ECHO Asia Notes

AN Issue #38 - 15/05/2019

Featured in this AN:

• Refugee Camps as Microcosm: Restoration & Sustainability in an Accidental City

• Low-Cost Natural Building Options for Storing Seed in Tropical Southeast Asia

AN Issue #37 - 15/02/2019

Featured in this AN:

• Gracious Greetings from the New Regional Director of ECHO Asia

• Preventing Insect Damage of Stored Seed Using Low-Cost Control Options

• Rice Hull Gold: 10 On-farm Uses of Rice Hulls

AN Issue #36 - 31/10/2018

Featured in this AN:

• Soil Amendments for Healthier Soils

• The Value of a Seed: Growing a Network of Community Level Seed Banks in Asia

• Is it possible to never (or rarely) need to shop for meat again? Book Review : Secret Livestock of Survival

AN Issue #35 - 30/05/2018

Featured in this AN:

• Livestock Integration on the Tropical Smallholder Farm

• Putting Biochar to use at the Edge: Quality, Soils, and Measurement

AN Issue #34 Special Edition - 12/12/2017

Conference Proceedings
The 6th Biennial ECHO Asia Agriculture and
Community Development Conference

Editors’ Note

In an effort to expand the dissemination of technical materials and best practices presented during this year’s ECHO Asia Agriculture & Community Development Conference, the ECHO Asia team has compiled a collection of technical papers contributed by network members and conference participants. 

The papers compiled in this Special Issue of ECHO Asia Notes seek to address a variety of topics relevant to the work of ECHO in the region, and summarize past and ongoing projects aimed at improving the lives of the marginalized through relevant, practical, and innovative agriculture-related practices. 

We would like to thank the implementers and authors of these projects by acknowledging the quality of their work, and hope that in sharing these synopses, others might benefit from their content. It is our hope that you might also be inspired to bolster your individual abilities to conduct similar use-inspired research in the field, and to continue to share with others what works and doesn’t work in your unique contexts.

Sincerely,

Patrick Trail, M.S., CCA
Research & Technical Associate

Daniela K. Riley, MBA
Office Manager

Abram J. Bicksler, Ph.D.
Director, ECHO Asia Impact Center

Proceedings Contents

1. Edible Wild Plants and their Contribution to Livelihoods and Diet of Ethnic Communities in Northeastern Cambodia
Ra Thorng

2. Enabling a Bottom-up Approach in a Top-down Environment: A Case Study on Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) Facilitation in Huaphanh Province, Lao PDR
Claire Georges and Pierre Ferrand

3. Facilitating Farmer-led Innovation and Extension in Agroecology in the Ayeyarwaddy Delta, Myanmar
Justine Scholle, Premila Masse, and Louis Pautrizel

4. Improving Lives and Livelihoods through Responsible Rural Tourism, with Examples from India
Keith Virgo, Manisha Pande, Pooja Masoor, and Dinesh Pande

5. Sustainable Intensification of Rain Fed Lowland Rice Systems:  A Case Study in Xieng Khouang Province in Lao PDR
Mathilde Bourjac, Pierre Ferrand, and Jean-Christophe Castella

AN Issue #33 - 11/12/2017

Featured in the AN:

• An Innovative, Inexpensive, Environmentally Friendly Method to Pasteurize Mushroom Media in the Tropics Using a Styrofoam Box

• Op-Ed: Forage Plants for Improved Human Development

AN Issue #32 - 15/08/2017

Featured in this AN: 

• Inexpensive Mass Propagation Techniques for Introducing Improved Potato Varieties in the Tropics

• Comparing Locally Available Waste By-Products as Feedstocks for Gasifier Cook-Stoves

• Book Review: Sustainable Agro-Watershed Management

AN Issue #31 - 08/06/2017

• Feed Options for Ruminants in the Tropics

• Creating a Low-Cost Seed Dryer for Local Seed Banks

AN Issue #30 - 02/02/2017

• Soils of Mainland Southeast Asia

• Permaculture in Development

• Book Review: The Independent Farmstead

AN Issue #29 - 15/10/2016

• Diagnosing Crop Nutrient Deficiencies in the Field

• A Primer of Coffee Harvesting and Processing

• Book Review: Perennial Vegetable Gardening