Food Security begins at HOME. In Africa there are millions of people who go hungry to bed every day.
Instead of providing food parcels and meals, one should provide seeds, implements, and teach people how to grow food for their families and then teach them how to market the surplus of their gardens. I have introduced communal growing to work on a barter trade system or for sales within their communities. I have been implemented this in some communities and it works excellent. People tend to become more lazy when food or meals are provided, and this in turn makes good land go to waste, resulting in Food Security growing higher.
I am available to provide you with some reading material to start of communal gardens.
--
Malcolm Naidoo
I am actively invloved in my local community and other areas in promoting sustainable farming of crops for sustanance and sales to generate an income. I teach people on how to grow nutritious vegetables and am actively promoting gardening
Malcolm, a suggestion for increasing the yeild in the photo garden. Mark off permanent beds in the garden. Run them north and south. Any width but no more than 2 yards wide so you can reach the center. Have permanent paths between the beds for walking. Add organic matter either by growing cover crops/green manure crops or bring it in from outside the garden [leaves, food waste,etc] or do both. Keep the soil mulched at all time. The crop can be mulched between the plants.
In the dvd I will be mailing you is a page on how to make a dripline rather than purchasing it. In Nicaragua I made one [100 feet long] for US$3. In some ways the homemade ones are better in that the drip outlet can be cleaned out when they stop up with dirty water.
I am starting a project in 2 weeks time and hope that the DVD will be here on time so we can use your techniques asap.
Regards
Malcolm
--
Malcolm Naidoo
I am actively invloved in my local community and other areas in promoting sustainable farming of crops for sustanance and sales to generate an income. I teach people on how to grow nutritious vegetables and am actively promoting gardening
Africa, the bread basket for most developed countries, but yet there is not enough food for most people of Africa.
This year most rural and communal market gardens have not planted enough due to rising costs of inputs.
I know for a fact that most rural Zambian farmers did not receive their input packages and have not planted which will cause some problems for essential crops like maize, soy bean, dry bean which is the staple diet.
There is a need for people like us to encourage and spearhead programs for these people to become self sustained and not rely on these hand outs.
We should form a group who will be able to to provide these rural people with the knowledge. Knowledge is power and with this power they can free themselves from mal nutrition and lead a better life.
Thanks to Ken and others we are providing enough information to some of the people, but most do not have access to internet at all to know what help we have for them.
Is there someone who can do a dedicated website that will attract people who can identify people in rural Zambia and other countries who need help in farming only?
In his way after helping them become self sustained, we can approach other requirments to bringing a better life for them.
Most NGO's and NPO's only target selected communities or directed to selected communities and the most affected are always left out.
dear all,as an orgaisation working in agriculutre and breeding and all our actions are turned to farmers that we are trying to assist and help .the food security in africa is a very big problem and are not able to solve this without permanent seeds and also good politics of agriculture handle with authorities.we are sure that by sharing ideas we can set free our africa.its not easy when ogm are promted and when we are able to get our own seeds but it is possible with nabuur to change things for evry villages registred or no yet .we have a very big work as member of nabuur to promote the very excellent tool for the devolpment odf our villages when we recognised that there is no villages without farmers .please see how you can assist and fund the food security in africa.
--
ROGER PHOLO MVUMBI
P.O.BOX.3659 KINSHASA-GOMBE.
TEL:00243998218472 aderigas@yahoo.fr
We know the key to village food production is organic, 0-till farming. The farmers do not have to purchase anything except new seed for crops they have not grown [for example: green manure/cover crops. All they need is a machette/cutlass and a bucket dripline to use during the dry season. Otherwise, they must have knowledge. We can not print the information due to cost and distribution but we can provide a DVD and there are cypercafes everywhere. Some one can study the dvd and take the knowledge to the village as it is simple and natural. Look at the jungle or the forest and no one ever plows it and it is productive.
organic farming and pest control(taken from some ancient agri books&website)
some thing i used for pest disease control wich was written some of the blogs of Mrs Farzana (Pakistan).“There are numerous fruit and vegetable crops with properties that with proper attention I can use to control insects and diseases.
The plants that I have listed below have pesticide properties in their seeds, leaves, stalks, un-ripe fruit, bulbs rhizomes etc., and act by different modes of action. Each one controls different pests including: aphids, caterpillars, green bugs, fruit flies, leaf minors, red spiders, ants, slugs, house flies, mites, white flies, bacteria, scab, bowl-worm, thrips, anthracnose, hoppers, scales, termites, thrips, mosaic virus, powder mildew etc.
The useful part of a plant can easily be collected and used as a natural pesticide on a crop and can of course be established on a small scale in rural areas near farms. Fruit and vegetables with natural pesticide properties include: custard apple (Annona reticulata), basil (Sweet Basil) and Holy Basil, chillies (Capsicum frutes), (Fam. Sollanacea), garlic (Allium Sativum) (F. Lilacae), ginger (Zingber officiate) (fm. Zingiberatase), neem, papaya (Carcia papaya), tobacco (Nictana tabacum, Nicotana, Rustica) and nicotana glutnosa (Fam. Ziberacease).
Insect-controlling plants
Pest control plants should posses the following characteristics:
Be effective at the rate of a maximum of 3-5% plant material based on dry weight
Be easy to grow, require little space and time for cultivation and procurement
Be perennial, recover quickly after the material is harvested
Not become weed or a host to plant pathogen or insect pest
Possess complementary economic uses
Pose no hazard to non-target organisms, wild life, humans or environment
Be easy to harvest preparation should be simple, not too time consuming or requiring excessive technical input
Application should not be phyto-toxic or decrease the quality of crop, e.g. taste or texture
Below is a list of useful agricultural species, their pesticide properties and the method of preparation:
Soursop Custard apple (Annona reticulata)
Plant parts with insect controlling properties: seeds, leaves, unripe fruit
Mode of action: Contact and stomach problem, ovicidal, insecticidal, repellent, antifeedent and antinematode.
Target pests: aphid, caterpillars, green bug and Mediterranean fruit fly.
Preparation: 500 grams of custard apple leaves, boil in 2 ½ litres of water, until only 1/4 of the original is left, then dilute this mixture into 15-20 litres of water. This is good enough for one hectare.
Basil Sweet Basil (Ocimum basilium), Holy Basil (Ocimum Sanctum)
Plant parts with insect controlling properties: leaves and stem
Mode of action: repellent, insecticidal, fungitoxic and mollu scicidol.
Target pests: fruit fly, leaf miners, red spider and mites.
Preparation: 100g basil leaves dipped in to 1 litre of water. This should be soaked overnight in water. Filter the mixture and add 1ml of liquid soap, stir properly. Dilute into 10-15 litres of water.
Chillies
Plant parts with insect controlling properties: fruit
Mode of action: stomach position insecticidal, repellent, antifeedent, fumigant-viroid.
Target pests: ants, aphid, caterpillars and slugs.
Preparation: 500g of chillies, dip into 3 litres of water for 10-15 minutes. Add 30g of soap as sticker. Add 3 more litres of water, filter and then spray the plants. One can add tobacco, garlic, onion, citrus, alcohol, neem and lime.
Garlic Allium Sativum (Fam. Lilaceqe)
Plant parts with insect controlling properties: bulbs
Mode of action: insecticidal, repellent, antifeedent, fungicidalnematocidal and is effective against ticks.
Target pest: aphids, house flies, mites, white fly, bacteria, cucumber and scab.
Preparation: 3 bulbs of garlic, ground finely, add some kerosene, keep for 2 days. Add 1 table-spoon of soap powder, stir and filter and add 15-20 litres of water.
Ginger Zingiber officiale (Fam. Zingiberacae)
Plant parts with insect controlling properties: rhizome
Mode of action: repellent, insecticidal, nematocidal and fungicidal.
Target pests: American bowl worms, aphid, thrips, white fly, and mango anthracnose.
Preparation: 500g of crushed garlic add 10ml of kerosene oil kept overnight. Next day remove outer skin of ginger and make ginger paste. In another vessel add 100g green chillies, mixed with 50ml of water and add 30g of liquid soap as emulsifier. Solution is stirred and filtered and 10-15 ml of water added.
Neem.
Plant parts with insect controlling properties: seeds and leaves
Mode of action: insecticidal, repellent, antifeedant acaricidal, growth inhibiting nematocidal, fungicidal, anti-viral. Neem compounds act mainly as stomach poison and systemic.
Target pests: American boll-worms, ants, deserts, locust, leaf hoppers, leaf miners, mites, scales, termites, thrips, white fly.
Preparation: 1 kg of neem leaves dipped into 2 litres of water and left overnight. Boil it 15-20 minutes untill 1/4 is left. Dilute with 10-15ml of water.
Papaya Carcia papaya
Plant parts with insect controlling properties: leaves, seed, unripe fruit
Mode of action: flower thrips and fruit fly.
Target pests: mosaic virus and powdery mildew.
Preparation: 1 kg of finely shredded leaves, placed in 1 litre of water and squeezed through a cloth. Take 1 litre of soap solution, dilute it in 10-15 ml water.
Tobacco Nicotana tabacum, Nicotana Rustica, Nicotana glutnosa, and Fam. Solanaceae
Plant parts with insect controlling properties: leaves and stalk
Mode of action: insecticida, repellent, fungicidal, acaricidal contact, and stomach.
Target pests: aphids, caterpillars, leaf miners, mites and thrips.
Preparation: boil 4 litres of water, add ½ kg of tobacco leaves and 1 table spoon of lime. Dilute it with 10-15 litres of water.
Tumeric Curcum domstica (Fam. Zigiberaceoe)
Plant parts with insect controlling propertie: rhizome
Mode of action: repellent, insecticidal and antifungal.
Target pests: aphids, caterpillars, mites and rice leaf hoppers.
Preparation: 500g of turmeric rhizomes chopped and soaked overnight, dilute into 2 litres of water and again dilute into another 10-15ml of water.
The Rationale
The purpose of introducing pesticide free fruits and vegetables is to increase the support and significance of natural crop protection and sustainable organic agriculture. It provides links with approaches and methodologies that allow growers to put basic information into practice. Ultimately this will provide farmers with the experience and confidence needed to make the best use of the resource available to them and to use this knowledge to farm sustainably.
Commercial scale applications
The plant species listed in this article are grown in Asia in abundance but have never been tried on a commercial scale. Even neem that is known to control numerous insects, pests, fungi, nematodes and viral diseases is still used and processed in a very primitive manner. A solution has to be found for its commercial scale applications and extraction of pesticide properties of plants on a much larger scale.
Information deficiency
There is demand world over for pesticide free food, but the information on the various natural pesticides is lacking and therefore, these methods are little used in India ,Pakistan and other developing countries. This is partly due to the fact that processing techniques have not been fully understood. The process of extraction is known theoretically, but large scale production has not yet made any headway, although there is great scope for export opportunities.
Nurturing success
In order to produce fruit and vegetables using sustainable locally produced inputs we need to identify constraints of crop production. We also need to develop an appropriate training course on Integrated Pest Management for the target smallholders farming system. Ultimately this strategy will help to boost farmers economy through the increased export of high value ‘non toxic’ food produce.Small farmers will benifited by this method.
Mrs.Farzana Panhwar in Pakistan has used this all and also i followed this method nicely in Uganda.This credit goes to Mrs .Farzana who inspired me and i have succesessfuly used this all natural pesticides.
:jungle or the forest and no one ever plows it and it is productive:
This is the most important thing to understand and know for farmers.I always use to explain farmers about this thing .You are best Ken.
Thanks Ken for your information as we are involved in this type of farming your information is 100% important for us . If you can send us the DVD that's a plus to us. our contact adress is DAFF SOCIETY, BOX 44 CHINSALI ZAMBIA
GARDENS/MINI-FARMS NETWORK
Wrokshops: USA - TX, MS, FL, CA, AR, NM; Mexico, Rep. Dominicana, Côté d’Ivoire,Nigeria, Nicaragua, Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Haiti, England, India, Uzbekistan minifarms@gmail.com
Workshops in organic, no-till, permanent bed gardening, mini-farming and mini-ranching,using bucket drip irrigation, worldwide, in English & Español
Proven Practices for Gardening & Farming
The solution to world hunger is teaching the farmers to farm profitably and sell locally. There is a grassroots movement, around the world, for families and groups to produce their own food due to cost, flavor and chemical contamination. "There's this belief that in order to stop poverty, we have to find ways to get people to stop being farmers. What we need to do is find ways to stop them from being poor farmers." Amy Smith, MIT
These are based on the internet, US & international agriculture magazines, experiences teaching agriculture in many countries, research data and farmer experiences in those countries and a demonstration garden. They are ecologically sustainable, environmentally responsible, socially just and economically viable. There is unlimited, documented proof. There are 90,000,000 no-till hectares worldwide.
Fukaoka Farm, Japan, has been no-till [rice, small grains, vegetables] for 70 years. At the time of my visits, an Indian farmer has been no-till [vegetables] for 5 years, a Malawi farmer has been no-till [vegetables] on permanent beds for 25 years and a Honduras farmer has been no-till [vegetables & fruit] on permanent beds on the contour (73° slope] for 8 years. Ruth Stout [USA] had a no-till garden for 30 years and 7,000 people visited her garden. Free DVD available.
No technique yet devised by man has been anywhere near as effective at halting soil erosion and making food production truly sustainable as 0-tillage (Baker)
1. Restore the soil to its natural health. Contamination: inorganic pesticides, insecticides & fertilizers
2. Maintain the healthy soil. Healthy soil produces healthy crops with highest yields and prevents most disease, pest, weed and erosion problems.
3. Increase the soil’s organic matter every year.
4. Little or no external inputs [It is not necessary to buy anything, from anybody.]
5. Leave crop residue on top of soil. No burning. You are burning up fertilizer. Do not plow it into the soil.
6. Plant green manure/cover crops to increase the soil organic matter. Seeds are available in every country.
7. Plant the new crop in the crop residue by opening up a row or a place for the seed.
8. Plant every field every year [no fallow land]
9. 0-tillage: no plowing, no digging, no cultivating. No hard physical labor required so children and the elderly can farm easily. After two or three years the yields can double while reducing the labor by half compared to traditional farming. Farmers farm ten acres alone using hand tools only [Honduras]
10. Tree crops: fruit, nuts, coffee [shade-grown], etc. Use perennial cover crops
11. Permanent paths [walking]
12. Permanent beds. They were used 2000 BC in Guatemala, Mexico and many other coun-tries. 15-25% of the land is in paths and that saves 15-25% of the seed, water and labor but yields will be higher.
13. Hand tools: machete, weed cutter, seeding hoe. Local blacksmith should make them.
14. Soil always covered. Never leave the soil bare.
15. No compost making. Use the organic matter for mulch. If there is an excess, pile it up and use later.
16. Vermiculture: Not necessary; too much labor. Do it in the soil in the fields.
17. SRI - system of rice intensification. Double yields, reduces water requirements by 50% and reduces labor.
18. SRI for other crops: sugar cane, finger millet, cotton, wheat, mustard.
19. Bucket drip irrigation should be used during the dry season and in areas of low rainfall: Imported bucket drip kits are US$15. A bucket drip line can be made locally from poly tubing [US$3, Nicaragua]. One will irrigate a row of crops 33 meters long using only 20 liters of water per day. A dripline can be moved to irrigate several rows per day. Water can be from a stream, pond or well. A drip kit returns $20 per month to the farmer [FAO study].
Ken Hargesheimer minifarms@gmail.com
When Soil is Plowed
Dr. Elaine Ingham, describes an undisturbed grassland—where a wide diversity of plants grow, their roots mingling with a wide diversity of soil organisms—and how it changes when it is plowed. [The same is true of a jungle, rainforest, forest, etc]
A typical teaspoon of native grassland soil contains between 600 million and 800 million individual bacteria that are members of perhaps 10,000 species. Several miles of fungi are in that teaspoon of soil, as well as 10,000 individual protozoa. There are 20 to 30 beneficial nematodes from as many as 100 species. Root-feeding nematodes are quite scarce in truly healthy soils. They are present, but in numbers so low that it is rare to find them.
After only one plowing, a few species of bacteria and fungi disappear because the food they need is no longer put back in the system. But for the most part, all the suppressive organisms, all the nutrient cyclers, all the decomposers, all the soil organisms that rebuild good soil structure are still present and trying to do their jobs.
But tillage continues to deplete soil organic matter and kill fungi. The larger predators are crushed, their homes destroyed. The bacteria go through a bloom and blow off huge amounts of that savings-account organic matter. With continued tillage, the "policemen" (organisms) that compete with and inhibit disease are lost. The "architects" that build soil aggregates are lost. So are the "engineers"—the larger organisms that design and form the larger pores in soil. The predators that keep bacteria, fungi, and root-feeding organisms in check are lost. Disease suppression declines, soil structure erodes, and water infiltration decreases because mineral crusts form. Dr. Elaine Ingham, BioCycle, December 1998. (From ATTRA News, July 06)
Tue, Dec 30, 2008
Dear Ken,
Thank you for all the DVD’s you sent me. Thank you for all the info. I am applying it in my own vegetable patch. It is working. Got half a pocket of potatoes off a square metre. So would imagine about 10 pounds per square yard. This off previously dead low, carbon soil. Sure next crop will be better. Got yams coming up on same spot already. Want to plant herbs and spices. I will send photos.
Your advise is so simple. People do not believe me when I tell them. I am so excited about growing things now. This coming from a commercial plum farmer. May you be blessed this holy season a thousand times more than you blessed me with you help.Jeremy Karsen, middagkrans@mwebbiz.co.za
Project room: Kyomya, Uganda
We have been working on improving farming techniques for almost a year. Unfortunately, the farmers are planting small plots of land that only feed their family. There is no other choice but to try new techniques to improve the output of their plot. Ken Hargesheimer suggested the "no till" farming techniques as well as the "drip system". Both have proven effective at increasing produc-tion by at least 5 fold. The time is now for Kyomya to become a model agricultural village. [nabuur.com]
I am interested . Could you please be kind enough to clarify what you have and how you can have them sent to me ? Is it possible as an attachment on e-mail?
Does anyone here have any in depth experience and expertise in handling projects focused on cultivating non-edible crops for sustainable and renewable energy?
Food Security begins at HOME. In Africa there are millions of people who go hungry to bed every day.
Instead of providing food parcels and meals, one should provide seeds, implements, and teach people how to grow food for their families and then teach them how to market the surplus of their gardens. I have introduced communal growing to work on a barter trade system or for sales within their communities. I have been implemented this in some communities and it works excellent. People tend to become more lazy when food or meals are provided, and this in turn makes good land go to waste, resulting in Food Security growing higher.
I am available to provide you with some reading material to start of communal gardens.
--
Malcolm Naidoo
I am actively invloved in my local community and other areas in promoting sustainable farming of crops for sustanance and sales to generate an income. I teach people on how to grow nutritious vegetables and am actively promoting gardening
Malcolm, a suggestion for increasing the yeild in the photo garden. Mark off permanent beds in the garden. Run them north and south. Any width but no more than 2 yards wide so you can reach the center. Have permanent paths between the beds for walking. Add organic matter either by growing cover crops/green manure crops or bring it in from outside the garden [leaves, food waste,etc] or do both. Keep the soil mulched at all time. The crop can be mulched between the plants.
In the dvd I will be mailing you is a page on how to make a dripline rather than purchasing it. In Nicaragua I made one [100 feet long] for US$3. In some ways the homemade ones are better in that the drip outlet can be cleaned out when they stop up with dirty water.
Ken
HI Ken
Thanks for the advice.
I will advise the community to do so.
I am starting a project in 2 weeks time and hope that the DVD will be here on time so we can use your techniques asap.
Regards
Malcolm
--
Malcolm Naidoo
I am actively invloved in my local community and other areas in promoting sustainable farming of crops for sustanance and sales to generate an income. I teach people on how to grow nutritious vegetables and am actively promoting gardening
Hi Everyone.
Africa, the bread basket for most developed countries, but yet there is not enough food for most people of Africa.
This year most rural and communal market gardens have not planted enough due to rising costs of inputs.
I know for a fact that most rural Zambian farmers did not receive their input packages and have not planted which will cause some problems for essential crops like maize, soy bean, dry bean which is the staple diet.
There is a need for people like us to encourage and spearhead programs for these people to become self sustained and not rely on these hand outs.
We should form a group who will be able to to provide these rural people with the knowledge. Knowledge is power and with this power they can free themselves from mal nutrition and lead a better life.
Thanks to Ken and others we are providing enough information to some of the people, but most do not have access to internet at all to know what help we have for them.
Is there someone who can do a dedicated website that will attract people who can identify people in rural Zambia and other countries who need help in farming only?
In his way after helping them become self sustained, we can approach other requirments to bringing a better life for them.
Most NGO's and NPO's only target selected communities or directed to selected communities and the most affected are always left out.
--
Malcolm
dear all,as an orgaisation working in agriculutre and breeding and all our actions are turned to farmers that we are trying to assist and help .the food security in africa is a very big problem and are not able to solve this without permanent seeds and also good politics of agriculture handle with authorities.we are sure that by sharing ideas we can set free our africa.its not easy when ogm are promted and when we are able to get our own seeds but it is possible with nabuur to change things for evry villages registred or no yet .we have a very big work as member of nabuur to promote the very excellent tool for the devolpment odf our villages when we recognised that there is no villages without farmers .please see how you can assist and fund the food security in africa.
--
ROGER PHOLO MVUMBI
P.O.BOX.3659 KINSHASA-GOMBE.
TEL:00243998218472 aderigas@yahoo.fr
We know the key to village food production is organic, 0-till farming. The farmers do not have to purchase anything except new seed for crops they have not grown [for example: green manure/cover crops. All they need is a machette/cutlass and a bucket dripline to use during the dry season. Otherwise, they must have knowledge. We can not print the information due to cost and distribution but we can provide a DVD and there are cypercafes everywhere. Some one can study the dvd and take the knowledge to the village as it is simple and natural. Look at the jungle or the forest and no one ever plows it and it is productive.
organic farming and pest control(taken from some ancient agri books&website)
some thing i used for pest disease control wich was written some of the blogs of Mrs Farzana (Pakistan).“There are numerous fruit and vegetable crops with properties that with proper attention I can use to control insects and diseases.
The plants that I have listed below have pesticide properties in their seeds, leaves, stalks, un-ripe fruit, bulbs rhizomes etc., and act by different modes of action. Each one controls different pests including: aphids, caterpillars, green bugs, fruit flies, leaf minors, red spiders, ants, slugs, house flies, mites, white flies, bacteria, scab, bowl-worm, thrips, anthracnose, hoppers, scales, termites, thrips, mosaic virus, powder mildew etc.
The useful part of a plant can easily be collected and used as a natural pesticide on a crop and can of course be established on a small scale in rural areas near farms. Fruit and vegetables with natural pesticide properties include: custard apple (Annona reticulata), basil (Sweet Basil) and Holy Basil, chillies (Capsicum frutes), (Fam. Sollanacea), garlic (Allium Sativum) (F. Lilacae), ginger (Zingber officiate) (fm. Zingiberatase), neem, papaya (Carcia papaya), tobacco (Nictana tabacum, Nicotana, Rustica) and nicotana glutnosa (Fam. Ziberacease).
Insect-controlling plants
Pest control plants should posses the following characteristics:
Be effective at the rate of a maximum of 3-5% plant material based on dry weight
Be easy to grow, require little space and time for cultivation and procurement
Be perennial, recover quickly after the material is harvested
Not become weed or a host to plant pathogen or insect pest
Possess complementary economic uses
Pose no hazard to non-target organisms, wild life, humans or environment
Be easy to harvest preparation should be simple, not too time consuming or requiring excessive technical input
Application should not be phyto-toxic or decrease the quality of crop, e.g. taste or texture
Below is a list of useful agricultural species, their pesticide properties and the method of preparation:
Soursop Custard apple (Annona reticulata)
Plant parts with insect controlling properties: seeds, leaves, unripe fruit
Mode of action: Contact and stomach problem, ovicidal, insecticidal, repellent, antifeedent and antinematode.
Target pests: aphid, caterpillars, green bug and Mediterranean fruit fly.
Preparation: 500 grams of custard apple leaves, boil in 2 ½ litres of water, until only 1/4 of the original is left, then dilute this mixture into 15-20 litres of water. This is good enough for one hectare.
Basil Sweet Basil (Ocimum basilium), Holy Basil (Ocimum Sanctum)
Plant parts with insect controlling properties: leaves and stem
Mode of action: repellent, insecticidal, fungitoxic and mollu scicidol.
Target pests: fruit fly, leaf miners, red spider and mites.
Preparation: 100g basil leaves dipped in to 1 litre of water. This should be soaked overnight in water. Filter the mixture and add 1ml of liquid soap, stir properly. Dilute into 10-15 litres of water.
Chillies
Plant parts with insect controlling properties: fruit
Mode of action: stomach position insecticidal, repellent, antifeedent, fumigant-viroid.
Target pests: ants, aphid, caterpillars and slugs.
Preparation: 500g of chillies, dip into 3 litres of water for 10-15 minutes. Add 30g of soap as sticker. Add 3 more litres of water, filter and then spray the plants. One can add tobacco, garlic, onion, citrus, alcohol, neem and lime.
Garlic Allium Sativum (Fam. Lilaceqe)
Plant parts with insect controlling properties: bulbs
Mode of action: insecticidal, repellent, antifeedent, fungicidalnematocidal and is effective against ticks.
Target pest: aphids, house flies, mites, white fly, bacteria, cucumber and scab.
Preparation: 3 bulbs of garlic, ground finely, add some kerosene, keep for 2 days. Add 1 table-spoon of soap powder, stir and filter and add 15-20 litres of water.
Ginger Zingiber officiale (Fam. Zingiberacae)
Plant parts with insect controlling properties: rhizome
Mode of action: repellent, insecticidal, nematocidal and fungicidal.
Target pests: American bowl worms, aphid, thrips, white fly, and mango anthracnose.
Preparation: 500g of crushed garlic add 10ml of kerosene oil kept overnight. Next day remove outer skin of ginger and make ginger paste. In another vessel add 100g green chillies, mixed with 50ml of water and add 30g of liquid soap as emulsifier. Solution is stirred and filtered and 10-15 ml of water added.
Neem.
Plant parts with insect controlling properties: seeds and leaves
Mode of action: insecticidal, repellent, antifeedant acaricidal, growth inhibiting nematocidal, fungicidal, anti-viral. Neem compounds act mainly as stomach poison and systemic.
Target pests: American boll-worms, ants, deserts, locust, leaf hoppers, leaf miners, mites, scales, termites, thrips, white fly.
Preparation: 1 kg of neem leaves dipped into 2 litres of water and left overnight. Boil it 15-20 minutes untill 1/4 is left. Dilute with 10-15ml of water.
Papaya Carcia papaya
Plant parts with insect controlling properties: leaves, seed, unripe fruit
Mode of action: flower thrips and fruit fly.
Target pests: mosaic virus and powdery mildew.
Preparation: 1 kg of finely shredded leaves, placed in 1 litre of water and squeezed through a cloth. Take 1 litre of soap solution, dilute it in 10-15 ml water.
Tobacco Nicotana tabacum, Nicotana Rustica, Nicotana glutnosa, and Fam. Solanaceae
Plant parts with insect controlling properties: leaves and stalk
Mode of action: insecticida, repellent, fungicidal, acaricidal contact, and stomach.
Target pests: aphids, caterpillars, leaf miners, mites and thrips.
Preparation: boil 4 litres of water, add ½ kg of tobacco leaves and 1 table spoon of lime. Dilute it with 10-15 litres of water.
Tumeric Curcum domstica (Fam. Zigiberaceoe)
Plant parts with insect controlling propertie: rhizome
Mode of action: repellent, insecticidal and antifungal.
Target pests: aphids, caterpillars, mites and rice leaf hoppers.
Preparation: 500g of turmeric rhizomes chopped and soaked overnight, dilute into 2 litres of water and again dilute into another 10-15ml of water.
The Rationale
The purpose of introducing pesticide free fruits and vegetables is to increase the support and significance of natural crop protection and sustainable organic agriculture. It provides links with approaches and methodologies that allow growers to put basic information into practice. Ultimately this will provide farmers with the experience and confidence needed to make the best use of the resource available to them and to use this knowledge to farm sustainably.
Commercial scale applications
The plant species listed in this article are grown in Asia in abundance but have never been tried on a commercial scale. Even neem that is known to control numerous insects, pests, fungi, nematodes and viral diseases is still used and processed in a very primitive manner. A solution has to be found for its commercial scale applications and extraction of pesticide properties of plants on a much larger scale.
Information deficiency
There is demand world over for pesticide free food, but the information on the various natural pesticides is lacking and therefore, these methods are little used in India ,Pakistan and other developing countries. This is partly due to the fact that processing techniques have not been fully understood. The process of extraction is known theoretically, but large scale production has not yet made any headway, although there is great scope for export opportunities.
Nurturing success
In order to produce fruit and vegetables using sustainable locally produced inputs we need to identify constraints of crop production. We also need to develop an appropriate training course on Integrated Pest Management for the target smallholders farming system. Ultimately this strategy will help to boost farmers economy through the increased export of high value ‘non toxic’ food produce.Small farmers will benifited by this method.
Mrs.Farzana Panhwar in Pakistan has used this all and also i followed this method nicely in Uganda.This credit goes to Mrs .Farzana who inspired me and i have succesessfuly used this all natural pesticides.
:jungle or the forest and no one ever plows it and it is productive:
This is the most important thing to understand and know for farmers.I always use to explain farmers about this thing .You are best Ken.
Thanks Ken for your information as we are involved in this type of farming your information is 100% important for us . If you can send us the DVD that's a plus to us. our contact adress is DAFF SOCIETY, BOX 44 CHINSALI ZAMBIA
The DVDs should arrive in about three weeks.
GARDENS/MINI-FARMS NETWORK
Wrokshops: USA - TX, MS, FL, CA, AR, NM; Mexico, Rep. Dominicana, Côté d’Ivoire,Nigeria, Nicaragua, Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Haiti, England, India, Uzbekistan
minifarms@gmail.com
Workshops in organic, no-till, permanent bed gardening, mini-farming and mini-ranching,using bucket drip irrigation, worldwide, in English & Español
Proven Practices for Gardening & Farming
The solution to world hunger is teaching the farmers to farm profitably and sell locally. There is a grassroots movement, around the world, for families and groups to produce their own food due to cost, flavor and chemical contamination. "There's this belief that in order to stop poverty, we have to find ways to get people to stop being farmers. What we need to do is find ways to stop them from being poor farmers." Amy Smith, MIT
These are based on the internet, US & international agriculture magazines, experiences teaching agriculture in many countries, research data and farmer experiences in those countries and a demonstration garden. They are ecologically sustainable, environmentally responsible, socially just and economically viable. There is unlimited, documented proof. There are 90,000,000 no-till hectares worldwide.
Fukaoka Farm, Japan, has been no-till [rice, small grains, vegetables] for 70 years. At the time of my visits, an Indian farmer has been no-till [vegetables] for 5 years, a Malawi farmer has been no-till [vegetables] on permanent beds for 25 years and a Honduras farmer has been no-till [vegetables & fruit] on permanent beds on the contour (73° slope] for 8 years. Ruth Stout [USA] had a no-till garden for 30 years and 7,000 people visited her garden. Free DVD available.
No technique yet devised by man has been anywhere near as effective at halting soil erosion and making food production truly sustainable as 0-tillage (Baker)
1. Restore the soil to its natural health. Contamination: inorganic pesticides, insecticides & fertilizers
2. Maintain the healthy soil. Healthy soil produces healthy crops with highest yields and prevents most disease, pest, weed and erosion problems.
3. Increase the soil’s organic matter every year.
4. Little or no external inputs [It is not necessary to buy anything, from anybody.]
5. Leave crop residue on top of soil. No burning. You are burning up fertilizer. Do not plow it into the soil.
6. Plant green manure/cover crops to increase the soil organic matter. Seeds are available in every country.
7. Plant the new crop in the crop residue by opening up a row or a place for the seed.
8. Plant every field every year [no fallow land]
9. 0-tillage: no plowing, no digging, no cultivating. No hard physical labor required so children and the elderly can farm easily. After two or three years the yields can double while reducing the labor by half compared to traditional farming. Farmers farm ten acres alone using hand tools only [Honduras]
10. Tree crops: fruit, nuts, coffee [shade-grown], etc. Use perennial cover crops
11. Permanent paths [walking]
12. Permanent beds. They were used 2000 BC in Guatemala, Mexico and many other coun-tries. 15-25% of the land is in paths and that saves 15-25% of the seed, water and labor but yields will be higher.
13. Hand tools: machete, weed cutter, seeding hoe. Local blacksmith should make them.
14. Soil always covered. Never leave the soil bare.
15. No compost making. Use the organic matter for mulch. If there is an excess, pile it up and use later.
16. Vermiculture: Not necessary; too much labor. Do it in the soil in the fields.
17. SRI - system of rice intensification. Double yields, reduces water requirements by 50% and reduces labor.
18. SRI for other crops: sugar cane, finger millet, cotton, wheat, mustard.
19. Bucket drip irrigation should be used during the dry season and in areas of low rainfall: Imported bucket drip kits are US$15. A bucket drip line can be made locally from poly tubing [US$3, Nicaragua]. One will irrigate a row of crops 33 meters long using only 20 liters of water per day. A dripline can be moved to irrigate several rows per day. Water can be from a stream, pond or well. A drip kit returns $20 per month to the farmer [FAO study].
Ken Hargesheimer minifarms@gmail.com
When Soil is Plowed
Dr. Elaine Ingham, describes an undisturbed grassland—where a wide diversity of plants grow, their roots mingling with a wide diversity of soil organisms—and how it changes when it is plowed. [The same is true of a jungle, rainforest, forest, etc]
A typical teaspoon of native grassland soil contains between 600 million and 800 million individual bacteria that are members of perhaps 10,000 species. Several miles of fungi are in that teaspoon of soil, as well as 10,000 individual protozoa. There are 20 to 30 beneficial nematodes from as many as 100 species. Root-feeding nematodes are quite scarce in truly healthy soils. They are present, but in numbers so low that it is rare to find them.
After only one plowing, a few species of bacteria and fungi disappear because the food they need is no longer put back in the system. But for the most part, all the suppressive organisms, all the nutrient cyclers, all the decomposers, all the soil organisms that rebuild good soil structure are still present and trying to do their jobs.
But tillage continues to deplete soil organic matter and kill fungi. The larger predators are crushed, their homes destroyed. The bacteria go through a bloom and blow off huge amounts of that savings-account organic matter. With continued tillage, the "policemen" (organisms) that compete with and inhibit disease are lost. The "architects" that build soil aggregates are lost. So are the "engineers"—the larger organisms that design and form the larger pores in soil. The predators that keep bacteria, fungi, and root-feeding organisms in check are lost. Disease suppression declines, soil structure erodes, and water infiltration decreases because mineral crusts form. Dr. Elaine Ingham, BioCycle, December 1998. (From ATTRA News, July 06)
Tue, Dec 30, 2008
Dear Ken,
Thank you for all the DVD’s you sent me. Thank you for all the info. I am applying it in my own vegetable patch. It is working. Got half a pocket of potatoes off a square metre. So would imagine about 10 pounds per square yard. This off previously dead low, carbon soil. Sure next crop will be better. Got yams coming up on same spot already. Want to plant herbs and spices. I will send photos.
Your advise is so simple. People do not believe me when I tell them. I am so excited about growing things now. This coming from a commercial plum farmer. May you be blessed this holy season a thousand times more than you blessed me with you help.Jeremy Karsen, middagkrans@mwebbiz.co.za
Project room: Kyomya, Uganda
We have been working on improving farming techniques for almost a year. Unfortunately, the farmers are planting small plots of land that only feed their family. There is no other choice but to try new techniques to improve the output of their plot. Ken Hargesheimer suggested the "no till" farming techniques as well as the "drip system". Both have proven effective at increasing produc-tion by at least 5 fold. The time is now for Kyomya to become a model agricultural village. [nabuur.com]
I have enough reading material on this topic so please you are most well come to request materials on poltery, hydrolic ram pumps and agro processing
Hello Patrick,
I am interested . Could you please be kind enough to clarify what you have and how you can have them sent to me ? Is it possible as an attachment on e-mail?
Thanks in advance,
Lillian.
Does anyone here have any in depth experience and expertise in handling projects focused on cultivating non-edible crops for sustainable and renewable energy?
Please let me know.
Thanks
Using farm land to produce anything but food, I question. It takes more energy to produce it than is available for fuel.
Use solar for cooking food, purify water,etc. I have info I can sent.
Ken Hargesheimer
HOW MUCH WILL COST TO SEND 2 KG OF STEVIA TO CHINSAI ZAMBIA