permaculture

[hdt1@cornell.edu (H. David Thurston)]

Our Mulch-Based Agriculture Group has a new URL.  (A URL is a Uniform
Resource Locator (URL) or address that you can use on the WWW (World Wide
Web) to find pages when you "surf the net".  It often begins with:
http://).

Our address is:  http://ppathw3.cals.cornell.edu/mba_project/no_image.html

Description of the MBA Group

       The Mulch-Based Agriculture (MBA) group was officially formed in
1994 under the sponsorship of Cornell International Institute for Food,
Agriculture, and Development (CIIFAD). The goals of the MBA Group are to:

1) facilitate interdisciplinary research on indigenous and traditional
tropical mulch-based systems,

2) encourage exchange of related information between researchers in various
institutions/agencies and between researchers and the NGO/field level, and

3) consolidate, synthesize and disseminate practical, farmer-tested
information on mulch technologies. The MBA Group's main interests revolve
around mulch-based
systems that can improve agricultural sustainability for resource-poor
farmers in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

        Mulch-based systems include: green manures, cover crops, and various
agroforestry systems that have a mulch or a litter layer of vegetative
biomass which is cut and left on (or partially incorporated into) the soil.
In addition to the centuries of traditional farmer experience with these
systems, there are also recent innovations made by both farmers and
investigators working with systems such as the velvet bean/maize rotations
in Northern Honduras, contour hedgerows in Asia and the "frijol tapado"
(covered beans) system in Costa Rica. Systematically studying traditional
and indigenous emerging MBA systems such as these can provide important
lessons for improving the sustainability and productivity of agriculture in
developing countries particularly on erosion-prone hillsides.

       Our motto is: "Sustainable Agriculture With A Sense of Humus"

Comments on our WWW page are welcome.


H. David Thurston
Dept. of Plant Pathology
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
607-255-7835 (FAX-4471)