Workshops
Daily themes and session topics
(Note: This schedule may vary slightly from class to class.)
Monday: Foundations of Tropical Agriculture Opening
- ECHO staff devotions, welcome, introductions, ECHO history/mission/services
- Challenges facing the small scale farmer (these will be addressed in subsequent sessions throughout the week)'
- Overview of tropical agriculture- climate, crops, geography, tour of agroecological zones represented on ECHO's Global Demonstration Farm
- Understanding the poverty mentality
Tuesday: Soil and Water
- Introduction to soils and soil life
- Land care and soil restoration
- Water for agriculture
- Building soil fertility with compost and vermiculture
Wednesday: Plants for the tropics
- Underutilized Tropical Crops
- Harvesting & Using Underutilized Tropical Crops
- Survey of Tropical Fruit
- Activity options (technique workshops, staff consult or library study time)
Thursday: Farming Practices and Systems
- Basic botany for gardening
- Principles and practices of a small scale farm
- Animal production systems
- Urban agriculture
Friday: Tools for Development
- Appropriate technology survey
- Seed resources
- Principles of community development
- How to join and contribute to ECHO's network
- Closing remarks