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Loquat Seeds - Now available for a limited time!

Loquat (Eriobotrya japonica), a subtropical fruit tree, grows up to 9 m. It produces ripe yellow-orange fruits enjoyed fresh, cooked into desserts, or turned into jam. It's also valued for its timber. Seeds only last a few weeks, so claim yours soon! 
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ECHOcommunity Updates

Now Available! EDN 169 2025-04-01

In this issue

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Direct Solar Dryers

A simple, cheap option for solar food drying

James Dontje

Excerpt:

We have dried a variety of fruits and vegetables successfully with this dryer, using thermometers, dietary scales, and small relative humidity sensors to “calibrate” the drying so that simple visual and texture cues can be used to determine when the food is dry enough for storage. A lot of testing has been done with mango slices –they are more difficult to dry sufficiently in a humid environment and if we can dry them successfully (and we have done so), we think we can dry just about any other food.

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ECHOcommunity Updates [ Read all ]
NEW Technical Note # 103 Tire, Sack, and Keyhole Gardens
ECHO East Africa Burundi Symposium

About ECHOcommunity

ECHOcommunity is a membership community that provides access to nearly all of ECHO’s resources online, as well as communications tools to help development workers connect with each other.   View a list of ECHOcommunity.org features here.

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Upcoming events

ECHO North America: TAD II: Food Forests, Garden Design and Planning
Mon, 7 April 2025 » Fri, 11 April 2025

ECHO North America, United States

This is a five day, hands-on course that will focus on food forests and garden design. By taking this course you will learn how to design and start a food forest in your own backyard. Participants will walk through the design process with professional designers, starting from setting goals, surveying the piece of land, building a base map, considering earthworks, and creatively designing around constraints. Attendees will be able to see and apply these principles to a small garden or a lar...

National seed bank training in Burundi
Thu, 24 April 2025 » Fri, 25 April 2025

Faith Center, Burundi

Greetings East Africa network members!   ECHO EA and Hope International Burundi are conducting a National seed bank training in Bujumbura. You are cordially invited to participate or send participants. The seed bank training is hosted by Mothers Union Burundi. We encourage you to spread the word to all interested parties in Burundi and ask you to sponsor trainees. We are looking for partners who can cater for some of the training costs

ECHO Asia: Intro to Natural Earth Building Techniques Workshop
Mon, 12 May 2025 » Fri, 16 May 2025

Chiang Mai, Thailand

  Course Description:  Dive into the art and science of sustainable construction! This hands-on, introductory experience will guide you through the fundamentals of natural building techniques, including adobe, wattle and daub, earthen plastering, and more. Through a mix of engaging classroom sessions and practical activities, you'll learn how to use locally sourced, eco-friendly materials to create durable and beautiful structures. Whether you're a beginner or have already begun you...

ECHO Asia: Tropical Agriculture & Development (TAD) Course
Mon, 2 June 2025 » Sat, 7 June 2025

ECHO Asia Small Farm Resource Center Chiang Mai, Thailand, Thailand

  This 1-week course is designed for development workers, missionaries, and volunteers looking to engage their communities with low-cost, high-impact agricultural innovations and techniques. Participants will be introduced to various agricultural practices and technologies through classroom time and hands-on activities on the farm, learning to 'use what you have to make what you need.' This course is considered an 'introductory survey course' and will present a broad overview of many op...

ECHO North America: Introduction to Tropical Agriculture Development - July 2025
Mon, 7 July 2025 » Fri, 11 July 2025

ECHO North America, United States

Those interested in preparing for short to long-term involvement in international agriculture development are encouraged to participate in this five-day course.  Topics and discussions will focus on improved food security and agricultural livelihoods for small-scale farmers in developing countries.  Participants will be introduced to the complexities related to poverty and community development.  They will also be introduced to principles and practices that contribute toward maintaining h...

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Latest Resources

AgriLLM: Harnessing Transformers for Farmer Queries

The paper focuses on developing a language model called AgriLLM that can assist farmers by answering their questions. Language models are a type of artificial intelligence that can understand and generate human-like text. Th...

Open Library

The ultimate goal of the Open Library is to make all the published works of humankind available to everyone in the world. While large in scope and ambition, this goal is within our grasp. Achieving it will require the partic...

Moth Bean Vigna aconitifolia, a Multipurpose Legume for Arid Climates

V. aconitifolia is a multipurpose legume crop that you can use for green manure, food, fodder, and feed. Its versatility makes it a practical option for productive fallow for small-scale farmers.

Direct Solar Dryers

Drying food with the help of the sun for prolonged storage and preservation is a long-time practice. The ECHO East Africa Impact Center is developing a direct solar food dryer design with the goals of minimizing cost and rel...

In-Field Grafted Avocado

Avocados produce valuable fruit and have huge potential for mountain farmers in Haiti. We struggled for several years, trying to plant grafted avocado trees that we bought from nurseries. My technicians have learned the meth...

Fertility Ditches with Elephant Grass and/or Bananas

Network members Mike Martin and Brian Moser share farmer systems of using ditches to generate compost in the field to either retain for in-field soil health management or take and use elsewhere on-farm. 

Cultivating Pigeon Peas: A Comprehensive Guide for Smallholder Farmers

"Cultivating Pigeon Peas: A Comprehensive Guide for Smallholder Farmers" is an essential resource designed to empower farmers with actionable knowledge for successful pigeon pea cultivation. Designed for smallholder farmers,...

IFOAM Seeds Platform

The IFOAM Seeds Platform is a global network of individuals and organizations advancing seed and plant breeding for organic systems.

We need greater diversity and larger supply of high-quality, regionally adapted p...

Producing & Marketing Value-added Farm Products - Supplemental Information, Turmeric

Producing & Marketing Value-added Farm Products - Supplemental Information, Turmeric

Example of Value-added farm products- Turmeric operation at Aloha House, Palawan, Philippines

Herbs in Africa: Small Scale, Sustainable Cultivation and Processing Techniques for Rural Communities

This book discusses conservation and cooperation, dehydration, extraction of herbal material, dehydration apparatus, the home based herbal business, skin care lotions and medicinal balms, and extraction apparatus of herbs in...

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