As we are able, snippets of the ECHO Annual Conference in 2009 will be posted online.  Click on links/headings below to access some of the conference content:

1. Accelerating fish growth in Tilapia ponds: Tilapia will grow much better when sticks that serve as a substrate that periphyton algae can grow on are inserted into the ponds.  The tilapia prefer to ‘munch’ on the algae on the sticks instead of having to filter algae from the water.   According to presenter, Bill Mebane, this has been proven in research in Israel and re-proven at the Woods Hole Research Station in Massachusetts and then applied in Haiti.   The total surface area of sticks should be quite high---about as high as the total surface area of the ponds.  A good small pond size is 10m X 10m= 100 m square.    Building compost or manure “cages” for inserting compost/manure at two sides of the ponds ensures that the algae grow well, including on the surface of the sticks.  Splitting bamboo poles produces sticks with lots of surface area for the algae to grow.  Fertility of the water can be judged by: if you put your arm in the pond, up to your armpit and can see your fingers, the water is not green enough!   I think this is relevant to E. Zambia and to several places in Asia---Bangladesh and Cambodia have many fish ponds.   A possible source of very good experience and knowledge who also spoke : Murnyak, Dennis, Aquaculture Advisor , E-mail: murnyak@gmail.com

2. Malaria treatment with Artemisia leaf tea and dried moringa leaves as a nutritional suppliment for HIV patients and undernourished children.  There was a compelling presentation by a representative from the German organization, ANAMED.  They have shown very good results on malaria in Ethiopia. They have shown that their hybrid Artemisia tea has 10 active ingredients that are effective against even the most resistant of the malaria strains.   They find that moringa leaf powder is very helpful in boosting health for AIDS patients and undernourished children.   I purchased their starter kit of Artemisia seed and instructions ($150) and hope to see this tried out in Jharkand State of India and Bangladesh where our child survival work is on-going, and Nancy Ten Broek and Alan Talens are collaborating on this.   Ralph Wiegand of ANAMED presented on this: E-mail: ralphwiegand@web.de

3. A strong rationale for focusing on soil organic matter: Jim Goering, former World Bank economist and now ECHO board member shared a very good analysis of the current world economy and what it means for small farmer agriculture.  One conclusion: that the price of fuel and fertilizer is likely to go so high that chemical fertilizer won’t be a viable option for many small farmers. Therefore we need to concentrate our efforts to teach uses of all manner of ways to increase soil organic matter: legume cover crops, legume relay cropping, no burning of crop residues, production of quality compost. (See below).

4. Quality compost-10% Manure, 10 times more effective? I learned that to produce the best compost you need to ensure that 10% by volume of the compost pile is high nitrogen material. Often this will be animal manure, but this could also be legume material, like velvet bean (mucuna).  And then you need to turn the compost pile every 3 days during the first weeks and a total of 5 times during the first 6 weeks.  This produces a compost that the Farming God’s Way folks from Zimbabwe claim is 10 times more effective than other composts.  There is some evidence that this is not only an effect of the nutrients but also of the fungi and bacteria contained in the compost.   I have a good handout on their method---which I could scan and send, but it will soon be on the ECHO web site.  I think this is relevant to our SRI rice farmers in Cambodia, who are doing a lot of composting!   Danny Blank, former farm manager at ECHO has studied composting very carefully and is a great teacher on this: E-mail: dblank@echonet.org

5. Land restoration in semi-arid places via cultivation of the “underground forest”.   Peter Cunningham in Niger, follow-up on the previous work of Tong  Rinaudo.   Letting the controlled numbers of the stumps of trees regenerate and produce leaves for increasing soil organic material in cropping fields---has proven to double and triple millet crops and increase incomes from the sale of firewood. Alfonso Vallejos, one of our former CRWRC workers in Belize, is also applying this concept to soil restoration in his own farmer there---where the rainfall is over 60 inches per year.  Peter C. told me that he is already in contact with our CRWRC staff in Niger.  Peter already knows CRWRC in Niger---so maybe no more encouragement for exchange of learning is needed?   His contact info is: E-mail: peter.cunningham@sim.org

6. Water Harvesting in Semi-arid lands with sand dams in seasonal rivers: Alvera Stern of MCC in Kenya gave a compelling presentation on this.    Is CRWRC-K learning with MCC  on sand dams?  I wonder if this applies to other semi-arid zones where we work?   Here is Alvera’s contact info: E-mail: alverastern@yahoo.com

7. Grain amaranth in the PARE diocese of Tanzania & Training Video from ECHO: The PARE diocese folks  would really like CRWRC of Tanzania to share learning with them!  They have a lot of experience with fish ponds that they could share with CRWRC---see previous note.   Contact person: Elibariki Kisimbo in the PARE diocese, based in Same, Tanzania.  (E-mail: elikisimbo@yahoo.com )  Jane Volker, the ECHO librarian is also making the Amaranth training video that PWW’s Dick Dugger and CRWRC developed ---available for sale. 

8. Fast cooking beans for people who are too poor to afford fuel to cook red beans: I learned that mung bean and rice bean take far less time to cook.   I recall that the expense of fuel to cook red beans was a barrier to nutrition for some people in Kenya.  ECHO has these in its seed bank.  During the recent CRWRC Ag evaluation, Roland Bunch commented that there is a good market for rice bean in Vietnam.  But, I was not aware of the cooking advantage for rice bean over red kidney bean.

9. Imperata grass control: in Central Africa Republic, Paul Noren of the Evangelical Lutheran mission has found that Acacia angustissima, a leguminous tree shades out the Imperata.  He said that the rainy season in his area lasts from 8 to 9 months----so the growth of the legume tree is vigorous there. I wonder if this possibility is worthwhile considering for the W. Nile region of Uganda?   I think that the length of the rainy season is a key variable for the growth of the shade species to be effective in shading out the imperata.  Paul Noren’s contact info: E-mail: spnoren@juno.com

10. “Weaving Agricultural Development and Community Development:” Lastly, I’ll mention the presentation I gave.  It is called  I have debts to many of CRWRC staff as my teachers and many others, too, for the ideas in this.  But, I am willing to share it with you so that you can see where I copied your ideas and then you can also debate with me---because this is a journey of learning!   The main idea in that we need to use both: sound agricultural principles and sound community development practice.  My contact is: tpost@crwrc.org