The 2nd African Organic Conference â Mainstreaming ... - ICROFS

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2 nd AFRICAN ORGANIC CONFERENCE 2012 May 2-4, 2012 in Lusaka, Zambia also included. The study was laid in a randomized complete block design replicated four times in four adjacent greenhouses. After reaching fruiting stage (3 months), the number tomato plants with signs and symptoms of BW in both intercropped and non-intercropped plots were recorded for each of the tomato varieties. The study was repeated twice in June and October, 2011. Data was imposed to ANOVA and means separated using LSD at 0.05 significant level in SAS. The results indicated that incidences of bacterial wilt reduced by between 50 to 70% among the rows intercropped with crotalaria sp. across all the three varieties, however, prostar F1 showed the least incidences of BW followed by Cal. J and Money maker, respectively. This study provided a means of moderating and managing bacterial wilt disease incidences in tomato crop, a solution that would be affordable to tomato growing small scale farmers compared to the use of costly chemicals that are also toxic and unfriendly to the environment. DIVERSITY:&A&NORM&FOR&AFRICA’S&ORGANIC&AGRICULTURE&AND&INDISPENSIBLE& MEANS&FOR&CLIMATE&CHANGE&ADAPTATION&AND&MITIGATION& REGASSA FEYISSA Ethio-Organic Seed Action (EOSA), Ethiopia Abstract Africa’s agriculture is characterized by diverse agro-ecologies and broad genetic resources base of crops and livestock, and by dynamic farming and production systems and its complex management practices. The present agro-ecology and the diversity it harbors evolved through these management practices. Diversity in general is a norm for Africa’s agriculture and provides the opportunity to foster agro-biodiversity and other environmental services. It also provides the opportunity to enhance agro-ecosystem resilience and farmers’ capacity to better face risks and uncertainties. The use, enhancement and management strategy of the diversity does not show any rigidity in techniques; but rather, remains a way of thinking, which maintains a dynamic equilibrium and can be adapted as changing circumstances require. It is through this dynamism, for example, that many African agricultural crops little or not known to agricultural science to date have been developed and are intensively utilized throughout the continent. It is unfortunate however, that the complexity of Africa’s agriculture has always been undermined due to misperception that has resulted in underinvestment for its improvement. Africa’s agriculture is diversity based and has survived so long evolving through complexities of environmental dynamism and management practices, on which the principle of Africa’s organic agriculture need to base itself. Organic agriculture involves a complex system of land use and cultivation, requiring sophisticated knowledge of the stability of soil types to crops grown, climatic variation and soil fertility. In this regard, Africa’s organic agricultural products can strictly be considered as the products of agroecosystem management rather than agricultural products produced by excluding one or the other external chemical input. Systemic management of genetic diversity including the symbiotic relationships of elements of soil-life support system is its base. Through such management, the soil fertility is improved organically leading to the stabilization of soil organic matter that eventually results in heightened sequestration of carbon in the soils. This is one aspect of the noble practices of Africa’s farmers in contributing to climate change mitigation, for which they should be recognized. Nevertheless, there are growing concerns, which are legitimate, particularly on how the complexity of Africa’s agriculture is still perceived by reductionists and promoters of standardization of agricultural practices. It is ironic that both the agro-biodiversity resource base and practices of its management have always been taken as indicators for backwardness and poverty, but with little or no investment for its improvement rather than on its disruption. It is also an emerging concern that irrational approach and the reduction of ecological agriculture of Africa to solely business oriented organic bio-mass products or processes would possibly lead to catastrophic consequences of socio-economic and environmental costs. This presentation will try to highlight prospects and potential of Africa’s ecological agriculture as source of environment and health friendly products, and the challenges it is facing and would face. BOOK OF ABSTRACTS 25
2 nd AFRICAN ORGANIC CONFERENCE 2012 May 2-4, 2012 in Lusaka, Zambia CAN&ORGANIC&FOOD&REDUCE&CHILD&MORTALITY(MDG&4)&IN&SSA?& DR GITAHI THEURI Kenyatta University, School of Applied Human Sciences, Nairobi, Kenya, email gitahi_t@yahoo.com Abstract Organically grown food promotes environment sustainability and produces fruit, vegetables, meat and milk containing 40% more anti-oxidants, iron and zinc all crucial for child growth, development and immune function. While use of herbicides, pesticides, chemical fertilizers, paid for with scarce foreign exchange, in conventional farming leave chemical residues in food produce causing neurotoxins, endocrine disruptors, reproductive and developmental toxins likely to increase child mortality and poverty as scare resources are re-allocated towards seeking expensive medical diagnosis and management of degenerative conditions. Endocrine disruption may impair hormones involved in fetal growth and development of tissues that otherwise regulate intrauterine programming that in turn influences survival in the uterus and at birth with long term effects on the offspring. Is organic farming potentially a cheap intervention to aid SSA achieve millennium development goals to reduce child mortality, eradicating extreme poverty and hunger as well as ensuring environmental sustainability? ENHANCED&PRODUCTIVITY&OF&TWO&SOYBEAN&(GLYCINE&MAX&(L.)&MERRILL)&VARIETIES& THROUGH&APPLICATION&OF&SPENT&POULTRY&MANURE& VICTOR OLOWE* AND SIMEON FAKOLADE Institute of Food Security, Environmental Resources and Agricultural Research (IFSERAR), Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Nigeria, *owebaba@yahoo.com Abstract Poultry manure is an excellent source of nutrients and it is fast becoming the most commonly used soil amendment from organic source among the resource poor farmers in the tropics. Unfortunately, it becomes a nuisance on the farm because it is usually abandoned and exposed after the required quantity had been applied to the crops on the field. Consequently, a field trial was conducted during the late cropping season (June – Dec.) of 2010 to evaluate the performance of two soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill) varieties as affected by the application of different rates of spent poultry manure. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design in split plot arrangement and replicated three times. The main plot consisted of the two soybean varieties: TGx 1740-2F (early maturing) and TGx 1448-2E (late maturing), while the poultry manure (0, 28 and 56 tonnes.ha -1 ) was allocated to the sub-plot. Nitrogen requirement determined the manure application rates and the two manure rates of 28 and 56 tonnes .ha-1 matched 30 and 60 kgN.ha -1 , respectively. Data were collected on the following agronomic characters of soybeans: aboveground plant weight, height to first pod, number and weight of pods and seeds per plant, 100 grain weight and grain yield. On average, TGx 1448-2E produced grain yield that was significantly (p
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