Register and Pay Before August 15 for Lowest Rate!

Registration Deadline September 1

Plenary Speakers and Afternoon Workshops

Geared towards enabling persons serving Asia's poor to network and exchange solutions related to alleviating hunger and poverty, this ECHO conference will offer three mornings of plenary sessions featuring knowledgeable and experienced speakers.  Slated speakers include

• Tony Rinaudo (Natural Resource Management Specialist with World Vision),
• Dr. Tom Post (CRWRC Team Leader for Asia),
• Dr. Arnat Tancho (head of the Soil Resources and Environment Department at Maejo University, Chiang Mai),
• Randy Bevis (founder and director of the Chiang Mai Aquatic Development Farm and regional aquaculture advisor),
• Jeff Palmer (Executive Director of Baptist Global Response),
• Heather Morris (Technical Advisor for World Concern Myanmar),
• Di Matthews (physician working in Papua, Indonesia),
• Dr. Karl Frogner (President and Project Development Head; UB International, biochar researcher and advocate), and
• Dr. Samran Sombatpanit (Past President and Membership Coordinator of the World Association of Soil and Water Conversation-WASWC)

The conference will also offer dozens of workshops and discussion groups led by regional agricultural development workers and experts, a resource fair featuring displays and booths by various development organizations and businesses, and unlimited networking opportunities with fellow conference participants and resource persons. 

Post-Conference Tours

Also included in the conference is a day of post-conference tours (October 7) to notable venues which offer excellent examples of sustainable agriculture, appropriate technology and outreach to the poor.  Conference participants will be given the opportunity to pre-register for the tour of their choice (one per person) about one month prior to the conference.  Likely venues include:

• Fair Earth Peri-Urban Farm - A small peri-urban farm that produces natural rice through various approaches including the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) as well as poultry, pigs, fish, fruits and vegetables through very diversified agroecological approaches. 
• Partners Thailand Small Farm - Partners Farm features Asian Natural Farming approaches that make use of indigenous microorganisms (IMO) that help improve soil health and make low-cost livestock production possible.  
• Mae Tha Organic Vegetable Cooperative - Farmers in the Mae Tha community produce organic fruit and vegetables, selling their diverse products locally through farmer's markets and a community supported agriculture group.
• Pang Daeng Sustainable Upland Farming Community - Hilltribe farmers in Pang Daeng community have farmed permanent hill fields for three decades by relay cropping maize with various green manure cover crops.  They also diversify production and income with dispersed plantings of fruit trees and indigenous agroforestry efforts.
• Mae Jo University Energy Research Center- The Mae Jo University Energy Research Center is a research and educational facility that offers a wide range of alternative energy approaches such as wind, solar and gasifier technology. 
• Mae Jo University Vermiculture Facility - Mae Jo has a large vermiculture facility in which food wastes from the university, and other sources, are converted by earthworms into commercial vermicompost that improves farm and garden soils.  
• Chiang Mai Aquatic Development Farm - The Chiang Mai Aquatic Development Farm is a tilapia hatchery that employs 36 people and produces approximately 2.5 million tilapia fry per month which are bought by fish farmers across northern Thailand and are grown out for the local markets.  
• UHDP Agroforestry and Small Farm Resource Center - The UHDP Center focuses on small-scale sustainable agriculture technologies being promoted among resource-poor hilltribe communities.  Such approaches include agroforestry, natural backyard farming and appropriate technologies such as alternative cooking fuel and earthen houses.  The ECHO Asia Seed Bank is also located at the UHDP Center. 
• Natural Agriculture Co. Ltd - Working in partnership with the Forest Industry Organization, a department of the Thai Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, this company recycles and transforms natural wastes, such as teak residue, into reusable organic compost and organic fertilizer.
• Pang Soong and Raintree Foundation Hydro-Energy and Ecology Site - Participants will visit the Raintree Foundation office, http://www.raintree-foundation.org/index.php/rain-tree-foundation.html, located at the McKean Rehabilitation Center for an introduction to the foundation's work related to children's education, water projects and other community-based development activities. Afterward the participants will travel to the Pang Soong Lodge, http://www.pang-soong-lodge.com/wordpress/, located at a 1000 meter elevation site 50 km east of Chiang Mai, to see a working ram pump designed and installed by the Raintree Foundation, as well as a micro-hydro electrical power plant that supplements Pang Soong's electrical needs.   Visitors will also see Pang Soong's outdoor education lab that includes an evergreen forest and agro-ecological component.  

Resource Fair 

A resource fair featuring displays and booths by various development organizations and businesses will be offered. Tables will be provided on which organizational displays can be set up so that posters and promotional materials may be displayed. Additionally, books, booklets, CDs and other types of media may be distributed or sold from these booths. If you are interested in requesting a space in the resource fair, please contact Ellen Burnette at eburnette@echnonet.org. The cost for a resource fair table is $20 US or 600 Thai Baht and may be paid at the time of conference.

On-Line Registration

Additional information, including on-line registration and payment, is available by clicking the "register here" link at the top.  The conference registration deadline in September 1.

In January, two representatives of the Pathein Myaungmya Association in the Irrawaddy Delta region of Myanmar joined over 30 other participants during the ECHO Asia Tropical Agriculture Workshop which was held at the Partners Farm in Chiang Mai.  The event offered several hands-on practicum activities including soap making, production of moringa products and backyard mushroom production. 

In late April, one of the PMA representatives wrote back to report that at a recent Holistic Mission Workshop held in their own area with 16 trainees, they were able to "re-echo" soap making techniques that they had learned at the ECHO Asia Tropical Agriculture Workshop.  In turn, it is hoped that many of these 16 persons will share what they had learned with their own communities. 

ECHO Asia is always grateful to learn about any hunger and poverty alleviation solutions that are being "re-echoed" by our network.

Asian Rural Institute Rural Leaders Training Program

The Asian Rural Institute (ARI) is a training ground for grassroots rural leaders.  Located in northern Japan.  Each year ARI conducts a Rural Leaders Training Program which focuses on three areas of rural development - leadership, sustainable agriculture through integrated organic farming, and participatory community building. 

Steven Cutting, ARI's Ecumenical Relations officer, explains that rural community leaders are invited to take part in this program, particularly those who have the passion and commitment to work for the betterment of their own communities.  After completing nine months of training it is expected that each program participant will return to their communities to bring their new learning and adapt it to their own local context.  Cutting stresses that such training is not intended only for an individual but for a whole community, thereby promoting meaningful and lasting development "from within."

ARI's program is community-based with participants coming largely from countries primarily in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific.  Cutting stresses that ARI strongly promotes the training of women leaders, as their voice and participation are essential in creating any strong community.  A Christian-based institution, ARI's training has always been open to people of all religions.

From this culturally, religiously, and linguistically diverse group, ARI builds a "cohesive learning community centered around the healthy production of food".  On 6 hectares of land, ARI raises 90% of the food eaten by the community.  Training participants work in the fields and in the livestock areas to learn through the experience of daily labor, employing techniques which are appropriate to the contexts of rural communities, such as making bokashi (quick organic compost), charcoal and fermented plant juice. 

Cutting stresses that the common language of ARI is English, or perhaps more accurately "broken English."  Anyone considering applying to the program need not have English fluency, but at least limited communication ability.

The Rural Leaders Training Program begins in April of each year and ARI is currently recruiting for 2012.  If you would like more information about ARI please see their website at www.ari-edu.org  or write to Steven Cutting (ecu@ari-edu.org ) with any specific questions.  Anyone interested in applying to ARI can send an inquiry to admissions officer Akari Nakamura (recruitment@ari-edu.org ).  Although the deadline for applying was June 30, Cutting says it may be possible to extend this year's date.  He also stresses that ARI prioritizes applications from women leaders.

Bambooroo

Bambooroo, www.bambooroo.net , is inviting interested persons to the first International Bamboo Construction Workshop in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  Main themes during the training will include:

• Bamboo structural concepts
• Pretensioning of bamboo elements (2D and 3D trusses)
• Modern bamboo joinery and unions
• Lifting and erection techniques
• Bamboo harvesting and preservation
• Bamboo anatomy and species familiarization
• Value adding to the bamboo pole

2011 Bambooroo workshops will offered during:

·         October 19-21

·         December 7-9

For more information about these training events contact Mark Emery at bambooroo@gmail.com.