ECHO Asia "Improving Lives" Agriculture & Community Development Conference 2017
This collection contains nearly all of the presentations from the ECHO Asia "Improving Lives" Conference from 3-6 Oct 2017 in Chiang Mai, Thailand. If you cannot find what you are looking for, please contact ECHO Admin (echoasia@echonet.org).
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2017-10-03 Soils of smallholder farmers are often depleted of organic matter and available soil nutrients, and may also be acidic and/or saline. We will review the causes and extent of these soil-related challenges in the developing world. A variety of possible management responses to these challenges will...
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2017-10-05
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2017-10-05 In July 2014, I started planting trees at the Green Garden, located in the northeast area of Thailand, which is known to have very dry summers. This food forest was started on bare ground. To prepare the soil, it was covered with compost rice straw. We started by planting banana trees to help...
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2017-10-03 A common feature of remote villages is a lack of income-generating opportunities that force young people to migrate to the cities for employment. This results in communities dominated by the young and the old, a decline in the social and cultural fabric, and a reduced pride in rural life. Since...
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2017-10-05 The Sloping Agriculture Land Technologies (SALT) were developed in the Philippines more than 30 years ago. They were developed with local farmers incorporating some key principles for farming the uplands in the humid tropics such as soil erosion control, fertility management through use of plant...
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2017-10-04 Seeds are the most significant agricultural input factor. Smart farmers must know how to select and harvest the seeds that are adaptable to the environment in a particular area and their production requirement characteristics. Each vegetable has certain times during the plant’s growth when seed...
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2017-10-04 Why is local food important? We will discuss a few topics related to local food: 1) Right now, local food is a trend that includes a focus on super foods, clean food, and supplements. 2) Local food touches on food sovereignty. Do we have a choice of what we eat? 3) Indigenous plants are still...
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2017-10-03 In this workshop, Scott talked about his small backyard urban garden and his experiments with integrating egg-laying chickens into the system on multiple levels. Faced with the economic reality of it being cheaper to buy eggs than produce them himself using store-bought feeds, he began to look...
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2016-11-29 In this opening session, Zach gives an introduction to coffee and the many harvesting and processing methods in practice today.
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2017-10-05 This workshop will look at indigenous microbial fermented feeds as an alternative to our expensive foreign/imported GMO corn-soy based feed ration for our native animals (chicken and swine). Experiments on microbial fermentation on indigenous plants was conducted in terms of palatability,...
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2017-10-03 In this workshop, I will describe and diagram the common sloping land corn and rice farming system. I will then identify leverage points within the system and how development workers can work with farmers to make these systems more sustainable.
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2017-11-01 In 1998, ECHO USA mailed six chaya stalks to Indonesia. Today, a conservatively estimated 10,000 households across Indonesia are benefiting from this ‘Mayan Superfood.” Come hear about an indigenous grower-to-grower movement and how its promoters in the informal association, “Komunitas Chaya...
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2017-10-05 This workshop will explore biochar and how Warm Heart has been researching, experimenting, creating, and promoting biochar in northern Thailand and some of the lessons learned through the years.
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2017-10-04 It is often a problem in tropical soils farmed by smallholders that the soil is nutrient-depleted and acidic, costing the farmer more money and yielding less valuable crops. In an attempt to overcome this, Dr. Tom will discuss different ways of evaluating important soil properties and thus...
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2017-10-04 As mobile technologies improve and expand rapidly into rural areas, several types of applications have been developed to help farmers access up-to-date agricultural information, banking and lending platforms, and increase efficiencies in the agriculture supply chain. We will discuss a variety of...
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2017-10-05 Perennial vegetables are often overlooked in nutrition approaches but present significant opportunities for fighting poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, as well as to make farming systems more resilient to climate change. This workshop will draw on the ECHO Asia publication “A Practical Nutrition...
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2017-10-05 The goal of impact evaluation is to assess changes in people’s well-being that can be attributed to project interventions. Impact evaluation is important to learn as an organization in order to distinguish between what has worked well and what has perhaps not worked well, and in both cases,...
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2017-10-04 This session will briefly define the process of community development. What are some things we need to consider as we enter, implement, and then exit? How do we ensure community involvement and ownership from beginning to end? Come and share your experiences and learn some fun, practical tools...
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2017-10-04 The goal of silage preservation is the conversion of moist, chopped forage with a short storage life to preserved forage that can be fed to livestock as needed. Most legume and grass crops can be ensiled successfully. The key to good silage management is air exclusion to obtain the best...
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2017-10-05 This presentation is a summary version of the information provided during the Mae Mut Garden workshops minus the practical aspect. We aim to show that natural building is a very easy technique to learn and requires no special skills, as well as having a number of environmental and financial...
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2016-11-30 This form can be used during a coffee cupping to evaluate the coffee on a number of factors.
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2017-10-05
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2017-10-04 In many cultures, women can be viewed as second-class citizens or treated as property. However, in this workshop, Karen will share stories and discuss how working together in groups has contributed to the transformation of women and communities in the patriarchal society of Nepal.
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2017-10-03 There are many appropriate building technologies available. How environmentally friendly are they? Earthquake resistant? Typhoon resistant? How can we introduce new materials to a traditional construction culture? Why would we want to produce our own materials? How can we make production...
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2017-10-03 There are many appropriate building technologies available. How environmentally friendly are they? Earthquake resistant? Typhoon resistant? How can we introduce new materials to a traditional construction culture? Why would we want to produce our own materials? How can we make production...
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2017-10-03 Healthy soil is very important in order to grow healthy plants. In this workshop, I will share about some of ARI’s techniques in order to improve soil.
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2017-10-05 In this workshop, we will try to help you minimize the use of resources coming from outside of your country, especially as they relate to fertility in agriculture.
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2017-10-03 Seeds are one of the important factors influencing yield potential. Crop seeds contain all the genetic information to determine yield potential, adaptation to environmental conditions, and resistance to insect pests and disease. Good seed quality is the foundation for long-term productivity...
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2017-10-04 The diversity of seeds we have today will vanish if we do not know how to keep them properly. Improper seed keeping will result in extinction and it will impact human beings, especially their food security. This workshop will explore the basics of seed saving, the history and methodology of the...
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2017-10-04 The central component of The Vetiver System is Vetiver Grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides), a sterile, non-invasive tropical bunchgrass. It is used throughout the tropics in a wide-range of applications including erosion control, degraded land remediation, soil conservation and runoff retention,...
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2017-10-03 Since 2007, there have been more than 1,000 farmers from many parts of Myanmar that have attended the Sustainable Agriculture Training Center to participate in several trainings of agriculture and livestock basic knowledge. After the trainings, most of them returned back to their homes to work on...
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2017-10-05 This workshop will explore how to research and implement small value-chains in order to help develop small agribusiness.
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2017-10-03 One of our most important roles as we work in rural communities is to train others so that knowledge and skills can be effectively passed on and learning continue. Top down, university-style lectures seldom incite passion in the learner in the same way that learner-centered self-discovery can. We...
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2017-10-05 Home garden interventions are one of few agricultural interventions with a proven effect on nutritional outcomes and potentially contribute to 8 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Despite a recent surge in interest, there remains a lack of knowledge about the most effective ways to...
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2017-10-05 We produce food with a healthy relationship with nature. However, on March 11, 2011, an earthquake occured in Northeast Japan and the resulting sunami killed more than 18,000 people and it also crippled a nuclear power plant. As the nuclear plant exploded, our school was also contaminated by...
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2017-10-04 These days, many outstanding and special characteristics of local seeds, such as pest and disease resistance, have slowly become extinct, but people are not aware of it. Increasingly, farmers are buying their seeds from vendors instead of saving their own seeds. To help overcome this crisis, a...
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2017-10-04 This session will look at the “best practices” of learning to learn from others and their experiences. In a world full of “techno-diddies,” as development workers, we often overlook the local knowledge and wisdom source of the very people and communities we are called to serve. How do we “put the...
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2017-10-04 The goal of silage preservation is the conversion of moist, chopped forage with a short storage life to preserved forage that can be fed to livestock as needed. Most legume and grass crops can be ensiled successfully. The key to good silage management is air exclusion to obtain the best...