WP: Farmer Interviews 02
First things first, traditional irrigation is referred to as "alargamento," and you really won't understand it unless you see it. This technique is ancient ("since Adam and Eve" as one farmer said) and, generally, farmers learn it from their fathers. We were so lucky to see it in action, because, when you're part of an association of farmers, everyone has a set time/day where they can use the water pumped from the well. And alargamento uses a LOT of water, so farmers usually only need to drive the water every few days, weeks or even months, i.e. hard to schedule. This technique is not documented anywhere so I am making it my personal mission to document it in our paper, so people get a better understanding. And I quickly (but beautifully) sketched a diagram for it like I did for the gota-gota system.
- Water is pumped from a well into a (flat) dirt trench/road (I'm absolutely serious). The pressure needs to be very high to push this water down the dirt-trench, around corners and into a farmers' plot area.
- Since this is an association and farmers' each could have plots that are 15-20 6-ft-squared 'gardens' wide, you might need to pump enough water to push it to your plot which is 10-20min away from the actual well - through a DIRT canal.
- You build walls high enough in the dirt canal to block water-flow outside of trench and only remove sections of these walls/doors when you want to direct the flow into a one of the garden-areas.
- Start with your furthest row. Flood - and I mean, *flood* - the first garden (takes 3min). Gather mud to build wall/closed door to garden and remove the first stack of dirt you placed in the middle of the strip of dirt-trenches to make it flow into the next square. You do this for each square plot and every row of squares until each one has been flooded with water.
As "antiquidated" an approach this is, it is incredibly complex/smart for "Adam and Eve" to figure this out. One would need a map of all the dirt roads and which ones need to be blocked off in order to get the water only to your plot that day - and, then, direct it among all your individual dirt roads for watering the crops. I couldn't believe my eyes: I was absolutely bewildered and took enough photos/videos to last a lifetime (below). I think the farmers really appreciated us listening to them and taking serious interest in their lifestyle -- rather than coming to preach to them how terrible alargamento is and why they should change to gota-gota. (I've noticed that a lot in Cape Verde: educated members like to preach and overtalk the less-educated, but still experienced, people.)
One of the farmers expressed that, as much as he wants gota-gota, he doesn't have the know-how, resources or money to keep implement and then maintain such a system -- a valid concern. His friend believes that because gota-gota uses less water it makes "weak" plants -- but he rebuffed his friend himself since that's not true. This makes me believe that there's simply a financial and information gap. The two other farmers use gota-gota and were introduced to it through universities or government programming -- which is how the first two farmers were also introduced to it. I would call this a very successful day and it really worked up my appetite to make a meaningful paper.
The third day was short: we spoke with a strawberry farmer for a bit, who uses mostly gota-gota, and then took the rest of the day off to get ready for for US Embassy's "Fourth of July" party.
Comments
Post a Comment