Mekong Sustainable Farming Forum
Hi All
I hope that November has been kind to you, and you are looking forward to another month of dry weather. November was very busy for us as we had a family wedding and we all know how disruptive these can be to any projects we may have.
The two main projects for us this month have been the harvesting of our 2 hectare planting of cassava, and the start of our irrigation system.
Before I decided to plant the cassava, I read up on the pros and cons of this very basic of crops. As we don’t use fertilizer to enhance the crop yield, it is hardly a money spinner. Depending on who you read they will tell you that it will grow in both fertile and poor soil, and it also needs no watering.
Here in Laos the factory gate price is 5c ents a kilo, out of which you have to subtract the cost of clearing the land, preparing the land for planting, planting, seeds, harvesting, and transport to the factory gate.
We left the plants in the ground for about ten months from February till now. I can tell you, that the first year harvest gross receipt (for us about 20 tonnes) from the factory owners, only covered the cost of clearing the land. However as labour is relatively cheap, we should be making a small profit by the end of the fourth year. The problem with that is, any time you take that much organic matter from you soil, without replacing it, you would pretty soon be the proud owner of a desert..
So as this is our second crop, we are calling a halt to farming cassava to avoid this possibility. However although this has been a loss making exercise in money terms I have learnt a lot. First those that said cassava will grow in any kind of soil are correct. The difference is that some of my plants had 5 kilos of root, and some only one kilo. Another thing that was good to know, was where and why the difference, on the same site. The most fertile was at the bottom of the slope and the worst was at the top. Obvious really but, the difference was more than I expected. We also did a test plot down by the river on land that floods ever year. There the crop size was even bigger, so I have earmarked that spot for a more valuable crop
Another option for the cassava crop is to chip, and dry it for animal feed. The value goes to 15cents a kilo, but you lose some of the weight when its dry, and you have to have the machinery and labour to do it..
The other task this month was the creation of an integrated irrigation system. I expect the whole project to take about a year to complete, so we are just at the beginning. We have started with the building of six linked tanks made from one meter diameter concrete drain pipes, placed vertically on one another. We started with a 2.5 by 4 meter concrete pad, 10cm thick with rebar (iron reinforcing wire). Each tank is five pipes sections high (2.5 meters) and linked to the others with shut-off valves, so each tank can be independently isolated, for cleaning and maintenance. To begin with, water will be pumped out of the river to fill the tanks, using a pump and generator as we don’t have electricity on that part of the land. Water will feed drip lines under the rows of plants. Each foot of height creates 1 lb of pressure in the line.
In the future, the system will include other tank sites, a dam, and a number of swales to prevent water loss during the monsoon season. I will cover the construction of the rest of the system as we go.
A couple of other things I would like to cover are the work on our web site, and our upcoming intro to Permaculture course. Starting on the 11th of February, it will be led by the very knowledgeable Riko Zook, whose has been travelling the world giving Permaculture courses for the past ten years. As he now has, his own little piece of paradise to work on in Hawaii, he will be reducing his travelling work load significantly as of the end of next year’s commitments. So if you would like more information on this please contact me on chrispe...@hotmail.com.
And finally my web site is proving to be difficult to sort out. Our farm is called tamasard farm and the web site should be up and running in a few days. We are open to wwoofer types as long as their visit is two weeks plus, and I promise no weeding
.Next month I will be getting into IMO (indigenous micro organisms) and how they can bring life to your soil.
I wish you all the season’s greetings, although in this neck of the woods it is comes and goes without much fuss.
Chris
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David's Bit
As I have no land to work on or write about other than a postage stamp sized garden, I will mention a thought which I hope to progress soon, and which may be relevant to other town and city dwellers. This thought relates to urban permaculture.
If we were able to introduce urban permaculture on a wide scale, the benefits to any town or city would be enormous.
Every week I see many people cramming hedge clippings and garden waste into sacks to be taken away to the dump by the refuse disposal truck. What a waste. That waste could be used to grow soil, one of the most undervalued resources on this planet. By composting that waste, along with kitchen scraps, we can produce top quality soil for growing our plants, and of course we reduce the load on the rubbish disposal service quite significantly.
Even in a concrete yard we can grow food if we have the right soil.
We can build raised beds from any one of many materials. I used building bricks placed five high, and spaced them with gaps between the bricks to allow air to enter, and plants to grow out sideways.
The bricks I used have holes running through them along their length, so I threaded a wire along the inside of each line of bricks to keep them in place, avoiding the necessity for cement. To get some growing started, I purchased soil from the local garden centre, but the potting soil generally available is of very poor quality and quite expensive. Roll on the day that I have made enough of my own.
As I had no idea what would grow here, I bought a variety of seeds, incubated them in jam jars with blotting paper, and then transferred then to a raised bed. Not much grew, and mostly what did bud was destroyed by the cats, so more experimenting is needed. However, we did have one huge plant which grew up the side of the house and produced two delicious pumpkins. I gave one to the landlord in case he was upset about plants climbing all over his house!
We now have beans growing up the side of the houe providing a lovely canopy, and keeping my room cool. I love it.
But please note it's amazing just how many bags of soil are needed just for a few small raised beds. Please never under-value your top soil.
Enjoy your December, and please let us know what you did.
Kind regards
David
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Please let us know what you have been doing. Just drop a note to David at dgw...@gmail.com
David Meyer
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