This is an archive of the Dadamac.net website, as it was in 2015, it is no longer being updated.

Blog posts about agriculture

Attachab Farm: Project Update

Attachab featured heavily at this week’s UK-Nigeria online Skype meeting. Following the successful fund raising by FastTractor John Dada of Fantsuam Foundation gave us the following quick update: “We have the tractor driver, Linus Kallat and his assistant is Thomas. Thomas already works at Attachab and will double up as assistant” Unfortunately, and as was reported at the previous week’s meeting, the heavy rains have delayed the full utilisation of the tractor. John went on to inform us: “The French embassy funding has come to an end. However, It did it cover everything that was planned and there is still...

Attachab

During this week's online meeting John Dada was able to give the UK-Nigeria team an update about the Attachab Eco-Village project. Following the successful initial progress the French Embassy have just released the 2nd installment of their grant. John reported that the classroom / manager's residence is nearing completion as is the borehole. On Monday the construction of the overhead water tank and the installation of a solar pump are scheduled to commence. John explained that they are using compressed bricks work for the build. He also reported that as of today (Wednesday 30th November) there are over 20 young...

Vision and practicality at Attachab

This update from Frances was sent from rural Nigeria to the UK this morning. "Reubens, from the Congo, started work with some volunteers at Attachab this week. He has a vision of how Attachab will look that prefectly mirrors the dream that John Dada had, but so far did not know how to put into practice. In particular Reubens loves and appreciates trees and will do all he can to protect them or make use of them when they come to the end of their life. First of all Reubens has transported a large load of bamboo to the site...

From Catfish Processing to Sickle Cell

Wednesday's weekly online meeting between the UK and rural Nigeria came up against a familiar enemy - connectivity problems. Initially things looked bleak as we faced a long time delay with receiving and sending Skype messages. However, following a quick exchange of SMS messages the meeting was finally able to start, allowing John Dada to appear online for half an hour to bring us up to date with the latest news. We were pleased to hear that the ESSPIN programme is now well underway and are looking forward to seeing the photos. John also informed us that preparations for the...

Jatropha

Hi Vijay Sorry you could not make it to February First Thursday, but I know you are very busy at present. You would have met some interesting people including members of the Dadamac team in Nigeria. It would have been interesting to compare some of the eco-developments there, such as growing Jatrohpa, with what is happening in India I mention Jatropha because at our UK-Nigeria meeting yesterday we were told that "we are raising a nursery of 2000 jathropha palnts we intend to transplant when the rains begin" Regarding Jatropha in India, I have just seen this article which says...

Farm Productivity, Permaculture and First Thursdays

Hi Vijay I am glad that you chose the article on "Pushing up Farm Productivity" to share with us. It looks as if several group interests are overlapping around the topic of food production, and eco-friendly solutions. I am very aware of approaches to food production and methods of growing things at present because Marcus Simmons is still sharing details of his recent trip to Africa. He was in Benin and Nigeria - and the main focus of his trip was permaculture. He went to Benin to learn more about permaculture as applied in West Africa, then went to share...

Fish Farming

Until recently my experience with fish had been limited, to say the least. In all honesty, it had consisted of watching my children win goldfish at a fair - and the occasional cod and chips supper! However over the last 18 months the subject of fish farming has captured my attention and I have been lucky enough to have my eyes opened to the many and varied challenges involved. (Although I'll be the first to admit I still have a great deal more to learn!) I first heard about fish farming in 2008 during one of our weekly online meetings...

Pushing up Farm Productivity

Dear Pam, Here is an interesting piece on the role that pulses and oilseeds play in nutritional security. Though the article talks about the state of Indian agriculture, it has some interesting points on increasing agricultural productivity. In order to progress, the mindset with regard to the following two factors needs to change, says Dr Lux Lakshmanan, Director, California Agriculture Consulting Service. Factor no 1: It is not the farmer who makes the food: he is only a facilitator. Food is actually made by plants. Since plants do not talk, their needs are understood through research and experimentation. Factor no...

Issues ref Developing-Country Livestock

Hi Vijay Given your interest in food security and wider issues surrounding it you may like to see this video about Climate Food and Developing-Country Livestock Farmers ILRI film: In my mind it connects with John's vision for a model farm development at Attachab Eco-village and why it is important to develop models of good practice and effective ways to share them. Of course at Fantusam Foudation many initiatives are inter-related, so this is also relevant to the idea Cicely was promoting for helping farmers through the Internet services provided by Zittnet . (You may remember this idea and our...

The Way Out of Undernutrition

Hi Pam, When I began discussing about a learning group on food security, I was only thinking of agriculture and farmers. But over this week, I began to realise that food security is a far bigger area than that: it also encompasses issues like availability and access, and most importantly, nutrition. Now, I don't how many people will agree with me that nutrition also forms a part of food security. But to me, the circle of food security is incomplete if a huge chunk of a country's population continues to wallow in hunger, despite high agricultural productivity and foodgrain output...

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