Multi-crops on Plant Beds on Guam

View the project final report

Commodities

• Fruits: bananas
• Vegetables: sweet potatoes
• Animals: poultry, swine

Practices

• Crop Production: nutrient cycling, organic fertilizers
• Education and Training: demonstration, extension, farmer to farmer, on-farm/ranch research, participatory research
• Production Systems: general crop production
• Soil Management: organic matter

In the northern and central part of Guam, much of the land is limestone with only 6 to 12 inches of topsoil. One idea that could be applied to help make these lands more productive comes from Ethiopia, where productive bananas are produced on created plant beds. The beds, 4 to 6 feet deep and 50 feet long, are created by placing tree trunks cleared from the land at the bottom of the pits. The trunks are then covered with branches and green material and topped with manure from cows and horses. This grant plans to create such pits, irrigating bananas, taro and sweet potato grown in the pits with wastewater from pig pens, which is available daily, and adding chicken manure. The bananas will be planted 6 feet apart, with taro and sweet potatoes planted between. The compost material in the pit will be analyzed for nutrient content and the plant tissue of the crops analyzed. Increasing supplies of these nutrition foods should help reduce local prices, making them more accessible to local residents.