The Billion Agave Project is a game-changing, ecosystem-regeneration technique recently embraced by several innovative Mexican farms in the high-desert area of Guanajuato. With your assistance, we’ve been the primary team to donate to Organic Consumers Association supporting this critical project that is now verified to green deserts and give both food and earnings for some of the world’s most tested farmers.
This strategy incorporates the expanding of agave plants and nitrogen-fixing buddy tree species (such as mesquite), with all natural rotational grazing of animals. The result is a high-biomass, high forage-yielding system that functions well also on broken down, semi-arid lands. A statement of belief on mesquite is available in English1 and Español.2.
The system produces huge quantities of agave fallen leave and origin stem– approximately 1 lots of biomass over the 8- to 10-year life of the plant. When chopped and fermented in closed containers, this plant product creates an excellent, cost-effective (2 cents per extra pound) animal fodder.
This agroforestry system decreases the stress to overgraze breakable rangelands and boosts soil health and wellness and water retention, while drawing down and storing huge quantities of atmospheric co2 (CO2).
The objective of the Billion Agave campaign is to plant 1 billion agaves internationally to attract down and shop 1 billion tons of climate-destabilizing CO2. The project will be funded by contributions and private and public investments.
Why Agave?
Climate-Change Solution.
Agave plants and nitrogen-fixing trees, densely intercropped and cultivated together, have the capacity to draw down and sequester huge quantities of climatic CO2.
They additionally produce a lot more below-ground and above-ground biomass (and animal fodder) on a continual year-to-year basis than any type of various other desert or semi-desert varieties. Agaves alone can draw down and shop over ground the dry-weight equivalent of 30 to 60 lots of CO2 per hectare (12 to 24 lots per acre) each year.
Ideal for dry and hot environments, agaves and their companion trees, once established, need no irrigation and are generally unsusceptible increasing international temperature levels and drought.
Livestock Feed Source.
Agave leaves, loaded with lectins and saponins, are indigestible for livestock. Nonetheless, as soon as their huge leaves (high in sugar) are chopped carefully through a device and fermented in closed containers for 30 days, the end item provides a inexpensive and nourishing silage or animal fodder.
This agave/companion tree silage, combined with the restoration of degraded rangelands, can make the difference between survival and grinding hardship for countless the globe’s small farmers and herders.
Drought-Resistant.
Agaves call for little-to-no irrigation. They flourish also in completely dry, degraded lands improper for plant production due to their Crassulacean acid metabolic rate (CAM) photosynthetic pathway.
The CAM path makes it possible for agave plants to draw down moisture from the air and store it in their thick leaves at night. During daylight hours, the opening in their leaves (the stomata) closes up, dramatically decreasing dissipation.
A New Agroforestry Model.
An introducing team of Mexican farmers is transforming their landscape and their incomes. Exactly how? By largely growing (1,600 to 2,500 per hectare), trimming and intercropping a fast-growing, high-biomass, high forage-yielding varieties of agaves among preexisting (500 per hectare) ingrained, nitrogen-fixing tree species (such as mesquite), or amongst grown tree seedlings.
When the agaves are 3 years old, and for the following five to seven years, farmers can trim the pencas or leaves, slice them up carefully with a maker, and afterwards ferment the agave in shut containers for 30 days, preferably incorporating the agave entrusts 20% of leguminous hulls and branches by volume to give them a higher healthy protein level.
In Guanajuato, mesquite trees begin to generate sheathings that can be gathered in five years. By Year 7, the mesquite and agaves have turned into a relatively thick woodland. In Years 8 to 10, the origin stem or pina (evaluating in between 100 and 200 extra pounds) of the agave awaits collecting to create a distilled liquor called mescal.
The hijuelos (or pups) put out by the mother agave plants are being continuously transplanted back into the agroforestry system, assuring continual biomass growth (and carbon storage space).
In this agroforestry system farmers stay clear of overgrazing by incorporating rotational grazing of their animals across their rangelands. They feed their pets by supplementing pasture forage with fermented agave silage.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/03/14/the-billion-agave-project.aspx
This approach combines the growing of agave plants and nitrogen-fixing friend tree types (such as mesquite), with all natural rotational grazing of animals. By largely planting (1,600 to 2,500 per hectare), pruning and intercropping a fast-growing, high-biomass, high forage-yielding types of agaves among preexisting (500 per hectare) ingrained, nitrogen-fixing tree species (such as mesquite), or among planted tree seed startings.
In Guanajuato, mesquite trees begin to produce capsules that can be harvested in 5 years. By Year 7, the mesquite and agaves have expanded right into a rather thick woodland. In Years 8 to 10, the origin stem or pina (weighing between 100 and 200 extra pounds) of the agave is ready for harvesting to create a distilled alcohol called mescal.