Mises à jour de ECHOcommunity
East Africa Note 12 Now Available! 2024-02-27
In this issue
- Symposium Shared Lessons, Technologies, and Experience
- Expand and Strengthen the ECHO East Africa Network Member
- Transformative Impact of Internships on Young Individuals
- Support the Mission of Work Through Partnership/Collaboration
- Upcoming Joint Symposium in Juba, South Sudan
Symposium Shared Lessons, Technologies, and Experiences
Harold Msanya
Excerpt:
Grain has been stored in underground pits in North Africa and the Middle East for thousands of years. It is currently a common practice in Sudan, Somalia and Ethiopia. While underground storage pits have been in use since ancient times, they are still relatively unknown, but can be an attractive option for many. Storage pits offer the advantages of relative easy construction, low relative cost, safety from theft, good thermal insulation, and protection from moisture, rodent attack and insect infestation.
Research Update: Options for drying Moringa leaves 2024-02-20
ECHO staff have often fielded questions about ways to easily dry moringa leaves such as "Can you dry moringa leaves at room temperature?" It would be nice, especially if it’s raining outside, to be able to dry moringa leaves by simply placing them on a flat surface in your house. Will the leaves become moldy? Conditions that favor mold are high humidity and heat, combined with poor air circulation. Dr. Motis decided to try drying a handful of moringa leaves in his office since it is an air-conditioned space to see what would happen!
How do you dry moringa leaves? Please share your experience and knowledge with the wider ECHO Community!
MissionAssist shares literacy booklets through ECHOcommunity! 2024-02-13
MissionAssist produces a wide range of adult literacy booklets in four widely used languages: English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. The booklets cover a range of subjects from health and hygiene to crafts, farming, and practical issues like simple construction techniques. MissionAssist is one of the more recent ECHOcommunity partners sharing content through ECHOcommunity.org and the ECHOcommunity mobile app so that they can serve an even larger audience.
ECHO places a high value on working with partners to 'reduce the friction' of discovering relevant resources quickly by indexing appropriate scientific and technical resources within ECHOcommunity.org. We are always interested in suggestions for new topics or resources that will benefit ECHO network members. Send any observations or suggestions to submissions@echocommunity.org
Early Bird Rate Extended to Feb 9th! Introduction to Tropical Agriculture Development Course 2024-02-06
ECHO North America | North Fort Myers, Florida
Register now to take advantage of the early bird rate and save! This course covers a broad range of topics relevant to those starting in agricultural development in a tropical environment. The purpose of this class is to expose attendees to several different ideas and concepts.
April 2-5 Register Today
This course is for those interested in preparing for short to long-term involvement in international agriculture development. 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 healthy and productive soil as well as improved water management and crop production.
ECHO North America Regional Impact Center 2024 Training Calendar 2024-01-30
ECHO North America is excited to announce this year's 2024 training calendar. Please join us on the global demonstration farm this year as we learn and inspire together. Located in North Fort Myers, Florida, our training center contains 5 acres of sustainable agriculture demonstrations that act as a living classroom for people heading to the tropics. Our experienced trainers will walk you through topics related to smallholder production in the tropics, syntropic agriculture, agricultural design, and more! If you have any questions, please email study@echonet.org.
Updated Plant Information about Katuk 2024-01-23
After some questions came in from ECHO's network, our agriculture technical and seed bank staff have updated our Plant Information Sheet about kayuk (Sauropus androgynus). Katuk is a perennial green that grows well in lowland, warm regions of the subtropics and tropics. Its leaves are high in protein and taste similar to garden peas. It prefers partial shade and develops into a bushy shrub when the tips are harvested frequently.
Read the whole plant information sheet online
Note technique de ECHO 101: Brouette en bambou centrée sur la charge 2024-01-16
Une brouette standard, avec la roue à l’avant, fait peser environ la moitié du poids de la charge sur l’utilisateur. Une brouette centrée sur la charge place la roue au centre de la charge, transférant 90 % ou plus du poids sur la roue plutôt que sur l’utilisateur. Cela permet d’utiliser l’appareil pour le transport sur de longues distances sur des chemins étroits. La brouette centrée sur la charge est un modèle chinois ancien. Le chargement était placé autour et au-dessus d’une grande roue (d’environ 1 mètre de diamètre). Cela permettait aux utilisateurs de transporter de lourdes charges (y compris des passagers) sur de nombreux kilomètres sur des sentiers étroits. ECHO a mis au point un modèle miniature qui utilise une roue de bicyclette. Cette brouette centrée sur la charge, illustrée dans la figure 1 et qui fait l’objet du présent document, peut être construite avec du bambou ou d’autres matériaux disponibles localement.
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EDN Numéro 162 Maintenant disponible 2024-01-09
Sommaire:
- La culture en courbes de niveau et les barrières vivantes pour les petits exploitants agricoles
- Le Taro (Colocasia esculenta)
- De la Banque de semences de ECHO: Le riz séché au four comme dessiccateur pour le séchage des semences
- Livres, Sites Web, et Autres Ressources: L’application mobile ECHOcommunity - Gestion des ressources
La culture en courbes de niveau et les barrières vivantes pour les petits exploitants agricoles
Robert Walle
Extrait:
En augmentant les distances, il est important de prendre en compte les espèces de barrières, leur efficacité en matière de conservation du sol et de l’eau, ainsi que l’espace nécessaire aux cultures. Par exemple, les arbres agroforestiers seuls sont généralement des barrières moins efficaces que les graminées. En revanche, en les combinant, ils peuvent fournir du fourrage légumineux tout en conservant le sol et l’eau.
Share what you know about SE Asia Wild Foods! 2024-01-02
Plant Planet Plate is a recently launched project in Oddar Meanchey Province, Northwest Cambodia by Dr. Ashley Thuthao Keng Dam, a medical anthropologist and a National Geographic Explorer and Green Shoots Foundation, a UK/Cambodian registered NGO running a permaculture farm and training space in Oddar Meanchey. Plant Planet Plate aims to celebrate and document foraging and wild-food knowledge in Cambodia and demonstrate that building resilient landscapes and understanding food history can improve food security and curb the impacts of climate change.
We feel this project is timely as Cambodia's rich biodiversity is at threat from climate change, loss of habitat, and changes in ecosystem. Documentation of species is limited and if any, has been orally passed down by elders, family members, and Khmer Traditional Medicine healers. However, the role these plants play in supplementing diets (particularly during COVID 19 for example) shows how important it is to not only begin recognizing the villagers, foragers, and healers as the true custodians of this knowledge but also preserve their word because it's contribution to the plant-world, conservation efforts and academia is unmatched.
In June 2023 the team comprising, Dr Thao, Muneezay Jaffery from Green Shoots Foundation, and Mr Sarin Sak, a local agronomist, set out in the vicinity of Samraong District of Oddar Meanchey Province to conduct 50 interviews with households on the wild-foods they gather, how they eat them, where they go forage and so forth. This information and other details of the plants will be compiled into a database that will be available in English, French, and Khmer as essays for the use of academics, plant enthusiasts, growers, and food enthusiasts.
At the end of the 50 interviews (around four weeks) we have around 125 names of plants in Khmer and we are now taking the step to find corresponding scientific names, common names, and plant families. So far, using various sources, we have around 40 scientific names for the plants and are looking to the ECHO Community to help us identify a few more!
One thing we know is that plants and biodiversity don't observe political/administrative boundaries. Many of the plants enjoyed in Cambodia would also be popular in Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and other countries in Asia. So we hope the ECHO Community from those regions and within the diaspora will help us verify names of plants and any other details they can provide.
Note technique de ECHO 100: Systèmes de litière pour la production animale 2023-12-19
Les systèmes de litière sont une approche de production animale hygiénique et intégrée dans laquelle les animaux sont élevés dans un espace clos sur un sol de litière biologique. Les systèmes avec une litière épaisse sont parfois appelés systèmes à litière profonde. Les systèmes de litière vous permettent de donner la priorité à la santé animale en offrant des conditions similaires à celles de l’environnement naturel des animaux. Les systèmes de litière aident également à capturer les déchets animaux et à les convertir en formes utilisables pour la production agricole.
Les animaux peuvent être élevés sur un système de litière pendant une partie ou la totalité du cycle de production selon le contexte de l’agriculteur. Ces systèmes ne produisent pas autant que les systèmes industriels mais peuvent être plus rentables pour les petits agriculteurs en réduisant à la fois les risques et les coûts. ECHO connaît les systèmes de litière pour porcs, lapins, volailles et ruminants.