A Changing Landscape

When we decided to move to Bolivia we thought that we were moving to the jungle and that things would remain relatively primitive. But you cannot stop progress.

Four years ago each farmer was cultivating 2-4 hectares of land by hand. This is called ‘chaqueado’ farming. We were told that mechanized farming was not allowed in this area but this is Bolivia and the ‘guidelines’ are just that. Each year our neighbours have cleared more land, first by hand and recently renting a caterpillar to do the work for them.

So we joined them, reluctantly. We don’t like the impact of the machinery on the soil but we would not be able to do any experimentation unless we cleared some of our own land and started growing rice.

But we still could not be ‘normal’. Instead of simply brushing all the trees into a long row or ‘cordon’ and then burning them, we buried the trees and covered them with soil. Hopefully, this will provide nutrition as they decompose. We are not sure how the removal of that much top soil will affect the rice production but we will see.

Now instead of looking out at all the native bush I look out over our land, and the neighbour’s land, and the next neighbour’s land and so on. We plan to plant trees along the property line and also on top of one of the cordons. Yes, it looks naked right now but just wait a year!