Climatefarming in northern Senegal

Definition Climatefarming en francais

Definition Climate Farming

Climate farming uses agricultural means to keep carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses from escaping into the atmosphere. Like organic farming, climate farming maintains biodiversity and ecological balance on productive, argicultural land. But climate farmers like Hans-Peter Schmidt go a step further and covert leftover organic mass into biochar, a solid carbon compound that can improve soil quality. Biochar production also creates a kind of gas that can then be burned to help generate power. A climate farm could grow food, generate power, and help keep carbon out of the air.

Climatefarming – Pour une agriculture durable

von Hans-Peter Schmidt

Le climatefarming est souvent décrit comme une méthode agricole au moyen de laquelle du CO2 est prélevé de l’atmosphère et stocké de façon stable dans le sol sous forme de carbone. Ceci pourrait permettre de freiner le changement climatique. Mais le climatefarming, c’est également un concept écologique durable pour l’agriculture du future, qui produira aussi bien des denrées alimentaires que de l’énergie et de l’air propre, encouragera la biodiversité et protégera le paysage.

Au travers de leurs feuilles, les plantes prélèvent du dioxyde de carbone contenu dans l’air et le transforment à l’aide de la lumière, de substances minérales et de l’eau en molécules carboniques. Lorsque la plante meurt ou pourrit, ou si elle est mangée et digérée, les molécules longues de carbone sont de nouveau scindées. Ce processus libère de l’énergie et donc du carbone qui, composé à plus de 99% de CO2, s’évapore dans l’atmosphère. (en savoir plus ...)

Google News: deforestation

Climatefarmingprojekt Öfen für Afrika

Montag, 19. März 2012

DA-BSWM pushing wider adoption of vermicomposting - The Philippine Star » Business Features » Agriculture | Printer Friendly

DA-BSWM pushing wider adoption of vermicomposting - The Philippine Star » Business Features » Agriculture | Printer Friendly

DA-BSWM pushing wider adoption of vermicomposting
(The Philippine Star) Updated March 11, 2012 12:00 AM Comments (0) View comments

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) is aggressively pushing for the wider adoption of vermicomposting among farmers to support the vision of Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala that natural farming methods be made more available to agriculture stakeholders.
BSWM executive director Dr. Silvino Tejada said that regional vermicompost congresses will be held in all regions of the country to consult farmers on the problems they encounter in adopting vermicomposting, and to come up with needed inputs for another tie up between beneficiaries and the BSWM. The congress will run until May 25, 2012.
“What the BSWM envisions is that farmers and farmer associations will be able to produce their own vermicompost and achieve a high level of production so they can sell the organic fertilizer they produce to other farmers,” he added.
Under its Organic Fertilizer Production Project (OFPP), the BSWM has established 2,722 composting facilities that include shredder, vermitea brewers, African Night Crawlers, vermibeds and the training for vermicomposting.
To strengthen and sustain the success of the OFPP, Tejada said that the newest project of the bureau, the Expanded Modified Rapid Composting (EMRC), is aligned with the OFPP as it would supply the needed organic fertilizers.
To help implement the program and monitor its success, the BWSM is proposing that a federation of various programs’ beneficiaries be formed.
Expected to attend the vermicomposting congress are officials and technicians of the BSWM and Department of Agriculture, local government officials, and the targeted farmer-beneficiaries.
Tejada said that while many farmers are into conventional farming methods, many are slowly realizing that using organic fertilizers from the vermicompost has many benefits like rejuvenating the soil’s macro and micro nutrients providing plant growth hormones and enzymes as well as beneficial micro-organisms.
Likewise, farmers who have shifted to using 100 percent vermicompost report getting harvests that are tastier and have longer shelf life.
“Vermicomposting is a proven organic intervention used by millions of farmers worldwide. And it has been proven to be a very good source of organic fertilizer in the past 100 years,” Tejada said.

Sonntag, 18. März 2012

Manila - Licht aus der Plastikflasche

Manila - Licht aus der Plastikflasche

Manila Licht aus der Plastikflasche

Eine Reportage von Malte Kollenberg
Illac Diaz mit einer leichtenden Solar-Lampen-Flasche.
Diese Solar-Plastikflaschen-Glühbirne von Illac Diaz soll Manila erleuchten. (Malte Kollenberg)
Wie die Solar-Flaschen-Glühbirne die Slums in Manila erleuchtet.
Isang Litrong Liwanag ist Tagalog und bedeutet übersetzt: "Ein Liter Licht". In den Wellblechhütten von Manila auf den Philippinen ist Licht nun mal Mangelware. Doch das wird sich bald ändern: Mit einer durchsichtigen Plastikflasche, einem Liter Wasser und einem kleinen bisschen Bleichmittel: Einer Solar-Flaschen-Glühbirne.

Licht in der Hütte

Eine Flasche an das Wellblechdach einer einfachen Hütte montiert gibt tagsüber bei Sonnenschein so viel Licht wie eine 50 Watt Glühbirne.

Illac Diaz ist der Erfinder der Solar-Glühbirne

Malte Kollenberg war mit den Erfindern der Solar-Glühbirne unterwegs. Illac Diaz will mit seiner Erfindung das Leben der Slumbewohnern in Manila verändern:  2012 sollen bereits eine Million Menschen auf den Philippinen ihre Hütten mit der Flasche beleuchten.
Alfredo Moser erklärt seine Flasche (Kawunearth | Youtube)
Was halten Sie von der Erfindung? Auf Facebook können Sie mitdiskutieren.

Montag, 12. März 2012

Rice-duck farming can mitigate global warming - study - The Philippine Star » Business Features » Agriculture

read at: Rice-duck farming can mitigate global warming - study - The Philippine Star » Business Features » Agriculture


Rice-duck farming can mitigate global warming - study
(The Philippine Star) Updated April 12, 2009 12:00 AM Comments (0) View comments

CEBU CITY , Philippines —The Integrated Rice-Duck Technology in organic farming can help mitigate global warming, said one scientist of a leading university in Mindanao.

Dr. Rachel Polestico, executive director of the Appropriate Technology Center (ATC or AproTech) of Cagayan de Oro City’s Xavier University (XU), said that ducks in the rice paddies effectively reduced the emission of the greenhouse gas methane.

Methane, which is produced when bacteria decomposes organic matter, is the second most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide.

According to studies on global warming, about one quarter of global methane emissions from human activities comes from livestock and the decomposition of animal manure.

But Polestico, a physicist and lecturer at XU’s South East Asia Rural  Leadership Institute (SEARSOLIN), pointed out that various scientific studies on the effect of the Integrated Rice-Duck Technology have proven that ducks effectively suppressed methane emission from rice paddies because of the ducks constant paddling.

Citing a study on the amount of methanogens in the rice-duck agro-ecosystem done by the Chinese scientist Tsing Hua, Polestico stressed that “methane emission is proportional to the amount of methanogens in the soil.”

The Chinese research “showed that the seasonal law of variation of the amount of methanogens in paddy field was consistent with methane emission from paddy field. It also confirmed that the amount of methanogens was one of the main factors affecting the amount of methane emission from paddy field. This research shows that rice-duck system has suppressed the production of methanagens through breeding duck in paddy field and also achieved the goal of mitigating methane emission from paddy field,” she added.

Chinese scientists such as Chengfang Li, Cougi Cao, Jingping Wang, Ming Zhan, Weiling Yuan and Shahrear Ahmad who did a research on the “Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Wetland Rice-Duck Cultivation System in Southern China” found out that integrated rice-ducks farming “will contribute to alleviating global warming.”

The Chinese research team evaluated the integrated global warming potentials (GWPs) of a rice–duck cultivation system based on methane (CH4) and N2O emission and they found out that integrated rice-ducks farming “could suppress the total amount of CH4 (methane) and N2O (nitrous oxide) emissions from rice paddies.”

“Moreover, because the decrease of CH4 emissions from rice-ducks compared to traditional rice farming was far more than the increase of N2O emissions from rice-ducks compared to traditional rice farming, rice-ducks farming greatly reduced integrated GWPs (CH4 + N2O) compared to traditional rice farming. So, the rice–duck cultivation system is an effective strategy for reducing integrated GWPs of the rice–duck cultivation systems based on CH4 and N2O in southern China and will contribute to alleviating global warming,” the Chinese research team said in their report.

Polestico also said that farmers can really help mitigate or alleviate global warming by planting trees to reduce carbon dioxide; by practicing organic farming to reduce nitrous oxide; and by practicing the integrated rice-duck technology to reduce methane emissions.  

Biochar, terrapreta - Google News

soil carbon or biochar - Google News

"Biochartechnologies" via Joerg