How it began
The system is named after the community of Quesungual in the department of Lempira, western Honduras, where it began. FAO describes it as an ancestral local practice of the region. Ian Cherrett, who worked for FAO in Lempira for seven years from the 1990s, writes that the system as now practiced resulted from collaboration between small hillside farmers and agronomists. FAO figures for the area track its results from 1993.
Before it existed
Hillside farmers in the region grew maize and beans by slash and burn. FAO notes that after mineral fertilizers, agrochemicals and commercial seed arrived in the 1960s, this turned into a maize monoculture. Cherrett describes farms of 0.5 to 4 hectares on badly degraded slopes, with farmers losing money on maize in two years out of five.
How it works
Burning and tilling are dropped. Trees and shrubs that sprout naturally are kept, scattered through the field, and cut back hard at the start of the rains. The prunings and crop stubble are spread evenly so the soil is never bare. Maize, beans and sorghum are planted directly through the mulch along the contour. The mulch soaks up heavy rain and the tree roots hold the slope. It takes about three crop cycles for the decaying material to supply enough nutrients, after which fertilizer use can be halved.
How it spread
In Guatemala a local adaptation called Kuxur Rum was taken up by 190 families between 2001 and 2003 and by more than 7,000 farms by 2006. Farmer-to-farmer extension carried the system into Nicaragua. FAO estimates the area under the system in the border region of Honduras and El Salvador at over 3,000 square kilometers. The research center CIAT has studied it and judged it adaptable to parts of Africa and Asia.
What changed first
FAO reports that in Honduras maize yields rose from 1.23 tonnes per hectare in 1993 to 2.73 in 2001, and bean yields from 0.26 to 0.78. During the El Nino drought of 1997 and Hurricane Mitch in 1998 farmers using the system still harvested surpluses, and Lempira sent maize as aid to departments with greater crop losses.
Where it stands today
Cherrett reported in 2013 that the core area had more than 6,000 smallholder farmers and 60,000 hectares of secondary forest that stayed green through the dry season, and that some fields had been cropped for over 15 years in a row. He noted that the barriers to wider adoption lay in government policy and aid strategy, not with farmers.
