Chris Ssmith

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the late reply as I thought I would get notifications of new post but it didn't happen. Lots of good info. Let me elaborate on the zone a little:)

The land is in Paraguay, about 100 Kilometer from the capital city, Asunción. Top right corner of the map is where the buildings and other installations are and the power extends until the tree line to the flood plains. Most of the area is high but the region itself has a lot of low spots like this close to rivers and streams. The weather is semi arid to tropical with lots of microclimate. The rain fall average is very close to southern South Carolina for example, around 50-55 inches of rain per year but in the wet season, all bets are off depends on the year. There is no real winter here and frost is almost non existence.

Major crops in this area are Banana, Pineapple, beans, sugar canes, Mandioca, and lots of fruits. The soil is very fertile, somewhat of a sandy loam and more clayish closer to the river. You can spit on the ground here and something will grow and most farmers don't irrigate and majority of work is done by animals and hand.

It is kind of the exact opposite of North America in weather, seasons, and problems. For example, a green house would be more beneficial if cooled rather than heated and the major problem would be over watering rather than lack of water.

Soybeans are extremely lucrative here and almost everyone is clearing their land to grow more damn soy or sell it to others because they can't afford modern farming equipment. Farmers are extremely poor here and the main cause is the middlemen who buy their crops dirt cheap and sell it in the capital city for arm and a leg since the farmers have no means of transportation and marketing.

My goal here is establishing a CO-OP system of farms to help out the farmers sell their crop and actually make profit out of it rather than clear cutting the forest and flooding more areas. The labor is extremely cheap here (7 dollars per day for a skilled worker) and the exploitation of these poor people has made it even worse.

If it was a hobby farm, I would just plant some native trees or make a pond for recreation and call it good, but I’m trying to put more people to work so every inch of usable land is crucial to its outcome.

Hope this helps:) Thanks again for all the ideas and keep'em coming.

Now that's interesting. I thought about making squares of 20x20 meters and digging drain channels in between, but I would have to divert the water somewhere and most likely the river down below. I don't use any chemical fertilizers so contamination wouldn't be a problem, but hard rains would wash off a lot of soil to the river.

Hi,

Hugelkultur on 20 acres? That's a lot of raised bed I'm in process of building mushroom houses (button mushrooms) on the higher ground where the red pin is complete with laboratory as this would be the first mushroom cultivation in the country.

Hi guys,

My name is Chris and I’m new here so hello I own a small farm in South America and I have a question to ask. The farm is 210 acres with about 35% of virgin Atlantic Forrest cover which I’m not touching, but it has a somewhat wet area of around 20 acres which is too wet for agriculture and too dry for rice production. This is a semi tropical area with lots of rain and it's not a wetland by any standards, just a land with high water table.

I can grow bananas (water hogs) or plant eucalyptus trees (timber trees in this area which are water guzzlers) to dry off the land and put it to good use, but I’m also interested in aquaculture as well.

If you were in my shoes, how would you go about it? I have no interest in back filling or draining the land because of the water table so I’m more interested in working with it rather than against it.

I would appreciate any suggestions or tips. You can see the wet area in the top left square on the map.



Cheers,

Chris