Agroforestry at MMRF

Food security through biodiversity

Agroforestry at Maya Mountain Research Farm

Maya Mountain Research Farm is one of Belize’s oldest continuously managed ongoing experiments in agroforestry. In 1988, when the farm was originally a citrus and cattle farm, much of the land was severely damaged. Years of cattle raising had left acres of heavily compressed soil, and the acres of citrus were heading towards the end of their productive life span.

The agroforestry system at MMRF covers about 15 acres, and is expanding at the periphery. Within that 15 acres there are hundreds of species of plants.

Broadly, the agroforestry system can be considered to have a canopy layer, a sub canopy layer, an emergent layer, a terrestrial layer, and a subterranean layer. In an idealized system, each of those layers have components with yields, some leaving the system, and others that enhance the productiveness of the system, maintaining the fertility of the system by nutrient cycling.

By mimicking the natural eco system of rainforest which would be here, we are able to produce food, fuel wood, building material, medicinals, fodder for animals, while recreating the ecological services intact ecosystems provide, services that include carbon sequestration, soil retention, water conservation and habitat creation. These are all important ecological services that have increasing value as natural ecosystems are decimated by a combination of shifting cultivation, demand for export crops and increasing levels of timbering, especially in the communities adjacent to the Maya Mountains.

Agroforestry has much to offer small holders in the lowland humid tropics, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Depending on the practitioners needs and projected harvest cycles, a farmer might have a timber dominant, fruit dominant or oil producing plant dominant agroforestry system, or use cacao or coffee as anchor crops to make medium to long term income while the timber trees mature.

Here at MMRF, we have a very diverse polyculture, with timber trees, including native species like mahogany, cedar, guanacaste, mayflower, sam wood, and exotics like teak. In between those trees, we also have lots of fruit trees, mango, avocado, mame sapote, rollinia, anona, sour sop, noni, breadnut, breadfruit, golden plumb, lime, etc, and beneath those we have coffee, cacao, jippy jappa palm, chi’kai and other species. At ground level we have plants like ginger, pineapple, chi’kai, tumeric, and leguminous plants including arachis pintoy and desmodium. Herbaceous perennials like banana and papaya are placed in the system where conditions are favourable, and serve as pioneer species, giving a quick return, and providing biomass to the farm when harvested.

Much of the food we eat and raise for our chickens and ducks comes from perennial crops in our agroforestry system. By utilizing perennial crops, we maximize the calorie production to energy expended ratio.

We have induced patchiness, with concentrations of species in certain areas, to facilitate easier harvesting, especially of seasonal crops, and better rates of pollination. Around the classroom, the dorm, the posh-pods down to the cob house and drying floor/yoga studio, much of that is a coconut dominant polyculture. Close to the composting toilet, we have coffee, pineapple, coconut, cacao and other species. Down by the river we have hundreds of cacao trees. While areas at MMRF are dominated by specific species, all of these trees are planted with multiple species.
We have had to expand into the area near the classroom in the wake of the devastating fire of 2008 to push back the fire potential, and that area has been planted to a mixture of tree species, with an emphasis on coconut and moringa, and has thousands of pineapples and papaya taking advantage of the next five years of open canopy as the trees grow. Adjacent to that we have an area heavily planted to timber species. Within the next 5-10 years the canopy will close on much of that, and new land on the periphery of the cultivated areas will be pioneered into using the same successional planting strategy we have used elsewhere on the farm.

We also grow a lot of ornamental species. Plants that can be used for fungicides, antibiotics and other medicinal plants can all be grown in complex agroforestry systems. Many of the plants in our complex agroforestry system are used medicinally.

Recently Craig Besserman did research on the ability of stacked polycultures to sequester carbon. This involved running transects through the agroforestry system and analyzing woody debris. Craigs work here was part of a Masters degree at Monterey Institute of International Studies.

With over two decades of experience in agroforestry, we are well suited to provide training in agroforestry in the context of a working agroforestry system. Presently we are are working with Trees for the Future on agroforestry projects with communities in southern Belize in conjunction with Ministry of Health and Toledo Maya Cultural Council, and communities in Guatemala in conjunction with Ak Tenamit and APROSARSTUN.

Maya Mountain Research Farm is a good place to learn about agroforestry. Students and interns are welcome here.