What a single plant can do

By Pedro Pérez

In the community of Nuevo Progreso, Oaxaca, revolution is underway. This is not the kind of revolution that calls people to arms. It is not the kind of revolution that, in the end, will only work to the advantage of those in power. If successful, this revolution will change the landscape of Nuevo Progreso—and possibly the entire region—and will give the land back to the people.
During my latest program trip to the community of Nuevo Progreso, located in the western part of the state of Oaxaca, in the Costa Chica region, I witnessed the beginning of what appears to be a radical change in the way farmers cultivate their land.

Just 30 miles from Nuevo Progreso is the Learning Center for Appropriated Technologies (CATA), a place where agronomists and farmers come together to experiment with new agricultural techniques and rescue long-forgotten ones. According to agronomists at the CATA, the practice of slash-and-burn agriculture has been detrimental to the fertility of the soil, caused significant deforestation and has led to great environmental harm in the region and, specifically, in the community of Nuevo Progreso.

These agronomists and a number of local farmers have proposed replacing slash-and-burn methods with better land management and agroecological techniques. One of the practices farmers from Nuevo Progreso are initiating is crop rotation and the introduction of nitrogen-fixing plants such as Mucuna pruriens, better known in the region as the “Nescafe” plant (not to be confused with the brand Nescafé). This plant, praised in Africa, India and the Caribbean for its medicinal and horticultural benefits, will help farmers recover their land by enriching it, thereby better enabling them to live off the land as they have for generations.

Among the many benefits found in the “Nescafe” plant is the ability to fix nitrogen to the soil, thanks to bacteria that assimilate nitrogen from the air and mix it with other chemicals to produce organic fertilizer. Mucuna pruriens is also used as fodder for its high fiber and protein content. In the community of Nuevo Progreso, 24 farmers currently cultivate this plant and rotate it with their usual corn, bean and squash crops. The “Nescafe” plant also shows promise in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease and clinical depression.

The farmers of Nuevo Progreso have taken the first steps in regaining control of their land. The revolution has begun. A big part of the success or failure of this revolution lay in the hands of the farmers themselves and their ability to take advantage of their acquired knowledge, especially the agroecological practice of cultivating “Nescafe” to once again make the land fertile, allowing them to cultivate higher-quality coffee.