Waiting on the Rainy Season: An ECHO Asia Blog

Day 3: ECHO Asia/Partners Tropical Agriculture Workshop

2012-01-26T20:16:00.000+07:00

The final day of the 2012 ECHO Asia Tropical Agriculture Workshop was primarily focused on useful charred products and by-products (charred rice husks, charcoal made in modified 200-liter drums and wood vinegar) as well as rice husk-fueled gasifier stoves, bio-sand water filters and homemade bladder-type biogas generators.

Boonsong and Sombat from Partners demonstrated how decent charcoal can be made from modified 200-liter drum kilns using wood from low-grade trees, such as leucaena. In the process, wood vinegar is also manufactured, offering various farm applications such as insect and odor control. They also taught the group how charred rice husks are easily produced for use in soil mix and biochar. Additionally, a simple gasifier stove was demonstrated to show how cheap and readily available rice husks can be used as a clean-burning cooking fuel, being charred in the process.

Stefan Geiger from the Raintree Foundation taught the group how to install and use bio-sand water filters are installed and used. Mizuki Watanabe, with the Panya Project, shared about the production and use of wood vinegar in Japan.

Finally, the Partners team demonstrated how bladder-type biogas generators are easily and inexpensively made (using clear plastic sheets for instructional purposes). If well cared for, the biogas generators can operate for a few years.

The next ECHO Asia workshop will be held near Phnom Penh, Cambodia during February 21-23.

Day 2: ECHO Asia/Partners Tropical Agriculture Workshop

2012-01-25T20:19:00.000+07:00

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.

Day 1: ECHO Asia/Partners Thailand Tropical Agriculture Workshop

2012-01-24T19:18:00.000+07:00

The first day of the 2012 ECHO Asia/Partners Tropical Agriculture workshop was off to a great start. With nearly 30 persons participating, the activities were geared toward the humane slaughter of livestock and the basics of SRI (System of Rice Intensification).

During the livestock workshop, a pig and a few chickens as well as a number of catfish and tilapia were humanely slaughtered and prepared. With a diverse group of participants, approaches to animal slaughter varied. Exchange of ideas, techniques and opinions was cordial and extremely beneficial from a practical standpoint.

The afternoon SRI workshop involved hands-on training related to producing a modified mat rice seedling nursery, removal and transplant of seedlings (less than two weeks old) and weed control. ECHO Asia is grateful for the use of the Partners Thailand small farm facility and the expertise of Boonsong and Sombat, Partners Thailand staff.

ECHO Asia's Earthbag House: A Potential Seed Bank Approach

2012-01-23T09:33:00.000+07:00

Lue and James appear to be sitting in front of a grass hut. But looks can be deceiving. The small structure is actually the ECHO Asia Seed Bank's earthbag house that is nearing completion.

Two factors that affect the long term viability of stored seed are humidity and high temperatures. Modern seed (gene) banks generally make use of climate controlled rooms to keep both humidity and temperature sufficiency low. ECHO Asia's seed bank employs a simple air conditioning unit that moderates the temperature (and the humidity to some degree). But for improved control of relative humidity, as well as seed-storage pests such as bruchids, we also store our seeds in vacuum sealed bags.

However, in many places, there is limited access to electricity to enable seeds to be stored in an expensive air-conditioned climate controlled environment. As ECHO promotes community-based seed sharing and saving, it is also part of our mission to recommend appropriate ways for communities and organizations in the developing world to better store seeds.

Underground structures, such as root cellars, have long been used as an appropriate way to modify temperatures for the long term storage of plant products. Underground temperatures can be significantly lower (or higher) than the above-ground ambient temperature, making a huge difference towards keeping harvested plant products from perishing.

Along the same lines, it seems logical to use root cellars as seed banks as long as seeds can be stored in containers in which the humidity is modified by using vacuum (or partial vacuum) and/or desiccants such as silica gel or even parched rice.

Unfortunately, not every location has a hill, favorable soil depth or a low water table for which to dig a root cellar. Therefore, modified earthbag structures (with walls composed of sacks filled with soil) are an appealing possibility.

James (ECHO Asia intern) and Lue (Assistant Seed Bank Director) were trained in earthbag house construction by Engineering Ministries International (eMi). Afterward, they brought their skills to the seed bank and facilitated the construction of a small earthbag house. To prevent the invasion of surrounding warmer air (the seed bank is located in a tropical/sub-tropical region), a small door with a foam interior and a thick but light ceiling composed of sacks filled with burnt rice husks were installed. And to keep costs low, almost the entire structure was made from local, cheap materials, including a roof of fan palm thatch.

Data loggers will be installed this week to record the interior temperature and relative humidity. These will be compared with outside readings over a period of one year.

So we look forward to reporting on the long term results of the modification of temperature by the earthbag house and the potential of such structures for community-based seed storage in the tropics.

My Favorite Photos of 2011

2012-01-09T21:02:00.000+07:00

ECHO Asia Seed Bank staffer, Asaeng, tending to moringa seedlings.

My favorite "beware of dog" sign in Phmon Penh.

Our boys in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

This shot was taken during the green manure/cover crop and

agroforestry post conference tour of the ECHO Asia Agriculture and

Community Development Conference in October.

High water in Chiang Mai's Worarot Market.

A front porch meal in Huai Lu Luang community in Chiang Rai.

A Garo woman in northeast India making plans to harvest her SRI rice field.

Small group sessions held during a project evaluation in northeast

India.

A large kitchen garden in northeast India.

Nature's stain glass:  sun rays striking the leaves of a wild palm on

Doi Suthep.

ECHO Asia Impact Center office garden; perennial vegetable

biodiversity.

The fairest pig of all.

Evaluating the results of the soap making session of the 2011 ECHO

Asia Tropical Agriculture Workshop.

After the ECHO East Africa Symposium in Arusha, Tanzania, my friend

Sam (a life-long resident of east Africa) took me to the Tarangire

National Park.  My photos of the amazing park residents (elephants,

giraffe, gazelle, etc.) did no justice.  However, I was just as

enamored with the landscape and flora; so different from my usual

haunts in Asia and North America.

ECHO Asia intern, Vinny Ricciaradi, leading the charge to collect wax

gourd in Pang Daeng Nawk community for seed saving purposes.

Thai Environment Day

2011-12-10T09:22:00.000+07:00

ECHO Asia was invited to set up a demonstration at the Thai Environment Day exhibition in Chiang Mai. So we packed up our portable container garden comprised of basins, buckets and even sacks, and hit the road.

Containerized crops that were exhibited included okra, water spinach, vegetable fern, taro, tomato, chili peppers, Malabar spinach, eggplant, katuk and moringa. A small terrarium full of vermicompost-making earthworms was thrown in as well. Wah (Seed Bank Manager) and Kimberly (intern) spent Dec. 2-4 meeting thousands of students and adults and encouraging everyone to grow whatever they can wherever they can.

Northeast India: SRI to Zai Holes

2011-12-09T09:22:00.000+07:00

I recently visited northeast India to follow up on an ongoing consultation effort for NEICORD, an NGO based in Shillong. It was my third visit over the past two years.

It was good to see the fruits of labor related to the cooperation of NEICORD with a dozen communities in the Partharkhmah area just south of Guhawati. With NEICORD involvement, since 2009, dozens of farmers have been experimenting with the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) and Sloping Agriculture Technology (SALT) in addition to another couple of hundred persons who have begun making small kitchen gardens. Practically all of the persons interviewed expressed satisfaction with their endeavors with intentions to continue as well as promote such approaches among their families and neighbors.

I was also intrigued/impressed with a number of their own farming approaches. One included stripping grains by hand from the stalks of rice in their hill fields (see video clip). I understand this is done mainly on extremely steep land, eliminating the need to cut, bundle, stack and thresh the crop in such precarious locations.

Another interesting rice system technique encountered there is the use of cattle to tread upon harvested rice to thresh crop (see video).

Finally, I was surprised to find zai holes of a sort being used in the kitchen garden of a Garo family. Zai holes are traditionally employed in West Africa crop production. According to the ECHO classic, Amaranth to Zai Holes, West African crops, such as millet, are grown in holes around 20x20 cm wide and 10 cm deep. The holes are filled with mulch or compost, such as manures or crop residues.

Similar to the West African zai holes, some of the Garo make similar holes filled with a mixture of soil and manure. Prijilla, the gardener, observes that vegetable crops planted on raised beds seem to grow a bit faster. However, if water is short, the raised beds dry out much more quickly. Therefore, the zai holes help extend soil moisture for dry season gardens.

ECHO Asia Biochar Trial

2011-12-07T12:53:00.001+07:00

During the recent ECHO Asia Agriculture and Community Development Conference, Dr. Karl Frogner presented a plenary session that introduced the concept of biochar as well as an afternoon workshop during which the production of biochar was demonstrated. Biochar is carbonized material, such as wood charcoal, that is ground up and mixed with materials rich in plant nutrients (such as animal manure) for at least of few months. Such contact with the fertile, organic materials will allow absorption of nutrients as well as agriculturally beneficial microbes into the pores of the char. Afterward, the char is incorporated into the topsoil of plant beds and fields. Applied in such fashion, biochar reportedly benefits crop production by serving as a supplemental source of plant nutrients as well as a soil-based residence for beneficial microbes. Biochar is also promoted as a means of sequestering carbon to help mitigate climate change.

Although the production and use of biochar is an ancient practice in some parts of the world, the science behind the approach is still new. To better understand the potential of biochar for small farms in the region, ECHO Asia is preparing to work with UBI, Dr. Frogner's organization, to test the effects of biochar related to crop production at the ECHO Asia Seed Bank.

In October, Dr. Frogner worked with ECHO Asia staff and volunteers to develop a prototype biochar oven made from a 200-liter barrel. Sliced segments of bamboo where charred in the oven during a test run of the equipment. Despite a downpour during at the end of the burn, the char turned out very well.

ECHO Asia will be reporting on the progress and results of the upcoming trial.

2011 ECHO Asia Agriculture and Community Development Conference

2011-12-06T12:49:00.000+07:00

The 2011 ECHO Asia Agriculture and Community Development Conference was held during October 4-7 at the Empress Hotel in Chiang Mai with 157 registered delegates from 10 Asia countries and beyond. Nine plenary sessions included diverse topics such as farmer managed natural regeneration of forests (Tony Rinaudo), the potential of grain amaranth (Tom Post) and the access of protein for diets in the Papua Province of Indonesia (Dr. Di Mathews). Afternoon workshops related to dozens of practical and technical development topics were also offered.

Conference delegates trekking through the permanent upand hill fields
of Pang Daeng Nai community where the Green Manure/Cover Crop and
Agroforestry Post-Conference tour was held.

One of the most popular components of the meeting were the post-conference tours that were held in 10 locations in and around Chiang Mai. One of these was the Green Manure/Cover Crop and Agroforestry Tour among the upland hill fields of Pang Daeng Nai community in the Chiang Dao district. Participants were able to see how local farmers have been using viny legumes to maintain the productivity of their permanent hill fields and appreciate the community's highly diversified and productive agroforest plots.

During the Green Manure/Cover Crop and Agroforest Post Conference
Tour,  Tony Rinaudo offered a demonstration on how to manage wild,
coppiced seedlings for farmer-managed natural regeneration of forests.

Late Rainy Season Grains at the ECHO Asia Seed Bank

2011-11-03T10:19:00.000+07:00

This has been the wettest year we've ever seen. Usually the rains begin to show signs of winding down by late September. However, rainfall continued to be almost daily up through most of October.

Fortunately, the grain crops being grown at the ECHO Asia Seed Bank are thriving in the moisture. Pictured are a healthy plot of Job's tear, stalks of grain sorghum that dwarf Seed Bank Manager Wah and interns, Kym and Marcia, as well as our first planting of what we think is foxtail millet. The millet seeds were obtained during a Hort CRSP-sponsored seed fair in the Chiang Dao district of northern Thailand in January.

Seeds from these crops should be ready for harvest by the end of the year.

Kitchen Bokashi Series: Part 4 - Fermenting Food Scraps and Using the Finished Product

2011-09-01T03:08:00.001+07:00

Layered fermenting food scraps

With inoculated carrier, the production of kitchen bokashi can begin.

Using a plastic bucket with an air-tight lid, begin by adding a layer of newspaper or cardboard on the bottom. This helps to soak up excess liquid. Then place a handful of fermented starter mix in the bottom of the bucket.

Begin layering unrotten food scraps inside the bucket and scatter a thin layer of fermented starter mix on top of the material. Thick layers of carrier are not necessary. But at the minimum, I would apply a scattering of carrier to at least every one-inch layer of food scraps. To increase anaerobic conditions, press down on the food scraps inside the bucket to eliminate air spaces.

Finished bokashi being
buried in the garden

Also as the buckets and lids that I use are not completely airtight, I employ plastic bags to help seal the lids. And to lessen contact with air even more, I also place of layer of plastic bags on top of the compacted materials and weigh it all down with a heavy wooden chopping block.

Continue layering in such fashion until the bucket is full.

To keep mess to a minimum, I also try to exclude liquid (such as gravy) from the bucket. However, some commercial kitchen bokashi buckets come equipped with spigots that allow liquid “bokashi tea” to be easily removed, diluted with water and used to nourish plants.

Once the bucket is full then set it aside and allow it to ferment with the lid tightly closed for at least two more weeks. Afterward, bury the bokashi in holes or trenches in the garden under at least 15 cm of soil. If you uncover the bokashi before it has finished composting it may have a strong, unpleasant smell.

Kitchen bokashi composted in the soil

After some weeks (depending on conditions), the fermented kitchen bokashi will convert into a composted, soil-like material. When the composting process is done then the former food waste should not have any bad odor.

The finished kitchen bokashi will add nutrients and microbes to the soil and contribute to improved soil structure. Worms, arthropods and other small creatures, indicators of soil health, will relish in the compost. Your crops will like it too.

Kitchen Bokashi Series: Part 3 - Making the Inoculated Carrier

2011-08-29T02:40:00.000+07:00

Inoculated carrier, bran treated with EM, is used to inoculate food wastes with fermentation organisms (phototropic bacteria, lactic acid bacteria and yeast) that are essential for producing kitchen bokashi.

Left to right: container of EM 1,
2 2-liter plastic bottles containing
extended EM solution, jar of
molasses

Ingredients for a small batch of bokashi carrier (5 kg):

5 kg (11 lb.) of rice bran
20 ml (1.35 tablespoons) EM•1®
20 ml (1.35 tablespoons) molasses
1 liter of water (1.05 quarts)

Procedure:

Bran moistened with EM solution

To activate and extend an adequate supply of EM microbes to produce 5 kg of inoculated carrier, dissolve 20 ml of molasses into 1 liter of water along with 20 ml of EM•1® (non-chlorinated is usually advised). Keep the culture solution for 5-7 days in a sealed plastic bottle away from direct sunlight. Quickly vent off excess gases once a day (if needed).
Mix the culture solution thoroughly with 5 kg of bran in a bucket, but avoid adding too much solution. To check the moisture content, squeeze some of the bran into a ball. If no liquid can be squeezed out and the bran still holds shape after being released, then the material contains an appropriate amount of moisture. It may not be necessary to add the entire liter of culture solution to moisture 5 kg of bran.
If using a strong plastic bag to ferment the carrier, press the moistened material down to displace any air pockets and then tie the bag tightly after squeezing out excess air. Leave the bag of inoculated carrier undisturbed for two weeks or longer.
After near anaerobic storage for two weeks or longer, the carrier will have a fermented, malt-like smell. It may also have some white mold growing on it, which is fine. However, the presence of undesirable black or green mold probably means that the carrier was exposed to too much air or contaminants or that the inoculated brain was stored too moist. Therefore, do not use the starter mix if it has black or green mold growing on it.

Fermented bran drying in the sun

Break the moist, fermented carrier apart with your hands and spread it out on a canvas in a sunny location to dry. Every half hour or so, use a rake to spread and respread the treated bran until the material is completely dry.
Use a rolling pin to break apart any clods of bran, both large and small.

Bokashi carrier ready to use

Store the fine, dry carrier in a sealed plastic bag and/or in an airtight container for long-term storage. Under dry, near anaerobic conditions, the inoculated carrier can be stored for at least several months.

The final blog will discuss how food scraps are collected, fermented and eventually incorporated into garden soils.

Kitchen Bokashi Series: Part 2 - Food Waste to Garden Soil Amendment

2011-08-25T02:25:00.001+07:00

Airtight container half full of bokashi

During the 2009 ECHO Asia Agriculture Conference in Chiang Mai, Keith Mikkelson, from the Aloha Natural Farm in the Philippines, shared about making and using bokashi from food waste. His presentation inspired conference delegate, Kenny Miller, to begin producing his own household bokashi. And Kenny’s positive bokashi experience influenced my family to do the same.

Kitchen bokashi is a useful soil amendment that is produced by fermenting food wastes. It offers households and institutions the following opportunities:

a manageable means of reducing the volume of waste by recycling food scraps

Healthy white mold forming

unending access to an excellent soil amendment that improves garden soil structure and fertility, benefiting helpful soil organisms as well.

To produce kitchen bokashi, food scraps are collected in airtight containers and inoculated with a carrier. Such a carrier is often comprised of a high carbon material, such as rice or wheat bran, that has been inoculated with fermentation microorganisms (e.g. natural lactic acid bacteria, yeast, and phototrophic bacteria). One source of such microorganisms is a commercial product called Effective Microorganisms (EM).

Each shallow layer of food scraps should have a liberal sprinkling of inoculated carrier on top with layering continuing until the container is full. Stored under near anaerobic conditions, microbes will expand throughout the kitchen scraps and ferment the materials.

If done correctly, there will be no spoilage or putrid smell, allowing fermented food wastes to be collected and stored over the long term; even for months until burial. Finally, weeks after incorporation into the garden, the bokashi will become soil-like, providing both organic matter and plant nutrients to the soil.

Kitchen bokashi being buried in the garden

Speaking of plant nutrients, based on lab analysis done at Mae Jo University on a batch of kitchen bokashi, this is how our bokashi’s N-P-K ratio compared to other natural fertilizers and animal manures (compiled from various sources):

kitchen bokashi 2.39 – 0.77 – 0.97
worm castings 1.1 - 0.8 – 0.5
blood meal 12 – 0 – 0
chicken manure 1.1 – 0.8 – 0.5
rabbit manure 2.4 – 1.4 – 0.6

The next blog will offer detailed instructions on making the inoculated bokashi carrier.

Kitchen Bokashi Series: Part 1 - Reducing Food Waste

2011-08-22T02:14:00.002+07:00

Alarming news from the Food and Agriculture Organization

Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or wasted, according to an FAO-commissioned study in early 2011.
Per capita waste by consumers is between 95-115 kg a year in Europe and North America, while consumers in sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia each throw away only 6-11 kg a year.
Generally speaking, consumers fail to plan their food purchases properly, the report found. That means they often throw food away when "best-before" dates expired.
Rich-country consumers should be taught that throwing food away needlessly is unacceptable.
Good use for food that would otherwise be thrown away should be found.

Cutting food waste to feed the world (The FAO Media Center) http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/74192/icode/

This photo shows an example of food waste in our household not too long ago. Such wasted food included stale cereal and baked goods as well as spoiled leftovers. Since then, more awareness among family members and increased effort to keep certain types of food from spoiling, such as storing opened cereals in airtight containers, has significantly helped to lessen the volume of wasted food.

Waste from fruit and vegetables as well as coffee grounds have long been recycled by our earthworms into vermicompost. However, as we have yet to completely eliminate uneaten leftovers, a practical means of putting such a “resource” to good use evaded us until we discovered bokashi.

My next blog will introduce the concept of Kitchen Bokashi.

The Rest of the Story...."Stepping Up Irrigation”

2011-08-17T01:58:00.000+07:00

By Kimberly Duncan
ECHO Asia Intern

Not to be left out of the wet, ECHO partner, UHDP, has commissioned not one, but two pumps from our Burmese visitors as they also prepare for drier days. A rope and washer pump being built for them retains the full body of the bicycle being used to provide rotation which is pedaled rather than cranked by hand like the ECHO pump; hence, we’ve begun referring to it simply as the “bicycle pump.” Other than the leg power being used to make the wheels go round, however, the concept is exactly the same as the ECHO Asia pump described in our previous posting.

The second pump is a treadle pump. This one is made almost entirely of metal, with the exception of the PVC pipe used to support the operator; however, hundreds have been built around the developing world using bamboo, wood, or other materials. This one was purchased in Tachilek, Myanmar and though not entirely identical to the “pulley and rope” arrangement typical of many treadle pump designs that can found on the Internet, it runs on the same concept. We’ve borrowed Climate Lab’s explanation of the mechanics:

The treadle pump consists of two parts, the pump and the operating mechanism. The pump is generally made of metal and has two cylinders that are connected to a suction pipe at the base and an outlet spout at the surface. The operating mechanism is made up of metal, bamboo, or wood foot pedals that are attached to a superstructure that the operator can hold onto for support. As the operator of the pump shifts their weight on the foot pedals, plungers inside the cylinders reciprocate the motion and draw water alternately into each barrel. Non-return valves protect the inlet and also allow the plunger to move down through the water in the cylinder on the downward stroke without forcing it back down the suction pipe. The upward movement of the plunger lifts the water in the cylinder out the spout and simultaneously draws more water into the barrel of the suction pipe. The water is either lifted onto the field directly, into a pond or into an irrigation canal. (Palumbo)*

Both pumps can lift water from standing water or wells. In both cases the distance from the water source or depth to the water table will affect the amount of water that can be brought up and at what rate. (Most treadle pumps can draw from a maximum 7 meters depth.) In the case of a treadle pump, the size of the piston cylinders and the draw length of the pistons themselves will also determine volume. Cylinders on the UHDP pump are 101mm in diameter; stroke length about 250mm. The bicycle pump sourcing water from the pond is currently functioning at 12 liters per minute. I’m told that the treadle pump, when completed, should be able to pump 30 liters per minute from the same pond.

As mentioned before, a lot of work with treadle pumps is being done around the developing world. Huge success has been found in areas like Southeast Asia (particularly in Bangladesh) where water tends to be more readily accessible; however, the pumps have also worked well in parts of semi-arid Africa. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has some extremely detailed and helpful publications describing them. For some fascinating bed-time reading, check out the following links:

FAO TREADLE PUMPS FOR IRRIGATION IN AFRICA
http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/x8293e/x8293e00.htm

FAO - HOW TREADLE PUMPS WORK (continuation of publication above
ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/005/x8293e/X8293E01.pdf

FAO TECA BAMBOO TREADLE PUMP INDIA
http://teca.fao.org/technology/bamboo-treadle-pump-india

FAO TOTAL LAND CARE - TREADLE PUMP IRRIGATION
http://www.totallandcare.org/Projects/FAOTreadlePump/tabid/93/Default.aspx

FAO REPOSITORY SITE WITH MULTIPLE PUBLICATIONS
http://www.fao.org/documents/jsp/empty.jsp?cx=018170620143701104933%3Azn2zurhzcta&cof=FORID%3A11&q=TREADLE&x=0&y=0&search_radio=docRep

THE ASHDEN AWARDS FOR SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
http://www.totallandcare.org/Projects/FAOTreadlePump/tabid/93/Default.aspx

COOPER-HEWITT - DESIGN FOR THE OTHER 90%
http://other90.cooperhewitt.org/design/bamboo-treadle-pump

*Palumbo, Jamie. "Treadle Pumps." Climate Lab(beta). Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike, 31 March 2010. Web. 11 Aug 2011. http://climatelab.org/Treadle_Pumps.

Introducing our New Low Tech and Effective Water Pump

2011-07-30T03:33:00.000+07:00

By Kimberly Duncan
ECHO Asia Intern

Back when Janis -- our now departed intern of yore -- was setting up an irrigation for our moringa plots (http://sustainabilityquest.blogspot.com/2011/06/add-water.html), it was decided that better pressure for the existing irrigation network in our main production plots was also needed. Once the rainy season is over, we will need to get water out of our pond, up a hill, and back down into the plots; however, our motorized pump keeps breaking. What to do? Appropriate technology to the rescue!

As an aside, there is an ongoing debate about the actual appropriateness of what has been labeled “appropriate technology.” Protagonists define “appropriate technology” as “using what you have to make what you need,” (Doerr).* Antagonists complain that the term is just a euphemism to soothe the consciences of those who don’t want to provide modern technological advances to the poor. The debate can go deep, and, initially, you may be tempted to side with the antagonists, but from our end, with our modern, electrically-run pump constantly on the fritz, we are championing the protagonists. Read a little further and see if you find yourself changing camps.

It just so happened that while we were sorting out our water needs and having a few choice words with our lifeless pump, several gentlemen from the Karen Baptist Convention (KBC)** in Myanmar came to visit UHDP as part of the Convention’s research into sustainable agriculture and appropriate technologies. Among them Saw Eh Lay and Saw Ler Mou had recently received training at the hands of an Australian engineer who taught them how to build a “rope and washer pump.”*** It was an opportunity too good to pass up. We “roped” them into helping us find an “appropriate” solution to our water pumping needs.

The building of the “rope and washer pump” took just two men and three days. Using PVC plastic piping, rubber washers, nylon rope, an old bicycle, and a little cement to hold it in place, they created a hand-crank system that can pump 20 liters per minute from the pond up the hill and into our water storage tanks! These items were either already available on the farm or found in our local market. A person standing by the pump simply turns the crank, feeding the rope with washers spaced at regular intervals over the bicycle wheels down into the water and back up through the PVC. Forced along the rope by the washers, the water makes the trip from the pond to the tanks with only a little escaping at the apex of the system. In a matter of minutes a 100 gallon tank is filled! Dry season, here we come!

*Doerr, Elizabeth. "Introduction to Appropriate Technology." Internship Lecture Series. ECHO. Appropriate Technologies Demonstration Center, ECHO Farm, N. Fort Myers, FL. 2009. Lecture.

** The Karen Baptist Convention or KBC was established in Myanmar in 1913. It currently includes 20 associations which seek to provide Christian education and publications, care and counseling, communications and social services, and technology and development, with an overall emphasis in leadership training. Along with rope and washer pumps, Saw Eh Lay and Saw Ler Mou (pictured above) are also trying out rice husk gasifier stoves in hopes of introducing them to rural areas in Myanmar without access to electricity and to help reduce deforestation.

*** Designs and diagrams for a variety of “rope and washer” pumps” can be found on the Internet. Click http://echonet.org/repositories#152:d:ATWebBook.2007.pdf to view a demonstration pump on the ECHO Farm in N. Fort Myers, FL. Click http://echonet.org/repositories#146:d:PVC%20Hand%20Pumps.08.pdf for smaller “PVC Hand Pumps”.

James 2000

2011-07-28T06:17:00.000+07:00

Various pests, especially snails during the rainy season, make vegetable gardening a challenge. However, as we would like the ECHO Asia office demonstration garden to be as productive as possible year round, we decided to make protective row covers for our garden beds. ECHO Asia intern, James "Tarantula Boy" Manson (http://sustainabilityquest.blogspot.com/2010/09/spiders-over-snakes.html) was drafted for the job. Using 1/2 inch PVC pipe and row cover fabric, James constructed five row covers. We're so impressed with James' design that we dubbed it the "James 2000."

Measuring 1.45 meters long, 0.8 m wide and 0.9 m tall to be an exact fit for the beds, the total cost of materials for each unit was 397 Thai baht (US $13.26). Not terribly cheap. However, local materials, such as bamboo for the frame, could be easily used to lower costs.

Our James 2000s are study, lightweight and easy to move. However, they must be anchored to keep strong winds from blowing them over.

In case readers are interested in making their own versions of the James 2000, it is important to allow the mesh to make enough contact with the soil surface in order to be "sealed" with pieces of wood or brick to prevent pests from crawling under the frame. If heavy enough, such items will help keep the row covers from blowing over.

You can see that at least one snail was thwarted from entering a garden bed. Well made row covers can exclude a wide range of pests that are too large to pass through the mesh. On the other hand, pre-existing, resident pests will be confined by the covers. Row covers can also help prevent pollinators from entering; which is either good (if we're trying to prevent cross-pollination) or bad (if our crops need cross-pollination).

James' row covers are well made and we expect them to last at least a few years with minimal maintenance.

New Crop Evaluation

2011-07-28T06:02:00.000+07:00

During the USAID-funded Hort CRSP Exploratory Survey that took place in two village clusters in northern Thailand, and another in southwest Cambodia, earlier this year, we came across quite a few interesting crop varieties (mainly vegetables) grown by farm families. The ECHO Asia Seed Bank team selected several of these varieties, such as this black seed, short-pod velvet bean, to evaluate. Our criteria was to focus on crops/varieties that are desirable, rare and/or have reported outstanding traits, such as high productivity and good flavor. Many of these finds have already been planted out in the seed bank plots with data and observations currently being recorded.

Hopefully, this effort will yield more regionally appropriate crops for the ECHO Asia Seed Bank to distribute among our network.

The Corn We Couldn't Eat

2011-06-26T04:07:00.000+07:00

Less than three months after moving into the new ECHO Asia office in late March our demonstration garden is growing like gangbusters.

A rainy "dry season" helped the perennials get established quickly. Fortunately, we've been able to stay ahead of the weeds. And annuals, such as okra, vegetable amaranth and sweet corn are already producing. Produce is being shared with the neighbors. But with an urgent need for seed, Wah (our seed bank manager) called dibs on the sweet corn.

We had other plans.

Add Water

2011-06-26T03:42:00.000+07:00

Jamis Koknevics, born in Latvia, raised in Belgium and educated in the UK, spent the last several months interning with ECHO Asia. Soon after arriving, we assigned him to upgrade the seed bank's water supply. With access to UHDP's reservoir, we needed an efficient means of pumping water from the pond to two large plots where several dozen moringa trees (PKM-1)are being established for seed production. Janis researched the best means of delivering the water to these trees.

The result is a grid of PE tubing with appropriately spaced spray nozzles. The new irrigation system will also enable dry season production of other seed bank crops grown between the trees. We're very grateful for Janis' involvement at the ECHO Asia Seed Bank and wish him the best as he prepares to further his education.

Big Seed Delivery to Laos

2011-05-19T19:13:00.000+07:00

This week the ECHO Asia Seed Bank sent its largest seed order yet. Not being a commercial seed supplier, usually ECHO's orders are limited to free, small sample packs of seeds sent out to development workers serving in poor counties. Recipients can evaluate the seed in their locations and, if possible, multiply seed for the benefit of their clientele; usually small-scale farmers and gardeners.

However, ECHO Asia carries select types of seed in bulk quantities; mostly green manure cover crops. As long as supplies last, ECHO network partners in Asia can purchase (to cover costs) between one hundred grams to a few kilos of such seed.

This particular combined order, over 60 kg total, was sent by bus from Chiang Mai to a city near the Lao border. Six agricultural development agencies will be testing these seeds on their farms and focus communities. Hopefully much more seed will be propagated from this large order.

Orange Sweet Potatoes

2011-05-19T19:11:00.000+07:00

Our family ate a lot of sweet potatoes when I was a kid. Along with Irish potatoes, Ipomoea batatas was a main garden staple. Truth is, I kind got sick of them and never grew any after I left home.

However, through the years, I've rediscovered a new fondness for the root crop, especially the orange varieties. The sweet potato is poor man's food, and Asia grows its share. However, many are white flesh varieties which I find a bit bland.

Over the past year, the humble sweet potato has gotten some very favorable press. Last Thanksgiving, New York Times Op-Ed Columnist, Nicolas Kristof, wrote a glowing piece about the role of orange sweet potatoes specially bred to help fight hunger in Africa (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/25/opinion/25kristof.html). Orange sweet potatoes are packed with beta carotene, a natural source of vitamin A, much needed by the human body.

Fortunately, orange sweet potatoes are easy to grow in our part of tropical Asia.

In early December 2010, I bought sack of orange tuberous sweet potato roots from a local market (not easy to find) and planted them in one of our garden beds. We ended up with a ton of slips. I then transplanted some of these slips into four short rows around New Year and waited until mid-April to begin digging. I was delighted to find well-formed, tasty roots.

Friends and neighbors got their share. In fact, we only had enough left over for one meal. Ellen sliced the tubers, added seasoning and baked them until they began to brown. Delicious.

Now, the locally-adapted orange sweet potato variety is growing in the demonstration garden at the ECHO Asia office. Interested persons who drop by the office can picked up a few slips to take home with them.

A Festive Germination Test

2011-05-19T19:04:00.000+07:00

Recently I entered the nursery at the ECHO Asia seed Bank for a quick look. I was surprised by the burst of color in one of the plant beds in which seeds recently acquired from communities in northern Thailand and Cambodia were being tested for germination and vigor. Vinny, the intern in charge of the test, explained that the multi-colored plastic spoons used to mark each seed were not only cheap and reusable but "way more cool" than boring white spoons. The seed bank staff also said that the previous array of white spoon markers looked a bit too much like headstones in a tiny cemetery, which they seemed to think was kind of depressing. So for a more cheerful looking seed vigor trial, multi-colored plastic spoons are definitely the way to go. Also note the phototropic effect going on with the bean seedlings.

The CSA

2011-04-26T11:09:00.000+07:00

Earlier this year our friends, Jeff and Sarah Rutherford with Fair Earth Farm (http://www.fairearthfarm.com/) helped organize a small group of young certified organic farmers with the Mae Tha Cooperative (http://www.thailand-travelonline.com/thailand-destinations/northern-thailand-information/sustainable-agriculture-happiness-of-living/620/) in establishing the first community supported agriculture initiative in northern Thailand (and one of few in the whole country). Currently 26 families, most of whom are affiliated with the Chiang Mai International School (http://www.cmis.ac.th/), are subscribing to the CSA.

Every Wednesday morning, the young Mae Tha farmers bring large foam boxes full of fresh, seasonal organic vegetables; all for 200 baht (less than $7.00 US). This is a bargain for quality produce. And, in fact, the amount of veggies provided is more than our family can consume alone in one week. Much of the bounty is shared with neighbors.

One interesting dimension of belonging to a Thai CSA initiative is that some of the vegetables, such as cha-om (ชะอม or Acacia pennata), are very Thai. Therefore, the means of preparing these veggies in a Western fashion is not always apparent or possible. Ellen's kitchen skills are impressive and she has discovered new ways to prepare local types of eggplant, vegetable amaranth, daikon radish and sweet potato. Additionally, the Rutherfords have formed an on-line forum so that the CSA members can discuss the identity of less known produce and compare recipes. However, Ellen doesn't consider herself a master Thai food chef. Fortunately, Bua Loi, our helper of 16 years, is a great cook who knows exactly what to do with such produce.

Some of the ECHO's development projects in the region are concerned with ways to help farmers better market vegetables. For those located near urban areas where there are likely to be persons willing to pay a bit more for safe produce, CSAs might offer an alternative marketing approach.

Swapping Seeds in Svay Rieng

2011-04-26T10:57:00.000+07:00

The third and final community seed fair related to the study of regional home gardening and seed saving that was made possible by a Hort CRSP (USAID supported) Exploratory Grant took place in Svay Rieng in southwest Cambodia on March 30, 2011. 55 participants from 11 communities brought a total of 350 packets of homegrown seed to share.

Of the three seed saving events held between January and March, I believe that the Cambodia event was the most successful. Vinny and the team did a great job of refining the process, cutting down significantly on the time required to register the participants and record the types of seeds brought to share. Following a brief message from a local agricultural official and a session that I led related to improved seed production and saving techniques, snacks were served. Afterward, the participants were divided into village groupings to allow each person to introduce seeds that they brought. Afterward, seeds of particularly interesting varieties from each village were described to the large group. This led to a very enthusiastic swap. Post-swap surveys indicated that on average, each participant both gave and received five packets of seed.

Like the previous seed swap in Mae Yao (Chiang Rai), greater interest and participation may have been due to the broader geographic area of the communities represented. But unlike Mae Yao, there was must less ethnic diversity as all of the participants at the Svay Rieng event were Khmer.

Following a wonderful meal, the seed swap ended informally with an impromptu dance (which I managed to evade but film).

We've Moved!

2011-03-29T17:07:00.000+07:00

The second week of March was devoted to the move of the ECHO Asia Impact Center (our new name) to a new address approximately 800 meters from our previous location on the campus of Chiang Mai's McCormick Hospital. ECHO Asia is now renting a small house located behind the Arcade Bus Station; Chiang Mai's main bus terminal.

As we had begun to outgrow our old office, our goal was to find a new location that would be considerably roomier, not difficult for our visitors to find and also have space for a demonstration garden.

We're pleased to announce that the new place fits all three criteria. However, before we could begin gardening and demonstrating other backyard/urban farming techniques such as vermiculture and possibly catfish production in tanks, we had to get the outside in order. On moving day, the front yard was dry and barren with an old driveway and footpath that ate up almost 1/3 of the area. So our friend, Chanchai and his crew, busted up the concrete and carted off the larger pieces with the smaller pieces of concrete being hauled away and used to fill in ruts in the dirt road that leads to the seed bank.

After the concrete was removed, the front yard was divided into a few zones One area has been planted in perennial vegetables such as katuk (Sauropus androgynus ), chaya (Cnidoscolus aconitifolius, also known as tree spinach; perhaps the first of its kind in Chiang Mai), moringa and red shoot fig (Ficus virens) as well as a permanent cover crop of perennial peanut (Arachis pintoi). This zone will also be planted into various viny vegetable varieties (winged bean, yardlong bean, bottle gourd, etc.) that will use the adjacent walls and fence as support.

The second zone is made up of 10 small plant beds, each approximately 1 x 2.5 m, which will host various vegetable crops being produced and distributed by the ECHO Asia Seed Bank. A liberal dose of composted, manure-rich rice husks (which had been used as bedding for several months in the pig pens at Partners' Farm) was applied to each bed. Zoysia grass was laid in walkways separating the bed.

Various container plants from the old McCormick office have been relocated along the carport. And the back corner of the property will serve as a nursery for a small amount of seedlings to be made available at the new office. This space is also being shared with a small semi-shaded garden already planted in vegetable fern, taro (with edible stems), Malabar spinach, snowflake tree (Trevesia palmata) and other local shade-tolerant vegetable crops.

A micro-sprinkler irrigation system has been installed throughout all the zones.

As we continue to settle in, we'll provide updates on the progress of the ECHO Asia garden and demonstration area.

By the way, the address of the new office is:
270/5 Soi 6
Thanon Tung Hotel
Chiang Mai 50000

Mae Yao Seed Fair

2011-03-29T16:57:00.000+07:00

The second seed fair related to the CRSP Hort Exploratory grant awarded to Pennsylvania State University, ECHO and Mae Jo University was held in the remote Mae Yao area of Chiang Rai province (northern Thailand) on February 29. Similar to the first seed swap event held a month prior in the Chiang Dao district of Chiang Mai, 30 persons (22 women and eight men) from four local communities brought seeds for exchange. The half-day event included registration and a brief training/discussion related to improved seed production and saving techniques.

In comparison to the Chiang Dao activity, the CRSP team noticed significantly more interaction and exchange of seeds among the Mae Yao participants. As there is greater distance between the four communities that were represented as well as more ethnic diversity (i.e. Black Lahu, Yellow Lahu and Akha), seeds saved from garden crops being grown in that area might be more diverse compared to those in the Palaung communities of Chiang Dao. If so, greater crop diversity may have stimulated more interest in seed exchange.

The final CRSP-sponsored seed fair will be held in Cambodia during the last week of March.

Pang Daeng Seed Swap Activity

2011-02-08T16:59:00.000+07:00

In conjunction with the Hort CRSP Exploratory Grant (USAID supported) recently awarded to ECHO, Pennsylvania State and Mae Jo Universities, the first multi-community seed swap was held on January 27, 2011 at Pang Daeng Nawk community in Chiang Dao district (one hour north of Chiang Mai).

Held at the conclusion of the month-long Hort CRSP survey of household vegetable gardening and seed saving/sharing activities among four area communities, the seed swap event was attended by over 60 persons. Of 37 participants from three local communities, 21 persons brought 181 packets of seeds to share.

The most common varieties of seeds that were brought included various types of cucumber, long bean, eggplant, field beans, okra, winged bean and vegetable lablab. However, a few uncommon varieties showed up as well, including a very large type of lima bean and some grains such as job’s tear, sorghum and millet.

The ECHO Asia Seed Bank also distributed over 200 small sample packets of seeds.

One weakness of the seed swap was that the attendees were from communities that were not only nearby but of the same ethnic group (mainly Palaung). Therefore, as a whole the participants did not encounter many “new” varieties. This resulted in less inter-community seed sharing than hoped. However, we believe that increased ethnic diversity and distance will lead to more “exchangeability” in future ECHO seed swap events.

By the end of the day, in addition to a nice lunch, not only a significant number of seeds were shared, but a lot of socializing took place. And we hope that our Palaung friends went home feeling even more encouraged and determined to continue to save and share seeds of their precious crops.

Three-Day Tropical Agriculture Workshop

2011-01-22T17:50:00.000+07:00

Over 35 persons from Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, Indonesia and beyond met in a simple training hall on the Partners Thailand farm just outside of Chiang Mai. They were participating in the Three-Day Tropical Agriculture Workshop co-hosted by the ECHO Asia Regional Office and Partners Thailand from January 19-21, 2011. Participants gained hands-on training related to grafting fruit trees, the production of moringa and its products, soap making for development, natural farming of pigs and backyard mushroom production. Additionally, a vermiculture training session, led by Dr. Arnat Tancho, was held nearby on the campus of Mae Jo University.

Other sessions were led by Betsy Langford (former ECHO intern and currently a student at Chiang Mai University's SAIWAM Program), Partners personnel, Boonsong Thansrithong, Sombat Chalermliamthong and Dorothy Kahn, as well as myself.

Feedback from meeting participants indicated that the event was a success. Following this recent exchange of knowledge and skills related to agriculture and community development, I'm certain that participants will be extending what they have learned among their own local networks. Furthermore, I am excited about offering similar workshops for development workers in other Asian countries, beginning with Cambodia in 2012.

ECHO Asia is extremely grateful to Partners Thailand and Mae Jo University for their significant involvement in this event.

My Favorite Photos from 2010

2011-01-12T11:48:00.000+07:00

Enjoy!

Goats being herded near Yangon

Young residents at a children's home outside Yangon

Palaung lady with lengths of cane (rattan) harvested from an agroforest plot

Cabbage fields in the Mae Chaem district of northern Thailand

Rice planting time near Chiang Mai

A hill field of corn and taro (northern Thailand)

September hill fields of upland rice, corn and beans (Chiang Dao, northern Thailand)

Tailgating the back of a banana truck in Guwahati, India

A farmhouse surrounded by moringa trees and rice fields in Assam, India

Checking out a SRI rice field in northeast India

Roadside fruit stand in Meghalaya, India

Roof top garden in Bangkok

Cambodian farm couple

Sunflower standing watch over hill fields along Thai-Burma border

Harvested rice in a hill field in Mae Ai, northern Thailand

Nighttime in Laos

SRI in Northeast India

2010-12-31T16:18:00.000+07:00

Among millions of rice growers throughout Asia, SRI rice production is still very much the exception rather than the rule. However, the promotion and adoption of the innovative approach in the region is quite widespread and growing. For more information about the status of SRI worldwide, check out this website, http://sri.ciifad.cornell.edu/index.html, maintained by the SRI International Network and Resources Center (SRI-Rice) with support from Jim Carrey's Better U Foundation and the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development.

In October, I had the opportunity to visit the Patharkhmah District, a focus area of NEICORD (http://www.neicord.org/) in the northeast Indian state of Meghalaya. With support from CRWRC (http://www.crwrc.org/pages/crwrc.cfm) and the Food Resource Bank (http://www.foodsresourcebank.org/), the NEICORD team is promoting various food security projects in the district, including home gardening, SALT (Sloping Agricultural Land Technology) and SRI.

Although NEICORD attempted a couple of trial plots last year, in 2010 they were basically starting their SRI programming from scratch. However, the project had done its homework by training their agricultural staff and key farmers in the basics of SRI during the dry season. By the beginning of the 2010 rainy season, 53 local farm families were prepared to experiment with SRI on their paddy land.

When I visited the NEICORD Patharkhmah project in October, the rice in the SRI trial plots was beginning to ripen. Inspecting the farms of several NEICORD partnering households, I was impressed with the overall quality of their SRI effort. Overwhelmingly, the farmers were satisfied with the SRI package of planting single young seedlings in hills arranged in straight rows that were widely spaced (between approximately 20-25 cm apart). During the time of my visit, in most fields the rice panicles were heavy with grain and the local farmers were giving the trial SRI plots high marks.

The early adopters also reported that managing water levels in the paddy to minimize flooding was not a problem. Less water in the paddy means more oxygen gets to the roots of rice plants, which promotes improved growth and production. On the other hand, with unflooded conditions, there were reports of more weeds in the fields. However, most of the farmers were able to control weeds with the simple SRI cono-weeders that are pushed between the rows of rice (see my earlier blog posting).

Regarding the early maturing rice, this was a bit of a problem as the rest of the rice in the area ripened 2-3 weeks later making the early ripening rice a target for hungry birds. You can see a video link of one farmer using a bamboo "clapper" that scares birds off. But having learned that SRI rice matures a bit earlier, the farmers simply plan to establish their SRI plots 2-3 weeks later next year.

I was impressed with NEICORD's 2010 efforts to promote SRI. I was also encouraged about the "adoptability" of SRI. To most rice growers the innovation is probably strange and counter-intuitive. But if seeing is believing, then the positive 2010 SRI results in Patharkhmah are probably going to yield more local adopters in 2011.

Jumpah Home

2010-12-08T09:15:00.000+07:00

During our October visit to Phnom Penh, Stan Doerr and I had the chance to visit Jumpah Home on the outskirts of the city. Founded by Tim and Darlene Ratzloff almost 10 years ago, Jumpah activities help families living with HIV-AIDS as well as orphans and low income persons.

Providing care for the residents adds up to a considerable cost. To help supplement associated expenses, and to offer agricultural outreach to neighboring farmers, the Jumpah team grows vegetables and also raises dozens of pigs for the local market. The pig production component was particularly intriguing as the operation contains several inter-linked activities, each of which yielding essential products. In combination, these activities and related products appear to provide a significant degree of self-sufficiency for the institution.

For instance, within the well-maintained pig production units, manure and other wastes are continually collected for the production of biogas. Tim reports that the resulting biogas provides the home with cooking fuel as well as supplemental lighting.

In addition, the biogas fuels a mechanical chopper powered by a gasoline engine that finely slices a variety of forage materials used to supplement the pig feed. These forages include a lot of aquatic morning glory (Ipomoea aquatica) and sweet potato vines (Ipomoea batatas) as well as a some mulberry (Morus alba) and a little roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa). To view Pastor Chanta's brief explanation of the biogas system and to see the chopper in action, click on this link.

Additionally, much of the manure and other waste collected in a covered cesspool are occasionally pumped out with a treadle pump and released into the forage production areas. This keeps the forage plots moist, well fertilized and productive almost year-round .

Citing the capital and labor required to operate Jumpah's agricultural component as well as other costs, Tim refuses to boast about any savings attained by the production cycle of hogs, biogas, forages and natural fertilizer. But he admits that a foundation is being built for a significant degree of self-sufficiency.

For Stan and I, it was quite evident that Jumpah home has developed an impressive and productive multi-faceted farm component. We look forward to seeing what they do next.

An Agricultural Outing to Prey Veng

2010-12-03T13:46:00.000+07:00

In late October I traveled to Cambodia with Stan Doerr, President/CEO of ECHO. Much of our time was spent connecting with partners in Phnom Penh. However, I had one full day to visit the project area of Beth (Stitch) Steinbrenner, a former ECHO intern, who works with the Parse Project of International Cooperation Cambodia in Prey Veng Province, not far from the Vietnam border. We were accompanied by Ryan and Daphne Fowler who work with the Mennonite Central Committee in the same province. Daphne had also been an ECHO intern.

The trip to the ICC project area required a ferry ride across the Mekong with National Highway 1 offering a great ride almost the entire way. However, as ICC's work is a bit off the beaten path, ultimately our visit with partnering communities and farmers required "moto" transport. Wisely, I was designated as a moto passenger rather than driver. Click here to see portions of the trip.

Among 16 communities in the Parse area, ICC is engaged in work related to agriculture, health and community development (e.g., water and sanitation) activities. Concerning agriculture, we saw rice production everywhere; most of the crop established by hand broadcasting. But ICC is helping to further diversify farm incomes by promoting improved small-scale catfish farming and home gardening, including the production natural fertilizer such as compost (made from cow manure). Vermiculture (earthworm production) is another initiative.

With a high water table, small catfish ponds can be dug without too much trouble. Most of these ponds are approximately 1.5 m deep. Farmers stock catfish fingerlings (brought over from Vietnam) at a rate of 30-40 fingerlings per square meter. The catfish are raised at least 3-4 months before being sold between $2.00 to $3.00 per kg (depending on the season). Farmers generally feed the catfish with locally abundant termite larva as well as cooked snails mixed with a little rice bran. Click on this link to see one of the local farmers feeding his fish by hand.

I noticed a good bit of duckweed in these ponds and wondered if it was used as a feed resource. The aquatic plant is widely harvested in Asia as a source of feed for fish, livestock and poultry, offering supplemental protein, phosphorus and other major minerals and trace minerals, not to mention vitamin A and the B group as well as fiber (for more information about duckweed, check out the FAO publication Duckweed: a tiny aquatic plant with enormous potential for agriculture and environment, http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/resources/documents/DW/Dw2.htm. The ICC partners confirmed that certain types of fish would graze duckweed. It is also consumed by ducks as well as harvested to be mixed with rice bran and cooked rice and fed as a nutritious porridge for pigs. "Duckweed keeps pigs healthy," reported one farmer.

The number of farmers who have begun producing compost from cow manure appears considerable. I was also impressed by local vermiculture efforts, especially that of Mr. You Wa in Prey Rey Toap. ICC helped him obtain 2 kg of earthworms in January 2010 following his participation in a vermiculture workshop the previous October. Mr. You Wa's small, thatch-covered earthworm enclosure is comprised of a shallow pit (only 2 cm deep) lined with perforated plastic sheets on which 10 cm of soil and another 20 cm of manure was layered. His earthworm bed, approximately 1 m wide and 3 m long, is now covered with loose, brown vermicompost that teems with red wrigglers.

Mr. You Wa says that the main function of the earthworm project is to produce supplemental protein (fed along with rice) for a handful of chickens. He reportedly harvests approximately 1 kg of worms every few days (this is probably just an estimate; the weight might also include some vermicompost).

Regarding the supplemental earthworm diet, Mr. You Wa says his chickens grow faster and recover from illness much faster than before. Now, many neighbors come to request worms, which sell for $1.25 per kg. So far he's helped four or five neighbors get started with their own earthworm projects. And ICC has also bought earthworms from Mr. You Wa and two other local producers, enabling at least 20 new farmers to get started with earthworm production.

Our Prey Veng outing was ending quickly. But before heading back to the city we encountered another community that, with ICC assistance, had just manually bored a 16 m deep tube well and installed a hand pump; all taking place within six hours. We arrived just in time to see the first bath provided by the well.

After having one last hurried look at a wonderfully diversified small family farm, we returned to the ICC office, making use of a new road being constructed by the Vietnamese. By sundown we were back in bustling Phnom Penh. Quite a contrast to the ICC Parse Project.

ECHO Northeast India Agricultural Conference

2010-12-02T08:34:00.000+07:00

In early October, I traveled with Laura Yoder and Abram Bicksler (both with Chiang Mai's International Sustainable Development Studies Institute as well as ECHO Asia Seed Bank advisors) for the 2010 ECHO Northeast India Agricultural Conference that was held at the Indian Centre for Agricultural Research (ICAR) Research Complex near the city of Shillong. Jointly sponsored by Northeast India Committee on Relief and Development (NEICORD), and EDGE Outreach, this was the first national/regional agricultural and community development conference to be offered by the ECHO Asia Regional Office.

Approximately 50 persons attended, including delegates from 15 Northeast India development organizations and ministries.

ICAR personnel offered topics related to agricultural technological options for enhancing livelihood options for tribal farmers, System of Rice Intensification (SRI) and Integrated Crop Management as well as participatory plant breeding related to rice varieties for Northeast India.

Other presentations included a talk given by Dave Brothers about EDGE Outreach's water purification approach, Laura's introduction to farmer managed crop improvement and Abram's introduction to simple research methodologies for development workers.

Additionally, I had the chance to introduce the regional activities of ECHO and offer a presentation about green manure cover crops.

A very popular activity, also led by Laura Yoder, was a seed swap event. This session enabled crop seed and other plant material from eight regional plant varieties, as well as five types of ECHO Asia Seed Bank crops, to be exchanged among the participants.

Additionally, personnel from regional development projects, such as NEICORD and RATARC, shared case studies about the implementation of Sloping Land Agricultural Technology and FAITH Gardening in their focus communities.

The successful event would not have been possible without the facilitation of the NEICORD, particularly the involvement of Rev. Dr. H.M. Songate (CEO), and Joshi Tuisom, Manager of Relief and Development.

We're grateful for the involvement of ECHO’s partners in northeast India. This conference set the standard for future regional and national events to be held in various other locations in Asia.

Cono Weeder at Fair Earth Farm

2010-11-02T08:32:00.000+07:00

Being involved in agricultural development work in Asia, obviously a major concern for ECHO Asia Regional Office clientel is rice production. A fairly recent rice farming innovation is known as SRI (System of Rice Intensification). Some key SRI distinctives include:

Planting individual stalks of rice (aged 7-10 days) in widely spaced hills about 20-30 cm apart.
Aerating the top soil and minimizing flooding of rice fields to increase the supply of oxygen to the rice plant root systems.

Providing inputs of natural fertilizers (e.g. compost) and incorporating green manure cover crops to improve the fertility and structure of rice-producing soils.

When managed properly, the reduced plant competition, increased soil oxygen and improved soil conditions can offer some interesting results. For example, the number of tillers (stalks) produced by a single seedling in a SRI system can multiply to 20, 30 or more. This is much higher than the typical 10 to 15 tillers produced by a single hill of conventional rice that is usually established by transplanting several seedlings together.

Increased numbers of tillers generally translates into higher rice yields. Worldwide, SRI rice farmers are reporting increased yields that are 50% to 100% higher or even more (http://ciifad.cornell.edu/sri/) compared to conventional systems.

There are reported drawbacks to the system. Managing water levels to reduce flooding can be a challenge in many locations. Also, with reduced flooding, the consquence will be increased weed pressure.

Fortunately, appropriate technology has been developed to reduce the labor of weed removal. The cono weeder, a simple, hand-operated rotary cultivator, is one such innovoation. Reportedly developed at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, these machines are being mass produced and sold in various locations in Asia.

Unfortunately, until recently, SRI rice producers in norhern Thailand had no such implement available. But earlier in 2010, a group of 10 farmers and development organizations pooled an order for cono weeders from India. The ECHO Asia Regional Office helped to organize the pool and distribute the weeders.

So far, reports about the new weeders have been positive. The clip at the top is the Cono Weeder being used at Fair Earth farm (http://www.fairearthfarm.com/) just outside of Chiang Mai. Besides uprooting and incorporating weeds into the earth, the cultivator also aerates the soil, increasing the supply of air to rice plant root systems.

Spiders over Snakes

2010-09-30T17:39:00.001+07:00

Here is James Manson, one of our interns, with a tarantula (Haploplema minax?) that the Seed Bank staff dug out of one of the seed production beds recently. When asked what they did with the spider, James said the staff decided to bury it back in the bed alive. Why? The staff replied, "Where there are tarantulas, there are no snakes." Apparently, they'll take the spider over snakes.

Incidentally, James also dispatched one of these in his room last month. Apparently, the tarantula/snake rule doesn't apply to James' domain.

Haploplema are burrowing spiders and can inflict a bad bite. Reportedly, the venom isn't fatal unless the hapless victim is particularly allergic.

And though we appreciate the conservation ethic of the Seed Bank staff, we also want James and others at the seed bank to be safe. Fortunately, despite his two recent encounters with tarantulas, sightings around the Seed Bank have been quite rare.

An Impressive Community Garden in Hawaii

2010-07-29T13:28:00.000+07:00

As our family has done several times in the past, we recently stopped in Honolulu for a few days while on our way to the mainland United States. It was nice to visit old haunts such as Hanauma Bay and the Foster Botanical Garden.

One day while exploring behind Waikiki's Kapiolani Park I came across a new site; the Diamond Head Community Garden. I've visited quite a few community gardens but the Diamond Head collective stands out, partly due to the abundance of well tended plots (roughly 1 x 2 meters). What's most impressive is the enormous variety of plants found throughout the garden. Compared to other community gardens in the US, Diamond Head has the tropical advantage.

Of course, vegetables, herbs and a few types of fruit, such as papaya, make up the bulk of the plantings. But the garden species diversity includes a large mixture of Asian and Pacific island crops planted along with conventional American garden varieties. For example, among cherry tomatoes and Swiss chard were also bitter melon,Malabar spinach and false roselle (perhaps from ECHO?). I even encountered one plot planted exclusively in cassava and another covered with tropical vegetable fern. And, as expected, a good bid of Hawaiian taro was encountered as well.

Apparently, plots in this garden are in high demand as there was no ground left idle. A yearly rental fee (someone said $20) provides access to a plot and water. Not a bad deal.

Compost heaps could be found within the garden. And the personal decorative flourishes (including colorful bottles, pinwheels and other knickknacks) on display throughout the plots were as interesting as the plant biodiversity.

Our Partner's Partners

2010-05-25T09:09:00.001+07:00

Recently, Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) friends in Laos informed me that colleagues with the Lao Ministry of Agriculture are currently engaged in a one-month long special studies program at Chiang Mai University. The folks at CRWRC wondered if I might have time to take their friends to see local sustainable upland farming efforts, particularly green manure cover cropping and agroforestry, being carried out by farmers in the nearby Chiang Dao district.
As Sundays are the only free days for the two Lao men, we made plans for a May 16 field trip. Crops are usually in the ground by the first week of May. Unfortunately, since the monsoon rains have yet to materialize this year, field crops such as corn and upland rice are still not planted.

By the time we arrived in Pang Daeng Nai village, mid morning temps were already above 100 degrees F. (37.7 C) and our short hike to the permanent hill fields was not comfortable. Despite the heat and the bareness of the still unplanted farms, we were able to see how local farmers are making use of crop residues to partially cover the soil. By not burning their fields, farmers allow decomposing materials to increase levels of organic matter which enrich their top soil.

We also visited green agroforest plots. These biodiverse patches are helping to extend farm productivity, even during this current drought, while the rest of the land remains unplanted.

Being from this region, the Lao agriculturists had no problem talking to local farmers and understanding their innovations. Obviously, this trip was not wasted on them.

In fact, they plan to come back later in the year after crops have been established and the landscape has been transformed. They would like to bring other Lao colleagues to learn not only from the farmers at Pang Daeng Nai, but others in nearby communities where shade grown Arabica coffee is cultivated and where Thai natural farming techniques are used to boost farm productivity with local inputs.

Basically, partners lead to more partners. And this helps ECHO's network of hunger-fighting allies to grow.

Centipedes on the Prowl

2010-05-17T11:18:00.000+07:00

Often when watering our vegetables or applying effluent from the catfish tank I encounter a centipede or two emerging from heads of the cabbages. They usually scurry over the heads, pausing every now and then to let the water shower over them.

One such centipede made such an appearance while I happened to have the camera handy. Check him out.

Fact is, I'm a bit skittish when it comes to centipedes, especially the 6-10 inch (15-30 cm) giants of northern Thailand. They're known to inflict a terribly painful bite that can result in massive swelling or worse. Some time ago my friend Jamlong was laid up for days by the bite of one of these giants.

Fortunately, my cabbage-dwelling centipedes are much smaller; 3 inches most. Another friend, Scott, doesn't think the small ones bite very hard (not that I'm aiming to find out).

Since I encounter them on the cabbages and under the litchi leaf garden bed mulch, I'm assuming they're on the prowl for insects and worms; hopefully the looper caterpillars that chew holes in the cabbage leaves.

So for the sake of our veggies, when it comes to smaller garden centipedes, I'm willing to live and let live.

Bamboo vs. Cats

2010-05-11T14:56:00.000+07:00

A mischevious puppy led to the construction of a bamboo fence around our small home garden. But nature abhors a vacuum. The exclusion of dogs is just fine with our two cats not to mention others in the neighborhood. The felines think the soft soil in the garden beds makes a great sandbox. Unfortunately, not only do cats disturb our vegetable seedlings with their scratching but the presence of their waste is a health hazard.

No fence will keep the cats out. But other exclusion approaches have been successful. Bamboo slats cut to span the one-meter wide beds can be laid side-by-side a few centimeters apart to prevent cats from settling into the beds. Spaces between the slats can be easily adjusted to compensate for growing seedlings. And for even better cat exclusion, plastic mesh with wide holes, supported by bamboo slats, can be laid across beds until seedlings reach heights greater than 2-3 inches. As a bonus, both the closely spaced bamboo slats and plastic mesh also help to protect tender seedlings from the mid-day sun.

The bamboo and mesh are only needed for awhile as cats tend not to venture into beds filled with closely-spaced, larger plants. I wish the same applied to snails.

Fig Shoots for Supper

2010-04-30T20:02:00.000+07:00

This year's dry season is turning out to be quite long and hot. Under such conditions, we're applying a lot of water to our home vegetable garden. Although a fresh supply of vegetables is great, I hate to think about the water bill.

Having access to water for gardening is really a luxury. During the dry season, many communities in our region barely have enough water for basic household consumption. So vegetable gardening often takes a pause until the rains return in May.

Fortunately, various trees and shrubs, both indigenous and naturalized, offer seasonal or year round access to edible leaves. For instance, moringa trees produce considerable amounts of nutritious shoots during the rainy season.

By the middle of the dry season, the semi-deciduous red shoot fig (Ficus virens) may drop a lot of its mature leaves. But around February, the trees produce a flush of tender, edible leaf shoots. At a time when there are few fresh, homegrown vegetables to enjoy, this indigenous strangler fig offers an abundance of greens (which are actually red). Many people in tropical and sub-tropical Asia stir fry the leaves or add them to curries. The leaves are also blanched and eaten along with chili pepper sauce.

On a late February afternoon, a few years ago, I happened to be in the hilltribe village of Huai Pong where I encountered this young lady who was harvesting a batch of fig leaf shoots for supper. An hour later, at the home where I was staying, I found the same on the menu.

By the way, ECHO promotes the cultivation and use of many types of perennial vegetables around the world. Obviously, certain perennial vegetables can fill a niche for home gardeners with limited access to water.

Dry Season Floral Show

2010-04-22T10:01:00.002+07:00

In monsoonal Asia, the late dry season is a time of dessicated discomfort. But one thing to be thankful for is the current natural floral show being offered by various types of trees. During late April, one of the most showy species are the Golden Shower Tree (Cassia fistula), with masses and more masses of yellow flowers. Another is the Royal Poinciana or Flamboyant (Delonix regia) which is aflame in orange blossoms. The Golden Shower Tree is native to our area and happens to be Thailand's national tree. Many have been planted along the streets of Chiang Mai. Although the Royal Poinciana is native to Madagascar, it has spread throughout the tropics. They're found all over Chiang Mai. The full bloom Flamboyants in this photo are located on Payap University (Kaew Nawarat campus), across the street from the ECHO Asia Regional Office.

PVC Fish Cage

2010-04-09T13:52:00.003+07:00

During a recent visit to Suan Aden Children's Home on the outskirts of Chiang Mai, I came across this PVC fish cage floating in a large pond located on the property. In Southeast Asia, fish cages are commonly constructed in rivers, lakes, ponds and seas in order to confine fish for accessible management and harvesting. Common fish cage materials include bamboo and mesh as well as barrels if flotation is necessary.
Ton Kankaewmoon, who manages the children's home, was inspired to construct this PVC fish cage after seeing a similar one at a local tilapia fingerling supplier. Ton reports that he used 2 inch and 2.5 inch PVC pipe to construct the 3 m x 3 m frame but he reckons that 3 inch pipe would work just fine.

Ton estimates that the frame, once assembled, weighs no more than 20 kg (44 lb.). It's so light that one person can easily construct the cage as well as place it in the water. The glued PVC pipe frame floats just fine making additional flotation materials unnecessary. Ton also used stainless wire to secure the mesh to the frame.

The entire cost was 2000 baht (about $63 US); 1,100 baht for the pipe and glue plus another 900 baht for the mesh.

Ton reports that a cage this size can hold 1,000 to 1,500 tilapia, catfish or other local freshwater fish.

Our First "Official" Batch of Seeds

2010-04-03T09:46:00.002+07:00

Recently the ECHO Asia Regional Office sent out it's first "official" batch of seeds. Shown with the shipment are Ruth Tshin, ECHO Asia's Volunteer Seed Bank Consultant, and Lue Chompoothong, Seed Bank Technician. In all, over a dozen kilos of various green manure cover crop seeds, including rice bean (Vigna umbellata), black bean (Vigna unguiculata), jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis) and lablab bean (Lablab purpureus) as well as indigo (Indigofera suffruticosa), a nitrogen fixing tree, were shipped to Laos. Apart from indigo, seeds of the green manure cover crops were purchased from local farmers and packaged at the ECHO Asia Regional Office Seed Bank.

The ECHO Asia Seed Bank is currently evaluating dozens of crops of regional importance with plans to make several of these proven varieties available by the end of 2010. So as soon as our on-line seed catalog is finished and the first dozen varieties are ready for distribution, we will notify our regional partners about their availability.

Of course, we invite interested persons to continue to use the services of the main ECHO Seed Bank based in Fort Myers, Florida (http://www.echonet.org/content/SeedBank) which offers seeds of hundreds of crop varieties from around the world.

Planeteers Strike Again!

2010-03-30T09:35:00.000+07:00

The Planeteers, Chiang Mai International School's environmental club, returned to the ECHO Asia office on Friday, March 26 to help upgrade the container and perennial vegetable garden. Braving hot afternoon temperatures, the 10 young people and their adviser, Mr. ElJay Erickson, replanted approximately a dozen containers in which several species of shade-loving edible plants such as basil, pandanus leaf, fiddlehead fern, sawtooth coriander (Eryngium foetidum), taro (edible stems) and leaf pepper, as well as a few medicinal herbs are being grown on the front porch of the office.

Along the wall of the office, another group of students, under of the supervision of Mr. Chanchai, dug and mulched a raised bed in which perennial vegetables such as sweet leaf (Sauropus androgynus), cha-om (Acacia pennata) and leaf pepper (Piper sarmentosum) are growing in partial shade.

The demonstration looks 100% better thanks to the Planeteers. Thanks again for the hard work guys!

Rapid Multiplication of Bananas

2010-03-22T10:09:00.000+07:00

In northern Thailand there's lots of demand for banana stalks these days. In many parts of Asia banana stalk is a traditional feed for pigs. After slicing up the stalks, farmers usually boil them to increase digestibility. Fed alone, such plant material isn't very nutritious. So stalks are usually mixed with other more nutritious feeds such as rice bran, corn, papaya fruit, kitchen scraps and wild vegetables. Otherwise, they mainly serve to fill hungry animals.

In recent years, growing numbers of farmers have been adopting a proven practice of fermenting banana stalk with molasses and a little salt. Reducing the need for fuel to cook the stalks, the fermentation process boosts the presence of digestible bacteria in the silage, making stalks considerably more nutritious. And mixed with smaller amounts of nutritious local feed or supplemented with a little commercial pig feed, fermented banana stalks offer a cheap, nutritious component for small-scale pig production. This, in turn, helps to boost small farm income.

But with every innovation comes another challenge. With demand for banana stems growing, in some areas, stalk scarcity is becoming an issue. So can the production of these plant materials be boosted somehow?

Years ago, ECHO Development Notes ran a story on rapid multiplication of bananas (RMB). Basically, banana stems are mangled a bit to prompt the main corm (underground stem/root system) to produce more daughter corms and, ultimately, transplantable suckers. And a few years later, EDN reported on another rapid banana multiplication approach whereby banana corms are dug up, trimmed and scored just so to injure meristems before being placed in plant beds to stimulate the production of a lot more plantlets. So the idea is, one way or another, to stimulate the production of a lot more plantlets (suckers) which can be transplanted to establish more clumps of usable banana stalks.

Unable to find any references to RMB in our part of the world, I turned to Abram Bicksler. With a freshly minted PhD. in Sustainable Agriculture from the University of Illinois, Abram currently serves as an instructor with the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute in Chiang Mai; a key ECHO Asia partner. Abram (shown here) is helping to design a trial by which various RMB approaches can be tested to see if any might actually boost the production of banana propagation material in a way that can be readily adopted by farmers.

Having recently run a "trial" RMB at the Upland Holistic Development Project Center, Abram is encouraged by initial results. He is now planning to implement a comprehensive field trial to evaluate promising methodologies which have emerged during the preliminary trial. Hopefully, this collaboration between ECHO, Abram (ISDSI) and UHDP will yield some very useful RMB techniques for regional pig farmers to employ.

Garden in the Sky

2010-03-15T11:02:00.003+07:00

Rooftop gardening creates a good bit of buzz. But real working examples are somewhat difficult to find. The March 14 (2010) edition of the Bangkok Post carried a very informative article about successful rooftop gardening efforts at the eight-story Lak Si District office in Bangkok. The article, with photos, details how the garden has reached productivity following years of trial and error. District office personnel are reportedly using 400 square meters to produce about 70 different crops in rotation over the course of a year. Check out the article via the following link http://www.bangkokpost.com/life/family/34431/garden-in-the-sky (or click on the title above).

Biogas-powered electrical generator in Myanmar

2010-03-15T11:00:00.000+07:00

Check out this link (click on the title above for link) for a brief video shot at the Myanmar Baptist Convention agricultural training center near Yangon in early March. Biogas brewed from wastes produced by a few hogs located just above this location is piped to an electric generator. Each day, there's enough biogas produced to power the 3 kw generator for 45 minutes in the morning and another 45 minutes in the evening. The generator, in turn, powers lights as well as an electric pump that extracts water from the center's well for storage in an elevated tank. The stored water flows by gravity to spigots throughout the farm.

Saw Hei Moo, who directs the project, estimates that the biogas system costs about $350 with the generator running around $300. Toss in perhaps another $100 for pipe, cylinders and other types of essential apparatus. For those living and working off the grid, Hei Moo affirms that this sustainable source of power is "worth the investment."

Also, we heard reports of much larger biogas-powered electrical systems powering rural communities in central Myanmar.

A Farm for Children

2010-03-11T13:59:00.001+07:00

On the outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar, I recently had opportunity to visit a children’s home operated by Samuel Thang. Impressively, Samuel and team are using 20 acres of adjoining land to produce enough rice to feed 47 children five months out of the year. Leftover rice straw provides enough fodder to fuel the home’s four cows, which in turn produce a year round supply of milk.

One other thing that the cows and 15 resident goats produce (with the help of a few pigs) is manure. This by-product fertilizes the home’s three-acre garden, making the operation almost completely self-sufficient in vegetables. Additionally, various types of fruit trees, including guava, banana, and papaya as well as pineapple, are scattered throughout the garden.

Samuel stresses that while the supplemental production of milk, rice, fruit, vegetables and a little meat lowers overall expenses by at least ¼, such an effort requires adequate land, water, labor and management.

The kids chip into the overall effort during daily chore times as well as Saturdays and holidays. Samuel reckons that exposure to appropriate farm activities is good for the children, offering them important life skills. Still, he reminds us that their involvement in such work is auxiliary since the main focus of the ministry is to provide the young people with a good education and a safe place to reside.

Friends Like Nam Saeng

2010-03-03T18:03:00.002+07:00

I’ve known Nam Saeng for well over a decade. Farming several acres of hilly land in the Chiang Dao district of northern Thailand, he’s an agricultural jack-of-all-trades and a master of many including agroforestry, green manure cover cropping and backyard farming.

Nam Saeng isn’t one to keep trade secrets. He cheerfully accepts visits from farmers and development workers. And it’s obvious that he believes in the power of exchange. By sharing his practical farming knowledge with others, Nam Saeng ultimately gains more useful information; plus friends.

ECHO Asia is one of Nam Saeng’s friends. Many of our regional partners have made the trip to his mountain farm to learn from his work.

I’m encouraged by the fact that he isn’t one of a kind. All across Asia, whether in the uplands, the river deltas, along the coasts or even in the cities, there are others like him. In each place there are farmers who are overcoming various challenges to produce food and improve incomes, and also enthusiastically share what they know.

Nam Saeng may not be fully aware of the extent his helpfulness. But with over 1 billion chronically hungry people in the world (most of whom live in Asia), I believe that it is imperative for ECHO Asia, and our regional agricultural development partners, to nurture working relationships with such innovative small farmers who possess the zeal to share.

A all expense paid trip to Huai Hee

2009-05-10T09:43:00.022+07:00

As an occasional instructor for hire, this past week I had the opportunity to accompany students from ISDSI's (http://www.isdsi.org/) Political Forest Ecology course for a portion of their two-week long field visit to Karen forest communities in the remote mountains of Mae Hong Son in extreme northwest Thailand. Specifically, my visit was limited to the village of Huai Hee, a small settlement of a few dozen households at the base of Doi Pui, Mae Hong Son's highest mountain.

If I were to drive one of three road options to Huai Hee from Chiang Mai (none of which are fully paved) the trip would require 1-2 days. However, a Thai airlines flight over the rugged and still largely jungled mountains from CNX to Mae Hong Son required only 40 minutes with a 1.5 hour journey back to Huai Hee by four wheel drive. So having left my modern Chiang Mai home a little before 10:00 a.m., I suddenly found myself in remote, Huai Hee by 1:30 p.m. The ISDSI group arrived by foot from the closest community of Nam Hoo (a satellite village of Huai Hee) an hour later.

The next three days were full of activities that focused on the local forest environment as well as traditional rotational farming and other forms of livelihood such as Karen cuisine and the use of natural dyes to produce beautiful homemade textiles. In addition, I had to grade 17 essays and journal entries.

Sunday's activity was a hike to the summit of 5,160 ft. Doi Pui. Sounds impressive (and it was a steep trail), however, Hui Hee rests at an elevation of roughly 3,000 ft. So there wasn't an excessive amount of up and down that day.

Except for the bald summit, Doi Pui is covered with impressive forest. The higher the elevation the more evidence of cloud forest with an abundance of moss and orchids covering the evergreen trees. In fact, the people of Huai Hee, fighting the illegal harvest and trade of rare native orchids, have established an orchid conservation area that covers hundreds of acres of local forest.

Almost to the top of mountain, our local guides pointed out the wreckage of an airplane. By no means an aviation expert, all that was obvious to me were ancient leftovers of a propeller and pistons (with an I.D. plate without a serial number) as well as some scorched fragments of what appeared to be aluminum aircraft skin. I would have like to poked about a bit more but the wreckage was guarded by some very zealous leaches.

I've heard two stories related to the wreckage. One is that the plane was a WWII American warplane that bought the farm on this remote peak over 60 years ago. Another more intriguing tale is that the craft was a "bank plane" full of gold that crashed many decades ago. The locals, finding no survivors and gold bricks scattered about....(you can guess the rest of the story). Anyhow, given that the Second World War didn't spare this region and that there's reportedly no one left in the community that remembers the crash, I personally subscribe to the WWII air crash theory.

Only a few hundred yards past the air crash site the forest suddenly transforms into an alpine meadow. As the elevation is still too low to be a real tree line, my guess is that the combination of thin soil, dry season fires and free-range cattle is what keeps the mountain top in a bald state (similar to the high elevation balds of my native southern Appalachians which become "unbald" in the 20th century following the advent of effective fire control and the ban on free-range cattle).
The 360 degree view of Mae Hong Son was indescribable. The view contained rugged mountains, remote valleys, a single thread of road and a distant, tiny community. Scattered within the vast forest were some swidden fields where Karen rice is grown. Each patch is surrounded by woodland in various stages of succession. These diverse stages of regrowth reflect the forest fallow that follows a single year of traditional Karen crop production for each swidden field.

Following lunch, a brief group activity and a photo taking spree, threatening clouds forced our retreat back to Huai Hee.

Over the next two days we accompanied the people of Huai Hee to witness the annual planting of upland rice (yes, the rainy season has begun) and to participate in other aspects of their livelihoods.

During the last evening in Huai Hee, the ISDSI students entertained the local residents with their silly camp songs. The Karen retaliated with renditions of their own. At one point, one of our female hosts jumped up to lead an rowdy tune. But within a measure or two, the American and Canadian students began to recognize the performance. Suddenly, the entire bamboo gazebo was rocking with a vigorous bilingual session of Father Abraham.

On the last day I watched the ISDSI students, laden with heavy backpacks and other gear (and a few Karen guides with only a shoulder bag each) trudge up the mountain in the direction of Huai Tong Kaw, their final destination. I stayed behind to await my 4WD ride back to Mae Hong Son town. 1.5 hours later, still waiting on my ride, I decided to hire a motorcycle to drive me and my two bags back to the city. However, given the steep terrain and rough stretches of road, I was greatly relieved to meet the truck only a few miles outside of Huai Hee.

The flight back to Chiang Mai on a tiny 12 seat plane was the perfect ending to my five-day visit to Mae Hong Son. Flying slow and low over the mountains, I enjoyed an eagle's view of the rugged terrain that sustains the people of Huai Hee and dozens of other communities between Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai.

I'm already scheming up another visit.

Confronted by Barking Deer Intestine Hash and Bangkok Unrest (But at Least the Mangoes are in Season)

2009-04-23T19:01:00.013+07:00

It's been a few eventful and interesting weeks since I've had a chance to blog.

First of all, I was invited by Bob Morikawa, from Floresta (http://www.floresta.org/), to assist in a survey in neighboring Burma and Cambodia. We were accompanied by Kim Roberts, a Floresta intern currently based at UHDP and Jamlong, one of UHDP's co-directors.

I’ve looked forward to one day visiting this corner of Burma since arriving in Thailand 15 years ago. And I wasn’t disappointed.

The road to Chiang Tung from the border town of Thakhilek wasn't bad although little other infrastructure exists in the region. My estimate is that less than 10 percent of the population in the region is connected to the electrical grid.

However, we observed that thousands of households are powered by cheap Chinese-made micro-hydro generators that can produce 1-5 kilowatts of electricity. With roughly 3-5 households connected to each generator, there is enough juice to illuminate a few light bulbs and operate a TV or radio in each home. Apart from a generator, basically all that's needed is an adequate amount of falling water; quite plentiful in this mountainous region.

It was in one of those micro-hydro powered homes that we were treated to a fine Lahu meal. Wherever I've been, local food is usually quite interesting. All in all, there's very little that I've found to be unappetizing or inedible. Sometimes the main concern is whether certain foods have been cooked adequately. One such example is larb dip, a raw pork salad that's fairly popular in northern Thailand.

The most memorable dish served by our Lahu hosts was a delicacy made from barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak) intestine and contents. Unlike other species of deer in the region which are now rare due to over hunting, the diminutive barking deer is still rather common. Served as a
condiment, although the well-cooked barking deer dish was somewhat bitter it was made more flavorful with a strong dose of aromatic prickly ash (Zanthoxylum rhetsa) seed. Not bad.

Further south in Cambodia, Bob and I enjoyed getting to know Khmer cuisine, somewhat similar to Thai. However, the presence of baguettes in many street food stalls in Phnom Penh is evidence of France’s culinary influence.

Speaking of local food, one of my perverse thrills is to peruse English versions of menus. Many times menu entries apparently fail to capture the full meaning of the original item. Not that I’d do any better should I attempt should I attempt to translate an English menu into Thai or Khmer. However, on this trip, the Lost in Translation winner was “Fried Rat With Ingredients.”

Following the trip to Burma and Cambodia, our family had planned a low-cost getaway to Bangkok during the Thai New Year. This holiday is a lot of fun if you like getting dosed with cold water and having your face smeared with powder. However, for our family, that sort of activity is fun for about five minutes. Then we’re ready to hide like cats until the last slosh of water has dried.

Since Chiang Mai is epicenter of Thai New Year water madness, we decided that we’d indulge in a large air conditioned room at the Bangkok Christian Guesthouse, take in the weekend market and do a bit of sightseeing during lulls in the water battles.

And now, in (hopefully) the last few weeks of the hot, dry season, a number of mangoes are ripening in the tree in our garden. Just the thing to tide us over until the rainy season begins.

A Little Dry-Season Rain

2009-03-29T11:10:00.011+07:00

The smoke and haze that's been covering Chiang Mai has been extraordinarily bad this year. We hate to think what this is probably doing to our health. But as March leads up to the climax of horrible air pollution and extreme-dry conditions the inner optimist keeps saying, "In two months time it will all be past."

Fortunately, as the heat and humidity has increased over the past few weeks some thunderstorms and scattered showers have broken out, giving most spots at least a sprinkle. And though this doesn't mean the end of the hot, dry season (actually, the worst is yet to come as far as heat and humidity are concerned), the showers have cleared the air significantly and rinsed the dust off any remaining foliage.

Even with minimal moisture, it's quite amazing how quickly certain plants are responding. Of course, the big greening that occurs every May hasn't happened yet. But the wild grass growing in the goat field has begun to express tiny, new shoots. And the goats are loving it.

What's in the garden?

Right now I'm appreciating the new leaf shoots of several bird's nest fern (Asplenium nidus)that are growing in our garden. You can find these fern tucked in the crotch of a few fruit trees. And some serve as ground cover of sorts in the mixed border that grows along the garden wall. Residing in the irrigated portion of our garden, they continue to thrive despite the present dry conditions.

Though not native to northern Thailand, bird's nest fern grows wild in more equatorial, humid climates such as in Thailand's south. In their native forests, being epiphytes, these ferns grow on trees and logs. Their natural basket shape enables them to capture and compost fallen leaves that collect within, yielding nourishment. Various leaf litter-dwelling insects and other creatures also make their home in the habitat created by bird's nest ferns.

Extremely easy to maintain, the bird's nest fern offers a bit of the rain forest for our garden.

Travels

As soon as I'm done writing this blog, I'm catching a bus for Chiang Rai and then hitching a ride with Kim and Jamlong from UHDP before meeting up with Bob Morikawa (from Floresta) at the airport. Our plan is to spend the night in the border town of Mae Sai and then enter Burma for a two-day trip to the Shan State town of Chiang Tung. There, I'll be offering some consulting assistance for Floresta.

And then on Wednesday, Bob and I plan to travel down from Chiang Tung, cross the border back into Thailand and then catch a flight in Chiang Rai for Phenom Penh (via Bangkok). Again, Bob and I will be making some Floresta-related contacts among several Cambodia-based NGOs. I'll also have the chance to do a bit of ECHO promotion before I return to Chiang Mai on April 5.

Hopefully, I'll have a story and a picture or two to share from the journey.

Our Yarden

2009-03-15T10:43:00.000+07:00

Although our Chiang Mai home comes with a two-acre lot where we raise some goats and chickens the actual garden space adjacent to our house is quite small; approximately 14 x 11 yards. Roughly 88 square yards of this area is what one might generously call a lawn. In other words, though small, it's open and somewhat grassy (at least during the rainy season).

Planted between the three-sided garden wall and small lawn, the rest of the this area is a U-shaped mixture of tropical ground covers, gingers, bananas, vines and small trees. And many of these perennials offer edible products.

Back home it seems that American homeowners often work from a landscape trichotomy that's divided into three three fairly distinct zones; the lawn, what we call "the garden" (i.e., a plot of annual flowers and/or vegetables) and shrubbery plantings (either beds of woody perennials or scattered individuals). But without a doubt the major feature of most American landscapes would be the lawn.

These days, though, lawns are increasingly criticized as wasted space and often money holes. Either planted in pure stands of various lawn grasses or tended as mixtures of such grasses and weeds, American lawns can be vast, requiring considerable labor and expense to maintain. In this period of economic hardship, with threats of food insecurity, urban or suburban farmers reason that lawn space might serve us better as areas of small-scale food production. So what's to stop us from growing annual and perennial food crops or even rearing small-scale livestock such as chickens, rabbits and even goats?

Guess I forgot. Neighborhood associations would have a cow issuing warnings and threats towards anyone considering such a bold move. After all, conventional wisdom holds that agriculture and high home values are incompatible.

Yet American homeowners (and would be backyard farmers) might be surprised to learn that raising small home flocks of chickens, pygmy goats or hives of bees is permissible in many metropolitan areas (check out the recent National Public Radio story "City Folk Flock To Raise Small Livestock At Home" http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99189689).

Still, converting wasted lawn space into an edible landscape, or so-called yarden, is probably a much easier, less controversial option. After all, who can build a case against a yard full of peach, pear and apple trees or grape vines?

Fortunately, our Thai neighbors aren't too high strung about urban and peri-urban agriculture. It's common to see fruit trees and small container gardens in neighborhoods throughout Chiang Mai. And I dare you to find a place out of range of a rooster's crow.

Until the goats arrived we tended a garden in the corner of the large vacant lot adjacent to our house. To be honest, I put a lot of time, effort and expense into developing the small plot.

I learned that one of the easiest food-producing options is to plant local varieties of perennial vegetables; basically bushes that produce edible greens and pods. These plants require minimal maintenance and only a few bushes can provide significant veggies.

Still, Ellen is a real Southern cook and we like our comfort food. Fortunately, okra's easy enough to grow. But tomatoes, sweet corn, cabbage, snap beans and other back home crops are often hit-and-miss. So I ended up putting considerable time into evaluating vegetable varieties (both local and imported) that are adaptable to Chiang Mai's climate.

Unfortunately, there was no one willing to carry on vegetable garden efforts when our family was away for extended spells (furlough, etc.). And I became discouraged with the state of the garden each time we came back home. So we decided that goats, being fairly low maintenance and very effective against the annual rainy season onslaught of biomass, would be a better long-term choice for the vacant lot.

Within the walls surrounding the house our yarden is compact with little sunlight. And being the domain of dogs and boys, the potential for significant vegetable production is limited. Squeezed in with a tiny, low maintenance lawn the best gardening option within such a small space would be to make the vegetative strip as hardy, biodiverse and potentially edible as possible. Our models would be the local forest as well as traditional northern Thai home gardens.

Today the landscape of our rented home includes a canopy of four types of tropical fruit trees and a few tall palms with edible/usable products. The understory is made up of a viny yam variety, two species of native trees that yield edible shoots and flowers and two wild cousins of black pepper. Stalks of garden and forest banana are also scattered within. And purely ornamental plants, such as bird's nest fern, orchid, heliconia and various palms, are included as well.

With so many potentially food-producing plants it would seem that we wouldn't need to go to the market again. But truth is we rarely eat the produce (except for the fruit). There's rarely enough for a meal. And it's all so lovely that we pretty much keep things ornamental (which feeds the soul). But if push comes to shove...

A Walk in the Woods

Chiang Mai is a growing city full of markets, malls, schools and homes. And it's often easy to lose sight of its most prominent natural resource, Doi Suthep (Mountain of Angels). Over a mile high, this mountain is still covered with some decent tropical forest and offers a valuable watershed for the area.

This past Saturday a group of friends and I enjoyed a day-long hike originating from near the top of Doi Suthep (at its famous temple) whereby we followed a stream known as Huai Kaew (Crystal Springs) to the Chiang Mai Zoo at the bottom of the mountain.

With dry season air quality being so bad within the city, we enjoyed the lush, cool montane evergreen forest at the upper range of the hike. And we encountered several impressive water falls as we descended into the dry deciduous forest at the base of the mountain.

A mysterious, but friendly red dog of large proportions joined us the entire way, eagerly serving as a back up guide. We had no idea where Red Dog came from or where he was ultimately headed but he showed absolutely no anxiety about accompanying us on our jaunt through the forest.

A Different Kind of Farm

2009-03-07T21:14:00.001+07:00

One of my ECHO Asia duties is to seek out local venues for possible training and exchange. Truth be told, getting out of the office to visit potential resource sites in and around Chiang Mai isn't a bad way to spend the day.

Last week I visited the farm of Patrick and Jaem Perringaux, a French/Thai couple who attend our church. A natural experimenter, Patrick has been evaluating various varieties of exotic Mediterranean crops, including fig, olive and raspberry, to see how they might fare in the sub-tropical climate of northern Thailand.

Dozens of species of wild fig grow in Thailand's forests; some of which are valued by locals for their edible fruits and leaves. However, unlike "Brown Turkey," a popular variety found in gardens of the southern US, Thailand's wild figs aren't known for their dessert fruits.

So over the years Patrick has imported lots of garden fig varieties for evaluation. And most have fallen victim to the extreme humidity and soaking rainfall that occurs during the six-month rainy season. Still, Patrick reports that at least two exotic varieties have proven to be hardy and productive in the local environment, the fruits of which can be sold for a premium price in the finer restaurants of Chiang Mai and Bangkok. And he expects to add at least a few more varieties to his roster of tried and true figs.

And there's vanilla. A type of orchid native to Mexico, according to Patrick, vanilla pods grown in Madagascar sell for a few hundred dollars a kilo (2.2 pounds). Although his two-year old plants are still a year away from production the vines appear to be very healthy. Patrick reasons that if vanilla actually proves productive at his Mae Ping valley farm then the crop will be even more promising in the cooler hills. In fact, Patrick thinks that vanilla would be an ideal agroforestry crop for forest communities as it can be grown under the tree canopy.

The Perringauxs have also been importing and evaluating exotic rabbits, chickens and ducks. These breeds, when raised well, grow much larger than the hardier but smaller local breeds. And again, fancy restaurants are reportedly happy to reward Patrick for his meat products.

Admittedly, I'm generally partial to local biodiversity. But I'm extremely impressed with Patrick and Jaem's integrated farming approach which avoids waste at all costs. For example, Patrick has built an array of attractive stone terraces which run along the contours of his sloping farm. These terraces and ditches funnel practically all of the rain that falls on the farm to a pond where the ducks are raised.

And all the animal manure and plant biomass produced on the farm are composted to produce natural fertilizer that nurtures the soil on which fruits and vegetables are grown. The greenest stand of sweet corn you've even seen is testimony to Patrick's compost. Even the moisture that drains from the compost pile is collected and utilized as liquid fertilizer.

There's one other notable benefit related to Patrick's approach. He sells as locally as possible. Compared to similar foods sold in a relative handful of restaurants in Bangkok and Chiang Mai that cater to the well-heeled, Patrick's products (e.g., figs, raspberries, rabbit, poultry) come with a much smaller carbon footprint than those imported from distant lands. In other words, his products travel a much smaller distance. And this results in not only cheaper shipping costs but significantly less emitted carbon.

Though their farm is small it's one of the most diversified operations I've ever seen. One could easily hang around with Patrick and Jaem for days just to get a handle on their work.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I'll be danged if he didn't do it again. Bucky jumped the wall Saturday night.

Earlier that day he seemed to be getting a cold. I feared pneumonia. Stressed goats, especially those which have been recently moved, get sick easily and can go down fast.

Consulting my favorite internet sites, I decided that we'd better prepare for the worst. I rounded up an antibiotic, an anti-inflammatory, vitamin B12 as well as some parasite medicine. Then we sequestered Bucky in the "sick pen" next to the wall and took his temperature. 106 seemed too high (a healthy goat's temperature runs between 102-103). So William and I held Bucky while Ellen dewormed him and administered his injections. Leaving him with some fresh water, forage and feed we urged Bucky to get some rest.

Come Sunday morning, Bucky was no where to be found. I peeked over the wall and there he was, wandering about the vacant lot.

Let me take this opportunity to offer a correction to last week's blog. I stated that Bucky had jumped a six-foot wall. However, Ellen pointed out that if I could peek over the wall while standing on my tiptoes then "the wall wouldn't be six-feet high, would it?" Good point. Make that a five-foot wall. And if there's anything that a stressed out goat loves move than a six-foot wall then that would be a five-foot wall.

Anyhow, Sansuk, our Hmong neighbor had also discovered that Bucky had escaped. Together we strategized how we might capture him. Unfortunately, Bucky didn't agree with our plans. And having made a miraculous recovery, Bucky was able to dodge and run with vim and vigor. Headed out of the vacant lot towards the four-lane highway, I figured the goat was about to meet his demise. And I'd be responsible.

However, just before reaching the road he made a wise left turn. He ran 100 yards, evading surprised neighbors and angry dogs and made another wise left turn. Trailing by 50 yards, Sansuk followed Bucky when he made a final wise left turn into the lane that borders our goat yard. Sansuk quickly opened the gate and Bucky ambled back into the coral.

Anyhow, so much for the "sick pen." Ellen and I decided that Bucky was well enough to rejoin the herd. Unfortunately, he's due a follow up shot on Thursday. Pray for us.

The Burnettes Have Worms!

2009-03-01T09:37:00.000+07:00

It's official. Our family now has worms. No, not that kind (at least as far as we know). We're raising red wrigglers that our friend Scott, an accomplished backyard worm farmer, gave us this past Friday.

I know what you're thinking. "Exactly why would you want to raise worms?"

Actually, we're not producing big, old night crawlers that we could use for fish bait like my Uncle George used to raise. Although I haven't gotten them properly identified, our worms fall into the same category as the tiger worm (Eisenia fetida) and red tiger (Eisenia andrei). These are basically composting worms. And that's exactly why we want them.

Every week our kitchen produces a bucket or two of vegetable scraps, leftover fruit and coffee grounds. We always kept these biodegradables out of the garbage can, generally spreading them around garden plants where they slowly decompose. However, this lazy form of composting is unsightly and not very intensive. By simply spreading the kitchen waste around the garden we got less bang for the buck.

But under our vermiculture (worm farming) system, as waste from the kitchen decomposes the wrigglers will ingest extremely tiny bits of the scraps. But the worms main food source is actually various types of microorganisms that break down the kitchen waste in our vermi-compost system.

So not only are the kitchen scraps being composted for future use as soil amendment within our garden, we're also gaining nutrient rich worm castings; basically worm excrement. The late Mary Applehof, author of "Worms Eat My Garbage", explains that vermi-compost (the desired end product) is "a dark mixture of worm castings, organic material, and bedding in various stages of decomposition, plus the living earthworms, cocoons and other organisms present."

Over the past few weeks I've been preparing soil in a round three-foot wide cement tank (which we previously used to raise catfish) as the future home for our wrigglers. This tank actually sits atop another tank just out of reach of the nosey goats. For starters, I bought a sack of potting soil and added several pounds of goat manure and spoiled goat feed. After moistening, the mix quickly heated up as the organic material began to biodegrade. With occasional turning, the mix eventually cooled resulting in a very rich soil compost.

After the worms were introduced on Friday we began adding kitchen scraps, keeping the whole thing covered with a layer of cardboard. So far so good. No mass wriggler die off or escape.

Never Underestimate a Stressed Out Buck

When we began raising goats almost a year and a half ago we decided we wouldn't keep a buck around. With bucks being somewhat smelly we didn't want to take the chance of offending our neighbors. Grown bucks can also behave aggressively, so I didn't want to put the boys or neighborhood kids at risk. And they have certain unmentionable habits.

That being the case, we either sold off or castrated the bucks in our small herd. In the end, however, these practices are unsustainable, especially if one wants to maintain a herd over the long-term. So we decided that a couple of times a year we'd borrow a buck from Mr. Piak, the man who sold us our first goats (and buys occasional spares).

By the way, in most parts of Thailand, you won't see many goats. As Thais aren't partial to goat meat, the animals are rarely encountered except in Muslim or other minority communities. Mr Piak, who is Muslim, raises a fairly large herd of mixed breed goats on the east side of Chiang Mai.

Anyhow, some time ago I made a deal with Mr. Piak that I would borrow a buck from time to time. If he'd provide a young healthy male, I'd do my best to feed and care for the animal.

So on Friday, after picking up my first batch of worms from Scott, we headed over to Mr. Piak's. He had picked out a fine young buck that I hauled back to the house. After settling Bucky into a new pen that we had constructed in the corner of the goat yard, I gave him some water and feed and told him to make himself at home.

A few hours later, while trying to finish up e-mails at the office, Ellen called and said for me to come home immediately. The buck was MIA. It wasn't in the goat yard and was presumably in the large, overgrown lot adjacent to the pen.

So how the heck did Bucky get out? The wall is six feet high. Ellen pointed out that I had brilliantly left three sacks of goat manure against the wall. That provided a two-foot tall spring board that the adrenaline-powered buck used to his advantage.

Fortunately, by the time I got home, Ellen and Bui Loi had located the buck in the corner of the Hmong neighbor's backyard farm. Because he was quite exhausted from the day's ordeal, we caught Bucky fairly easily and hauled him back over the wall.

The sacks of manure have been removed.

Mission Accomplished

Saturday was the first day in weeks that I had the chance to tackle the tall dry grass and brush standing in the adjacent vacant lot (where Bucky made his escape). After hours of hacking away at the vegetation with a machete and stacking the biomass about 10 meters away from our wall, the area in question is now cleared of combustible material and I can sleep at night without fear of a sneak wildfire igniting either our thatch and bamboo animal pens or our house.

And you said farming would never pay off...

2009-02-22T09:25:00.000+07:00

Should anyone have scoffed at our efforts to achieve sustainability by raising goats and, most recently, chickens in our backyard then it's time to eat crow. Or egg. Actually a very small egg. Behold...our first egg. Apparently laid by the bantam hen. Starvation narrowly averted.

Interesting People - Impressive Projects

One of the main reasons we proposed establishing the ECHO Asia Regional Office in Chiang Mai was fairly convenient access to regional agricultural activities that might be of potential interest and value to others in ECHO's global network. Over time we expect to make contacts throughout Southeast Asia as well as adjacent parts of South and East Asia. But for starters, northern Thailand has its own share of interesting people and impressive projects. These are just a few of whom I've met over the past couple of weeks.

Jo Jandai - Jo and his wife, Peggy Reents, co-founded the Pun Pun community(http://www.punpunthailand.org/) in the Mae Taeng district just north of Chiang Mai in 2003. In a short time, Pun Pun has gained quite a reputation for innovating sustainable living approaches, including the promotion of earthen (e.g., adobe) homes and sustainable agriculture. On Feb. 13 Jo hosted a few of us who are interested in Pun Pun's seed saving activities. As ECHO Asia is in the process of setting up a regional seed bank, various open-pollinated vegetables being bred at Pun Pun are of particular interest to us. By the way, Jo and Peggy are slated as speakers for the upcoming ECHO Asia Agricultural Conference to be held in Chiang Mai (Sept. 21-25, 2009)

Josh Kearns - While at Pun Pun, we met Josh Kearns, a young American who represents Aqueous Solutions (http://www.aqsolutions.org/), a non-profit based in Huntington, West Virgina. The mission of Aqueous Solutions is to "enable households and communities to ensure the safety of their drinking water in a self-reliant and sustainable manner." Such work includes rainwater harvesting, solar disinfection of water and water filtration systems. Pun Pun serves as a base for Aqueous Solutions in Thailand. While at Pun Pun, we saw Josh's recent effort to build a low-cost solar shower system for the community. Using black tubing, a glass cabinet to heat the water-filled tubes and a gravity-fed water system, the solar shower at Pun Pun costs less than $100 US. The water heats up nicely, particularly on sunny days.

Clement and Amee Doyer - The Doyers established their farm in the Chiang Dao district of Chiang Mai several years ago. Clement, a French-Canadian, and Amee, a Lisu-Thai, spend part of each year in Quebec tending their business, Labo Solidago Inc. Otherwise, they're engaged in a natural farming venture in northern Thailand that incorporates pig production, a tangerine orchard and paddy rice production. Our group of 12 traveled to the Doyer's farm on Feb. 19 to see the production of cooking oil expressed from Niger seed. Relatives of Amee brought Niger seed into Thailand from neighboring Burma a few years ago. Although basically unknown in Thailand, in parts of Burma, Niger seed is produced for not only cooking oil but also for export as wild bird seed (known otherwise as Nyjer seed or "thistle" finch seed). Anyhow, the Doyers, along with numerous Lisu and Kachin neighbors, are pressing the locally grown Niger seed into cooking oil. According the Clement, within a few years, the numbers of local farmers growing their own Niger seed for cooking oil has grown from one family (the Doyers) to approximately 600 families this year. And many more are expected to begin production in coming years. Clement also presses oil for the local growers. Apart from a small fee, Clement retains the seed cake (reportedly containing 32% protein) for use as pig feed. And his hogs certainly looked happy, fit and sleek. Anyhow, ECHO Asia will definitely be following up on the potential of Niger seed as a cooking oil source and animal feed.

Wedding on the Border

2009-02-15T09:32:00.000+07:00

Truth be told, I had some other things I'd rather be doing on Saturday. We're right smack in the middle of the dry season and the dessicated grass and brush in the empty plot next to our house has me worried. This area actually caught fire during the same period two years ago sending a two-story wall of flame rushing towards our two-story house. Ellen was was recovering from a sick tummy and I was away in the hills with a group of UHDP volunteers. Fortunately, a small brigade of friends handling three garden hoses was successful in keeping the flames from reaching our house.

That's one of the main reasons we got goats in late 2007. We figured they'd keep the biomass in another adjacent lot (that comes with our rented house) under control. And they do. But we're not at liberty to release the herd into the plot with a history. We're grateful that Hmong neighbors have cleared some of the plot in which to conduct their "guerrilla urban farming." But I still need to cut a large band of dry grass and brush that runs between their garden, our home and the combustible bamboo/thatch chicken house and goat sheds in the other plot.

The Wedding

So early Saturday morning I picked up UHDP interns, Ruth and Brandon, at appointed spots in Chiang Mai for the trip to Baan Mai Samakhi, a community in the Chiang Dao District; a stone's throw from the Burma border. The residents of BMS are primarily Kachin, a minorityamong Thailand's numerous minorities. In fact, BMS is one of only two rural Kachin communities in northern Thailand. Most of the original residents were displaced from Burma's distant Kachin State that lies between China's Yunnan Province, Tibet and northeastern India.

The groom is Da, a former colleague at UHDP, who works with the project's documentation and citizenship efforts. His bride, Pimpapawn, is a lifelong BMS resident. They met when Da came to assist the Kachin of BMS with improving their legal residence status. By the way, Da is a Karen from Chiang Rai. Pimpapawn, despite growing up in Kachin culture, was born to Akha and Lahu parents. Can't get much more cosmopolitan than that.

And it was a great ceremony with tons of folks wearing variations of Kachin, Karen and Lahu tribal dress in attendance. A Karen pastor conducted the ceremony. Mac, a young Kachin leader, served as the master of ceremony. A Karen choir sang followed by a Kachin choir. And three hymns, all traditional western melodies with wedding theme lyrics, were robustly sung simultaneously in Thai, Kachin and Karen.

Vows were said with the congregation laughing it up each time the pastor, bride or groom flubbed a line. Rings were exchanged and then the Karen groom was presented with a Kachin ceremonial sword and shoulder bag, symbolizing his acceptance into the clan.

I had been asked to share a brief vignette. I truly did my best, reading a scripture passage and offering an insight or two based on almost 22 years of marriage.

The event concluded with a lunchtime feast. Great Kachin food and table conversation before the trip back to Chiang Mai.

So it's Sunday and I don't feel inclined to chop away at the dry brush today. But I'll keep the three water hoses handy just in case.

The Big Dry

2009-02-10T16:42:00.000+07:00

At least three months of dry season remain in northern Thailand. Since late October the North-East Monsoon has brought cooler, drier air into the region. It's been rather pleasant, even nippy at times. However, from late February or early March the temperatures will begin their annual climb. And with still no rain, the landscape will become increasingly dessicated and the air heavier with smoke from countless fires burning throughout the region. March through April are notorious months. Even mild, pleasant people turn testy from the heat, dust and smoke while waiting for the rainy season to commence.

When the rains finally begin to fall sometime in early May the results will be astounding. With a good initial dose of moisture the biomass will explode transforming the landscape from muted earth tones of brown and red to more shades of green than I can describe. The air will clear with forgotten mountains coming back into focus.

Maximizing their access to regular rainfall, the hilltribe farmers will plant their fields in upland rice, corn and numerous secondary crops including pumpkin, melon and sesame. And lowland Thai farmers, having harvested dry season soybean, garlic or onions will begin preparing for the main crop of paddy rice to be planted between July and September.

Such rainy season magic is still months away. But there are paddies and hill fields to prepare. And gardens still need tending.

Burmese Grape

One of northern Thailand's native plant species that's currently in full bloom is the Burmese grape (Baccaurea ramiflora). Known locally as mafai, Burmese grape really isn't a grape at all. The only thing grape-like are profuse clusters of yellow, cherry-shaped fruit that hang off of the branches and trunks of the small trees.

When ripe in May (or June for wild cousins in the forest), although a bit pithy, the meat of the fruit is juicy and refreshing.

Last year, though, when a friend and I treated ourselves to a rather large quantity of not-quite-ripe Burmese grape from the tree in my garden, our teeth became painfully sensitive. Unfortunately, this condition lasted for several days. So this year I'll be waiting until the mafai are fully ripe before indulging.