I.S.T.
Last week I attended the Afro Forestry IST or In-Service Training. The training was held in various spots in the western division of The Gambia. We worked on all kinds of things but Ill cover the highlights of the week.
The first few days of the week were dedicated to beekeeping. Since I have been working with NBAG and beekeeping for the last 9 months or so most of the material covered wasn't new to me but it was still good to talk to other people about their bee projects and learn some new things in that realm. Those days were pretty long since we would get up early and head out. Sessions and work all day then we did the beekeeping training at night and didn't get back to where were were staying to after 10 most nights. I guess the best part about the beekeeping other than just chatting with people about their projects and techniques was working on the traditional grass hives. These are the bee hives that have been used by locals in this area for hundreds of years and are a good way for bee keepers to get started since they require no investment other than time. They are made from long grass collected from the bush and tied together with palm fronds.
The next few days were dedicated to trees, tree nurseries, tree grafting, Tree ID, etc. This was the part that I was most interested in since I have some potential project involving tree nurseries and really wanted to learn more of the techniques and concepts involved. We spend some time talking about various trees both African and Exotic imports, their identification and their uses. One of the most interesting areas we worked on in these few days was the grafting techniques. We learned and practiced several different grafting methods used on citrus versus mango trees as well as others. Grafting is simply a way to attached a bud of an already grown tree to a developing tree. The reasons for grafting are many but some of the most common include having multiple varieties on a single tree. For example you could have several species of mangoes on one tree so you have a longer flowering period. Or you could even have oranges. lemons, and grapefruit all growing on the same tree. Sounds crazy but its true. Another very common reason for grafting is to make trees grow better in a certain environment. For example you may have one type of mango tree that grows well in this region from the seed and works well with the climate but the fruit is small. So you can just grow that tree from a seed and once its about a year or so old you can graft a bud from a full grown mango tree of a different type that has large fruit and you have the best of both worlds. Like I said there are a lot of reasons to graft trees so check it out if your interested.
We covered many other aspects like composting techniques, pest management, fertilizing, etc. The whole week was really a good time and I learned a ton of new stuff that I'm ready to try out. In the near future Lydia and I plan to start a family garden in another compound near by that our host father owns and also start planting some useful trees in our compound that can be used for food for the family. Eventually we also want to get the tree nursery started at the Beekeepers when we get our staffing issues worked out.
The types of trees we plan to plant in our compound are moringa and Pidgin Pea. These are both really good trees for food. They grow very quickly and provide a lot of nutrition. The moringa tree has a million different uses and the pidgin pea can be used just about anywhere beans are used. Google them if you want more info.
We had some people from other PC countries come to the IST. Two guys from PC Senegal showed up and two volunteers from Guinea as well as two staff from Guinea came. It was really nice to get to chat with them. They were all very interesting and we made some contacts so when we travel down that way later this year we will have some people to be in touch with.
We also had a discussion on Bio-fuel. With all the controversy right now around such things it was interesting to have the discussion and guest speaker. The speaker was from a local NGO that is promoting the planting of jatropha to produce biofuel and to stop the creep of the Saharas march south into the Gambia. Jatropha is supposed to grow well here and it could be a good cash crop but I'm not sold on the idea yet. Again Google if you have an interest.
So last weeks IST was a success and a good time. This week I'm in another IST for education which is going well but the material is not quite as fun. Its good to see all the people from our training group though.
Later.
The first few days of the week were dedicated to beekeeping. Since I have been working with NBAG and beekeeping for the last 9 months or so most of the material covered wasn't new to me but it was still good to talk to other people about their bee projects and learn some new things in that realm. Those days were pretty long since we would get up early and head out. Sessions and work all day then we did the beekeeping training at night and didn't get back to where were were staying to after 10 most nights. I guess the best part about the beekeeping other than just chatting with people about their projects and techniques was working on the traditional grass hives. These are the bee hives that have been used by locals in this area for hundreds of years and are a good way for bee keepers to get started since they require no investment other than time. They are made from long grass collected from the bush and tied together with palm fronds.
The next few days were dedicated to trees, tree nurseries, tree grafting, Tree ID, etc. This was the part that I was most interested in since I have some potential project involving tree nurseries and really wanted to learn more of the techniques and concepts involved. We spend some time talking about various trees both African and Exotic imports, their identification and their uses. One of the most interesting areas we worked on in these few days was the grafting techniques. We learned and practiced several different grafting methods used on citrus versus mango trees as well as others. Grafting is simply a way to attached a bud of an already grown tree to a developing tree. The reasons for grafting are many but some of the most common include having multiple varieties on a single tree. For example you could have several species of mangoes on one tree so you have a longer flowering period. Or you could even have oranges. lemons, and grapefruit all growing on the same tree. Sounds crazy but its true. Another very common reason for grafting is to make trees grow better in a certain environment. For example you may have one type of mango tree that grows well in this region from the seed and works well with the climate but the fruit is small. So you can just grow that tree from a seed and once its about a year or so old you can graft a bud from a full grown mango tree of a different type that has large fruit and you have the best of both worlds. Like I said there are a lot of reasons to graft trees so check it out if your interested.
We covered many other aspects like composting techniques, pest management, fertilizing, etc. The whole week was really a good time and I learned a ton of new stuff that I'm ready to try out. In the near future Lydia and I plan to start a family garden in another compound near by that our host father owns and also start planting some useful trees in our compound that can be used for food for the family. Eventually we also want to get the tree nursery started at the Beekeepers when we get our staffing issues worked out.
The types of trees we plan to plant in our compound are moringa and Pidgin Pea. These are both really good trees for food. They grow very quickly and provide a lot of nutrition. The moringa tree has a million different uses and the pidgin pea can be used just about anywhere beans are used. Google them if you want more info.
We had some people from other PC countries come to the IST. Two guys from PC Senegal showed up and two volunteers from Guinea as well as two staff from Guinea came. It was really nice to get to chat with them. They were all very interesting and we made some contacts so when we travel down that way later this year we will have some people to be in touch with.
We also had a discussion on Bio-fuel. With all the controversy right now around such things it was interesting to have the discussion and guest speaker. The speaker was from a local NGO that is promoting the planting of jatropha to produce biofuel and to stop the creep of the Saharas march south into the Gambia. Jatropha is supposed to grow well here and it could be a good cash crop but I'm not sold on the idea yet. Again Google if you have an interest.
So last weeks IST was a success and a good time. This week I'm in another IST for education which is going well but the material is not quite as fun. Its good to see all the people from our training group though.
Later.
posted by Andy at
12:59 PM
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