Restoring the Soil - Canadian Foodgrains Bank

62Green Manure/Cover Crop Systemsthe mucuna until 40 to 60 days before the maize harvest. In this way, the mucuna willkeep growing through much of the dry season, rather than dying in December, as itusually does. While thousands of farmers in Paraguay and Brazil use some version ofthis system, only a few hundred farmers in Guatemala and about 2,000 farmers inNicaragua do.S15. Maize/choreque. Many farmers in the west of the Department of Chimaltenangotraditionally used to intercrop choreque (Lathyrus nigrivalvis) with their maize (Photo33). They then fed their animals on the choreque throughout the six-month dry season.The system has died out largely because the area where it was practiced has goneheavily into vegetable production, and few people have cattle any more (Photo 34).Forty years ago, slightly over 2,000 farmers used this traditional system. 17 This systemand one other in this section are the only ones close to dying out.S16. Coffee/tephrosia. Tephrosia vogelii has become popular in the last 35 years amonglarge-scale coffee producers on Guatemala’s south coast as a temporary shade for coffeeduring plantation establishment. Farmers plant the tephrosia at the same time as thecoffee, and it shades the coffee for three to four years before the tephrosia dies out. Bythat time, the slower-growing permanent shade trees are providing adequate shade.Adopters probably number in the thousands.HondurasS17. Maize/mucuna-5. Some farmers have tried to intensify the maize/mucuna-1system by growing two crops of maize a year. This complicates management of themucuna, but pays off in increased over-all yields per hectare. The maize is plantedin both January and May. The mucuna has mostly died out in December, but dropsseeds that will sprout in January/February. However, in April the farmers must cutdown all the mucuna or eliminate it with an herbicide. As far as we know, only a fewhundred farmers use this recently developed system.S18. Maize/mucuna-6. Around the town of Omoa on Honduras’ northwest coast,farmers have developed another mucuna system. They plant maize in May/June intercroppedwith mucuna. After the harvest, they cut down the mucuna to form a densemulch and injection plant the second crop of maize through the mulch in September,without planting mucuna. The mucuna mulch allows them to grow the second maizecrop without ever having to weed it. Probably not more than 200 or 300 farmers usethis now traditional system (Photo 35).S19. Maize/mucuna-7. In this surprising system near La Entrada in the Department ofSanta Barbara, the mucuna is grown just as in S1, and then is burned just before thenext crop of maize is planted. Perhaps a few thousand farmers use this system.17CIDICCO, op. cit., pp. 57-61.