantan/Indonesia
To: MULCH-L@cornell.edu

Dear Matt,

I would be very gratefull to be kept informed - although this is not my main field of work, as an ex-HDRA member and someone involved in conservation (which of course usually means sustainable use), I am very interested. I work with a local NGO in Central Sulawesi. The coastal zone includes farmers as well as fishers... if fact most people are both!

Good luck and hope to hear from you!
All the best,

Abigail Moore MSc
Marine Consultant (Volunteer)
Yayasan Adi Citra Lestari
Jl Tendean No 7, Palu 94111
Sulteng, Indonesia