I have briefly mentioned Ernst Götsch and his successional agroforstry system in an earlier entry to this blog. To have the opportunity to visit him on his Fazenda in Bahia was a great privilege!
In an area that is heavily deforested (the following picture, taken close to where Ernst lives, is representative of the state that the land in this part of Bahia is in), ...
... Ernst has created a beautiful and biodiverse agroforest.
Some of the trees that he planted are really big by now.
Almost every day, he works in this beautiful agroforestry system. Amongst others, he spends much time pruning trees which does not only keep him fit (very fit!) and offer him great views over his paradise ...
... but also provides light for trees in lower levels of the forest as well as a lot of organic fertilizer for the whole ecosystem.
Thus feeding and building up the soil, Ernst can harvest cacao of great quality (he was recently selected as one of the three producers of the best quality cacao of Brazil) ...
... as well as a great range of other products that grow in his agroforest.
While Ernst states that the time has not yet come for him to publish more on his approach to agroforestry, there exist some essays that he wrote in the 1990s. One of them, Break-Through in Agriculture, can be downloaded here.
In an area that is heavily deforested (the following picture, taken close to where Ernst lives, is representative of the state that the land in this part of Bahia is in), ...
... Ernst has created a beautiful and biodiverse agroforest.
Some of the trees that he planted are really big by now.
Almost every day, he works in this beautiful agroforestry system. Amongst others, he spends much time pruning trees which does not only keep him fit (very fit!) and offer him great views over his paradise ...
... but also provides light for trees in lower levels of the forest as well as a lot of organic fertilizer for the whole ecosystem.
Thus feeding and building up the soil, Ernst can harvest cacao of great quality (he was recently selected as one of the three producers of the best quality cacao of Brazil) ...
... as well as a great range of other products that grow in his agroforest.
While Ernst states that the time has not yet come for him to publish more on his approach to agroforestry, there exist some essays that he wrote in the 1990s. One of them, Break-Through in Agriculture, can be downloaded here.
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