Students will investigate recent field research studies on the ECHO-Florida Global Farm and the ECHO-Asia Regional Impact Center and then design their own experiments.
Activity 1
ECHO-Florida initiated a multi-year gliricidia intercropping trial. Researchers are trying to determine if the shade produced by gliricidia trees, spaced six meters apart, will affect the yield of maize and cowpea crops over time. Alternating rows of maize and cowpea were planted. The experimental design included the following: maize and cowpea planted under widely-spaced gliricidia trees, maize and cowpea planted under 30% shade cloth, and maize and cowpea alone.
Activity 2
ECHO-Asia Regional Impact Center would like to set up a study comparing the growth performance of pigs fed with fermented banana stalk silage and pigs fed with commercial pig food as a supplement to their regular forage (farm harvested plants) diet.