Keep it on the Level

As I had said before, here in Oku and Mbessa the landscape tends to lend itself to being washed away by the rain. Couple that with the torrential downpours and long soaking rains we’ll be getting over the next few months and erosion is a pretty huge problem for farmers of all kinds. Unfortunately, awareness of erosion is low. In fact, I’ve been told that until fairly recently when people would prepare their fields for maize and bean cultivation they would prepare the beds and furrows with the slope (up to down) which is about 90 degrees away from where they should be; against the slope (left to right). This is kind of slope cultivation 101, and I’m happy that it is no longer the norm though you can still see the remnants of the process when you look at the piles of rock people have picked from their fields which are oriented with the slope.

Now, maize/bean fields are cultivated to reduce erosion. What about coffee? Well coffee fields don’t really need cultivation, particularly if you’re not trying to incorporate fertilizers. There are some benefits to cultivation that I can’t (and don’t try) to deny: weed control, some benefits to root growth, release of nutrients from organic matter that is being exposed to oxygen. On the other hand, I’m trying my best to introduce practices, or mentalities, which can help to replace or make obsolete these benefits. For example, instead of worrying about weeds, let’s embrace cover crops or instead of loosening the soil manually to encourage root growth, let’s let the roots of our cover crops, earthworms, and other soil flora and fauna do that work for us. So our primary recommendations to combat erosion are to plant cover crops, never reduce your ground cover so far that you expose the soil, and, most proactively, plant some contour bunds with a grass.

In April I was hoping to do the contour bund part on a whole slew of farms. That didn’t happen, largely because I ended up spending more time than I expected at the mill in Bali, but I did get the chance to implement this plan with two farmers, and I’m still hoping to do it with a few more in May. It is kind of a fun process that can be done in a much shorter time than I expected. Here’s what you do:

Step 1: Build an A-frame level. Simple little device you can make almost for free with

materials available on any farm (the only things you’ll need to have ready is a bit of string and a small plastic bag). The A-frame level allows you to measure a level line on any kind of terrain; accuracy is high which is really important for a bund.

Step 2: Calibrate your level using two points at slightly different heights. Put the legs at these points and mark where the string falls, then switch the legs and mark where the string falls. In between these marks is the level mark.

Step 3: Mark out some contour lines. Just walk across the field one level length at a time and put a stake (or slip of grass if you’ve got them ready) at every step. Separate your contour lines by as much distance as you like (smaller for steeper slopes, larger for gentler ones).

Step 4: Plant your bund. If you were marking with slips of grass you’re already about ¼ of the way there. Good choices for grass would be vetiver grass or the grass they call fever grass around here, which I think is the same as lemon grass. In either case, you want a clumping grass that grows moderately quickly, doesn’t spread by stolons or any kind of creeping structure, and doesn’t seed readily. Basically, you want it to stay where you put it.

Step 5: Let the grass grow. Cut it 2-3 times a year using the residue as a mulch.

Good work on making a grass bund, buddy.