Field Fires and Mango Trees

Burnt mango trees

Today we traveled to a community where our plan for the day was to help prune fruit trees. However, when we arrived to the farm, I looked out over a field of frail trees with dead leaves and branches. The family explained to us that about 6 months ago their neighbor had burned his corn field after the harvest. It is a common practice for farmers to burn their land after the harvest to prepare it for the next planting. In this case, however, the field fire spread and reached this family's mango plantation where it burnt a large portion of the 500 mango trees they had planted. The family had cared for the trees for several years, which took a lot of time and hard work. Since they don't have an irrigation system, they had manually watered all 500 trees using buckets! Needless to say, the family was devastated, but they have an attitude of moving forward and looking forward. They have already planted small, grafted mango saplings next to each dead tree to start to rebuild their mango plantation.

The family hoped that more trees would revive but as you can see in the photo above, many have not. For the time being, we pruned the trees that were overall still healthy. We cut off the dead limbs and added lime-sulfur (caldo sulfocalcico) to the freshly cut areas to help them heal quicker.

Pruning the surviving trees and applying lime-sulfur

This is an unfortunate example of the problems caused by unsustainable agricultural practices like burning land. Burning fields has become a risky practice that organizations like the one I am interning for are trying to provide alternatives to. For example, they suggest planting nitrogen-fixing legumes between the corn rows. This helps build organic content in the soil and improves fertility. It also covers the surface of the soil with organic matter, which can slow the growth of weeds. With less weeds and better soil fertility, there will ideally be less need for burning and using herbicides.