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Asia Network News
Edited by
Rick and Ellen Burnette
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This Newsletter is For You!
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Improving Lives
Worldwide
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2011 ECHO Asia Agriculture and Community Development Conference
 The ECHO Asia Agriculture and Community Development Conference, held at the Empress Hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand during October, 3-7, drew 157 registrants from 10 regional countries. Despite flooded conditions a few days before, the third ECHO Asia conference in Asia since 2007 was conducted without interruptions.
Plenary topics included The Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration of Forests by Tony Rinaudo, Natural Farming by Local Agricultural Inputs for Small and Medium Farmers by Dr. Arnat Tancho, Overview of Tropical Aquaculture Species and Systems by Randy Bevis, Introducing Grain Amaranth: Lessons Learned by CRWRC and Partnering Organizations by Dr. Tom Post, Agricultural Extension Experiences in Myanmar through Farmer Field Schools by Heather Morris, The UBI Concept: Making and Using Low-Tech Biochar from Available Feedstock in Sustainable Rural Development and Significant, Timely Climate Change Mitigation by Dr. Karl Frogner, The Edge of Enough - Small Subsistence Farmers and the Protein Problem by Dr. Di Matthews, Why We Need to Preserve Soil and Water Resources Worldwide and How it is Being Done by Dr. Samran Sombatpanich and Business-Based Development and Completing Broken Economic Chains in Developing Countries by Kirby Rogers. In addition, dozens of afternoon breakout sessions were held at the hotel. Agriculture and community development topics included hydraulic ram pumps, seed saving and testing, biosand filters and mini-biogas systems as well as alternatives for marketing organic and local farm products.  Other highlights included morning devotions provided by ECHO's President/CEO, Stan Doerr, and worship sessions led by Refresh. David Erickson, ECHO's Chief Development Organization Officer, introduced the ECHO Community Internet portal. Additionally, the recently translated English version of Dr. Arnat's Applied Natural Farming book made its debut. And over the course of the meeting, hundreds of seed packets, produced by the ECHO Asia Seed Bank, were distributed as well as dozens of chaya (tree spinach) cuttings; the first ever offered at an ECHO Asia event.
 Several organizations erected booths at the resource fair from which to network as well as offer products and information.
Following ECHO tradition, the conference ended with The Prayer of the Nations in which speakers of at least 20 Asian languages participated.  Post-conference tours on the final day included site visits related to ram pump technology, green manure/cover crops, agroforestry, natural rice production (including SRI), vermiculture, alternative energy such as gasifier stove technology and natural farming that incorporates the use of beneficial microbes as well as a visit to a natural fertilizer production facility.
Copies of plenary and workshop presentations are available online at Conference Resources. The next ECHO Asia Agriculture and Community Development Conference is planned for October 2013. |
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2012 ECHO Asia/Partners Thailand Tropical Agriculture Workshop
January 24-16, 2012
7:45 AM - 5:00 PM
The ECHO Asia Impact Center and Partners Thailand will co-host a three-day workshop to be held at the Partner's farm on the outskirts of Chiang Mai. Divided into six half-day sessions, the Tropical Agriculture Workshop will offer participants a chance to engage in hands on practice related to:
- Humane livestock slaughter (pigs, chickens and fish)
- SRI (System of Rice Production)
- Natural vegetable gardening
- Small-scale fish production in tanks and small ponds
- Production of quality charcoal and wood vinegar from low-quality wood in 200-liter drum kilns
- Small-scale biogas production (using plastic bladders and tanks)
- Production of charred rice husks as a soil amendment
Workshop Costs
- 3300 Thai Baht (about US$110) per person, includes:
- three days of training, including six morning and afternoon sessions
- lunch and transportation between the ECHO Asia office and Partners Farm/Mae Jo University
- Discount to 2700 Thai Baht (about US $90) per person for organizations sending five or more representatives to the workshop.
- Or 800 Thai Baht per workshop session *(about US$27) *Those not participating in the entire day's event must handle their own transportation to/from Partners Farm/Mae Jo University
Workshop participants will be responsible for their own lodging and non-workshop related meals and transportation.
Please note that this workshop will be held during Chiang Mai's high season for tourism. It is recommended that participants register and make their own lodging reservations as soon as possible prior to January.
Workshop Registration
To inquire and register for the Tropical Agriculture Workshop, contact the ECHO Asia Regional Office at echoasia@echonet.org.
Registration deadline: January 10, 2012
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2012 ECHO Cambodia Tropical Agriculture Workshop
February 21-23, 2012
8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
The ECHO Asia Regional Office and the Wholistic Development Organization will co-host a three-day Khmer-language workshop to be held at the Peri-Urban Agriculture Center (PUAC) and Jumpah Center on the outskirts of Phnom Penh in Kompong Speu Province. Over several sessions, the ECHO Cambodia Tropical Agriculture Workshop will offer participants a chance to:
- Network with other agriculture and community development workers.
- Tour the Peri-Urban Agriculture Center and learn about organic vegetable production, post-harvest management and marketing.
- Engage in a water storage and irrigation workshop
- Tour the Jumpah Center that features work related to solar power, pig production with forage feeds and recycling of pig waste into fertilizer and biogas.
- With local materials, learn how to produce and use indigenous micro-organisms for various types of farm application.
- Learn how to produce low-cost nutritious fermented pig feed and bokashi natural fertilizer.
- Become familiar with various green manure/cover crops for farm soil improvement.
Workshop Costs
- $100 per person, includes:
- three days of training, including morning and afternoon sessions
- lunch
- transportation between the Peri-Urban Agriculture Center and the Jumpah Center on the 23rd
- $75 per person for organizations that register 5 or more staff members
- Or $25 per person per half day of participation
Note: If the event is overbooked, preference will be given to those interested in attending the entire workshop.
Workshop participants will be responsible for their own local lodging and non-workshop related meals and transportation.
Workshop Registration
To inquire and register for the Tropical Agriculture Workshop, Khmer language enquiries may contact the Wholistic Development Organization at wdo.director@gmail.com. English inquires can contact the ECHO Asia Regional Office at echoasia@echonet.org .
Registration deadline: January 1, 2012
For further information including the Workshop Schedule, click this link: 2012 ECHO Cambodia Tropical Agriculture Workshop
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Charring Rice Husks in Place on Gardens
Skip Thomson, who has been involved in community development work for many years in southern Laos, offered the following observations and photos in response to the recent ECHO Asia Notes article, Biochar - An Organic House for Soil Microbes by Bryan Hugill.
Skip states that, "Charring rice husks on the vegetable bed is a method used by small commercial gardeners in a small area just outside of Pakse, Lao PDR. The method seems to have been adopted by virtually all of the commercial gardeners in this small area but I have not seen used in other locations in Laos." He adds that it is also common for leftover carbonized rice husks from small-scale charcoal production to be used as well. He's not sure if farmers char each time they plant, but he sees it done frequently.
 Regarding the charring method, Skip describes that husks are piled along the length of raised beds at a depth of 20 to 30 cm in the center of the beds. Then, in scattered locations, small fires are made among the husks. When the husks begin charring, some of the hot, smoking material is transferred in bowls to facilitate charring elsewhere. After carbonization is complete, a thin layer of uncharred husks is spread over each bed before crops are planted. He reports that there does not appear to be any incorporation of the charred husks into the soil.
He recalls, "One of the gardeners told me that she has not used any compost or fertilizer during the several years that she has charred in place. The gardens produce good crops of leaf vegetables and onions." Skip adds that even though he has not seen any legumes grown in the plots, he wonders if there might be another source of plant nutrients, particularly nitrogen.
He observes that the char-in-place method works well, although wind will result in a high percentage of ash instead of char. This can be overcome by protecting the husk pile from the wind. Although getting the char process started can be a bit tricky, they do not have to use common rice husk char equipment such as the perforated can and chimney (see http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/philricecarbhull).
 Regarding the local availability and use of rice husks, Skip notes that uncharred husks are sometimes spread on rice paddy. However, as rice mills usually burn leftover piles of husks whenever they get too big, he thinks that the process of charring rice husks in gardens probably does not add any further to local air pollution.
As carbonized husks are not transferred outside of the garden beds where they are charred, Skip observes that an advantage of this system is the low labor requirement. However, he raises a couple of questions: Does the heat from charring in place on garden soils help, hurt, or have no appreciable effect on soil organisms? And is a system of applying charred rice husks along with chemical fertilizers enough to keep a garden's soil healthy and productive?
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Excerpt from ECHO Asia Blog:
Late Rainy Season Grains from the ECHO Asia Seed Bank
 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.
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ECHO launches ECHOcommunity.org
~ a new way to
Gather,
Share and
Connect
On October 15th, ECHO launched a new online portal designed to expand ECHO's capacity to serve development workers around the world. ECHOcommunity.org will make it easier to:
Gather lessons learned and techniques that practitioners have found effective - knowledge that might benefit others around the world
Share practical solutions to agricultural and appropriate technology challenges
Connect practitioners with others who are working in their same part of the world or wrestling with the same kinds of challenges they are facing
Here are just a few highlights:
- ECHO's digital library is available in its entirety, completely searchable and can be read in over 30 different languages
- Resource and engagement groups provide ready ways for practitioners to learn from each other, share practical experience and solicit advice
- A research section will highlight practical research results, raise awareness of research in-process, and identify areas for beneficial research initiatives
- Personal profiles can be kept private OR shared with other registered users to promote on-the-field connections and identify readily-available technical resources.
ECHOcommunity.org members can each decide:
- how much they want to share with other ECHOcommunity.org members
- how much they want to learn from, and contribute to, the topical groups
- what resources they want to access (using "Search" to speed their discovery)
- what language is most helpful to their understanding (over 30 languages available)
At ECHOcommunity.org, users find a wealth of practical and tested information to help them do their work even better. ECHO staff and other practitioners are available to help figure out solutions to discouraging problems. There are opportunities to share hard-won successes. All with one objective: to help reduce hunger and improve livelihoods around the world.
To join this community, go to www.echocommunity.org and register. You will be asked to choose your member type when you register. If you are actively involved in Development Work, the "Active Development Worker" member type is a Free membership and it will give you all the privileges of the site. Other memberships are available, and if you are uncertain which would be appropriate for you, you are encouraged to click on "contact us" in the upper right hand corner of the page, and we will be happy to assist you.
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The ECHO Asia Impact Center operates under ECHO, a non-profit, Christian organization that helps you help the poor to produce food in the developing world . ECHO 17391 Durrance Rd. North Fort Myers, FL 33917 USA Phone: (239)543-3246 Fax: (239)543-5317 |
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