Physical training schools we think are good to study at
In alphabetical order...
It's unquestionably the experience of a lifetime to visit the agricultural systems in Sibundoy, Colombia. The Kamëntsá Indigenous nation have an intact 5k-year governance and some of the most famous, abundant, and frankly delightful food production systems we've seen. The Indigenous abuelas are more than happy to show and tell, and the hospitality and art are well worth the trip.
Our team originally learned bokashi, biochar, and basic seedling cultivation skills from the soil scientist Lexie Amasacho in Lago Agrio, Ecuador. We recommend her lab as a good place to visit, study, and learn. One reason is that she is just so nice and also informed. Our community experts were profoundly empowered by their time with her site; and as a result, each person she trained trained at least 30 other people. She also works with a nearby Indigenous community, and the paired training is world-class.
As far as we know they don't have a physical training site, but have been more than responsive to requests for information. Located in Belem, Brazil they have a long body of work on Inga as a soil-recovery and subsistence-agriculture component. Eniel David Cruz published Comunicado Técnico documents on Inga edulis germination (Cruz E.D., 2021). Embrapa Amazônia Ocidental (Manaus) is the parallel institution and may have additional Inga researchers; INPA (Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus) published the Fenologia e produtividade do Ingá-Cipó paper that gives flowering and fruiting calendars for Inga edulis in central Amazonia — directly useful for year-by-year operational calendars.
We were unable to study with the Inga Foundation, but we have heard they are a good training site, and they produced most of the rigorous scientific work on Inga alley cropping.
Jose is a grassroots agronomy expert who works with over 300 smallfarmers in Ecuador's Sucumbios region and is a traveling Inga trainer. He has been funded by Rainforest Saver for many years and trained, and contributed significantly to cross-checking our field guide. He speaks Spanish and can set up popup training schools for visiting groups or travel across Ecuador and Colombia.
Florecia Montagnini and Luke Schubert have been an invaluable resource for evaluating academic science with a filter of pragmatism. Academic plots are not smallfarmer production plots; they inform them, but scientists who translate these advances effectively to the real world are invaluable.
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