PANNA: A Visit to Vicente Guerrero

On October 21, 2002, I visited the community of Vicente Guerrero, Tlaxcala State, Mexico with Roberto Vega of the Network for Rural Development Studies, who has been working there as a promoter of the farmer-to-farmer training approach for several years. As we walked through the fields and streets of this community, Roberto told me the history of the community and the people who live there.

The place

What impressed me most about the farmland in Vicente Guerrero was the biological diversity. Every field contains a variety of crops, whether the traditional milpa of corn, beans and squash, or a field of oats with a border of fruit trees. Farmers will grow as many as 26 crops. The crop diversity not only reduces pest problems, but serves as a kind of insurance against crop failure. Every field border and space between crops contains cover crops or companion plantings of native flowers, some of which provide nectar to the bees, which produce honey that the farmers collect. Crop production is integrated with raising chickens and rabbits; the animals eat crops grown on the farm and their waste is fed into the compost. Mules and horses, used for cultivation, graze in pastures interspersed among the crop fields. A reforested area where farming and hunting are prohibited provides habitat for songbirds. Dogs are not fed, but survive by hunting rabbits and squirrels. Some are trained to bring back uneaten rabbits to their masters. The dogs are tough: one was bitten by a rattlesnake three times and survived.

The region is famous for its terraces and water catchment systems. Conversion of slopes into terraces allows more water to enter the soil and reduces erosion. The edges of the terraces are lined with fruit trees and grass to enhance their stability and catch sediment. Any water that flows off the fields is directed into ponds where it soaks into the ground over time.

The people

Another aspect of the village that caught my attention was the strong sense of community. Vicente Guerrero began with ten families who received land from the government in the 1940s under the ejido system. In this program, the government divided up large plantations and awarded tracts of land to former day laborers for their communal use. The community has grown to over 150 families and has purchased more land. There are now three types of land tenure in the community: ejido land, private property and communal land. The third type of land was jointly purchased by the community for common purposes, such as watershed protection.

The community's first big group project was obtaining water from a spring, which is pumped to a station then fed by gravity to the community. Fields are not irrigated, but farmers here survive drought better than their neighbors because they grow indigenous varieties of corn and other crops that are adapted to drought conditions. Cover cropping and composting also build up organic matter in the soil, which helps the soil absorb and retain water. The community conducts field trials comparing native beans with varieties developed by a researcher at a local university. Community members save and catalogue the many varieties of local corn.

At an annual corn festival to celebrate the harvest, families compete to see who grows the most varieties of corn, whose corn tastes best, etc. Different varieties have different uses: some are eaten directly from the cob, while others are made into tortillas or tamales. The community also has a festival to celebrate itself, where they barbecue a whole sheep and cook the meat in a delicious stew of tangy green tomatillos. (This festival occurred the day before we arrived, so we got to sample the leftovers, which also included rice, bean and tortillas.) The tomatillos grown here have a unique taste and are especially good in salsa. Loyal customers often travel to the village to buy the tomatillos direct, rather than waiting for the farmers to bring them to market in the closest town.

The community has used joint funds to build a secondary school, a soccer field, and a basketball court for the children. They have also built a training center, chapel, and public health office. The training center hosts groups of up to 50 who come to learn about agroecological practices.

Behind the center is a temascal, a traditional sauna that looks like a small adobe igloo. Next to the temescal is a traditional adobe structure used for storing corn. A mural painted by the children on the front of the center shows their vision of community: a place filled with families, trees, flowers and butterflies. At the far end of the mural, next to the door, the children painted a tall, thin man, inviting visitors into the center. That evening, when I met Paco, who runs programs for children in the community, I recognized him instantly.

Pest management

A plague of locusts recently descended on Vicente Guerrero, providing an interesting test of its ecological mettle. The black and red locust, which has migrated to the area from Oaxaca, eats everything, including dead animals. Locusts especially love squash leaves, which are large and grow close to the ground. When I walked next to the fields, I could hear the patter of many small locusts jumping around in the leaves.

The farmers try to control locusts with a natural pesticide made from a fungus. Improving habitat for natural enemies, such as spiders, also helps keep locust populations under control, as does letting chickens and turkeys into the fields to eat them. Dogs, cats and wild birds also eat locusts. Even people eat locusts in Oaxaca, but not in Tlaxcala, where they are a relatively new arrival. Some people catch the locusts in nets in the morning when they are sluggish from the cold and export them to Oaxaca, where they are used to make locust enchiladas, locusts with onions, and locusts with tomatoes. Another strategy is to plant some crops earlier in the year, before locust populations become very large, and to plant crops with short cycles. Some farmers grow other tasty plants nearby to lure the locusts away from the crops.

The community refused to participate in an aerial spraying program to combat locusts underway in the region. Some farmers from Vicente Guerrero visited neighboring communities to compare the results of the spray program to their fungus-based insecticide. They did not find a big difference; there were only a few more locusts in their fields than in the fumigated fields. However, the areas that were sprayed suffered from the death of animals and even some people.

A rare spot on the globe

Communities like Vicente Guerrero are rare and endangered. They are holdouts against a current sweeping Mexico -- and much of the rest of the world -- toward the industrialization of agriculture, homogenization of culture and privatization of everything from communal farmland to national parks. By contrast, this rural community is investing in ecological agriculture, its children, and its traditional culture. It is even purchasing land for nature conservation. It is one of those rare spots on the globe that breathe life into the slogan, "a better world is possible."

Jessica Hamburger is a PANNA Program Coordinator working on sustainable agriculture and World Bank accountability.