This One Tree is Changing Tropical Forest Agriculture in Honduras, and the World

[Judi Lynn]

By Andy Corbley -Jun 28, 2021



Inga Foundation

There’s a ‘wonder tree’ in Honduras that’s acting as a game-changer—creating organic farming livelihoods, climate resistance, and hope to farmers in the Central American nation and elsewhere.

Because of this tree, the oft-used method of tropical land clearance—which tragically tends to yield one good crop, without another one ever following—is being replaced with another form of agroforestry that ticks every box, and which has rural farmers running towards regenerative farming methods.

This form is called Inga alley cropping. It has been pioneered by a British surveyor in Honduras named Dr. Mike Hands, and the method is built around one special tree class called Inga. This member of the legume family contains over 300 varieties, and its endemic characteristics gave Hands the basis of his revolutionary form of agroforestry.


“In the 80s, he worked in about a dozen tropical countries and everywhere it was the same story of slash and burn, where a family could raise a crop one year, and the It would go on to be described as the tropical equivalent of ‘turning water in to wine’ by the Independent and the Guardian—who named Hands one of the top 50 humans saving the planet.
next year the crop failed; and scientists couldn’t explain why,” says Lorraine Potter, a spokesperson for the Inga Foundation, a non-profit looking to transform the lives of rural Honduran families through Inga alley cropping.

More:
https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/inga-tree-creating-organic-farming-climate-resistance-carbon-sequestration-honduras/


Images and information about this amazing tree:

https://tinyurl.com/zscy6rd

Also posted in Environment and energy:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127146204

[rurallib]

1. Very interesting - thanks!