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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Spanish Permaculture Handouts
  • Date: Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:49:18 -0500

Scott Pittman wrote:
I am looking for Spanish language handouts for the PDC I am giving in Costa
Rica in February. It is a bi-lingual course and most of my literature is in
English. At this point I will need this in electronic form and I can print
it out in Costa Rica or send it to the students via email.

Could you take electronic PC documents in English and run them through an online translator for conversion to Spanish, correct the typos and save final draft for distribution.

Check out our website www.permaculture.org for more information on courses
This winter and summer.

I am also teaching a course for the Army National Guard to troops who are
going to Afghanistan to work with villagers on agriculture and other rural
tasks; I would appreciate any current information on Afghanistan weather,
soil, crops, animal husbandry, water and etc.

This is a very interesting soruce from a PC design perspective:
http://www.icarda.org/afghanistan/NA/Full/Primary_F.htm

apricot, almond, walnut, mulberry, grapes, pomegranite, apple
stone fruits, vine crops, citrus
barley, wheat for grain and wheatstraw for livestock, rice, corn, small portion of other grains
beans
sugarcane
melon, watermelon, onion, potato, tomato,
cumin
wild herbs for traditional medicines
fodder crops: alfalfa, clover
See these pdf charts for region and district cropping information:
http://www.icarda.org/afghanistan/NA/PDF/Table4.pdf

It might be worthwhile to see if quinoa and amaranth will grow there;
also various greens crops, especially those in the mustard family
that are cold hardy
Look at crops grown in the high country regions of South America, new potato varieties. grain crops; also Mexican crops from mountainous regions.
and...Peruvian varieties of guinea pig bread for meat content (none are imported into the USA as far as I know)
Varieties of poultry, goat sheep and pig (maybe taboo food) suitable for the various Afghan climates

http://www.icarda.org/afghanistan/NA/Full/Early_F.htm
"The Russian plant geographer, Nicolai Vavilov, identified Afghanistan as the third most important center of origin of domestic crops in the world (Vavilov, 1929). As a result of the diversity of land races he collected, Vavilov identified Afghanistan was a center of origin for wheat, barley, chickpea, and peas. However, it is perhaps debatable what portion of the crop biodiversity collected by Vavilov in the 1920's was due to selection by generations of farmers and what portion was more derivative of centuries of "genetic drift" within the many compartmentalized valleys that characterize much of the Afghan landscape

It is not known what proportion of these earlier-sampled land races are still grown today. A large number of accessions are recorded in the USDA Germplasm Resources Information Network database (USDA GRIN) for Triticum, Cicer, and Hordeum from Afghanistan. For Cicer and Hordeum, wild relatives of the same species have been collected; the presence of wild relatives may have been a factor in generating varietal diversity in these crops. Instances of wild relatives of wheat (not using the taxum, triticum) are also recorded in USDA-GRIN for Afghanistan.

William Griffith's writing on travels in Afghanistan in 1838-39 shows a diverse agriculture of a large number of crops. Perhaps most curious is his observation of oat crops in Bamiyan whose grain had completely shattered before harvest had begun. He asks whether local farmers could be growing oats for the straw only? Aitchison, half a century later, lists only wild oats (Avena fatua) growing in western Afghanistan. Similarly, Vavilov in the mid-1920's did not see domestic oats, only the wild weedy relative. Both describe volunteer rye as a highly prevalent weed in wheat. These raise the question as to whether Afghan farmers are very bad at removing weedy admixtures from their crops or whether the straw alone of wild oats and volunteer rye is a forage that does not lose a valuable portion of the nutrients as shattered seed? "

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Traditionally, rye may be an indigenous weed infesting fields planted in wheat; concern is about presence of ergot fungus. (info from Aitchison around 1902.)
This indicates a kind of intentional polyculture through benevolent neglect, unplanned, letting nature take its course. Other crops might be introduced into this traditional system to encourage beneficials, symbiosis, synergy, develop a favorable ecological niche for valued
plant species, microorganisms and land animals which might reduce plant disease, grain shattering, other benefits such as a more diverse food chain and co-dependence to support a healthier more balanced, ecosystem.
As of 2000 there was enormous room for improvement of crop varieties
available to Afgan farmers, seed grown in Afganistan of varieties suitable for that region providing reliable harvests.
It seems to me that introduced polyculture systems could be a useful addition to Afgan traditional farming systems.
What about new cash crops that thrive in that region?
Agricultural research stations tuned in to natural biointensive farming methods integrated into permaculture systems could be of immense value to Afgan farmers.
Find comprehensive information on nitrogen fixing crops and cover crops that will grow there and utliize as many of these as possible in permaculture designs.
Another industry would be to start seed grow out operations and nurseries fr useful, heritage and improved varieties of food crops.
Identify, propagate, preserve and distribute heritage varieties of fruits and nuts indigenous to Afganistan; another industry.

Will eleagnus, sea buckthorn, hawthorn, locust, blackberry grow there?
Kudzu....?

LL







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