Mulch-L mailing list correspondence
A project of the Management of Organic Inputs in Soils of the Tropics (MOIST)
in association with the Cornell International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD)
and the Tropical Soil Cover and Organic Resource Exchange (TropSCORE)

Discussions regarding GMCCs in Rwanda and Uganda
(Date 9/20/01 - 1/31/02)

______________________________________________________________


From: Dieudonne
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001
To: MULCH-L@cornell.edu
Subject: GMCCs and Rwanda

Dear mulch-L,

I'm a student in crop and soil science/MSU, and I would like to do my reseach in rwanda on Green manure (Mucuna, Crotalaria, Canavalia,...). I need informations about publications or reseach on these crops in rwanda, if there is some let me know.

Dieudonne

______________________________________________________

Date: 20 Sep 01
From: Bill Rhodes
Subject: RE: GMCCs and Rwanda
To: MULCH-L@cornell.edu

Great. If I encounter any such material, I will be happy to forward it to you. I think you know that extensive reports from Africa on such crops exist. You should get in touch with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria on the web and retrieve what is available there. You should contact the International Plant Genetics Research Institute in Rome. You should contact the Mucuna News in Africa or contact Auburn University regarding their work on Mucuna. I'm pleased that you are working on these important legume crops and want to stay in touch with your project. Please contact me again. Best wishes!

Bill Rhodes

______________________________________________________

Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001
To: MULCH-L@cornell.edu
From: Peter Trutmann
Subject: Re: GMCCs and Rwanda

Dear Dieudonne,

I would also contact Dr. Roger Kirkby (R.KIRKBY@CGIAR.ORG), leader of CIAT's program in Africa. They have had a long standing program in the region, including Rwanda. I'm pretty sure they've looked at cover crops. An other source would be the GTZ, who in the 1980s had a farming systems program in Nyabysindu. The person to contact would be Prof. Irmfried Neumann (Irmfried@Neumann.net).

Good luck. If I can be more help let me know.

Peter Trutmann
International Integrated Pest Management Program
CIIFAD, Cornell Univesity

______________________________________________________

Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001
To: MULCH-L@cornell.edu
From: Erika Styger
Subject: Re: GMCCs and Rwanda

Dear Dieudonne

I was working in the ICRAF/ISAR program in Rwanda in the early nineties and we worked on cover crops in coffee. The species we worked with were Stylosantes guinensis, Medicago sativa, Gycline wightii, Desmodium intortum, Desmodium uncinatum, Macrotyloma axillare

Erika Styger
(PhD Candidate, Cornell University)

______________________________________________________

Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001
From: Robert Carsky
Subject: Re: GMCCs and Rwanda
To: MULCH-L@cornell.edu

A good place to start is

http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/mba_project/CIEPCA/home.html

It will give you some information but not specifically on the highlands of Rwanda.

Best wishes,
Bob Carsky

______________________________________________________

Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2002
To: MULCH-L@cornell.edu
From: Sheryl N. Swink
Subject: Re: information [green manures-Rwanda Sept 2001 question]

Dear Dieudonne and other Mulch-Lers who might be interested:

I ran across an interesting resource in Cornell's Library system for information on early (pre-1953) use of and knowledge about legume green manures especially in tropical and sub-tropical countries of the world, including Rwanda (Belgium Congo at the time the following book was written) that could be useful for historical background and and perhaps some "new" ideas:

Whyte, R.O. and Trumble, H.C., 1953. Legumes in Agriculture. FAO Agricultural Studies No. 21. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy.

For the purposes of this book, FAO circulated a questionnaire to all tropical countries in late 1951 to determine (1)the extent to which legumes were used as forage and/or green manure, (2) economic or climatic factors limiting their wider use, (3) types or rotations or farming/plantation systems in which legumes were present or could be advantageously used in, (4) species which were being used or might be used and information about them, (5) general agronomy of legume growing, (6) fodder value or toxicity of any herbaceous, shrub or tree legumes occurring in the natural vegetation, and (7) experimental work at the time with legumes, either indigenous or introduced.

Some of the legumes already in use and/or being studied in Rwanda at that time:

From this 1953 book - lessons learned (and still coming out of workshops on GMCCs today!):

  1. Major issue for spread of use of GMCCs is access to seed.
  2. Farmers are not interested in dedicating land to soil enhancing GMCCs unless they are multi-purpose, i.e. provide food, fodder, or income.
[How much are we simply relearning in the recent decade that had already been learned prior to abandonment of organic soil fertility management techniques for the extensive use of chemical fertilizers in the latter half of the 20th century?!!]

Best to all,

Sheryl Swink,
Extension Specialist, International Agriculture & Rural Development
Secretariat of the Fallow Management in the Tropics Symposium
Cornell University

______________________________________________________

Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2001
To: MULCH-L@cornell.edu
From: Gavin Zweck
Subject: Re: GMCCs in Uganda

Let me say that I was very happy to find this list as I believe it will be very helpful to me as a great source of information and knowledge. I'm moving to Uganda in January to work with orphans and a lot of my work will involve growing food and teaching the kids how to do it too. I grew up on a farm but it was a very different setting, in the Mallee country of Australia. I'd really appreciate any tips or help that anyone could pass along to me. I'm going to follow up the information re. Rwanda that was posted recently, but if anyone has any good links or Uganda specific information, it would be a Godsend.

I see my role as more than just caring for orphans too, as I'm lead to believe that the mulching, composting, green manuring process' that I take for granted are virtually unknown over there and I want to help the general community learn this vital concept too, so anyone with experience and ideas of how best to do this, please let me know.

Thanks for the help and I look forward to learning lots.

Gavin Zweck

______________________________________________________

Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001
To: MULCH-L@cornell.edu
From: Angel Salazar
Subject: Re: GMCCs in Uganda

Reply

September 26, 2001

FAO the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, recently released a manual "Improving nutrition through home gardening" as they said this is aimed to help community development agents in Africa to promote gardening as a step toward enhanced food security and better commnunity and household nutrition. You can request a copy by email at publications-sales@fao.org.

In Africa, two good sources of mulch as well as organic agriculture could be the international centers: 1. International Center for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF): www.icraf.org 2. International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA): some one could provide the address for the web page.

Angel Salazar Vega, Ph. D.
Agroforestry and Soil Management Specialist
Management, Conservation and Use of Forest Resources
in the Tropics of Cochabamba - BOLIVIA
Av. America E - 155
Cala Cala - COCHABAMBA
BOLIVIA

______________________________________________________

From: Gavin Zweck
To: MULCH-L@cornell.edu
Subject: Re: GMCCs in Uganda
Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001

Thanks so much to everyone who responded to my email. The information I've picked up has been invaluable.

Gavin Zweck

Return to Top
Return to Soil Health Portal Homepage
Return to Mulch-L Discussion Menu
Comments, Suggestions, Feedback
lhf2@cornell.edu
last updated:
Date, 2002
© copyright 2002 Cornell University
All Rights Reserved