Mises à jour de ECHOcommunity
Cuban Farmer Builds Resilience With Biodiversity 2015-10-12
In just five short years Arcel Antonio and his wife Marisol have established a farm homestead that gives testimony to the abundance and resilience found in bio-diverse, agroforestry and annual cropping systems. Arcel Antonio explained to visiting ECHO staff that he is able to provide for nearly 100% of his families food needs even in recent times of drought because he has so many crop resources from which to choose.
Latin America and ... Agroforestry Annual Cropping Sy... Natural Pesticides
Network Member Organization Profile: FORRU - Thailand 2015-10-12
As a leader within an international forest restoration network, FORRU oversees four major project sites in Thailand: working with the National Forest and Park service in Northern Thailand, working with bird habitat conservation in Southern Thailand, restoring natural corridors for elephant migration in Kanchnaburi province along the Western border, and forest restoration work in the far North province of Chiang Rai and the future collaboration with Nan province.
FORRU facilitates tropical forest restoration under a framework of conservation and community development. Their research department works with communities to include important Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) within the restoration process so that the community can reap financial, nutritional, and cultural benefits from the forest. Staff also work with schools, government offices, and local businesses in order to pursue opportunities for local communities to gain benefits from carbon sequestration, ecosystem services, and the development of native tree nurseries.
Afrique de l'Ouest femme trouve le succès avec la FFF 2015-10-05
Kindo Ramata est une jeune fille rurale de 22 ans habitant Kouka, le village d’Emile Sanou, formateur et pratiquant de la méthode FFF. Sur le plan culturel, Kindo Ramata en tant que femme, a un accès limité et contrôlé à l’exploitation de la terre pour en faire sa propriété. Pour cela, elle doit travailler dans le champ familial et si elle veut exploiter son propre champ cela est soumis à une autorisation préalable du chef de famille. De même, la participation des femmes aux formations des agriculteurs est une chose rare, parce que la plupart du temps les hommes oublient de les y convier.
ECHO International Agriculture Conference 2015 - Earlybird Pricing 2015-09-09
The 22nd annual ECHO International Agriculture Conference will be held in Fort Myers, Florida, USA from November 17-19. In order to make the conference more accessible to everyone earlybird pricing is available through September 30.
Contribute Audio/Video Resources to the ECHOcommunity 2015-08-21
We have recently been receiving an increase in requests for audio and video training resources, especially for resources in languages other than English. As a community, we have the opportunity to share resources and increase the overall impact of what we produce.
Here is a great example: This video produced by ECHOcommunity member Abram Bicksler, and generously underwritten by Hort CRSP and USAID, demonstrates how to build a low-cost seed germination chamber. The materials and techniques used in this video are readily available across Asia, but can be replicated nearly anywhere.
ECHOcommunity Career Center Opportunity: Lend your skills in Guatemala 2015-08-13
The Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program at Partners of the Americas in Washington, DC is a US Agency of International Development (USAID) funded program that promotes economic development and food security abroad by sending volunteer agricultural specialists from the U.S.
Volunteers provide technical assistance to foreign producers, cooperatives, agribusinesses, NGO’s, and educational institutions. Assignment goals vary depending on the needs of in-country host organizations and typically last 2-3 weeks. In appreciation of the volunteer’s service, F2F covers the cost of all assignment-related expenses including travel, food, and lodging.
Latin America & Caribbean Network News - Now Available 2015-07-30
Stay up to date on what's happening in the ECHOcommunity Network in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In this Issue
- Agriculture training in Haiti
- ECHO Ag Conference
- Technical Note Spotlight
- Hands on Training
- Network Events Calendar
EDN Issue 128 2015-07-22
In This Issue:
- Carbon Farming: Building Soils and Stabilizing the Climate
- Farmer Engagement in Agriculture Extension
- Echoes from our Network: Negotiating two seemingly contradictory understandings of cooperatives
- From ECHO’s Seed Bank: Naranjilla
Excerpt: Carbon Farming: Building Soils and Stabilizing the Climate
Excerpted from the forthcoming Carbon Farming: Stabilizing the Climate with Perennial Crops and Regenerative Agricultural Practices by Eric Toensmeier
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Carbon sequestration is the act of moving excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into long-lived storage. In agriculture, this means storing it in the soil and in perennial plants like trees (Nair et al. 2010). Carbon farming is a term that describes these carbon-sequestering practices.
Here’s how it works. During photosynthesis, plants take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and turn it into carbohydrates inside their cells. Some of this carbon stays in the biomass of the plant, like the trunks, roots, and branches of trees. About 50% of the dry weight of plants is carbon. Carbon can be stored for decades or even centuries in perennial plants like fruit and nut trees.
Sustaining pollinators: lessons learned from a first season of beekeeping 2015-07-14
In northern Thailand, widespread mono-cropping has led to environmental changes which have affected the natural habitat of bees, resulting in diminishing numbers and reduced honey production.
As ECHO Asia already has a variety of different flower species, trialing honey production seemed like a logical next step. In order to learn more about the challenges of keeping bees, three beehives were purchased from a local farmer in northern Thailand who provides hives to the area.
Demonstrating appropriate technologies in aquaponics 2015-06-16
"Aquaponics is a food production system that combines conventional aquaculture with hydroponics in a symbiotic environment." (Wikipedia) By combining these two systems farmers are able to increase their yield, decrease costs and deal sustainably with some of the challenges of hydroculture. In aquaculture the buildup of fish excretion causes toxicity over time, however, nitrates and other products of excrement can be used to feed hydropic growing systems, which in turn clean the water.
The ECHO Global Farm in Florida has a well-established aquaponics demonstration built using the "Use what you have to build what you need" ethos of Appropriate Technology. ECHO staff and interns have been experimenting with the long-term viability of materials that can replace the traditionally used polystyrene as a floating plant support. Polystyrene is not always affordable or readily available, and comes with its own set of concerns about long-term exposure. Rafts have been tried using bamboo, used PVC and drip tape, and waste plastic water bottles to good result.