RIGHTS RESTRICTEDOvercoming_Roland Bunch Figure 4

Malawi. This farmer has successfully “imitated the forest” right in his maize field. The maize is growing beautifully, even back in the middle of the field, in spite of (or rather, because of) the dense population of other food crops and forest plants, and in spite of a drought. Each farmer’s field will end up with different plants, depending on the farmers’ food preferences, the species available in the forest, and local climatic conditions, but the increased yields, resistance to drought, and additional half-dozen benefits provided by this field, will be fairly similar. The plant population is greater in this field than in any temperate-climate field because the roots can find plentiful nutrients both deep in the soil and up in the mulch, so they grow less horizontally.