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early pioneers are forced to clear a
new patch of land, or starve! Why?
The Jungle Paradox
"Why is it," you ask, "that such
thick, lush foliage will grow a fantastic
twenty feet a year
witholft cu/tivation,
yet farms and crops
tmder cNitit,ation
fail in five years? The problem is a sci–
entüic one, but can be explained in
simple terms.
With the explanation you will see
why thc danger of famine is out–
stripping food production in Brazil.
Trying to find why
crops
fail, the
International Association for Tropical
Biology held severa) meetings on Ama–
zon ecology. The tirst meeting was a
symposium in Florencia, Colombia. The
second was a round-table discussion in
the Amazon River town of Leticia. Sci–
entists f rom the Netherlands, Germany,
England, France and much of Latin
America attended.
The first duc was uncovered when
scientists found the feeder roots of trees
were covered by a mysterious fungus -
a fungus they called
mycorrhizfl.
Other authorities, notably Dr. Went
from the University of Nevada and Dr.
Stark of the Desert Research lnstitute,
had developed the theory that the rain
forest of the Amazon
does not use the
King ltopold Pholo
IGARAPE RIVER- native cuya rana trees growing in the water. During
roiny season many rivers overflow their banks, making agriculture
an
impossibility.
soil
as do most trees. Trees iu Ama–
zonia, they said, use soil ouly as an
anchor and a platform, not as a food
source. How then do such trees
feed?
Ors. Wcnt and Stark found that
jungle trees take their plant food
not
from the soíl, but from that mysterious
fungus, mycorrhiza.
The mycorrhiza system breaks clown
the fallen litter of the rorest fioor -
!caves and vines, twigs and trash,
fllmost
a.r
soon
as
it fa//s
- before it
decays into soil. In othcr words, this
mycorrhiza root fungus returns nutrients
direrliJ
to thc living vegetation without
significantly using the soil.
Of course, rain forest soil itsclf can
be fertile as long as it receives
some
organic mattcr from decaying plants.
lt's just that tree roots - thanks to
mycorrhiza - do not have to wait until
food filters clown into dceper soil. You
might say thc trees "take it from thc
top"!
It appears that mycorrhiza produces
cnzymes whidl help othcr organisms
decompose thc forest lttter - leaves,
vines, branches - with this result: a
natural cycle is created in which the
minerals from plant debris are fed
directly back into the plants themselves.
A perfect sewage disposal and utili–
zation plan, you might say!
Thc trouble is, mycorrhiza fceds only
certain plants. Trouble is again,
mycor–
rhiz.l usuaUy dies when virgin vegetation
is deared.
But this is only part of the reason
why crops fail within five years. What
else stands between today's starving
millions and tomorrow's "breadbas–
kct"? Can't the rich Amazonian soil
support crops in spite of the mycorrhiza
problcm?
Forced to Destroy
About the only way you can begin
farming is
lo
b11m.
Why? Lacking
tcns of thousands of dollars needed
for heavy-duty land-clearing ec¡uipment,
lacking roads to get the machinery
therc, pioneers likc you are reduced to
small power tools, and more f rec¡uently
to axcs and saws.
Armed with saw and ax, the pionecr
who confronts the emerald jungle maze
compares to young David attacking
Goliath. Vines hcre often fall
100
fect
from branch
Lo
jungle floor. Tangled