ECHOcommunity Updates
FAO's Annual World Bee Day May 20, 2023 2023-05-17
Bees are vital to food systems and ecosystems globally. ECHO recognizes the importance of bees and other pollinators and promotes pollinator-friendly agricultural production. We also know that many of you, our network members, directly benefit from tending bees in your community. Please take the time to share and learn together to help increase awareness of the importance of pollinator-friendly practices. Together we can increase resilience, sustainability, and production of food systems around the world.
FAO's event will be hybrid (in-person and virtual). FAO also has pollinator-friendly agricultural videos.
Register Here Protecting Pollinators Video Series
ECHO Asia update - water filtration learned at the last TAD course! 2023-05-16
By Drew Lemos, ECHO Asia TAD participant
Living Water Organic Farm, Ban Nakhai Laos
We first learned about the four-barrel water filter design while searching for low-cost filters on Youtube that we could build on our farm. So, of course, we were very excited to hear that we would make one at the ECHO Asia Training Center Farm in Chiang Mai months later. We realize we need it on our farm. We got the training, built one, and it worked! Our system was a small one, with only a seventy-liter capacity. It cleaned up the water significantly to where it was usable again.
A 4-barrel water system with 70 liters of capacity was used. These were typical trash cans bought brand new from the home improvement store. Economical and easy to work with because we did not have to clean any residual soap or liquid out of it. River rock of all sizes, sand, and biochar were used as the filtering medium. We also used a simple in-line shut-off valve instead of the ball valve. We followed the ECHO Asia training to clean the different filter materials. We utilized the blue mesh we had on the farm and a plastic tub to clean any loose soil and dust from the other materials. The stand that I constructed was 50 cm tall and made from metal. I would make it with a heavier-duty metal that could handle more barrels for increased capacity.
Learn about ECHO Asia's Next Course Learn about ECHO Florida's Next Course!
ECHO East Africa Symposium on Appropriate Technology Innovations and Renewable Energy 2023-05-09
August 9-11 | Arusha, Tanzania
You are invited to join us for the 1st ECHO East Africa Symposium on Appropriate Technology Innovations and Renewable Energy. We hope that you will make time to gather with us at this very important sharing opportunity. It will be a valuable time of learning, information sharing, and networking for those working and serving in the East Africa Region.
Learn more about the Symposium!
Symposium planners hope to include the following technologies:
- Biogas for domestic and productive use
- Water hygiene and sanitation, productive use
- Food harvesting, processing and packaging
- Post harvest processing and handling
- Honey and beeswax harvesting and processing
- Milk and milk by products processing
- Solar energy for domestic and productive use
- Wind energy
- Conservation agriculture implements
- Livestock management and processing
- Seeds saving and sharing
- Draught power and implements
- Other livelihood related innovations
From ECHO's Farm: Fish Harvest 2023 2023-05-02
ECHO just harvested both aquaculture ponds, for last week's farmwork. The staff and volunteers, led by the interns and their supervisor (including ECHO's CEO), kept up the tradition and had fun doing this activity. We netted over 170 tilapia, 47 invasives, and a few bass and bluegills (caught and released for future sportfishing!) Participating staff held a luncheon, and then promptly continued to clean and fillet fresh tilapia for the ECHO community. As aquaculture grows in importance around the world, ECHO global farm shows another way to train our interns in this important activity in the fight against global hunger with local action.
ECHO in Latin America and Caribbean: Biological depositories 2023-04-25
ECHO traveled to Huehuetenango, Guatemala, where small farmers produce export crops besides their families’ basic needs. Using Integrated Pest Management, farmers produce vegetables for foreign tables. Preventive practices are first then safe botanicals for pest management follow. Under Safe Use Protocols, approved agrichemicals are the last resort to save a crop. Biological depositories or “biodeps” provide safe disposal for excess mixtures and washing equipment including backpack sprayers. Biodeps are required for use as a Good Agricultural Practice, GAP for certifying small-farmer exports and export throughout the region and to the United States and Europe.
ECHO Asia update - farmer with disabilites 2023-04-11
ECHO Asia has had a busy year of training already in 2023! These training events past and upcoming include topics of seed saving, on-farm feeds, biochar, bio-sand filtration, and introduction to tropical agriculture development. ECHO Asia staff visited the partner organization Christian Center for the Development of Persons with Disabilities (CDPD Thailand) to talk about options for gardening and growing crops for those with disabilities.
Explore the Conversations about AT for those with disabilities
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EDN #159 Now Available 2023-04-03
In this issue:
- Triage and Recovery of Small Fallen Trees
- 2022 ECHO International Agriculture Conference: Topic Summaries
- Echoes from our Network: Low Resource Control of Leaf Cutter Ants
- From ECHO's Seed Bank: Guazuma ulmifolia, a multi-purpose tree
- Books, Websites, and Other Resources: Trees with Edible Leaves by Eric Toensmeier
Triage and Recovery of Small Fallen Trees
Tim Motis and Luke Little
Excerpt:
Look for trees with intact trunks. A tree with a split trunk may be too unstable if righted. Also, look for trees with roots still attached to the trunks. If the root system is off the main trunk, there will be no way for the tree to take up water and nutrients. Lastly, look for trees that are small enough to be safely lifted upright by the human power and/or equipment available. Paint a unique mark or color on trees to be saved; this lets workers know which ones to focus their efforts on in terms of tree-saving.
ECHO West Africa Update 2023-03-28
ECHO West Africa's forum on sustainable agriculture this year was themed Producing and Consuming Organic, for the benefit of 135 participants. This forum is the result of the recommendations made by the participants of the sub-regional forum which took place in September 2022.
View Presentations from the Forum
The themes of the forum were addressed in the form of panels, allowing different speakers to make presentations around the scheduled themes, before moving on to practical workshops. The first day was devoted to the theme of the manufacture and use of organic fertilizers. This allowed ECHO trainers to present four different types of organic fertilizers before doing the practice to allow participants to master the different formulas. The theme of the manufacture and use of biopesticides was presented on the second day. This day allowed the panelists of the day to communicate around four formulas of biopesticides, both in theory and in practice. Finally, on the third day, the topics covered were the Foundations For Farming (FFF) method, the "Balo" program, and above-ground techniques. Time was also given to the NGO Practica to make a presentation on the "zainer", a tool designed to facilitate the digging of sowing holes within the framework of the FFF. Before closing, several participants expressed great enthusiasm for the training received.
For two years, our region, Diapaga, has no longer been supplied with organic fertilizer because of insecurity. Through this training, ECHO offers us a new hope for a revival of our agriculture.
- Ismaël Bonzi, Forum participant
Black Sapote Seeds - Now available for a limited time! 2023-03-21
Black sapote (Diospyros nigra) is also called chocolate pudding fruit or black persimmon. Fruits turn brown and soft when ripe. Fruits are eaten fresh, cooked in dishes, or combined with dairy products. ECHO staff and volunteers enjoy using the fruit to make black sapote bread or black sapote brownies. Seeds of black sapote do not store for long periods of time because they are recalcitrant and therefore are only offered from the ECHO Global Seed bank for a limited time each year. You must be an active development worker and a registered member of ECHOcommunity to order seeds. To learn more about black sapote, see ECHO's plant information sheet: Black Sapote.
From ECHO's Farm: Planting in Syntropy 2023-03-14
Earlier this February we established a Syntropic Agroforestry planting on the farm. Syntropic systems are characterized by high density plantings of food, biomass, timber, and support species. Not only are these designed to fill different strata in the canopy layers, but they are also meant to fill different strata at different times. This includes fast growing, “pioneering” plants in the canopy that will be coppiced (cut back), and longer-term, slow growing overstory species. This system even includes annuals in its succession plan. In the photo are emerging corn and cover crops interplanted densely with some of our biomass species of chaya, guazuma, gliricidia, bananas, and pink cedar (Acrocarpus fraxinifolius). These biomass hedges are punctuated by mango, coconut, and avocados. On either side of this tree row, we also have a row of biomass-producing support species that will be cut and mulched on top of the beds. In this case Tithonia and Fakahatchee grass. For more information on this type of system, and how to design a syntropic system see ECHO network member Roger Gietzen's Syntropic Farming Guidebook (free PDF download)!
Read more about Syntropic Agriculture