Elsita Kiekebusch

Breeding Sustainable Solutions: Local crops yield better results in El Salvador

It was another sunny afternoon spent in the middle of an El Salvadoran cornfield. I was facing a group of farmers and together we were discussing the different physical characteristics of the corn plants surrounding us.

Our objective was simple—we intended to cultivate and breed native corn varieties using sustainable agricultural techniques, trying to reverse soil degradation and increase food security for local farmers. Yet because of the ubiquity of laboratory-bred hybrid corn, much of the local knowledge about environmentally friendly native corn varieties has been lost, making our task daunting.

My foray into the fields of El Salvador was part of my nine months AJWS World Partners Fellowship. A recent college graduate with a degree in biology but no prior farming experience, I found myself paired with AGROSAL—Salvadoran  Agro-pastoral Association—a grassroots NGO that operates in the rural communities of Ahuachapan, El Salvador.

AGROSAL empowers poor farmers by teaching them to implement sustainable agricultural methods, aiming to achieve food security in the region. I provided technical assistance to the farmers, researched and wrote manuals on corn seed selection and breeding, and together with my AGROSAL co-workers, led a series of trainings on various organic agricultural techniques to members of several different communities.

Breaking the chemical cycle
Corn, or Maíz, as it is called in Spanish, is the staple food of El Salvador along with the rest of Latin America, many parts of Africa and some parts of Asia. In rural areas, farmers tend to buy hybrid corn seed to plant every year, desirable because of its high yield. However, this laboratory-designed grain does not give such high yields in the second generation, so instead of collecting the seeds and replanting the next year, farmers become dependent on purchasing the expensive seed every agricultural cycle.

Compounding this problem in the areas where AGROSAL works is the low quality of the local soil. Poor populations largely farm steep, rocky hillsides that have suffered from too much deforestation. For imported hybrid corn to survive in this environment, farmers must buy an array of chemical fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides, which harm the environment and constitute an incredible expense for the average Salvadoran farmer.

Seeding Sustainability
AGROSAL's corn-breeding project provides sustainable alternatives to all of these practices. As part of this team for the year, I helped breed varieties of "Creole" corn or native, non-hybrid corn that is well adapted to the Salvadoran environment and can thrive without chemical fertilizer. We planted seeds in several "demonstrative" plots of land farmed collectively by the community. The plots were cultivated without the use of any chemicals—only natural fertilizers like chicken droppings.

The demo cornfields were breeding grounds for various strains of corn, varieties that produced one or more corn cobs, were taller or shorter than eight feet, released pollen sooner or later and so forth. We collected seeds from the corn plants that had the most desirable characteristics such as good health and high yield. Thus over a span of a few agricultural seasons, AGROSAL will be able to provide Salvadoran farmers with corn that is naturally bred to suit their and the environment's needs.

The long path to change
I left El Salvador just as the corn harvest was completed. The corn that I helped plant and nurture had grown successfully and the cobs were collected for grain and seed. But our yield wasn't as high as we had hoped. The farmers will have to wait until next year to find out how the seed will grow and whether they will choose to continue trying to grow non-hybrid corn.

I think it will take time to develop sustainable farming practices in the face of low yields, slow improvement and an extensive media campaign promoting the purchase of chemicals and non-local, hybrid corn. However, with the support of NGOs such as AGROSAL, these efforts will help to reach the day when farmers will be able to grow their own food from local seeds, independent of income, and do so in a way that is less damaging to the environment.

 

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