The Ya'axché Conservation Trust is trying to promote agroforestry in Southern Belize. The trust partnered with the University of Missouri and the University of Belize- Environmental Research Institute in hosting a three day training workshop for Belizean farmers in the South. According to the Conservation Trust, this is a first step toward increasing knowledge and implementation of agroforestry in the country. Christina Garcia, the Executive Director of the Conservation group explained more about the program.
Christina Garcia - Ya 'axche Executive Director
"We had farmers from within the Mayan Golden Landscape but we also had the participation of the extension officers from the ministry of agriculture. So they too were involved with these trainings. We've been reviewing topics such as agroforestry, the design of a particular plot. We touch a little bit on the marketing aspect of agroforestry and participants were mainly involved in terms of developing a case study, particularly for a farm that belongs to one of the participant, one of the farmers and basically they have incorporated a pasture along with agroforestry. So, we are looking more at the sylviculture, pastoral sylviculture within that agroforestry system but basically enhancing how more or less that system could be better developed in terms of encompassing different timber, different saplings, different fruit trees, how we can make this farmer farm basically sustainable and shaping it into something that could become a model."
Orlando Cucul - Participant. Big Falls Village
"I find this training very successful today and educational also for 3 of us the farmers. Here in the southern Belize and actually here in Big Falls and I find a lot of educated part in agriculture and biodiversity of my farm and also other farms that we have visited. I feel confident that I have this already going on in my farm, a change and well I want to be accomplishing it for the past and the coming year."
According to a press release from Ya'axche Conservation Turst, experts in the fields of agriculture and forestry predict that agro-forestry will be the way forward in terms of food production due to the fact that it produces high crop yields, provides diversification of income for farmers, and doesn't degrade land.
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