SpiritualFamily.Net: Food Forest Certification Program's blogs

Supporting Small Poultry Projects

Niwamanya Onesmas — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 14:48:03 -0400

Supporting Small Poultry Projects

Hello friends!

I wanted to share with you my passion project - our family's poultry keeping venture! It's been a challenge balancing school and managing the project, but my amazing mom and grandma have been instrumental in keeping it going.

However, we're facing some growth challenges and I'm reaching out for help! Our birds need quality food, a spacious building to prevent congestion, and expert advice to ensure their health and well-being.

If you're experienced in poultry keeping or willing to offer guidance, mentorship, or support, please DM me! Your contribution can make a significant impact on our family and community.

Let's grow this project together and create a sustainable source of income and nutrition for our community!

Niwamanya Onesmas

Please contact me if you would like to support this project

Contact email: niwamanyaonesmas04@gmail.com

Mobile phone: +256-766009684/+256-751020166

Fort Portal Uganda FORT PORTAL SPIRITUAL BROTHERHOOD

Food Forest Certification Program - Profiles in Self-reliance - Nuwaha Edson (Patrick)

Nuwaha Edson(Patrick) — Sat, 15 Jul 2023 16:04:51 -0400

Food Forest Certification Program - Profiles in Self-reliance - Nuwaha Edson (Patrick)

Hello mama Lindianne,

Today l tried to go deep and see how we can use the readily available crops to help us in various ways.

Today l came with cassava, this is a root crop which can easily be accessed and planted ,locally here in Uganda

There are various species of cassava, and the ones in the image below take relatively short time to be ready for consumption,

It takes 6-9 months depending on the fertility of soil, implying that it's no longer a crop that take long time to mature.

Today the price of cassava flour ranges from 2500-3000) ugs for just l kilogram, which means it has got two values now.

Still on cassava, the dried pieces of cassava when dipped in water or crushed, then put in water and supplied to bees, enables bees to not only yield high quality honey, but also large quantity of honey,more so bees like the flowers on cassava also it's a source of honey, which automatically means, that a farmer is likely to kill two birds with one stone, when he embraces cassava growing!

The same continues with this new species of banana which are popularity known for banana juice and yellow bananas, however also edible, but not common, the banana juice is for sale and has a high demand.

What am l trying to bring here ?
This system of growing crops which have more than two importances to people will not only increase food production, but also increase on their incomes , minimize food scarcity and also minimise on high poverty levels among households.

Therefore proper sensitization of people in their communities to grow such crops, continuous research and team work will play a magnificent role in as far as increasing food production and minimizing poverty levels is concerned.

Hello papa,, greetings , as l promised to continue with research about various species of fruit trees , here comes another good one, it bears big fruits , it can be intercropped, and later sheds off leaves which decay and add humus in the soil , this supporting plant growth. It has got many medicinal benefits.

l will continue empathising this and also native ancient African trees, for it is through this work that many varieties of crops shall be re introduced, this reducing over dependency on one crop,,

more blessings ,

Patrick

Africa Food Forest Agriculture today

Nuwaha Edson(Patrick) — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 16:45:50 -0400

Africa Food Forest Agriculture today

Agriculture today

In Uganda there are different varieties of banana that can be planted together
with other crops such as cassava ,, here is a specie called. African sweet banana ssp , ( kabalagala) it can do well with other crops

Food Forest Blog

Gumisiriza Julius — Sun, 21 May 2023 16:29:34 -0400

Food Forests Growing Tips

Planting Sweet Potatoes From Slips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crFwR96XirY

An African life of planting sweet potatoes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw3NSquAIE8

Wonderfully Grow Sweet Potatoes and Yams in Uganda: How to Do It Perfectly

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D0up_oxGFM

Unpacking the Word “Peasant"

Paul Kemp Administrator — Fri, 12 May 2023 10:37:12 -0400

Unpacking the Word “Peasant”

April 18, 2023 by A Growing Culture 3 Comments

Today is the International Day of Peasant Struggle. We dedicate this article to the many agrarian movements we work with and are inspired by, in their fight for food sovereignty around the world.

* * *

When we refer to “the global food system”, we tend to picture an elaborate and complex supply chain that spans across continents, transporting millions of tons of foodstuff through ships, planes, trucks and trains, to deliver each meal to our plates. But this is just one of many food systems – the dominant, industrial food chain – and contrary to the stories that are fed to us, the “food chain” doesn’t actually feed the majority of the world.

As food systems have become increasingly globalized, they’ve taken on far more than just production (growing food). Today, the industrial food chain is a long sequence of interconnected components ranging from production, processing, retailing, transportation, and distribution, underpinned by a long and violent history of colonialism, resource extraction, and exploitation. All these parts are owned and controlled by just a handful of corporations. There’s no questioning the sheer scale and size of this system – it operates on over 75 percent of the world’s agricultural land, using 90 percent of the fossil fuel energy, and 80 percent of the water – but it only feeds 30 percent of the world’s population.

In both material and ideological opposition to this singular overarching industrial system, there exist countless smaller systems – intricate webs comprising over 2.5 billion small-scale farmers, peasants, fisherfolk, pastoralists, and Indigenous peoples. Today, these communities operate on small patches of just 25 percent of the world’s agricultural land, to feed 70 percent of its population. These communities, and the food systems they collectively steward, are what many movements around the world refer to as the “peasant food web”.

The myriad food systems that make up the food web, although diverse and unique to their respective local cultures and environments, coexist with each other in an imperfect synchrony, to sustain themselves, feed the majority of us, and preserve the world’s biodiversity. However, the industrial food chain often exists in conflict with these traditional systems, as it tends to impose its monocultural and uniform value system motivated to maximize profits and efficiency, at the expense of the rich diversity of cultural practices and knowledge systems of communities in the food web.

The food web and the industrial food chain are antithetical to one another. They represent two opposing visions for the future of our food systems. Where the food web localizes and democratizes control over food systems, the industrial food chain aims to centralize and consolidate it. While the food web sustains and nourishes people and the environment, the food chain seeks to extract from them in order to amass profits. While the food web centers the sovereignty of communities, the food chain seeks their subjugation.

As things currently stand, the communities that make up the food web, along with their cultural practices, languages, knowledge systems, and the biodiversity they protect, are at risk of going extinct. Today, a handful of corporations control nearly every aspect of the industrial food chain. Four corporations control over 49 percent of the private seed market, and over 75 percent of the agrochemical market. Four corporations control over 75 percent of global grain trade. With their overwhelming control, they effectively dictate the ways in which communities access the food and resources they need to survive.

The communities hardest hit by this consolidation are the same communities that grow the majority of our food. It seems almost like a cruel joke, that over 75 percent of the world’s hungry are involved in agriculture. But this is by design. Previously, these communities grew food first and foremost for self-subsistence, then to serve their locality, and only then, if there was a surplus, to exchange in the market. Today, that dynamic has been reversed. The purpose of farming has shifted to feeding the market’s insatiable appetite for profits.

But when and how exactly did this shift take place? How did communities that were once self-sufficient suddenly become so market dependent? When did the purpose of food shift away from feeding people toward feeding the market? It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact moment, because this has been a gradual process spanning centuries of feudalism, colonization, industrialization, and most recently, neoliberalism.

One way to understand this history and its implications for our future is by unpacking the word “peasant”.

* * *

The term “peasant” is loaded with a heavy history. When you hear the word “peasant”, what do you feel? Pride? Discomfort? Guilt? Sadness? Anger? Superiority? Inferiority? Something else?

The term still makes many of us uncomfortable because we’ve most often heard it used in a derogatory way. But what does it actually mean? Why are more and more movements struggling for food sovereignty worldwide reclaiming it and self-identifying as peasants?

According to anthropologist Marc Edelman, the word “peasant” first appeared in English during the late medieval period, used to refer to “the rural poor, rural residents, serfs, agricultural laborers, and the “common” or “simple” people. It was also used as a verb, where to “peasant” someone meant to subjugate that person. “Peasant” additionally substituted other derogatory terms like “stupid,” “ignorant,” and “crass,” and even indicated criminality. There was an explicit political purpose behind the dehumanizing use of the word.

In order to amass wealth, large land- and business-owners needed workers from rural areas to work for low wages. But most rural peoples at the time didn’t have the incentive or desire to do so, as these populations often relied on subsistence farming, pastoralism, fishing, hunting, and gathering to survive. They shared access to forests, lakes, and pastures through a “commons” model, where they collectively managed – and no one person exclusively owned – land and resources. While they might not have had particularly easy lives, they were largely self-sufficient, with free access to the land that provided their basic needs. In other words, the commons enabled rural communities to maintain a level of security and autonomy that allowed them to resist the need to work for wages.

But this self-sufficiency was a threat to the state and landowners, because it meant they couldn’t easily exert control over rural communities. To employ the labor of self-sufficient peasants, landowners had to offer wages higher than mere subsistence levels, as rural communities already enjoyed a relatively secure lifestyle with better means for living in rural areas. The rise of the word “peasant” was strategic – it was a way for wealthy nobles to unify society against subsistence-based communities. As Edelman says, peasants were othered by the noble classes, blamed for not using land “efficiently” and “standing in the way of progress”; for “having too many children”; for being “dangerous” and unsuitable for citizenship. And so, elites worked to shift the cultural consciousness regarding rural agricultural communities “in order to promote policies aimed at pushing peasants off the land and turning them into laborers”.

One such historical policy that played (and continues to play) a crucial role in “de-peasantising” rural communities and forcing them into wage labor, involved the Enclosure Acts. Enforced by the British parliament in the 1700s, these acts enabled wealthy elites to privatize or enclose common lands that had been used by peasants for centuries. The Enclosure Movement spread rapidly across Britain, and eventually the rest of Europe. In the following centuries, the doctrine of the enclosure was replicated and imposed on the colonies in the Majority World as well, in the form of private property rights and laws. Elites purchased or seized nearly all common lands, violently dispossessing millions of peasants and small-scale farmers the world over.

Enclosures facilitated the expansion of industrialization and the de-peasantisation of agriculture across the world in two major ways: First, the communities displaced from their lands were forced to migrate to the cities and work in the industry for bare minimum wages. The seemingly unlimited supply of migrant laborers ensured that the wages were constantly capped at “subsistence” levels.

Second, early industrialists took control of a significant portion of commons that were previously managed by peasant communities and started exploiting them. As Jason Hickel explains, following this process of displacement, wealthy landlords created a lease system for their now-privately-held land, called “improvement.” They offered leases to the most agriculturally productive peasants. In other words, in order to be afforded the privilege to access land they once used freely, peasants had to begin to adopt industrial farming techniques to increase their output. All that extra agricultural yield went straight to the landlords as profits.

Through enclosures, peasant communities were not only removed from their lands but also alienated from their cultures and means of self-sustenance, meaning that they were forced to rely on the market to survive.

In pre-capitalist societies, peasant communities largely functioned as interconnected webs of small-scale farmers, fisherfolk, pastoralists, craftspeople, artisans, and others that relied on communal support and exchange to subsist and thrive. However, as the forces of industrialization began to commodify and privatize land and labor, peasant communities were fragmented into distinct classes. One class included the small population of peasants who continued to subsist on what little remained of the world’s commons. Another included the sizable population of small-scale peasant farmers who were successfully integrated into the industrial system, operating on small plots of private land to cater to market demands rather than their own subsistence. The third made up the massive influx of displaced/landless peasant workers who were forced to migrate from their homes to industrial centers in search of wage labor.

Through de-peasantisation, communities were alienated from their lands, their cultures, and their communal ways of living. They were stripped of their autonomy and segregated into “farmers” (those who have legal rights to land) and “farmworkers” (those who work land). They were pitted against each other, forced to compete and rely on the market for survival. The intricate web of interconnected and pluralistic systems that sustained the peasant food web were picked apart and forcibly chained together to serve a singular system.

The dehumanization of the term “peasant” reflects the broader devaluation of subsistence living, traditional knowledge, and communal practices that accompanied the rise of industrial capitalism. But most peasant communities did not sit idly by while their cultures and practices were being erased.

Against the backdrop of this gruesome and violent history is also an alternative, lesser-known history of peasant resistance. Following uprisings like the Mexican Revolution, campesino (“peasant”, in Spanish) took on a new meaning. It became a rallying cry for rural communities who had long been oppressed and disenfranchised, providing a term to reclaim their dignity and pride. Taking back the word peasant allowed people to recognize what wealthy elites had continued to try to force them to forget: that connection to land is not shameful, but powerful. The term peasant started to become connected with land-based struggles, and struggles for self-determination, around the world.

La Vía Campesina, the largest social movement in the world, has been at the center of this reclamation. They have redefined “peasant” as “a person of the land, who has a direct and special relationship with the land”, once again unifying the fragmented food web of over 2.5 billion landless workers, Indigenous peoples, pastoralists, fisherfolk, migrant farmworkers, and farmers around the world under a common banner.

And it’s not just La Vía Campesina. Countless agrarian movements across the globe, including Asociación Nacional de Agricultores Pequeños (ANAP)or the National Association of Small Farmers, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) or the Landless Workers Movement, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) or the Peasant Movement of the Philippines, and many others, have joined this rallying call and are fighting under the banner of peasant in their respective landscapes. But make no mistake: this is not merely a semantic battle over the reclamation of the word itself; it represents a radical, material, and ideological resistance against the industrial food chain and the very forces of global capitalism. The use of the word “peasant” symbolizes the revival of a whole way of living and knowing, of relating to land and to each other. What these movements are really calling for is re-peasantisation – reviving sacred cultures, knowledge systems, and practices. By asserting their identity as peasants and taking back their means of self-sufficiency, these groups are challenging the very foundations of the dominant industrial system.

Their struggles are ever more relevant today, given the fact that the enclosure movement is still ongoing and rapidly expanding, and corporations, foundations, and governments are grabbing land from peoples around the world at a staggering rate. It’s the resistance of peasant communities – Indigenous peoples, land defenders, seed savers, and activists – in the face of innumerable threats, that has led them to be labeled as “terrorists”, unlawfully arrested, and even in many cases killed by state-sponsored brutality. Still, they continue to struggle to break free of the chains of the industry and reclaim sovereignty.

The widespread polarization, segregation, and alienation so present in our current reality is deeply tied to our collective history and our fractured relationship with land. Our collective liberation, cultural heritage, and the survival of the environment, are dependent on mending this relationship and reclaiming and revitalizing the world’s commons. If we continue to shy away from our history by giving in to our discomfort with words like “peasant” – especially when so many movements are wearing the label with pride to assert their rights to the commons – then we’ll never be able to heal and co-create alternative systems that sustain and nourish all of us.

Today, on the International Day of Peasant Struggle, we stand with those who are proudly claiming peasanthood – those who are committing the radical act of remaining rooted as hostile forces try to pry them away from their way of life. We honor their power. Their pride. Their pain. And we stand alongside them, collectively resisting the forces that wish to uproot us all.

Photo: John Page

This post originally appeared in Offshoot, the newsletter of A Growing Culture.

SOURCE ARTICLE

Raising Rabbits | Information sources

Atwebembire Owen(Andrew) — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 12:11:33 -0500

Raising Rabbits | Information sources

By Owen Atwebembire

Rabbits are a quick-breeding source of low-fat, high-protein meat and have long been enjoyed as a food by many people across the world. A fine-grained white meat, it can be substituted for chicken in many recipes.

Until the increase in beef consumption in the 1960s, rabbit was popular in the United States. Today, the interest in lower fat diets and healthy eating combined with an ongoing pursuit by chefs and foodies of novel and locally produced foods has led to a domestic resurgence in the use of rabbits for meat.

The two most common types used for meat production are New Zealand whites and Californians.

Rabbits can be produced for many different markets: for breeding stock, as medical and educational lab animals, for pet food, as pet and show animals, and for their wool and skin. While these may be pursued as a secondary market for rabbit farmers, the focus of this article is on meat production.

Production

U.S. Ag Census data shows that rabbit production is up. In 2012, more than 5,000 farms sold nearly 853,000 rabbits.

Marketing

Rabbit has appeal across many ethnic markets. Muslims, Christians, and Hindus do not have religious prohibitions from consuming rabbit meat. However, because of their popularity as pets, there is one factor that is difficult to counter: the Easter bunny image. Some meat eaters may be squeamish about consuming an animal that others keep as pets in their home. And in spite of their toothy image, they are not rodents.

Fortunately, these images have not dissuaded chefs across the country from adding rabbit meat to their menus. Today, rabbit meat can be found on many menus in restaurants in the interior of the United States—from Atlanta to Chicago to St. Louis to Austin.

Online retail prices for dressed rabbit vary widely--from $6.59 to more than $18 per pound. Due to their prolific breeding capabilities, it is essential that a market be available before commencing wide-scale rabbit production. Rabbits have a slim profit margin and producers are advised to start small, using rabbits as a supplemental income source while they are establishing their market.

Processing

Since they are not classified as livestock, rabbits are exempted from USDA inspections on slaughter. Grades for rabbit meat were removed in 1995. However, they are protected under the Animal Welfare Act that requires that all individuals or businesses dealing with rabbits must be licensed or registered with APHIS.

Some producers slaughter their own rabbits for direct sales. Rabbits may also be commercially slaughtered in accordance with state, county or municipal guidelines. A limited number of commercial slaughter facilities exist across the United States. Small-species mobile processing facilities may help fill the need for producing fresh rabbit meat in sufficient quantities for a limited market.

American Rabbit Breeders Association - The association's membership totals over 30,000 throughout the United States, Canada and abroad.
Global Agricultural Trade System (GATS), Foreign Ag Service (FAS), USDA.
Guidelines for Entry into Meat Rabbit Production, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Alabama A&M and Auburn Universities, revised 2016 - This article provides some basic guidelines about getting started in the meat rabbit business.
Mobile Slaughter/Processing Units, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Kentucky and Kentucky State University.
Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease, Center for Food Security and Public Health, Iowa State University, 2016.
Rabbit Production, Pennsylvania State University Agricultural Research and Cooperative Extension - Provides information to evaluate initial resources needed.
Raising Rabbits on Pasture, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, 2009.
Small-Scale Sustainable Rabbit Production, ATTRA, National Sustainable Ag Information Service, NCAT, 2012 - This publication focuses on meat rabbits and sustainable rabbit management.
United States Classes, Standards, and Grades for Rabbits, Ag Marketing Service, USDA.

Value Added Producer Grant Recipient

Yours,

Owen Atwebembire.

Raising Rabbits by Owen Atwebembire

Atwebembire Owen(Andrew) — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 16:17:28 -0500

Raising Rabbits by Owen Atwebembire

When it comes to feeding rabbits, many people have it all wrong thanks to Bugs Bunny, Easter decor and every other image that pairs rabbits with carrots. So what do rabbits eat? In reality, domesticated rabbits thrive on a diet that consists of hay, leafy greens and grass-based pellets.

Carrots are just a treat, and one that should be offered sparingly.

So if you’re a rabbit owner or you’re considering becoming one, here are a few tips for creating a healthy food plan for your rabbit, one that includes plenty of variety, including an occasional slice of carrot.

Pile on the hay

Hay should make up between 70 and 85 percent of a rabbit’s diet, according to information on rabbit careprovided by the NC State Veterinary Hospital.

The most common types of hay available in pet stores and feed stores are timothy and orchard grass. Both are great for rabbits. Another hay you’ll run into in pet stores is alfalfa hay. This type is good for young rabbits (younger than six months old) and lactating females but contains too much calcium and protein for other adult rabbits.

A good source of fiber, hay protects a rabbit’s intestines and prevents fur chewing, hairballs and overgrowth of bacteria that can lead to diarrhea and death, according to a publication on rabbit nutrition by the University of California.

Hay also keeps a rabbit’s teeth healthy, according to West Boulevard Veterinary Clinic in Vancouver, B.C. A rabbit’s teeth grow continually throughout its life, and by chewing hay, they keep their teeth worn down to a healthy length. If a rabbit’s teeth grow too long, they can end up with mouth sores and infections.
Prepare a daily salad

In the wild, rabbits forage for a wide variety of plants, so it makes sense that domestic rabbits also benefit from eating a variety of fresh leafy vegetables and herbs. In fact, the fresh portion of a rabbits diet is just as important as the hay, according to Northwood Animal Hospital in Irvine, Cali. Fresh vegetables provide rabbits with important nutrients and water.

Rabbits should be fed a minimum of 1 packed cup of green foods per 2 pounds of body weight each day, or about half the size of the rabbit if placed in a loose pile, according to Northwood. This salad should consist of at least three different types of dark green leafy vegetables. Some examples of good greens for rabbits include mustard greens, parsley, beet greens, swiss chard, radish tops, basil, cilantro, red lettuce, carrot tops and kale.

Don’t go overboard on pellets

High quality rabbit pellets can provide vitamins and minerals that a rabbit might not get if fed only hay and fresh vegetables, according to Dana Krempels, a biology professor at the University of Miami who authored the online resource “What Should I Feed My Bunny?” However, Krempels cautions against feeding a rabbit too much pellet food, which can cause them to become obese. Pellets can also cause rabbits to stop eating hay, which is crucial to their health.

Many veterinarians suggest feeding your rabbit no more than ⅛ cup of quality pellets per 5 pounds of rabbit per day, according to Krempels. Furthermore, not all rabbit pellets are equally nutritious. Steer clear of pellets that contain dried fruit, seeds, nuts and colored bits, which can cause serious digestion problems. A good quality rabbit pellet should have at least 22 percent crude fiber and no more than 14 percent protein, 1 percent fat and 1 percent calcium, Krempels said.

Treats are OK, in moderation

It can be fun to feed your pets treats, but keep in mind that rabbits have sensitive digestive systems and can’t tolerate most of the foods that humans eat. Fruits are the best treats for rabbits, and more specifically, high-fiber fruits, according to a publication on rabbit nutrition by the University of California.

Papaya, peaches, pears, pineapple, raspberries and strawberries are all OK bunny treats — but only in small amounts. A small slice or a couple small berries is all your rabbit should have in a day. If a rabbit eats too much sugar, it can cause an imbalance in its digestive system. It can also cause obesity.

Always provide fresh water

Like every other mammal, rabbits require water and plenty of it. While rabbits will drink from a bottle or a bowl, a 2011 study conducted by the University of Zurich found that rabbits preferred to drink from open dishes. However, rabbits also tend to knock over dishes. To prevent this, try using a heavy bowl. Refresh the water every day.

Rabbits create their own “pellets”

If you catch a rabbit eating its poop, don’t worry. Rabbits produce a special type of dropping called a cecotrope, which is greenish, made up of several little balls and covered in mucus. Rich in nutrients, cecotropes are usually eaten by rabbits directly, according to Northwood Animal Hospital. Therefore, you likely won’t see them scattered around the cage. If you do, then the rabbit may have a diet that’s too rich in nutrients or your rabbit may have a health problem.

Monitor your rabbit’s appetite

If your rabbit stops eating and pooping, it could be serious, and you may have a short window of time to act. A condition known as gastrointestinal stasis is fairly common in rabbits. This is when the rabbit’s intestines essentially stop working, and it can be fatal.

In an article about this “silent killer,” Krempels states that if a rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped for 12 hours, it should be taken to the veterinary clinic immediately for treatment.

Having a relationship with a veterinarian who’s knowledgeable about rabbits is important for all rabbit owners. In addition to helping in emergency situations, a veterinarian can offer advice on what to feed your rabbit and help you monitor its weight and overall health. While there are many good resources out there about rabbit care, sometimes consulting an expert is best.

Yours,

Owen Atwebembire.

CASHEW NUTS IN THE TROPICS - Food Forest Program

Billy John Waiswa — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 06:00:04 -0400

CASHEW NUTS IN THE TROPICS

BY: Joseph Mulopi

Agriculture Officer - Youth in Act-Uganda

Snake River Music Gardens

Donate to Food Forest Program by clicking HERE

Cashew nut is a hardy tropical evergreen perennial tree which spreads vigorously; old trees can have canopies with diameters of up to 12m and their roots grow up to a radius which is often twice that of canopy. It can grow to a height of 12 m with alternate leaves which are simple, leathery and ovate in shape. The lamina is glabrous, 6-20cm long and 4-15cm broad, rounded and often notched at the apex. It is tapering at the base with Promina veins, lateral veins spreading. The petiole is 1-2cm long swollen at the base and flattened on an upper surface.

Cashew nut is a cross pollination species and is highly heterozygous; it produces a mixture of male and female hermaphrodite flowers at the tip of the inflorescence. The inflorescence is a lax terminal with many flowered panicles. The flowers are sweet scented and has pubescent bracts. It has fine narrow, green sepals 5cm long, and fine linear petals which are 1cm long which is reflexed in an open flower pale greenish-to cream with red stripes, later turning red with 10 stamens.

Hermaphrodite flowers per inflorescence are about 60 in number and the ratio of male to hermaphrodite flowers is about 6:1. Most flowers open between 6.00am and 6.00pm with peak opening period between 11.am and 12.30pm. The flowers are visited by flies and other insects; these transfer the sticky pollen to the stigma. Not all flowers pollinated produce mature fruits as there is uneven fruit fall due to physiological causes. About 10 percent of the hermaphrodite flowers produce mature fruits with an average of 5-6 fruits per inflorescence.

Cashew nut is a native plant of American tropics extending from Mexico to Peru, Brazil and West Indies, Mozambique, Tanzania, Benin, Kenya, Malagasy, Malawi, Nigeria, and Senegal. Cashew nut as a tropical crop can tolerate a wide range of soils except poorly draining swampy or water logged soils, with excessive salinity or alkalinity. It prefers loam and sandy loam to very sandy soils. In Uganda it does better in well-draining high soils of the eastern and northern regions. The trees are unusual crop in that they flower, set fruits, and maintain a full leaf cover during the driest part of the year.

Cashew nut is a drought resistant tree which is explained by the great horizontal growth of roots enabling it to thrive well in areas with marginal rainfall. It can resist drought if spacing is wide enough to avoid overcrowding of the trees.

Cashew nut can be planted from both seeds and vegetative in a nursery bed or directly in the field using seeds or cuttings. Seeds are soaked overnight in water and only those that sink and are of higher than average size are selected for planting. Plant cashew nut seedlings at the spacing of 12mx12m or 18mx18m.

Seedlings are raised in the nursery bed early in the season; a shade should be constructed to protect the seedlings from direct sun rays. Select seeds which are uniform in size and shape plant in polythene with the scar on the seed pointing downwards to allow radical to push out from the scar. The nursery is watered regularly if in dry season between November and February. The seedling will be ready for planting in the field within 6 weeks. While planting remove the polythene by cutting the bottom of the polythene pot. The advantage of planting seedlings from a nursery bed is the uniformity of the plants.

USES

The most important products of cashew nut are the kernels which are used for dessert or confectionary purposes. The cashew nut shell can be used in a number of industrial products such as medicines, paint plastics, food preservatives, brake linings and ink. Cashew nut apple has 45-50 percent non-drying apple which is used in beverages, jam; Fein. The sap from the bark is mixed with tree wax for making shoe polish.

NUTRITION VALUES

Cashew nut apple is said to contain 88 percent water, 0.2 percent protein, 0.2 percent fat, 11.6 percent carbohydrate and is rich in vitamin C. The nut contains 5 percent water, 20 percent protein, 45 percent fats, 26 percent carbohydrates, 1.5 percent fiber, and 2.5 percent mineral matter. The shell (pericarp) contains almost 50 percent cashew-vesicant oils. Cashew-shell liquid oil is composed of 70 percent anacardic acid, 5 percent cardanol, and 18 percent cardol.

PESTS AND DISEASES

Like any other plant, cashew nut can be attacked by two species of Helopeltis bug that do considerable damage by sucking the leaves, young fruits and flower which cause fruits to fall off. The Helopeltis schoutedeni do the same damage to the plant and these two species cause black lesions on the plants and plants get die back of the new shoots. The shoots grow into witch broom, e.g. growth of the twig at one point on branches. The pests can be controlled by spraying with summithion, dimecron, thiodan etc.

The most serious diseases appear to be anthracnose which is considered to be responsible for heavy crop loss, powdery mildew, and die back or pink-disease.

Lignite trading as a fertilizer

Paul Kemp Administrator — Tue, 18 Oct 2022 18:53:22 -0400

Lignite trading as a fertilizer

Where is the future starts Humic acids which are highly concentrated in lignite have multiple functions for agriculture producers:

improve and replenish depleted soils

increase yields from 15% to 30%;
improve organic matter and plant root system
increase shelf life of the crops;
reduce water flow rate of 20-25%
reduce the toxicity of soil.

A Message of Hope

Lindianne Sappington — Sun, 17 Jul 2022 16:40:50 -0400

A Message of Hope Lindianne Sarno

To our faithful Ugandan correspondents, Youth in Act Uganda Director Waiswa John Billy, Youth in Act - Uganda Agriculturist Joseph Mulopi, World Gospel Ministries Uganda Gumisiriza Julius, Happy Hours Ministry/Orphanage Mbabazi Kevin, student of constitution and government Agaba Josephat:

(Copies to: Paul Kemp, Arthur Sappington, Steve Stutman, Felicity Joy Solomon and 100 Families supporters of Youth in Act - Uganda)

Arthur and I are grateful to you for faithfully reporting your real life conditions as Uganda's people labor to raise more than a million AIDS orphans while hosting millions of refugees from hunger and drought. The people of Uganda are engaged in a great and good labor, to care for the poorest of the poor. The Ugandan population is determined to educate the young. Because many Ugandans grew up as orphans, you take nothing for granted, you are productive from an early age, and circumstances have taught you patience, diligence, sharing, love, respect and prayer.

We all are grateful to Paul Kemp, father of our beloved website spiritualfamily.net where we all found each other. Paul Kemp, a masterful reader of the Urantia Book, serves us all by providing spiritualfamily.net's communications. He connects us to each other, and mentors us--when we ask--into a spiritual renaissance of revealed religion through the teachings of the Urantia Book and the website spiritualfamily.net.

Arthur and I are grateful for this evening's food, local boiled eggs and local onion on a bed of greens we grew in Snake River Music Gardens’ Teaching Garden in Baker County. Our mission is for every family who has a passion for agriculture to have a garden, keep chickens and rabbits, and be able to eat simple healthy meals of plants and animal protein.

Together, Snake River Music Gardens and Youth in Act - Uganda have a mission to administer food forests to green the deserts and avert famine. Our common endeavors have grown, and now this one-woman office in rural eastern Oregon is expanding to co-administer with our Ugandan brothers the Food Forest Certification Program and Food Forest Land Fund.

Snake River Music Gardens and Youth in Act - Uganda already co-administer co-equally with each other. Waiswa John Billy, Joseph Mulopi, Arthur Sappington and I experience each other as co-directors.

I invite you to co-administer until every landowner and land purchaser has completed paperwork and had a site visit for the Food Forest Certification Program. Then funds can flow for land purchases, seeds, tools, tree seedlings and gardening and beekeeping supplies.

My dear sons of Uganda, you have faithfully answered questions, provided essential information (photos and accounts) and kept your word. We have built a circle of trust and reliability. Job well done! As you complete your paperwork and site visit, we invite you to foster food forests in your neighborhood and district, as Food Forest Networkers. I propose that Food Forest Networkers receive $50 for each qualified food forester they bring into Youth in Act - Uganda’s Food Forest Certification Program.

Within a few months, you as food foresters with a passion for agriculture will be producing tree and plant seedlings, vegetables, fruits, honey, and other crops and products. You will have initiated a self-reliant economy.

For now, I understand that you require good nutrition for yourselves and your families, seed money to purchase land, seedlings, seeds, animals, and tools so you shall not fail.

I pray to father God that we together become a trustworthy, reliable administration, communicating as a group through spiritualfamily.net, worthy of funding from a growing circle of supporters. I pray our supporters experience our ethics, view our excellent documentation, and witness our effectiveness in averting famine. I pray our supporters tell friends and colleagues about our Food Forest Certification Program and Food Forest Land Fund. Thus shall our circle of supporters grow, seed money shall flow, and famine shall be averted.

Although food prices in Uganda are dire, and vulnerable Ugandans are losing hope, many Ugandans are experiencing a spiritual renaissance. You, my dear brothers and sons, are bright lights in that renaissance.

Blessings,
Lindianna