BioDesign
We are doing our best to help those who most need help in rural parts of developing countries.
There are millions of small farmers who produce most of the food but they are too remote to have useful contact with NGOs etc.
When we help it is usually by email communication via mobile phone emails with any money sent via Mpesa.
Some smallholders visit towns with cyber cafes where they can better view the Internet.
Our main concerns now are;
the fertilising of the soil and growing food of remote small farmers using cover crops
and
persuading those in Malarial areas that that there is a simple Artemisia herbal cure.
The most recent information can be sought best by emailing Graham Knight at
[email protected]
Our main efforts these last months has been providing the seeds of the Jack bean plant to small farmers in several SSA countries.
We have learnt that this legume not only provides good protein but can re-fertilise soil so well that it continues to hold water during a drought.
It has many other wonderful properties!
This became known through a Roland Bunch report;
https://foodfirst.org/green-manure-crops-in-africa-a-report-from-the-field/
and from an email;
Dear Graham,
I am thrilled to hear about your success. Yes, a simple message is best.
And once you have good demo plots of farmers who are already harvesting better, that is even more powerful.
There is one caution I would add. If the wasteland has a lot of grass on it, then they will need to plow the land first, or hoe it. One of the few problems jack beans (and most all the other gm/ccs) have is that they cannot grow well in a well-established grassland.
I have seen jack bean grown every year (intercropped with cassava) for 40 years, with no problems.
What happens is that an intercrop is a good substitute for a rotation--many of the same advantages apply.
After all, there is no rotation in a forest, yet it has no major build-up of diseases and insect pests, nor do plant species die out, or even suffer very much, because of pest attacks.
Sincerely, Roland
29.6.19
There are millions of small farmers who produce most of the food but they are too remote to have useful contact with NGOs etc.
When we help it is usually by email communication via mobile phone emails with any money sent via Mpesa.
Some smallholders visit towns with cyber cafes where they can better view the Internet.
Our main concerns now are;
the fertilising of the soil and growing food of remote small farmers using cover crops
and
persuading those in Malarial areas that that there is a simple Artemisia herbal cure.
The most recent information can be sought best by emailing Graham Knight at
[email protected]
Our main efforts these last months has been providing the seeds of the Jack bean plant to small farmers in several SSA countries.
We have learnt that this legume not only provides good protein but can re-fertilise soil so well that it continues to hold water during a drought.
It has many other wonderful properties!
This became known through a Roland Bunch report;
https://foodfirst.org/green-manure-crops-in-africa-a-report-from-the-field/
and from an email;
Dear Graham,
I am thrilled to hear about your success. Yes, a simple message is best.
And once you have good demo plots of farmers who are already harvesting better, that is even more powerful.
There is one caution I would add. If the wasteland has a lot of grass on it, then they will need to plow the land first, or hoe it. One of the few problems jack beans (and most all the other gm/ccs) have is that they cannot grow well in a well-established grassland.
I have seen jack bean grown every year (intercropped with cassava) for 40 years, with no problems.
What happens is that an intercrop is a good substitute for a rotation--many of the same advantages apply.
After all, there is no rotation in a forest, yet it has no major build-up of diseases and insect pests, nor do plant species die out, or even suffer very much, because of pest attacks.
Sincerely, Roland
29.6.19
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