Longer description of your proposed project

Some 2 billion people are living today as subsistence farmers, barely growing enough food to feed themselves, and often not enough. My aim is to validate techniques used by past Native American farmers, using intercropping with minimal chemical inputs, which contemporary reports and some recent research claim was highly productive, needed no chemical inputs, and eliminated soil erosion.

I hope to provide techniques to improve food security for 2 billion people! I am not inventing anything new. I am providing evidence that certain techniques invented by Native American farmers and in use by them through the 1800s were actually highly productive, sustainable, low chemical input, and are within the financial reach of modern subsistence farmers.

Researchers are in strong disagreement as to the level of productivity that early, pre-colonial Native Americans achieved, with yield estimates varying by over 600%. I have already achieved results validating the higher productivity numbers. I plan to replicate my results in a larger field trial with carefully recorded data on methods, inputs, labor, time, results, and to publish the research in several papers.

I am very unhappy with the quality of research that has been done to date on the questions of improving low-input, subsistence, and traditional agriculture. The researchers consistently fail to use the techniques that they claim to be studying. Or, they use such small field trials that the results are highly suspect. I suspect that they have too few graduate students willing to do the physical labor involved in peasant agriculture, and are unwilling to do it themselves. Many appear to have little agricultural or even gardening experience, and so don't seem to have a clear understanding of the problems and techniques. Their research is interesting, but unconvincing. Or, they shoehorn modern high-tech inputs into traditional agriculture.

Most current Ag research focuses on promotion of advanced, industrial agriculture emphasizing chemical and mechanical inputs and exotic hybrid seeds. Sadly, these inputs are simply impossible for subsistence farmers to adopt due to the high costs. A middle ground is needed for the 2 billion people currently barely surviving on subsistence agriculture.

Describe why you think you're qualified to work on this

I have worked in Central America with peasant farmers in promoting agricultural improvements, and I personally worked in the type of conditions I am studying. I have been using these techniques for over 30 years. My degree is in agriculture. My 2 co-author's degrees are in Crop Science and Environmental Science. Links to their papers are below, and also to 2 of my gardening posts. One of the links is specifically to a public online post on the three sisters-style garden that I will be replicating for this paper.

Other ways I can learn about you

https://permies.com/t/233039/Fall-prep-spring-sisters-garden

https://hubpages.com/living/Self-Seeded-Gardens

https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/23/17/9809

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666791622000100

How much money do you need?

$5000 to $10,000. Mainly for the costs of submitting to journals. Submission to scientific journals is expensive. All other costs have been covered by me.

Links to any supporting documents or information

This is a link to a paper that tried to do something similar to my current work. Although this is one of the better papers, sadly, the authors failed to actually replicate the techniques they claimed to be studying, invalidating the results. I plan to do better.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/pan.2011.007

Estimate your probability of succeeding if you get the amount of money you asked for

100%. I can do the field trial without any added money, and in fact plan to do it this coming year regardless of receiving any grant. I can publish in a less selective journal without much monetary input. I hope to publish in a higher quality journal so that it gets wider exposure. That takes money for submission.