Whose energy?
Here you’ll find a collection of articles and information on human energy and bio-energy. In many countries without sufficient sources of oil, the affordability of fossil-energy-based agricultural inputs becomes more and more a problem.
Farmers need alternatives for these external inputs which are affordable, increase overall productivity and do not raise labour demands in an unacceptable way. What opportunities do farmers have to use ‘bio-energy’ in a better way, to put nature to work?
Table of contents:
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3 - 5written by Coen ReijntjesAgriculture can be defined as the human activity which arranges the conversion processes of energy, nutrients and water by plants and animals in such a manner that useful products such as food, feed, fuel, fibres and fertiliser become available. Beside human and solar energy, which are the basic energy sources for this activity, other sources of energy are also used such as fossil energy and bio-energy (energy from biomass and activities of plants and animals, oxen as well as earthworms, bacteria and pest predators). Fossil energy is a finite resource, its use has considerable negative impact on the environment and most farmers in developing countries cannot afford fossil-energy-based technology. On short term however, without the use of fossil energy, it will not be possible to feed the many people who live in urban centres. This poses the question of which energy sources, and therefore, which technology should be used where and when. This article deals with some aspects of that question.
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6 - 7In the mountains of Argao, a municipality at the east coast of Cebu island, Philippines, a farmers\' cooperative, called ALAB, has been experimenting for almost 10 years now with organic contour farming. ALAB is an acronym for Alayon sa Banika, mutual labour sharing in rural areas. An “alayon” is a fixed group of 6-7 farmers or farm workers, who assist each other on their respective farms. In this article R. Remonde and Villamora, staff members of ALAB, estimate how much extra labour is needed for organic contour farming when compared with chemical farming.
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8 - 9written by Jeff PalmerOn the demonstration farm of the training centre of Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Centre (MBRLC) long-year comparative evaluation of the Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT) with local farmers\' practices is being conducted. After 6 years of cropping the results are very promising: production and income increased, erosion nearly stopped and labour demands seem to be acceptable. In this article Jeff Palmer specifically focuses on labour aspects.
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10 - 12written by Simon CroxtonThe dry, north-western corner of Kenya is inhabited by the Turkana, nomadic pastoralists whose economy is built around raising livestock, but who also hunt, fish, trade and grow sorghum. Traditionally, sorghum production has taken place during the wet season, by exploiting the rainfall that naturally collects after rainstorms where the soils and topography combine to form a favourable environment for gardening.
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13 - 14written by Gaye Burpee , Purna ChhetriFarmers in Nepal use leaves of the \'asuro\' tree to sustain soil fertility. Although locally well-known for its yield enhancing effects it does not seem to be integrated within farming systems at a wide scale. A call for more study.
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15 - 15written by Milton FloresLeguminous cover crops are gaining a growing interest among farmers, extension workers and researchers in Central America. The benefits of these crops are well known at present, although their exact performance varies with species and depends on growth conditions as well.
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16 - 17written by Jeffery BentleyTo help Central American farmers kick the pesticide habit we, El Zamorano college, started a biological pest control course aimed at farmer-extension workers, who work directly with farmers in remote areas. As we explain in our course, biological control is when a living thing eats, kills, or cripples a pest so that it can\'t reproduce. Our basic idea is to start with what people know and build on it. Farmers are intelligent, creative, knowledgeable people, who do a lot of experiments on their own.
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18 - 20written by July Leesberg , Emperatriz ValenciaUnderstanding patterns of labour investment, as well as the changes caused by the introduction of a new technology, are crucial for a better understanding of farmers\' reasons to adopt, adapt or reject such a technology. In complex production systems these patterns are often difficult to unravel. The DIAR project in Colombia developed a simple but reliable method to register labour allocation patterns of small-scale producer families. It is a self-registration system, specifically developed for the illiterate target farmers of the project. This system enabled the project to obtain quite precise information from 17 target families over a period of six months. It enabled the families concerned to reflect on their own production strategies, and they said it was fun to play this \'registration game\'.
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21 - 21written by Erik J SimonidesTo secure its member farmers with a constant supply of organic fertilizers the farmers’ cooperative Alayon sa Banika (ALAB), a farmers\' cooperative in the Philippines (see page 6-7 of this issue), established a compost factory. In the beginning this project was confronted with serious transport and labour problems. Erik Simonides explains how these problems were resolved.
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22 - 24written by Bhasker Save , Ashok SanghaviBased on carefully observing nature and some fourteen years of experience, Mr. Save developed his way of Natural Farming, in South Gujarat, India. This balanced way of farming leaves important aspects of farming such as tillage, fertilisation, weeding and pest control as much as possible to natural processes. According to the authors a lot of hard work has become unnecessary and relatively high production and income are obtained. But even more important, this way of farming conserves the natural resource base and guarantees food security also for future generations. In this article Mr. Save explains the principles on which he built his orchard farm.
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25 - 26written by Luo Shiming , Zhu Cheng-shanIn the past 30 years fertilisers and pesticides were introduced in Chinese agriculture together with irrigation, machinery and new varieties. While both yields and commercial output from agriculture increased dramatically, sustainability of agriculture faces a great challenge. Soil erosion, desertification, overgrazing, deforestation, over-fishing, and soil fertility decrease occurred in many places. South-China is situated in the tropical and subtropical, humid monsoon area. In the early 1980ies ecological agriculture was proposed as an important approach to solve the problem of growing agricultural unsustainability.
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27 - 27written by Virginia N Sandoval , Robert E RhoadesWithin the setting of international agricultural research, some researchers felt the need to put the user\'s perspective higher on the agenda. UPWARD, the User\'s Perspective with Agricultural Research and Development Network, emerged in the International Potato Centre Asia as a fledgling network of researchers dedicated to turning agricultural research and development upside down.
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28 - 28written by Henry lito D. TacioIn the Philippines still some 20% of the pre-school population is found to suffer from severe or moderate underweight. Likewise 17% of the Filipino school children fall below the standard weight for their age. Especially malnutrition through deficiencies in iron and vitamin A is taking its toll. This qualitative poor nutrition easily leads to irreparable damage to the brains. Only well-nourished children can grow to their physical and mental potential and fully benefit from education opportunities. The 10 steps of FAITH (= Food always in the home) gardening ensure availability of vegetables throughout the year.
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