Restoring the Soil - Canadian Foodgrains Bank

66Green Manure/Cover Crop SystemsS39. Citrus/lupine. In Paraguay and Brazil,some lupine species (i.e.: Lupinus albus) areused as a gm/cc for citrus (Photo 39). Thenumber of farmers who used this practicepreviously numbered in the thousands.Anthracnose has now decimated the lupinecrop in Brazil, in part because of not rotatinggm/ccs (personal communication withRolf Derpsch).38. Paraguay. Gm/ccs are often used among fruittrees (in this case, a citrus grove), more becauseof the weed control they achieve than because ofthe improvement in soil fertility.39. Brazil. Lupines are grown in Brazil as aperennial cover crop for fruit trees. They are usedprimarily in areas where frosts can be a problem,because they are highly resistant to frost.40. Paraguay. Because of the jackbeans growingbetween the rows of this cassava field, the field hasrequired only one weeding, rather than the three tofour weedings a crop of cassava normally requires.S40. Various other tree crops/lupine.Lupines were also used with other treecrops to improve soil fertility.S41. Maize/mucuna-8. Mucuna is usedto prepare land for tobacco. One crop ofmucuna, often intercropped with maize,is used to rehabilitate worn-out land topermit farmers to then grow tobacco,which requires fairly fertile land. Sometimesfarmers can also shift to zero tillageafter only one year of mucuna. 23 Thousandsof farmers use this technology.S42. Cassava/jackbean. In a traditionalsystem, jackbean is intercropped withcassava (Photo 40). Both are planted atthe same time. The jackbean providesnitrogen to the cassava crop, but farmersappreciate even more not having to weedtheir cassava again after the first weeding.The jackbean is planted between the rowsof cassava. Tens of thousands of farmersuse this traditional practice. Several smallgroups of farmers in Honduras have takenup the same practice.S43. Cassava/peanuts. Peanuts (Arachishypogaea) are also quite commonlyintercropped with cassava to help with soilfertility and to provide a second cash crop.Probably tens of thousands of farmers usethis traditional technique.23Ministerio de Agricultura y Ganaderia de Paraguay/GTZ, “Extracto de los Sistemas de Produccion del Proyecto de DesarrolloRural de San Pedro Norte,” n.d.