General Technical Documents

Mkulima Mbunifu

Januari, 2016, Toleo la 40

Mkulima Mbunifu (MkM) ni jarida linalotoa elimu ya kilimo.

Mobile Aquaponics System

This system was designed by Daniel Brännström. You can view a video of this system here: http://edn.link/aquavideo

The goal of this project is to place the fish farm in a 20 foot cargo container and connecting to the plant beds in a greenhouse or outdoor. In a standard 20 foot (about 6 m long) container, 2 tanks with fish will be placed which have a total volume of 6 m3 of water. It is possible to produce about 400 kg of fish in 8-10 month. Connecting to the container a small greenhouse and/or outdoors, where tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and other locally desirable vegetables will be grown in plant beds filled with gravel. Between 2500-3500 kg vegetables can be grown in the same time.

Maresha minimal tillage plow and seeder

ECHO East Africa staff have worked with Neil Rowe-Miller, Agriculture and Livelihoods Technical Advisor at Tearfund, and the local community around Arusha, Tanzania, to help adapt the Ethiopian Maresha plow for smallholder conservation agriculture applications. The attached drawings are from May, 2022. The design team may make modifications over time and so this version is not necessarily final. 

The drawings include:

• Isometric view
• Frame dimensions and drawings
• For dimensions and drawings
• Seed meter stand dimensions and drawings from two angles
• Container for keeping seed
• Information about brackets, tensioner, rim, and adjuster
• Hopper plank dimensions and drawings

For additional information or questions, please contact Harold Msayna at hmsanya@echocommunity.org

Edible Plants of Teso, Uganda

This resource of wild edible plants in Uganda was contributed by Sara Sytsma. She shared: 

 I ask people in the villages to teach me about different plants they eat. I started on a "book" with the information I could collect so far. Some Ugandan agricultural development staff have helped me too.

If you have additions to the book, please let us know by sharing them on the wild foods conversation.

For each plant category, plants are listed in alphabetical order by Ateso name. Other names are also given. Then there is a description of its growth habit, an explanation of its uses, and instructions for preparing for consumption. 

Riparian Reforestation in Nicaragua

Some work Robert Walle facilitated in Nicaragua. 

Puppets Book 2: Use Them

Puppets have been around for thousands of years. This book tells you how to use different sorts of puppets in a variety of educational and health situations.

See also Puppets Book 1: Make Them! A Fun Craft Idea
Adapted from Footsteps 28 the literacy publication of Tearfund with kind permission
Additional illustrations by MissionAssist
This edition published in the United Kingdom in 2022 by MissionAssist
Copyright © 2022 MissionAssist

Black Soldier Fly Production - Farmers Guide

Instruction manual for Kenyan smallholder farmers to start with the production of Black Soldier Fly Larvae as substitute for omena and soy in animal feed.

Cambodian Food Culture - 2023-03-31

by Sovanneary Huot, Dr. David Ader, Dr. Srean Pao, Dr. Ricky Bates, and Hans Goertz

This recipe and nutrition guide is written in Khmer and focuses on wild food plants, sometimes called neglected and underutilized species, of the country of Cambodia. Smallholders forage and/or cultivate plants with a diversity of functions, but this resource focuses on wild food plants and how to incorporate them into daily diets. Many wild food plants are nutrient-dense and include vital nutrients and minerals for human health. Information about these plants has been lost over time though elders in communities may still remember how to cultivate and/or cook them. This cookbook Cambodian Food Culture: Wild food plant dishes contains thirteen recipes highlighting wild food plants. Each recipe details ingredients and preparation steps for traditional dishes. Nutritional tables are at the end of the book. The authors state that "The purpose of this book is to promote the stewardship and understanding of the benefits and sues of wild food plants for everyday food consumption."

Beyond Borders: Satellite Applications for Humanitarian Emergencies - 2022-08-20

Humanitarian actors continually make complex decisions in the preparation for, and response to, humanitarian emergencies. Digital technologies support these decisionmaking processes by providing large volumes of high-quality data that enables insight. The term “digital data for development (D4D)” refers to the use of data generated by mobile, satellite, and digital devices to inform and strengthen nonprofit, humanitarian, and public-sector decision-making.

Satellite applications, as digital technology, provide a unique source of data about people and their surrounding environment and can fill significant data and information gaps in management and decision-making processes. Often this data may not exist in any other form (e.g., in remote or conflict areas). In other cases, satellite applications may offer data that is more frequent, more detailed, and more affordable than groundbased data sources, such as traditional maps, census data, bespoke surveys, ground teams, or even innovative methods like the use of drones.