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Intensive Milpa

In 1994 PROTROPICO of the University of Yucatán began promoting the intensive Milpa system as an alternative to traditional Milpa. The aim was to offer 'more sustainable' production options by continuing to cultivate the same plot of land, without the need for further deforestation.

The main changes include:

• Removing most of the stones from selected areas with deeper soils
• Manually tilling the soil
• Addition of manure to cultivated rows
• Cultivation of legumes as cover crops, particulary Mucuna (Mucuna pruriens)
• Mucuna is normally planted between the corn rows, 15 days after corn planting
• Improved maize varieties (open pollinated)
• Higher planting densities

Thus far most farmers have not been convinced of the merits of intensive Milpa. Photo: D. Parsons.

The main concepts of the system include increasing fertility through animal manure and nitrogen fixation. In addition, the Mucuna effectively supresses weeds(2). Using this system, maize yields were increased to 2500-3000 kg/ha, and were sustainable over the first three years (13). Although results appear promising, there has been little adoption of these methods. One reason is that the technology is new to farmers, and natural caution would suggest that many farmers would want to see long term success before investing in new technology. The methods have the potential to decrease labor over the long term. Because of the higher achievable yields and weed control through Mucuna, less labor is needed for weed control. However in the establishment year, much labor is needed to remove stones and cultivate the ground. Although over the long term there may be labor benefits, the short term labor cost may be a disincentive to adoption. Other problems include the lack of adequate manure supplies and the preference of farmers for other beans for consumption rather than Mucuna. Mucuna beans have been shown to be very beneficial as a protein supplement for growing lambs and kids(3). For these reasons the benefits of the integration of cropping and livestock systems should be further explored.