In search of food and stories
We followed the easy route north from town towards Chiang Dao and the Panya Permaculture project. It was mid November and the wet season was over. Already the landscape was starting to brown. The life giving rains had stopped as if a switch had been thrown. For those unfamiliar with the monsoon tropics it can be a shock; abundant rain for months, then suddenly not a drop. It is in these months that the importance of trees becomes even more apparent. The sun bakes the soil and it becomes hard as cement and dry as a bone. In the shade under the canopy of trees the soil remains cool and stable, especially with a cover of leaf litter. Shallow-rooted annuals will not survive without irrigation, but the deep roots of trees can access abundant ground water, infiltrated through the wet season.
As we drove through a heavy mist, the ground was moist with dew. Trees are beautifully adapted to make use of this ephemeral resource. Dew and mist condense on surfaces, and the amount of condensation is relative to the available surface area. Consider the surface area of a tree; both sides of all the leaves, the twigs and trunk. Maybe there are kilometres of surface area for moisture to condense on a large tree. At my home in the far north of Queensland (Australia), our forests drip with condensation every morning through the dry season. They are not called ‘rain forests’ for no reason!
In addition to this, many trees have an adaptation called crassulacean acid metabolism, which enables them to respire and absorb moisture at night through tiny pores, then close these stomates through the day to conserve moisture but still photosynthesise and produce food. Trees are a remarkably efficient means of harvesting mist and dew. For these and many other reasons, trees and hardy perennials form the basis of Permaculture food systems.
This fundamental principle is being well applied at the Panya Project near Mae Taeng, off the road to Chiang Dao. It is set amongst extensive orchards and various experimental tree crops. A large portion has been planted to high value timber production.
Functional and creative cabin designs provide accommodation for students and interns. The Panya people employed a variety of building methods, all of which are low cost, low tech and utilise locally available materials. They have some good examples of waste management, recycling and sustainable energy systems.
During our visit, the place was buzzing with sincere and enthusiastic youngsters committed to making a difference. Apparently, that was normal for the place, and now demand exceeds supply for courses, visits and volunteer work. They have accomplished remarkable achievements on many levels; teaching, research, economic, social, ecological; the place is a credit to all involved, especially since they have only been operating for a few years.
Like all projects though, they have a few challenges. An essential part of Permaculture design is the management and utilisation of water resources. A well placed, well designed dam at the hill behind the centre has resisted all the usual methods to try and seal it. If it were fully operational the potential for the place would be infinitely higher.
Some of the food crops being grown are unfamiliar and under utilised. I have seen this in many instances and it was one of the first mistakes I made when I started planting food forests. Its great to have diversity and unusual food plants, but if no one knows how to use them or even likes them, their value is limited (I can’t help thinking that some of the rarely utilised fruit trees I have grown are rare for good reason!) Still, this is not a fault or a criticism, merely part of an ongoing process of experimentation and learning.
As we drove north from Panya, I noticed that the forests were heavily covered with an invasive weed, Mikania micrantha, and many of the Panya food trees and gardens are no exception. This aggressive climber covers whole forests and has been found to be allelopathic (chemically inhibits the growth of other plants). One of the big criticisms of some established permaculture systems is their tolerance of weeds and sometimes the introduction of potential weed species. I think this criticism is at least partly justified. Weeds play an important part in damaged ecosystems and can be used to advantage, but my observations back up the widely held belief that most plants grow better without them and they need to be well managed. We don’t need to be obsessive about them, but they do need to be dealt with, like most things its about balance.
Next was a visit to a Palaung village just out of Chiang Dao. We saw some of the fantastic work being done by villagers with assistance from Rick Burnett and the Upland Holistic Development Program (UHDP). We saw steep hillsides with very poor soil which had in a few short years been turned into orderly, productive food forests. They consisted of a mix of palms, trees and herbaceous perennials, almost all of which are or were part of the traditional diets of these forest people. This is exactly what Mollison described many years ago; a self sustaining forest ecology in which almost all of the species are of use to humans. The men who established and tend these ‘gardens’ have taken to them enthusiastically and can see the many benefits of such a system. They explained to me that they are getting older and would much rather walk around in the shade, casually harvesting some fishtail palm or yam when they feel like it, than toil in the hot sun with hoe and shovel tending annual crops.
It seems to be an ideal solution to sustainable agriculture in this situation. The only limitation I can see in this form of agro forestry is that, though important, not many of the forest products are staple foods. Maybe we should look at it another way; maybe the problem with our staple foods is that not many of them are forest products. Perhaps we should look at tree nuts, such as Macadamia or Canarium nut (Canarium indicum). In New Guinea, the pith of Sago palms is a staple, as is Breadfruit in some parts of the pacific. Avocado has very high nutritional value, and hardy perennials such as sweet potato and cassava could also help fill the gaps.
Always though, we need to keep in mind cultural considerations and rice or other grains such as Jobs tears are central to these peoples diet. Rick’s UHDP system makes allowance for this and promotes growing grains and other crops on contour in between strips of forest, thereby ensuring the best of both worlds.
After a fascinating walk through some of these forest gardens, (with lots of wild food snacks; you don’t need to go hungry) and glimpses of stunning scenery, we were treated to a great feed of rattan and fishtail palm with the upland cereal Jobs tears (Coix lacryma-jobi) and fresh fruit. It occurred to me that if the rest of the world disappeared, these guys probably wouldn’t go hungry.
It was very interesting to witness the phenomenon of bamboo in flower; nearly all the members of one of the species of giant bamboo had come into flower. This happens at irregular intervals, for many species as long as 60 to 120 years and when it does, it means the death of all the established clumps of that species. In many parts of India and south east Asia it is seen as a very bad omen. It is well documented that it leads to plagues of rats, whose numbers increase with abundant bamboo seed to feed on, followed by famine as the rats seek other food once the seed germinates. I was impressed with our hosts attitude, who rather than seeing it as a disaster, saw it as an opportunity, as soon little seedlings of bamboo would be everywhere and they could be nurtured and planted where they were wanted.
‘In the midst of chaos lies opportunity’. Albert Eintein
