Bolivians look to ancient farming
BBC News, 19 August 2009
TRINIDAD, BOLIVIA: Farmers in Bolivia’s Amazon are experimenting with using a centuries-old irrigation system for their crops, which could provide them with better protection against climate change, reduce deforestation and improve food security. The system, which is part of a two-year project supported by the Kenneth Lee Foundation and Oxfam, is based on building “camellones”, raised earth platforms surrounded by canals. “One of the many extraordinary aspects of our camellones project is that poor communities living in the Beni today are using a similar technology to that developed by indigenous pre-Columbian cultures in the same region to solve a similar range of problems,” says Oscar Saavedra, the director of the Kenneth Lee foundation. Read the article …
