Fall, 1990 (v3n1)
by Dave Chaney, SAREP
A field day July 12 at the
Rural Development Center (RDC) in the Salinas Valley spotlighted a unique
program that gives small farmers' technical assistance and land, and also
fosters a partnership between the farmers and the researchers who aid
them. The researchers use the farmers' needs as the basis for on-farm
field experiments.
Mike Gonzalez, RDC
agronomist, explained that the goal of many California farmworkers is
to operate their own farm business. He noted that producing and marketing
one's own crop allows farmers to establish their own schedules and working
conditions, and may provide a unique opportunity for the farm family to
work together for economic self-sufficiency. The 115 acre RDC, a project
of the Association for Community Based Education of Washington, D.C.,
provides the land and administration for the program, while funding for
the research and demonstration projects at the site comes from many sources,
including the California Energy Commission and Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation.
Small farmers apply for the
opportunity to participate in the RDC program. The RDC provides land,
training and technical assistance over a three-year period for those selected;
other inputs are purchased by the farmers themselves. Participants build
agricultural and business-related skills as they plant, care for, harvest
and market their own crops, Gonzalez said. By the end of their third year,
participating farmers have gained self-esteem as well as the training
and experience required to either go into business for themselves or to
move on to other more advanced farm-related employment, he said.
About 50 farm families from
Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz counties have participated in the
first four years of the RDC on-site program. Gonzalez said many other
small farmers in the region have received RDC support off-site.
Weekly workshops are an important component of the RDC training program, Gonzalez said. Courses are offered on a variety of topics including new and specialty crops, farm finance, marketing, irrigation, vegetable cropping, compost, and farm equipment. They are supported by a UC Cooperative Extension grant and special assistance from the UC Small Farm Center. RDC staff work closely with the participating farmers to identify information needs and priority topics.
Paul Gersper, UC Berkeley
soil science associate professor and RDC workshop coordinator, said the
contribution of Cooperative Extension staff time has been an invaluable
resource. Farm advisors Richard Smith, San Benito County, and Harry
Agamalian and John Inman, Monterey County, and many other county
and campus-based experts throughout the state have conducted courses.
As part of the RDC training
program, several research projects are being conducted to meet specific
information needs of small-scale farmers in the Salinas Valley. Many small
farmers in this area combine traditional Hispanic approaches to agriculture
with their experience working on conventional vegetable farms in California,
according to Gonzalez. He said the aim of the research projects is to
improve these practices to develop energy-saving vegetable cropping systems
that are also culturally acceptable.
At the field day Associate
Professor Miguel Altieri, UC Berkeley Division of Biological Control,
emphasized the participatory nature of the RDC research program. Altieri
said it is essential for research to begin with the small farmer's actual
circumstances. After evaluating the farmer's practices, a list of constraints
and limitations can be drawn up. Altieri said low-input management practices
are then proposed to reach a desired benefit. The proposed low-input practices
in turn become the basis for on-farm field experiments. For instance,
it is common for Mexican farmers to plant polycultures of zucchini and
tomato. Though the polyculture offers farmers several advantages (e.g.,
enhanced biological pest management and spreading of economic risk), these
systems tend to have low marketable yields. To address these constraints
and improve the overall energy efficiency of the system, Altieri and Gersper,
along with Javier Trujillo, UC Berkeley entomology, and Marta
Astier and Will Bakx, UC Berkeley soil science, have been researching
the possibility of using compost and cover crops in the zucchini-tomato
polyculture. From yield data, insect monitoring, and soil sampling over
the past year they were able to draw several conclusions:
- Tomatoes grown with compost had higher yields than the unfertilized control regardless of the cropping design or the cover crop used; on the other hand, zucchini showed very little response to compost compared with the control.
- At mid-season, populations of the green aphid were higher in tomato monoculture than in the tomato-zucchini polyculture; there were no significant differences at other times during the growing season.
- By the end of the growing season, the zucchini monoculture had higher populations of the convergent ladybeetle than did the zucchini-tomato polyculture.
- The zucchini-tomato polyculture used resources more efficiently than did the monoculture of each crop. This was indicated by a land equivalent ratio of 1.48. This means that 1.48 acres would be needed to produce in monoculture the amount of zucchini and tomato that was harvested in one acre of polyculture.
A demonstration project is
planned in the next year to test these results further. Throughout the
field day, researchers stressed that their projects are developed and
conducted in conjunction with farmers. In the case of the compost/cover
crop experiment, replicated plots laid out and managed by researchers
were planted next to farmers' fields. In their own fields, farmers managed
simpler, one-treatment experiments (e.g., compost vs. no compost) as part
of their everyday activities. This participatory approach enhances the
relevancy of the project and makes the extension/education component more
effective, Gonzalez said.
For more information contact Gonzalez at the Rural Development Center, P.O. Box 5415, Salinas, CA 93915, (408) 758-1469.
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