Our Syntropic Agroforestry System

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To date we have planted ~3 hectares with syntropically managed agroforestry, including two main plots specifically for mixed-cacao production. Syntropic 1 is one hectare of what used to be mixed cacao and mandarin plantation and we began planting in June 2022. Syntropic 2 is 0.8 hectares of what was previously cattle pasture, and we began planting in December of 2022. 

These two plots are currently in their placental stage, pumping organic matter into the soil to regenerate the previously degraded plots of land. The mixed cacao-mandarin used extensive fertilizer and herbicides, along with tractors for management, destroying and compacting the soil microbiome which we are currently rebuilding. The cow pasture (characteristic of much of our province) compacts soil and also simplifies the microbiome. The result is unhealthy soil with weak microbiomes, low water-holding capacity and high erosion rates. Our first stage of planting is our placental focus on regenerating soil for the cacao-avocado-coconut 17 species food forest we hope to see in the future.

We plant rows of food and timber crops alongside biomass producing lines which are periodically cut and added to the crop lines to feed our growing forest. As of now, we are growing 20 species of plants, including amarillo, teak, guava, Brazilian fern tree and banana, with an eventual focus on cacao, avocado and coconut. Our biomass producing lines include mombasa grass, botón de oro (Mexican sunflower) and yuca (cassava) harvested sequentially to add onto the mulch lines feeding our crops. The mulch pumps biomass back into the soil, improving soil structure, water retention and erosion control in addition to cooperating with our diverse plants to feed a diverse and healthy soil microbiome. Read below for a more technical description and check out this blog post for more on syntropic agriculture!

Our current plan includes planting cacao, avocado and coconut beneath the established banana, pachaco, eucalyptus and amarillo. See key for detailed information on which plants are where, and their given strata level.

Our 1st syntropic agroforestry plot in February 2022, just after planting hundreds of tree seeds.

Our 1st syntropic agroforestry plot in May 2023, after 1.5 years of care and growth.

Intro to Syntropic Agroforestry

RFI and Regenerative Agriculture

We started our agroforestry journey once we realized the source of environmental disaster in Ecuador: unsustainable land use. The hillsides that faced the most damage around houses in Bahía de Carácquez in the fallout of the 7.8 magnitude 2016 earthquake had been denuded first by short-term agriculture projects, before being abandoned to low income recent immigrants to the province's urban center. During the reconstruction phase our of work, we quickly realized the best way to impact land use change was to showcase a different path. In 2016, we purchased the Los Arboleros Farm, 30 hectares (70 acres) of cacao and pasture land we would begin regenerating.

We have planted 500+ guadua bamboo since 2018 to regenerate land at the Los Arboleros Farm. We look forward to this bamboo being mature (~at 7 years) and using it for local building projects.

After two years of reforesting with native guadua bamboo building dykes to prevent excess erosion and dreaming about the futures of our project, we were struck by the dream of making a model agroforestry system. In a province famous not just for its dairy, livestock and cacao, but also it’s growing land degradation, we were struck by the possibilities of syntropic agroforestry. Entropy is what we see around us here: the simplification of our landscapes and the resultant ecological and social chaos which can prevail as a result. For the past 40 years, syntropic agroforestry has been cultivating an alternative to this predicament. Syntropy is the tendency towards order, complexity, interactions inherent in ecosystems. In agricultural systems, it’s a system of mixed planting oriented around two key principles: succession and stratification.

Students standing in a reforested area of our farm, where we have planted balsa trees, turmeric, vetiver grass and more to help regenerate the soil and landscape from overgrazing practices.

Intro to Syntropy: Stratification and Succession

Syntropy leverages succession and stratification to heal ecosystems and efficiently use resources. Succession is the natural process ecosystems move through as they respond to any sort of damage. We know ecosystems do this well, but syntropic agroforestry guides the process to produce food and other marketable products at the same time. By utilizing fast-growing “weeds'' like mombasa grass and Mexican Sunflower alongside long term crops like avocado, teak, and cacao, syntropy leverages rapid growth to pump organic matter back into the soil. Oriented in parallel lines, the weeds are added to mulch piles in the crop lines to feed our future plants and timber crops. 

Correspondingly, these crop lines are structures to minimize competition and maximize the efficient use of resources we see in healthy forest through stratification. In syntropy, we divide plants into four categories. The emergent strata requires full sunlight and is always at the top of the ecosystem occupying ~15% of the forest including coconut and teak in mature agroecosystems. High strata are just below emergent strata, take in 80% sunlight and occupy ~20% including avocado, and ice cream bean. The middle strata, often cacao or coffee take in ~60% sunlight and take up 40%, and the rest is the groundcover, which covers the rest of the area and only needs 20% sunlight. By growing plants that occupy different strata with different sunlight needs, we minimize wasteful energy loss through competition and give our soils a healthy diverse array of plants to interact with. 

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Agriculture has been getting a bad rap recently. It covers 38% of earth’s surface (nearly half of all non-ice land), directly causes at least 10% of greenhouse gas emissions and is the source of 70% of all freshwater use. As temperatures rise, drought spreads and human communities boom, it is clear that agriculture can’t simply disappear. Syntropic agroforestry is one of the main answers to this predicament. Check out our recent post on our iteration of syntropic agroforestry to see how we’re applying these ideas now on our land!

Resources

Andrade, D. (2019). What is Syntropic Farming?. Agenda Gotsch

Andrade, D., Pasini, F., & Scarano, F. R. (2020). Syntropy and innovation in agriculture. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 45, 20-24.Chicago

“Life in Syntropy,” Agenda Gotsch video