Growers try various practices to maintain the health of their soils.
AESAC
Promotion of farmer experimentation
Each producer looks for the solutions best suited to his plot.
AESAC
Each producer looks for the solutions best suited to his plot.
AESAC
INIFAP technicians and other organizations have accompanied Apaseo el Grande producers for many years, training them and encouraging them to seek their own solutions to the particular problems of their plots.
Over time, the growers learned that their plots have particular needs depending on their location, soil type, climate conditions, among other things, and that the "recipes" they sometimes find in books do not always work the same for everyone. This motivated them to continue experimenting with different practices within the five axes of sustainability they had learned, and to write down the combinations that gave them better production yields at lower cost. This has been at the heart of the AESAC experience.
They also learned to share their experiences and give recommendations to other producers who were resistant to change, and were able to organize training workshops even in other communities.
- The good relationship of the producers with the technicians who accompany them, together with their openness to allow them to seek their own solutions instead of pigeonholing them into orthodoxy.
- The courage of the producers to try methods not previously known to them, at the risk of reducing their profits when the results were not as expected.
- The demonstration that the method works: in a year of severe drought, AESAC members obtained higher yields than their neighbors, which soon attracted more interested producers.
- Being able to demonstrate that everyone has much to contribute to the process of sustainable axes gives a great value of self-esteem to AESAC producers.
- It is important to understand that environmental conditions, soils and management are very different among all producers, which results in different production data.