Permaculture in Phang Nha Ke Bang We travel to learn, work and grow with positive projects; we also travel because we love to discover new landscapes, cultures, foods… Vietnam brings it all in one. If you follow us, you might have noticed that we are enjoying Vietnamese food a lot, that we have great opportunities to discover beautiful cities, amazing temples and astounding pristine Nature. When it comes to projects, we are also very lucky. During Mathieu’s Permaculture Design Course (PDC) at Aranya Agricultural Alternatives in India, Mathieu met Chon Chon and Chris, a lovely couple that travelled a lot to work with ethnic minorities, especially in South-East Asia. Chris told Mathieu about the beautiful projects they worked on. He especially recommended visiting Human Ecology Practice Area (HEPA) in Vietnam and invited us to contact Thi Tran Lanh for more information and volunteering opportunities. Visiting HEPA was not possible due to VISA limitations. Nevertheless, Lanh recommended two projects: visit a 20-year old permaculture farm in the heart of the amazing jungle grottos landscapes of Phang Nha Ke Bang and stay with the Red Dzao community in Ta Phin, near Sa Pa, north Vietnam . This article is about our visit of the 20-year old permaculture farm near Phang Nha. We invite our reader to discover and appreciate the wisdom of the family that takes care of it. Abstract I tend to write (too) long articles. This abstract gives you an overview of the content and the key messages from this blog post. Feel free to read the complete post 😊 We spent several hours with the Phuoc family. The son came directly at our homestay and guided us to the farm. As we arrived we met Mr. Phuoc and his wife, two very smiley and charismatic persons. We had the chance to get an interview with them. Mr. Phuoc told us about how they turned a minefield into a model eco-farm through permaculture practices. In twenty years Mr. Phuoc rehabilitated the soil by employing permaculture methods and principles and this article relates the history of the farm. We also explain what we acknowledged from the visit of the gardens. Finally, we relate the more intimate conversation we had with Mr. Phuoc regarding how people migrate from land to cities and how society is influencing us and breaks our connection to the earth. We make the parallel with many projects we have met. The story of Mr. Phuoc’s farm is a successful rehabilitation of a land after the destruction by the war and the people exodus with society shift from rural to urban model. This meeting with the Phuoc’s family was full of wisdom and good values that we want to share with you. Have a good read. First, we sincerely want to thank Ms. Kien Dang from Social Policy Ecology Research Institute (SPERI) and Community Entrepreneur Development Institute (CENDI). Kien made this visit possible: she contacted the Phuoc family, she organized our visit with them and she acted as a great interpret / translator, so we could communicate with the Phuoc family; our Vietnamese is not good enough to talk about permaculture. We relied on her skills to interview Mr. Phuoc, she greatly participated to this beautiful moment and we are very grateful for that. Twenty years in brief… Back in the days, Mr. Phuoc never dreamt about having a farm. He was involved in logging, i.e. cut down trees from the tropical forest to make a living. Logging is exhausting. With time and his advancing age, he built up the desire to have a farm and work with rotational farming. He acquired a piece of land and he gathered some people to help him clear the land and transform it into a farm. War remnants The land, today, is green, full of trees and plants such as jackfruit, pineapple, pepper, chili, potatoes… Back then, the land was already full of trees but also full of mines… The beginning of our discussion reminded us of our visit to the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City and the discussions we had with our guide in the jungle of Phang Nha Ke Bang National Park: an average 10% of all bombs that fell on Vietnam during the American war did not explode and many mines from that time are still in place. Phang Nha is situated relatively close to the former border between North and South Vietnam and its demilitarized zone, a.k.a. the “DMZ”. Moreover, the “Ho Chi Minh trail” also goes through the dense jungle of Phang NHa… Needless to say that this place has been severely bombed and mined during the atrocious times of the war: 7 000 bombs per week during the “peak” bombing time… Sad but true, apparently, the only way to deal with the situation is either to define the places as no-go zones, or to clear the trees to remove the explosive engines before rehabilitating the land and/or change its purpose (e.g. from natural forest to farm). At the beginning, many people helped Mr. Phuoc to clear the land. However, as they were digging more and more mines out from the ground, less and less people were willing to risk their lives and eventually decided to leave. Mr. Phuoc stayed and kept on clearing the land and removing the mines, one by one, with his bare hands, to store them in bamboo container filled with straw before deposing them in a safer area. Mines out, roots in, soil off… Once the mines were out of the ground, Mr. Phuoc started with cassava and corn. Yield was satisfactory for the two first years. Afterwards, things were not going so well. Our careful farmer realized that the heavy rains were harming the topsoil and washing it off. We understand that the clearing process removed the trees. Our feeling is that the forest soil was rich (forest are #1 experts in soil building) and allowed the good two-first-year yields. However, as mine out meant trees out, topsoil now needed another solution to be protected against erosion to properly live, develop and ensure the productivity of the farm. Learn, experiment, observe, improve In 2003-2004, Ms. Lanh approached Mr. Phuoc and invited him to participate to field studies in North Vietnam) such as Ba Vì. There, Mr. Phuoc observed and learned about the terracing farming systems. Terracing is a solution to slow and spread the water, thus a good solution to mitigate erosion and loss of topsoil due to runoffs during heavy raining episodes. This knowledge influenced him and led to redesigning the farm. As we were there, we acknowledged the terracing of the farm. After this first field study, Mr. Phuoc attended a permaculture training session directly in Phang Nha. This second session focused on cropping systems, earthworks and composting. This session inspired our knowledgeable farmer to start with midterm annual crops and food trees before intercropping them with short-term crops. He first planted jackfruits as well as ginger, turmeric, onions and potatoes. Mr. Phuoc attended a third training session: Permaculture Design Course (PDC) with Geoff Lawton himself, in Human Ecology Practice Area (HEPA). This PDC allowed Mr. Phuoc to learn more about mulching techniques using different types of covering material, banana circles, planting techniques… Mr. Phuoc tells us that since then, every day is dedicated to his work in his gardens, in his farm, planting trees, focusing on local indigenous species. INFO | Geoff Lawton is a very famous permie and this article is not about him; feel free to browse Uncle Google for more information (articles, videos, etc.). INFO | HEPA seems to be an amazing place that we would love to discover one day. Check out their website . the blogpost dedicated to our interview with Thi Tran Lanh . INFO | If you are interested about knowing more about PDC experience, feel free to read our blogpost about Mathieu’s Permaculture Design Course (PDC) at Aranya Agricultural Alternatives in India. Today No chemicals! Our successful farmer has a strict no-chemical approach. He knows how things go with fertilizers: if year one you applied ten units of fertilizers on your farm, year two you will need 15, year three 20, etc. Fertilizers do not help, neither do pesticides: both erode the fertility of the soil and lead to lower-quality products. And, guess what, the market is sensitive to product quality and demands high quality. Chemicals do not seem like a viable option, neither for natural processes, nor “business sustainability”. After twenty years of gardening, Mr. Phuoc reminds us the critical importance of soils: we must feed the soil! And feeding the soil can very well be done through mulching and composing, using notably cow manure. One does not see bear soil in Mr. Phuoc’s farm: everywhere, the ground is covered with leaves. Today, Mr. Phuoc is happy and proud. He feeds his family with healthy foods and sells his production quickly and easily: quality is so good that the customers come to his farm directly to buy; no need to go to the marketplace. Autonomy and diversity As we visited the farm, we saw fruit trees and vegetables: jackfruit, lychees, banana, chikoo (or sapodilla, a.k.a. Manilkara zapota), pineapples, pepper, chilly, potatoes, cassava, corn, pumpkin, eggplant, pig fodder, greens… For us, the most interesting technique was the intercropping patterns, for example: pineapples growing under the shade of the lychee trees, pepper vines going up the jackfruits… those techniques allow Mr. Phuoc to garden intensively and obtain higher diversified yields on smaller surfaces. He also has rice fields on another lot that we did not visit. Mr. Phuoc keeps the best vegetables to harvest, save and replant the seeds. However, there is one exception to the farm’s seed autonomy: sticky corn. Sticky corn is not only delicious, it is also more filling (satisfies the hunger quicker). He did try to replant it, however, season after season the seeds seemed to shrink and not produce as expected… ever heard about hybrids? Here you go: this sticky corn is hybrid. Thus, Mr. Phuoc assembles with other farmers and the commune officer to buy sticky corn. Autonomy is not just about seeds, we also asked about energy, water and infrastructure / building. Mr. Phuoc built his own house and relies on his family to maintain the infrastructure of the farm. In terms of water: the terracing work and their well allows the farm to be self-sufficient. In terms of energy, Mr. Phuoc uses the profit generated from selling his products to pay the bills to the state. Education SPERI, notably through HEPA, trains farmers to eco-farming practices as well as strongly inspires from those farmers’ wisdom and traditional practices to refine the eco-farming curriculum taught at HEPA. Some farmers then become “key famers” that can broadcast the theoretical and practical knowledge within their villages and regions. Mr. Phuoc is a key SPERI farmer and certified agroforestry eco-farmer. The neighbor farmers are interested in Mr. Phuoc’s farm and come to learn from him. They then repeat some of the technics on their own pieces of land. We asked Mr. Phuoc for his best pieces of advice after twenty years of gardening?
The people and the land (and the money) The farm is three hectares. Two people work on the farm: Mr. Phuoc and his wife. They dedicated one of the three hectares to their son for him to work on the farm whenever he has time; not easy when one cumulates several jobs in the city. We are impressed by the family’s achievements on the farm! We expected a broader community to be involved. We were still intrigued by community aspects and asked about community dynamics: did people work together? What was the situation for small farmers in the countryside? and the comparison between the initial community spirit that seemed to be there at the beginning, 20 years ago, when they started clearing the land, and now? Our wise farmer told us about Vietnam’s land allocation program: people could apply to acquire either agricultural or forest land. However, history seems to show that most people preferred the satisfaction of the daily rate to the long-term investment of land stewardship. People did not engage, and the land allocation program did not attract crowds within the commune. Because of the desire for quick money, agricultural land has been abandoned. Countryside sees its population heading to South Vietnam or overseas to get city jobs. When the people eventually come back, they do not receive anything anymore, as Mr. Phuoc said: “they come back with two blank hands”. To get money, some started planting fast-growing trees for the pulp industry such as acacias, pines and eucalyptus… Those trees are not native to Vietnam and compete with local species; reminder: Mr. Phuoc plants focuses on local indigenous species when it comes to planting trees. Mr. Phuoc and his wife chose freedom and independence. They are happy. Tomorrow? As related earlier, the son has one hectare of land to work on. Mr. Phuoc and his wife will keep on working hard on the two hectares under their stewardship. They do not have any expectations for the future. Complementary and subjective remarks One world Mr. Phuoc is a very humble person. When he talked about demographic dynamics and people leaving the countryside for cities, quick money as well as when he talked about other people coming to clear forest for fast-growing trees and the fast money that goes with it, he said: “I can only say that this is true for my commune”. Our feeling and experience tells us that the situation Mr. Phuoc described is not unique and for sure not limited to his commune. Sadly, we reckon the same model, the same patterns and the same consequent destructions. Local communities that have been living for long time within their environment are said to be poor and not educated, that they need vocational skills and modern jobs, they are told that cities are the place to be, that being a peasant is degrading. Many people believe in that story and go to the cities, looking for this quick money that our societies erected as the premium goal of any individual. As a result, the countryside is abandoned, the local traditions vanish as well as communities’ pride and esteem. This allows the creation of bigger farms, better-suited for the application of “modern” conventional agricultural practices of heavy machinery, chemistry and monoculture. It also facilitates the acquisition of land for mining/extraction and other polluting industrial logics that destroy the environment and break the people. We are uprooted for the myth of sacred money. In Europe, Laura’s family has experienced first-hand how the last 50 years dramatically transformed the peasant life, organization and role in the Parisian region; our volunteering sessions in Uganda and later in India revealed how human greed destroyed the forests for lucre, how eucalyptus are everywhere (already acknowledged in Brasil eight years ago); our volunteering sessions also made us realize how conventional farming propaganda reaches small farmers and makes it very difficult to apply saner practices; how “modernity” pretends and shines to despise traditional heritage: we are losing our cultural biodiversity and with it unique knowledge, wisdom and solutions that permanent cultures had established through eons of communion with diverse ecological biotopes. We also see how money is everywhere, how it plays with people, how it enslaves them in the identity confusion of short-term pleasure; money should be a tool, a mean, not an objective; it is now, for us, in its internationally-shared current influence, a disease. Meeting with Lanh in Hanoi gave us new depths to this reflection about how society leads people to so(i/u)lless societies. Feel free to read our blogpost dedicated to our interview with Thi Tran Lanh . We are all one, living on the same “earth spaceship”, sustained by the same unique Mother Earth, suffering from the same influences and also looking and hoping for the same thing: happiness. People are no different in Europe, Africa, Asia… Messages of segregation are manipulative tools for fear to divide and control. As far as he is concerned, Mr. Phuoc’s views are different than the mainstream trend. We can say that the smiles on the Phuoc family member faces convey true happiness. The couple hours we spent were hours of mindful peace and harmony. We understand that nurturing nature makes you rich. Independence and freedom make you happy. Seeds! Seeds are also a “one world” issue that we now acknowledge. On the one hand, we are happy to know that the Phuoc family goes for autonomous seed protection but on the other hand we also acknowledge that the corn is hybrid… Seed engineering for hybrids and genetically-modified organisms and patenting are, for us, outrageous! Seeds are Life and Life cannot be a private good that one can exchange for money (again, money…). Future? Permaculture is great as long as it remains ethical and empowers small farmers. Education is key! And we believe that solutions such as key farmers are a great option to reach small farmers. We celebrate the organizations that push for it. Indeed, it has a real positive and empowering impact on local communities. In this regard, SPERI (and HEPA) do a remarkable job learning from ethnic minorities and using the legal framework to protect their traditional knowledge, preserve their land and enhance their livelihoods. Go futher… Permaculture news article about Mr. Phuong’s farm: https://permaculturenews.org/2010/12/22/from-danger-to-diversity-mr-phuocs-farm/
Blogpost dedicated to our interview with Lanh: in progress... HEPA Website: http://ecofarmingschool.org/eng/index.php SPERI website: http://speri.org/eng/ Read our blogpost about our stay and volunteering with the Red Dzao community of Ta Phin, near Sa Pa, north Vietnam: in progress... Read our blogpost about the Permaculture Design Course at Aranya Agricultural Alternatives in India: https://sustainable-autonomy.weebly.com/blog/pdc-at-aranya-farm See our pictures at Phang Nha Ke Bang: https://sustainable-autonomy.weebly.com/gallery Learn more about our projects: https://sustainable-autonomy.weebly.com/ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Sustainomy/ Subscribe to our newsletter: https://bit.ly/2L1bbFz
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