Day 2: ECHO Asia/Partners Tropical Agriculture Workshop

Establishing mustard green transplants into plant beds

The second day of the 2012 ECHO Asia/Partners Tropical Agriculture Workshop was all about vegetable gardening and backyard fish production.

Preparing raised beds

Activities started off at the ECHO Asia Office's urban garden.  Participants were introduced to kitchen bokashi, biochar, chaya, various tomato and bell pepper varieties under evaluation and the wonders of perennial peanut (an excellent ground cover).  

Making above-ground fish pond

Later in the morning, the use of Indigenous Microorganisms (IMOs) for garden soil improvement as well as vegetable gardening basics were covered by the Partners staff.  Workshop participants got hands-on experience making IMO soil amendments, developing raised garden beds and planting various vegetables including mustard greens, lettuce, cucumbers and vegetable morning glory.  

Feeding black soldier fly larvae to catfish

The afternoon was devoted to making a simple above-ground fish pond out of sacks of rice husks and a sheet of plastic.  Catfish were released and fed dried black soldier fly larva following a brief presentation by Scott Breaden on the opportunities and challenges of producing the larva as a supplemental protein source for poultry and catfish.