If you are a nature lover and tend to be captivated by agriculture, we exhort you to visit the home of the YUCAE agroecological project, a farm located in the Inés María Mendoza Nature Reserve (also known as Punta Yeguas), Yabucoa, Puerto Rico.

A main goal of the YUCAE Project is to build conscience about the importance of ecological agriculture and conservation of natural resources. In order to accomplish this goal, the YUCAE Committee has established student volunteer programs, among other activities. In addition, tours are held in the YUCAE Project’s farm.

Daniel Cruz and Lydia Díaz, two of the persons responsible for establishing the YUCAE Project, guided us while we walked along the crops and learned about the harvest of cassava and the agroecological practices implemented in the farm. As a result, we had a wonderful experience while discovering nature and agricultural ecotreasures.

Cassava, a root vegetable also known as yuca or tapioca, is the main crop in the YUCAE Project’s farm comprised of nearly 7 acres of land. As a result of three harvest seasons since 2013, over 4,000 pounds of cassava root vegetables have been produced in this farm, as stated by Daniel.

We stared at the white flesh-cassava and yellow flesh-cassava plants in a grooved and sloped field. According to Daniel, the furrows and slope on the land foster moistness in the soil and help prevent soil erosion.

Daniel informed that 10-12 inch cassava stem cuttings serve as seeds and are planted at a 30-36-inch distance between one another. He explained that the cassava plant alerts when it is ready to be harvested—that is, when the cassava leaves start falling, the cassava flower’s seed falls and the ground contracts and forms open cracks on the soil surface.

Daniel illustrated not only how a white-flesh cassava plant already showed signs of harvest readiness but also how to reap such cassava crop. As he strongly pulled a cassava plant, we appreciated how these valuable fruits emerged from underground.

Following this spectacle, Daniel could not resist showing happiness and pride. Such emotions are not surprising, considering that this tour guide and farmer explained that it takes around nine months to produce the cassava harvest that suits the standards of the YUCAE Project.

Cassava crops are very productive since the planting of one seed (one set of stem cuttings) may yield over 20 pounds of cassava root vegetables, as stated by Daniel.

While we walked on YUCAE Project’s farm, we admired other plants such as papayas, sugar cane, soursop, pineapples, pigeon peas, and passion fruits. Also, we noticed that a variety of trees, such as mango and mammee trees, were planted in the surroundings of the cassava plantation. Daniel stated that the cultivation of a variety of crops and planting of trees help prevent soil erosion as the soil is not completely exposed to the sun. He explained that the fallen leaves of these crops and trees also help fertilize the soil since the decomposed leaves become a natural fertilizer. Sunflower plants were also planted in the farm to attract butterflies and bees for pollination purposes, as informed by Daniel.

By the end of the tour, Lydia surprised us as she offered the tour group fresh papaya and “alfajor”, a Yabucoa’s typical sweetened dessert made of cassava, coconut and ginger. The “alfajor” was delicious and the papaya refreshed us. These local-product snacks helped us gain energy to further engage in the other phase of the tour: hiking on the Punta Yeguas Trail. To read about that experience, please search the corresponding article in the nature encounters section of ecotreasures magazine.

You may schedule a tour reservation by contacting YUCAE Committee’s representative at 787-385-5422. Regular tours are held on the last Sunday of each month. Upon availability, groups of 10+ persons may schedule a tour to be held on a weekday or Saturday.

Translated by N. Michelle Rodríguez Amadeo