Chacra-Huerto Project

In several indigenous communities in the region of Lamas, Sachamama Center is engaged in regenerating a pre-Colombian soil discovered in the last century by archaeologists. These soils are still fertile today. The reddish clay of the Amazonian soils is notorious for its poverty in nutrients. Slash-and-burn agriculture (also called ‘swidden agriculture’) has become an important cause of the loss of tropical forest. Although it permits the forest to regenerate, it is very inefficient and environmentally unsound under the present land holding patterns. The burning sends a great amount of CO2 into the atmosphere. Swidden agriculture is the third cause of CO2 emissions in the Amazon basin. Additionally, in the region of Lamas, the population density has become much too high for this type of agriculture to be sustainable and it is leading to the highest rate of deforestation in all of Peru, behind the ravages of industrial agriculture and oil exploration in the region.

Teams of US and Brazilian archaeologists in the 1960s began excavating sites in the Amazon region where one finds what Brazilians call terra preta de indio (Indian black earth). These soils are still fertile today. Carbon dating of the oldest layers of terra preta are dated at 8,500 years ago. The key to the astounding sustainability of these anthropogenic soils is a mixture of biochar (see below for this term), micro-organisms, organic matter, and a great quantity of broken ceramics. Nutrients stick to biochar for ever since biochar does not decompose in the soil. The micro-organisms give life to the soil and the broken ceramics allow a postive exchange of ions that increases fertility.

At Sachamama we have successfully regenerated this black earth of the Indians which we call by its Quechua name: Yana Allpa, using biochar produced with a variety of agricultural biomass such as dried coconut shells. Biochar is the result of carbonizing the biomass with little or no oxygen at high temperatures, a method called pyrolysis. We mix this biochar with locally freely available organic manure. To those are added micro-organisms gathered on the floor of the rain forest that have been fermented as well as ceramic shards. The local Kichwa-Lamista have a tradition of making offerings to the spirits of the earth with such ceramic shards found in all the archaeological sites.

The regeneration of this pre-Colombian Amazonian technology along with Regenerative Agriculture will offer a simple, appropriate and economically accessible alternative to slash and burn agriculture and to the very high rate of deforestation in this region as well as a high rate of greenhouse gases production.

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Qinti Qartunira

This project is being directed by Barbara Rodrigues Marcos and Royner Sangama Sangama. They write as well as produce booklets and short videos in Quechua following the model of Sarita Cartonera in Lima. Those desk-top booklets and videos are the first publications in the local variant of Quechua, spoken by the Kichwa-Lamistas. They are distributed to bi-lingual teachers, to native communities and to whomever shows interest. The Quechua is being edited locally by Bilingual Teacher Royner Sangama Sangama as well as by Genaro Quintero Bendezú, MA (Quechua and Linguistics) of the Ministry of Education in Lima. On August 18, 2011 the first Qinti Qartunira booklet was presented by the late Felipe Cachique Amasifuen at the Congress of the World's Indigenous Peoples and Education in Cusco, Peru. On September 2nd, 2011 this first publication was presented at Sachamama Center and distributed to bi-lingual teachers. In 2013 one written in Quechua by Barbara Rodrigues Marcos was published by the Lima publisher Pasacalle. There followed several other printed and well as video production by Royner Sangama Sangama.

This project is part of the international project “Cultural Agents” directed by Professor Doris Summer of the Romance Languages Department at Harvard University; She translates “Cartonera” as : “Pre-Text”. The word 'cartonera' derives from the book covers that are made with recycled carton. www.culturalagents.org/int/partners/kinti.html

Qinti Qartunira has its own web-site: www.wix.com/qintiqartunira/qinti

Note: Qinti in Quechua is the hummingbird, which in the Qichwa worldview is the messenger of the spirits and when it is spotted outside of the house, is the harbinger of good news for the family.

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