Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: [permaculture] alternatives to Poppies

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: yarrow@sfo.com
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] alternatives to Poppies
  • Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:31:00 -0800

An interesting book for him to read would be Ancient Futures by Helena Norberg-Hodge. She founded an organization to help the Ladakh people become self-sufficient.

Instead of a crop, I would look at the microlending model (Grameen Bank, Kiva.org, etc.) and, if I were in Afghanistan, look at what resources the people have that could earn income -- crafts? value-added agricultural products? I'd suggest the focus should be on providing enough food for their own communities first, and then, in collaboration with entrepreneurial Afghanis, come up with some ideas. The most important "customers" would be fellow Afghanis. If they also wanted to sell to the heathen west, then the places to contact would be organizations such as Global Exchange or World of Good.


At 4:30 PM +0000 12/17/07, roxann wrote:
Hi All,

Do any of you have suggestions as to what kinds of plants Afgans and Iraqis can grow that will provide an income comparable to poppies? Someone from the US military has asked me to do some research and see if there are herbs they can help them get started growing with. He was interested in ginseng, but that won't grow there. It has too specific a requirement and the profit in growing it comes from the Chinese demand for wild or wild appearing US roots and the demand won't be the same for ginseng grown in fields. I am not familiar with the growing conditions of that region of the world. Will the Indian Ayurvedic herbs grow there? They want to grow something they can export to the global market, I believe.

Suggestions, information of any sort is welcome. If you would like to be listed as a contact (for consulting/info) in the packet of information I send this Lieutenant, send me that as well.

Thanks,

Roxann, NW AR
http://blog.ancientearthwisdom.com
_______________________________________________
permaculture mailing list
permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Subscribe or unsubscribe here:
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
Google command to search archives:
site:https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/permaculture searchstring





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page