Roberto Verzola [SMTP:rverzola@phil.gn.apc.org] wrote:
>I notice that academics who are currently holding the online
>conference described above (and selected portions of which Mr. Jackie
>Foo <foo@swipnet.se.) posts on SANET) use the term "micro-farming"
>for what is really the usual way people farm.
>I would like to request Jackie to report back to
>us if these academics have continued to use the term or if they
>acknowledge this misnomer.
in the application of integrated bio-systems (see
http://www.ias.unu.edu/proceedings/icibs/ibs/ibsnet) or in sustainable
agriculture, one needs to be case specific. Often, there are no two exact
copies of small-scale activities (or call it whatever you may like).
The IBSnet activity - Internet Conference on Material Flow Analysis of
Integrated Bio-Systems (Mar-Oct. 2000)
http://www.ias.unu.edu/proceedings/icibs/ic-mfa - looks at input/output
balances for water, nutrients, materials and ecomonics in systems
(agriculture, aquaculture, industry and human habitats).
As an example (and of relevance to sanet-mg subscribers), we have an
on-going paper discussion on "Study of agriculture-aquaculture ecological
ecomonic system with nutrient flow analysis". The study site is in Zhejiang
Province (China) with a temperate zone where you can have only one cropping
of rice. Rice production is about 7.5 tons/ha on paddy fields and fish
production (polyculture, 3 species) is about 4.7 tons/ha/yr (economic value
of fish is 23,690 Yuan (3800 US$) ). The paper tested the concept of
growing rice on floating beds covering 25% of the water surface, and with
fish. This integration has beneficial effects on water quality and thus
increases yield of the fish. Results: you can get 5,638 kg fish and 1,980
kg rice from 1 ha of water surface. So basically this technique can
increasing weight of produce by 62 % for the 1 ha of water surface area
using the concept of IBS. Purchased inputs are chemical fertilisers
(minimal amounts only for the rice seedlings) and fish fingerlings. Local
resource needed is 10 tons of pig manure in 1 year (27 kg per day or about
10-pig population). No aeration of pond water is needed. This system can be
managed by one person.
You can get 2 or 3 crops of rice in a warmer climate and a higher fish
yield with different tropical fishes. Thus if this is done in the
Philippines, we are talking of twice the weight of rice than Zhejiang
Province and maybe more fish too.
A scale down system can also be envisioned for a 1 ha land to accommodate
the various sub-systems (pig, pond and horticulture, vegetables). This in
fact is traditional self-reliant agriculture (1 family operation) which was
replaced by monoculture, extensive and corporate agriculture.
Lion Kuntz <lionkuntz@email.com>
>If Philippino people pay 25% of their income for food, and a
>farmer can provide half of that to 10 customers, that is an income
>25% higher than local averages
this is a general statement and looks like one that is not too difficult to
prove. It would be useful if Lion Krutz could elaborate this if there is a
case study.
Regards
Jacky
-----
Mr. Eng-Leong "Jacky" Foo
Dept of Biotechnology, Royal Inst. of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: (+46-8) 945959 Fax/Voicemail: (+46-8) 5982-9229
(start fax transmission or speak after Swedish voice instructions)
Director, UNESCO Microbial Resources Centre, Stockholm
http://home2.swipnet.se/~w-25860/jacky/mircen
Co-ordinator, Integrated Bio-Systems Network
http://www.ias.unu.edu/proceedings/icibs/ibs/ibsnet
Internet Conference on Material Flow Analysis of Integrated Bio-Systems
(March-October 2000)
http://www.ias.unu.edu/proceedings/icibs/ic-mfa
More information:
http://segate.sunet.se/archives/et-w11.html
http://segate.sunet.se/archives/et-ann.html
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".
All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 11 2000 - 22:02:07 EDT