Solar Powered Watermelons

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Our mission today is to visit Projeto Àgua Solar, located in Traíras, about 20 minutes upriver from Pão de Açucar. Another project of Eco-Engenho, this one uses solar energy to pump water from the São Francisco River up to cisterns on a hilltop. The water runs down through a series of hoses to drip irrigate one hectare of land. Little holes are punched in the hoses so a tiny amount of water provides continuous irrigation without overwhelming the soil During the rainy season, the system can be shut and the water stored for later.

The farm where the project is located belongs to Zé Preto, whose name roughly translates to Joe Black. His father owned the land before him, and now he, his mother and a few of his brothers take care of the farm. In total the farm comprises about 3 hectares, one hectare of which is drip-irrigated. The farm has a small house, a mix of bricks and mud-and-stick construction, where he, his brothers or his mother sometimes spend the night, especially during the harvest. Zé and his family live in Pão de Açucar.

We woke up early and headed down to the river, where Zé met us with his boat. He was acting kind of embarrassed that his boat didn’t have a roof and that it wasn’t fancy, and Carlos started joking with him, saying, “Well, is your boat going to sink?” He said, “No, no, it won’t sink, it’s just not fancy like those other ones.” And Carlos assured him that we were totally chill, not looking to be impressed, that we genuinely wanted to visit his farm and that we would be honored to ride on his boat.

Half an hour and a few brief rain showers later, we arrived at the farm. The solar powered pump is down by the river and pumps water up through a pipe to cisterns atop a hill behind the cornfield. Zé led us up a slope to the field of corn, which he planted after the watermelon harvest and which he was just finishing harvesting at the time. The corn was a rich, dark green, stalks a good ten feet tall, healthy and lush. We walked through the field, stepping over some broken watermelons that didn’t make it to the market, and climbed up a steep hill to the water cisterns. Zé figured out a cool way to measure the water level in the cisterns: tie a floating ball to each end of a rope and throw one inside the cistern. When the inside ball is floating near the top, the outside one is near the bottom, and they know the water level is high. When the outside ball is near the top of the cistern, the level is getting low and more water needs to be pumped. That way, they can see the ball from way down by the house and don’t have to go running up the hill to check the water level every day.

The water runs down through a series of hoses with tiny little holes to drip irrigate the crop field. He has successfully planted watermelons, which require either large or continuous quantities of water, neither of which are readily available in the sertão. Drip irrigation provides a small, continuous amount of water to keep the soil hydrated and doesn’t wash away the rich nutrients of the topsoil. So the plants get the right amount of water and don’t need to be treated with fertilizers or pesticides. Drip irrigation is also less work because the water can be stored during the rainy season and pumped when needed. Solar panels eliminate energy costs, and organic methods also cut costs by eliminating the need for extra chemicals.

Zé planted another hectare of corn right next to the drip-irrigated corn that he waters uses the “pouring” technique (I’m not sure of the real name for this). Basically buckets of water are poured down the rows between the plants. This method uses a much higher quantity of water, tends to drown the roots, washes away topsoil and doesn’t give the plants a consistent quantity of water. The difference in the two crops was striking - from above, the drip-irrigated crops were darker green, taller, straighter, and more lush overall. The pour-irrigated corn was a pale yellow-green, weak and slouchy, with many fewer ears per stalk.

The drip-irrigated watermelon was also relatively successful, although the most recent crop was planted with seeds that Zé didn’t end up liking, and there were some problems with how well the plants grew. The next crop is going to be planted with better seeds to see if they take to the soil better. The very first crop was planted with good seeds and turned out healthy and abundant. By contrast, the tomatoes in the pour-irrigated area basically drowned and yielded hardly any.

Zé also has another area of corn in a little valley (more like a depression) behind the house, into which the water from the nearby hills runs off, so it receives a more consistent quantity of water. The corn there was green and healthy and doesn’t require as much care and attention. Nevertheless, according to Zé, the drip hoses are the best form of irrigation he has yet seen. Eco-Engenho is looking for funds to drip-irrigate a second hectare of his land, given the success of the pilot project. Zé also has a second pump that runs on diesel that he uses as backup, which could be connected to the cisterns also, if more drip irrigation hoses were installed.

The Takeaway

This project would never work without Zé’s dedication to his farm and to learning along with Instituto Eco-Engenho. He is there every day from 6 am until the evening and someone from his family - one of his brothers, his mother, or another relative - is always at the farmhouse. He knows the soil and is constantly tending to and nurturing the plants. He was also skeptical of organic agriculture at first. He worried that a total lack of fertilizer or pesticide would result in crop failure but agreed to give it a try after many conversations with Carlos and the folks from Eco-Engenho and learning on his own about the benefits of organic. As a result he saw his costs of production drop and his yields increase.
Carlos was very adamant about the fact that none of Eco-Engenho’s projects would work without full participation, involvement and enthusiasm of either the community or, in Zé’s case, the farmer. These are not laboratory experiments; they are technologies applied to bettering people’s lives. The technology may make things easier, help crops grow better and healthier, and provide skills and income, but it is the community / farmer that make it happen. Without their initiative and tireless dedication nothing would move forward.
Many times technology is exalted as a panacea, that if only the right technology were developed we could solve humanity’s problems. But that mindset is the same as the one of orthodox free-marketeers: if only the market conditions were perfect, everyone would have everything they need. Eco-Engenho, on the contrary, sees technology as something to be developed according to a community’s needs and as one tool in the bigger puzzle. Technology, education and economic opportunity together help bring about empowerment and better standards of living. All three are integral parts of the development puzzle.

Back to reality: The best part of the visit to Zé’s farm was when he invited us into his home for some refreshments. As we descended the hill he pointed out his orchard of coconut, banana and papaya trees. Once on his porch he grabbed a few coconuts that had been picked earlier that morning, cracked them open and poured us glasses of the sweetest coconut juice I have ever tasted. If you’ve never had coconut water, you are really missing out. The packaged stuff that is starting to be sold in the U.S. is like the Minute-Maid equivalent of real lemonade. And I thought the coconuts sold on the beaches in Brasil were amazing. But these coconuts, harvest right from the trees at the perfect point of ripeness, were sweet and crisp without the slightest hint of sourness or bitterness.

As we lingered on the porch, sipping our coconut water and chatting with Carlos, Zé disappeared behind the house. A little while later, he reappeared and asked if we’d like to see the rest of the house. We walked around the back and were greeted by one of his brothers and a friend, who were building an addition to the kitchen with clay and wood. He led us around to the chicken coop, storage area and wood-fired stove. Zé ran over to the fire and pulled out three piping hot ears of freshly roasted corn. Bright yellow with blistering, popping kernels, the sweet, earthy smell of the corn wafted up into our noses as we grasped the ends and chowed down. As most of you know, I’ll eat anything that grows in the ground, so I gobbled down that ear of corn so fast that Zé and Carlos were making fun of me. They were like, “You’re going to burn your tongue!” and I was like, “Oh, I already burned it on the peppers last night!”

Then, as if this wasn’t cool enough, Zé’s 80-something year old mother invited us into the kitchen where she was preparing lunch. I chatted with her for a while, as she asked me about where I was from, if I grew up in Brasil, how I learned Portuguese, why I wanted to come see their “little farm.” I would start to answer a question and then she’d interrupt and tell me some funny story about Zé or his brothers, about how they’ve had the farm forever, and how she doesn’t really know how old she is but she feels like she is getting old, but that she still comes out here to cook lunch and that she wished she had known we were coming so she could have put on a prettier dress. She was hilarious and sweet and totally a tough Brasilian senhora.

The other awesome thing about Zé is that all of his children are either in college or graduated. He talked about how he believed in education as the key to a better life, and that because he never had the opportunity to study, he worked day in and day out to make sure his children would have a better life. He encouraged (sometimes forced!) them to study and they all ended up in top universities and making good money in the big metropolises (Rio and São Paulo). Zé’s pride in his children’s achievements shone through not only in his words but his entire being; Dad could sense it even without speaking the language.

Finally, to wrap things up, we asked Zé’s mom if she would do us the honor of taking a photo with us. Of course, she complained that she was too old and not dressed nicely and that she looked horrible and didn’t want to be in a photo that people in the U.S. would see. And of course, like a true man, Zé replied, “Mom, you’re crazy, who do you know in the United States? Take the photo!” So Carlos took a shot of us. Then Zé’s mom pretended like she didn’t want to see it, but when we finally went to put the camera away, she goes, “Oh wait let me see!” and then said, “Oh, didn’t turn out so bad, huh?” I’ve got to send them a copy.

By early afternoon we were on our way back to Maceió. We decided to take the coastal road back and stopped to check out the vacation hotspot beaches of Barra de São Miguel and Praia do Francês. Then…lunch! Which turned into dinner as conversation trailed on and fish seemingly jumped out of the water, into the kitchen, out onto our table, and into our tummies. We went to Carlos’ friend’s restaurant, started with some icy beers and ate tiny little mussels called sururu, bodies the size of your pinky fingernail cooked in a slightly spicy broth. Then came crab claws that we pounded with wooden mallets and picked out the meat with our fingers. Then came other freshwater shrimp, not pitú, but still sweet and salty and bursting with juicy shrimpiness. Then came a whole fish, scored and fried and presented on a huge platter with pepper sauce and rice and beans on the side. And more beer. When we thought we were stuffed to capacity, a sort of fish stew arrived with hunks of a local fish that Carlos kept describing as “It’s a cousin of shark!” The broth was rich but light with a hint of coconut, tomato and maybe cumin. Finally, about 5 liters of beer, ridiculous amounts of beer and 4 hours later, we slowly and surely headed back to the hotel.

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Photos

Corn
On the left, the irrigated field. On the right, the "poured" irrigation field.

Comments

[Mandy Lover]

what you've been waiting for...
THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!! ahh... i feel better. miss you, love!!