General Technical Documents

Principes-Guides de l’Agriculture de conservation - 20/04/2017

Agriculture de conservation (AC) — caractérisée par les trois principes liés à la minimisation de la perturbation du sol, couvrant de façon permanente le sol et incluant les rotations et les associations de cultures - s’est avérée efficace pour restaurer la santé et la fertilité du sol, améliorer la rétention et l’utilisation des précipitations et augmenter les rendements des cultures et la rentabilité des exploitations agricoles. Les études scientifiques et l’expérience des agriculteurs ont également montré qu’elle peut améliorer la sécurité alimentaire, réduire les besoins en main-d’oeuvre (ce qui entraîne des avantages importants pour les femmes petites agricultrices) et aider à créer des systèmes agricoles plus résistants aux changements climatiques. Dans les régions semi-arides d’Afrique, où une grande partie des interventions de Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB) est concentrée, les pratiques de l’AC ont montré que l’AC améliorerait l’humidité et la fertilité du sol et entraînerait des gains de rendement substantiels.

Au cours de la dernière décennie, les partenaires du réseau Canadien de la CFGB ont mis en place plus de 50 projets de l’agriculture de conservation dans de nombreux pays de l’Afrique subsaharienne. Cette dynamique a stimulé la création de ressources, des réunions annuelles et d’autres occasions de partager et d’apprendre ensemble des expériences et connaissances, ainsi que l’embauche de six agents techniques à plein temps.

Cette équipe technique CFGB a recueilli des connaissances et des expériences de partenaires, a examiné la littérature scientifique et a parlé à d’autres personnes impliquées dans la programmation de l’AC. Ils ont utilisé ces connaissances à ce jour pour élaborer la liste de principes de base suivante pour guider la programmation de l’AC. Veuillez noter que ce sont des principes (vérités générales qui guident l’action) et non les lois (règles rigoureuses sur ce qu’il faut faire). En conséquence, ces principes doivent être traités, utilisés et adaptés à des situations spécifiques. Nous apprécions vos commentaires et vos réflexions sur ces principes, sinon nous prévoyons de les mettre à jour régulièrement.

Parthenium hysterophorus - 09/02/2017

Parthenium hysterophorus, also known as carrot top, white top weed, and fever few is a fairly new invasive weed but has quickly become one of the worst weeds to tropical areas(CABI 2015). In Ethiopia it is known as Farmasissa which means “sign your land away” (IAPPS 2016). Originally from Central America, Parthenium has been seen to cause major problems in India and Southeast Asia, Australia, and East Africa. In 2015, Parthenium is said to have invaded roughly 34 countries globally (Strathie 2015). A fast growing highly reproductive invasive species, Parthenium has become a hazard to farmland, rangeland, as well as animal and human health.

Greenhouse Gardening for the Purpose of Self-Sustaining Ministry in the Former Soviet Union - 20/01/2017

This paper is shared as a case study of a greenhouse project in a cold climate. It contains information on the benefits of greenhouses in a temperate setting. Technical details provide practical considerations in greenhouse construction, some of which would also apply to tropical settings. We noted, in particular, efforts to keep costs low, such as using a gravity-based drip irrigation system. The paper also details costs involved, and includes an appendix with information on crop performance, labor, and vegetable yields.

Building Living Garden Soil With a Worm Tower - 20/01/2017

Using worms to create Living Soil results in :

Nutrition: Delicious, nutrient-rich plants.

Vitality: Plants growing in living soils are inherently stronger and need less protection, allowing low input food production methods to be used.

Drought tolerance: Nutrients are in colloidal states rather than being soluble, naturally grown plants only feed when they want to, are not overloaded with chemical salts, and can continue to grow under drier conditions.

Pollution: Nutrients are not soluble so they stay in the soil where they are needed rather than leaching away and causing pollution.

Greenhouse impact: Does not require energy intensive inputs of agricultural crop chemicals and fertilizers.

Collaborators : Brad Ward and Jerry Larson, January, 2017

Materials List

Video Link

List of Short Season Crops Appropriate for Haiti - 26/10/2016

This document was originally prepared in response to hurricane Matthew in 2016.

As organizations are responding to Hurricane Matthew damage in Haiti and in other parts of the Caribbean, they are developing short, medium, and long term plans of how to respond.  With much of the damage in Haiti occurring in rural communities, organizations are considering how to respond with seeds and trees so to help the agriculture sector rebound.  In agriculture there are crops that produce in the short term (various vegetables, beans, etc.), medium term (bananas/plantains, yams, cassava, etc.) and long term (fruit/forestry trees) that can be part of the response planning.  How to properly respond will depend on various factors such as access to land, available seeds/seedlings, time of year, available water (irrigation or rain fed), soil salinity (often an issue after storm events near the ocean), and cultural preferences.

Agricultural Prosperity for Dry Africa - 19/01/2016

Prof. Dov Pasternak working in Israel, was among the pioneers of drip irrigation. He researched irrigation with saline water and conducted domestication of arid land crops. He received a UNESCO Chair for his work on desert research. For over 10 years Prof. Pasternak worked as Principal Scientist for Crops Diversification at ICRISAT-Niger and then continued as advisor on development projects in Africa.

This book describes his experience in Africa. The book is written for both laymen and scientists. It is a must for anyone interested in or dealing with Africa’s agricultural development. It starts by explaining how development projects fail and what can be done. It offers many systems, technologies and crops for a more profitable agriculture. The book emphasizes irrigation of vegetables, fruit trees and profitable field crops as a solution to current conditions and ends by suggesting how to carry out development programs.

Forty four photos and many anecdotes of the author’s life experience, make this book easy and a pleasure to read.

Case Study: Global Websites – Improving Access for Global Agricultural Extension - 01/01/2016

ECHO exists to reduce hunger and improve lives through agricultural training and resources. Working through the internet and regional impact centers around the world, ECHO connects small-scale farmers, and those working to eliminate world hunger, with essential resources and each other. These resources include a knowledge-base of practical information, experienced technical support, and an extensive seed bank focused on highly beneficial underutilized plants.

The world wide web promises cost-effective access to its more than 3.2 billion users, with more than 2 billion of these users coming from developing countries. As internet penetration improves in the developing world, agriculture extension stands to benefit from its reach and rapid growth. For every internet user in the developed world there are two in the developing world. More than 95% of the world’s population is now covered by at least a second generation mobile data network (International Telecommunications Union 2015).

As internet access has grown in both the developed and developing world, the need for more sophisticated online tools for agriculture extension has become apparent. In 2011 ECHO launched an online collaborative membership community called ECHOcommunty.org. Since that time, more than 10,000 members worldwide have accessed technical resources, participated in online discussion, registered for events, and requested trial seeds from ECHO seed banks.

In 2014, ECHO saw the need to upgrade the capacity of the ECHOcommunity website to provide a solid foundation for its continued growth. The re-design called for the native support of nine languages key to its current areas of impact, and the ability to effectively deliver rich-media resources and communications tools to internet users with varying bandwidth capacities and devices. This document serves to illustrate the lessons learned in the process of improving the global accessibility of our resources. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of best-practices in website development for a global audience, but rather a look inside the decision making process behind one site.

EX-Post Evaluation of the Introduction and Promotion of Grain Amaranth Program in Eastern Africa - 01/07/2014

World Renew’s (formerly Christian Reformed World Relief Committee or CRWRC) work on introduction and promotion of grain amaranth in East Africa began in 1999 in 2 villages, Ngaamba and Kalonzoni, in the semi-arid part of the Machakos District of Kenya.  World Renew staff, Tom Post and Francis Muthoka, received training and amaranth seed lines from Dr. Davidson Mwangi, a Kenyan agronomist who had been working on selecting amaranth lines for some twenty years.   Amaranth’s drought resistance and drought avoidance, its requirement of about 50% of the water required by maize, it’s high protein/high lysine content with a good balance of amino acids and other nutrients, and its taste acceptability---particularly when mixed with other staples such as maize and millet, wheat, cassava, ---- led World Renew to begin experimenting with grain amaranth in the semi-arid circumstance of these villages.   These were also villages located in a region that had repeatedly sought CFGB-World Renew food relief during drought years.

The goal of this evaluation was to determine the impacts and lessons from the grain Amaranth promotion work of World Renew, CFGB and the World Renew partnering organizations in East Africa. 

Planning for a Schoolyard or Community Garden - 01/12/2013

Brad Ward has many years of experience in agricultural finance as a loan officer and underwriter, and has reviewed and advised on hundreds of business and farm plans. Currently he works on the North Coast of Honduras as the farm manager for Cornerstone Farm/Hospital Loma de Luz. He also works with several school garden projects in his area. His background and experience mean that he has a good grasp of what questions are important to ask when considering a schoolyard or community garden.

When considering a schoolyard or community garden, I suggest that you use the following five steps to organize and guide the planning process. These steps can help you use words to paint a comprehensive picture of what currently exists, paint a picture of what is hoped for, and lay out an organized list of tasks to get from the first picture to the second. This garden plan is not meant to be something done at the beginning of the project and then filed away. It should be a living, working guide, reviewed and updated regularly to ensure that the vision and purpose of the garden are being realized. As much as possible, include all of the garden’s stakeholders in the planning and review process.

The 5 steps for planning are as follows;

1. Describe the current situation in detail.
2. Describe the purpose and vision.
3. Break the plan down into manageable tasks.
4. Integrate the project components.
5. Budget