We love weeds

Table of contents:

• Dear Readers
  2 - 2
• Between love and despair - Editorial
  4 - 5
  written by ILEIA editorial team
  When we requested articles for this issue of the ILEIA Newsletter we didn't expect to receive so many examples of positive functions of weeds in small farmer agriculture. This shows that weeds are not just bothersome and have to be eradicated with all possible means, an impression one gets from the bulk of agricultural research on weed management. (ILEIA)
• The yield of weeds
  6 - 7
  written by Paula von Weizsäcker
  When trying to evaluate the costs and benefits of a strategy for weed management, we usually look at parameters such as crop yields, labour requirements, costs of purchasing herbicides and many more. There is one blind spot in nearly all such studies: the yield of weeds, the potential for positive use of weeds. A substantial portion of the food for people, animals and soil can come from weeds. This is shown in a detailed case study on two small farms in South India. (ILEIA)
• We love and protect it
  8 - 8
  written by C N Pandeya
  The weed Gandhejhar (Azeratum conyzoides) abounds throughout the rainy season in the rainfed uplands (bari lands) of the foothills and mid-altitude area (600-1500 m asl) of the Western region of Nepal. More than 80% of the total annual rainfall (1500 mm) falls from June to September and the winter is accompanied by long dry spells and few erratic rains. Maize (Zea mays) followed by winter crops is the area\'s major cropping pattern. Winter crops, mostly wheat (Triticum aestivum), rapeseeds (Brassica spp) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) usually suffer from moisture stress during the whole cropping period from emergence to maturation. To get good emergence of these crops monsoon rain residue is indispensable. Gandhejhar, the living mulch, plays an important role to protect the soil from drying out during the long transition period between the maize harvest and the emergence of winter crops. (ILEIA)
• The role of weeds in Niger
  9 - 9
  written by John Lamers , Frank Ermhardt
  Although weeds in Niger are generally considered to cause more harm than good if not controlled and weed control causes a labour peak in crop production, various weeds are traded as feed, food or construction material. Weeds are undesirable at the onset of the rainy season as they may cause yield losses, but their occurrence after millet flowering entails little yield losses and farmers exploit them for various purposes. (ILEIA)
• Aggressive colonizers work for the farmers: experiences from South-East Asia
  10 - 11
  written by Leo Oyen
  Weeds undoubtedly cause great damage in agriculture. However, in some situations such plants can be used by farmers to their advantage. They have learned to manage populations of weeds and to strike a balance between competition, soil protection and weeding costs. In this article some examples are given from the book Auxiliary plants in agriculture and forestry. This book is the eleventh volume in a series called Plant Resources of South-East Asia (PROSEA).
• Weeding on the forest edge
  12 - 13
  written by Kojo Amanor
  On the edge of the forest belt in Ghana weeds are becoming more and more of a problem due to soil and forest degradation caused by savannization and intensive agriculture. To reduce this problem farmers have developed several ecological management techniques investing in labour rather than in expensive inputs. Starting from the experiences of these farmers the author looks at new directions for weed research. (ILEIA)
• Soil conservation and weed control: friends or foes?
  14 - 15
  written by Francis Turkelboom , Koen van Keer , K Vlassak
  Despite more than 20 years of local research and development activities by a multitude of GOs an NGOs, adoption of soil conservation practices in the highlands of Northern Thailand remains rather poor. There are several socio-economical as well as agro-technical reasons behind this failure, some of them now being revealed by studies using on-farm or farming systems approaches (Anderson 1995; Turkelboom et al 1995). One aspect which so far has been overlooked, however, is the seriousness of weed problems and their interference with soil conservation issues. (ILEIA)
• Green manures, a new chance for small farmers
  16 - 17
  written by Valdemar Hercilio de Freitas
  After severe soil degradation and increase in fertiliser prices, small farmers in Santa Catarina, South Brasil, supported by EPAGRI (Empresa de Pesquisa Agropecuária e Extensao Rural) and other research and extension agencies, succeeded to develop and propagate green manure/cover crop technology on a large scale. Results are impressive: higher yields, weed control, lower labour need and a halt to soil erosion. (ILEIA)
• An Odyssey of discovery: principles of agriculture for the humid tropics
  18 - 19
  written by Roland Bunch
  Our Odyssey started in 1982, the day Conrado, a Honduran villager, sheepishly showed us his experiment. Sceptical about the value of the organic matter we had recommended, he had piled a huge quantity of compost into several rows of his maize field. The last two rows he left as a control, untilled and unfertilized. There, before our eyes, stood a field of maize 2.5 meters tall, with a last row reaching not even 40 cms. That was the day we began to realize the incredible degree to which organic matter can restore degraded soils. (ILEIA)
• Weeds and trees
  20 - 21
  written by Rik Thijssen
  From his experience in agroforestry development in Kenya, the author looks at benefits farmers can have from weeds and the positive effects of trees on weed growth.
• Selective weeding: ground cover and soil conservation in coffee in Nicaragua
  22 - 23
  written by Charles Staver , Amilcar Aguilar , Victor Aguilar , Santiago Somarriba
  Farmers readily recognise differences in the growth habit of weeds. They know which weeds are perennial or annuals. They have observed how roots grow and how different weeds came back after weeding. They also have the practical experience that different weeds cause different damage to crops. (ILEIA)
• Oxen-drawn weeders reduce workload
  24 - 24
  written by Lex Roeleveld , Cecilia K. Rugimbana , Efrem Wella , Ally Ngendello , Anna Nyanga
  Long, heavy working days during the weeding season are felt by farmers, particularly the women, to be one of the major problems in agriculture in North Sukumaland, Tanzania. Following participatory surveys by the Lake Zone Farming Systems Research programme in 1992 farmers have successfully tested the use of oxen-drawn weeders to reduce labour constraints. (ILEIA)
• Hands versus chemicals
  25 - 26
  written by V. Santhakumar
  It was not an easy task for Lakshmikutty Amma, a seventy year old woman belonging to a former landlord family of South Kerala. That day she also worked in her own paddy field, (with two feed mud) along with the two women labourers, to complete the deweeding work. She could not get enough labourers on that day. Moreover, she felt that their wages are very high. It was for the first time in her life that she did this work. Even the unemployed young women of her caste would not venture into this task. Thus she was very tired when we met afterwards, telling me that the new circumstances forced her to do this work. However, her eyes emitted the rays of satisfaction in showing that she cannot be mauled by these circumstances. (ILEIA)
• Extensive knowledge on weeds in Tamil Nadu
  27 - 27
  written by G Nammalvar
  Tamil Nadu in the southern most part of India lies between the Bay of Bengal in the east and mountains in the west (Western Ghats). Agriculture has been practised along the rivers flowing from west to east since as early as 10,000 BC. Two thousand years of literature reports thousands of plants being studied for their habits, habitats and values. Already in those early days, farmers had the wisdom regarding plants competing with crop plants for nutrients, soil moisture and sunlight. Many different ways to manage this variety of plants have been known. In some places weeds themselves have been treated or cultivated as main crops taking into consideration the economic merits. This short report gives only some examples of the many uses of weeds known by farmers in the region. (ILEIA)
• Treating the cause, not the symptom
  30 - 31
  written by Weyman P. Fussell
  For successful development strategies it is necessary to treat the causes of problems not the symptoms. After an unsuccessful reafforestation attempt the community of Erquis Sur and their support agency successfully used beekeeping as an entry point to raise income and reduce environmental degradation. The author explains the use of a problem tree which proved to be a useful instrument to develop this strategy. (ILEIA)
• ILEIA's learning experiment
  34 - 34