India: The Talupula Site, Part III

India: The Talupula Site, Part III
By Douglas Barnes

Click here for Part I
Click here for Part II

At the invitation of the Green Tree Foundation, I visited the town of Talupula in the drought-stricken Anantapur District in Andhra Pradesh. Once a dry tropical region, biotic pressures have changed the region into an arid landscape. Because of this, the Green Tree Foundation had me come in to design and implement water harvesting systems suitable for their area in an effort to assist with their regreening activities.

Having selected a site for our project, I mapped the boundaries of the site with a GPS unit, and assessed the site’s features and vegetation. Being ferrosols, the soil structure was generally pretty uniform from the surface down to as much as 8 metres deep. And being gravelly, it was not appropriate for dam construction. This meant we would stick to swales for this site. The cost of digging the swales was well within the total allotted budget for the project, so we next looked into choosing the best machine for the job.

While digging out swales with a bulldozer with a tilting blade can be a convenient way of making them, the soils were so hard that they would have created a near impossible situation for the dozer to handle. Add to that the fact that the nearest dozer would be 6 to 8 hours away, requiring a transport fee, and that they would only come out for more than 100 hours work, bulldozers were not an option anyway. We were left with the choice of a backhoe or a small excavator. The excavator had speed going for it, but availability was a problem (we would have access to it only one day a week). It also required transport to the site (increasing its cost) and was 35% more expensive than the backhoe. The backhoe looked to be the best choice by far.

Designing the water-harvesting system, I did not want the site to be plagued by undersized swales. For one thing, I wanted them to be able to hold a lot of water before excess would go over their spillways. Also, if they did not have gradual enough walls, they would be more prone to erosion. Over time, swales gradually fill in, too. With larger swales, they would be around longer.

The designer enjoying a fresh mango under a tamarind tree that saved him from heat stroke many times. Photo by Gangi Setty of the Green Tree Foundation.

As I wanted the swales to be around 1 metre from the bottom of the trench to the top of the mound, I designed the trench to be about 4 metres across (a little smaller on two of the swales) and about 4 metres across on the mound. The site was nearly devoid of vegetation, so to be on the safe side, I assumed 55% runoff, meaning a coefficient of runoff of 0.55. To determine the spacing of the swales, I used the formula

Spacing = Holding capacity per m ÷ (Runoff coefficient X Maximum rainfall in one event)

The volume of the swales per metre was to be around 1.7 cubic metres. The maximum rain in one large event in the area is 10 cm. From this, I calculated the approximate spacing for the spaces at 30 metres. Using the GPS, I was able to find the level for the second swale, 30m down from the top, then the 3rd level, 30 m down from there.


We needed to map out the contour sites, so we tracked down some local engineers with a dumpy level. It turns out that the engineers owed a friend of the landowner a favour, so they came out to the site for free and mapped out the contour points for 4 swales on 3 different contours. While I planned on mapping the site myself, their proficiency had them finishing the mapping in half the time it would have taken me. They put us ahead of schedule by one day.

The map of the site showing the swales in red and the level-sill spillways in yellow.

The swales were excavated without too much incident with the total excavation taking about 3 and a half days to move 600 cubic metres of earth. We didn’t have the backhoe do everything. We simply had it dig trenches 3 metres wide and 50 cm deep, placing the excavated earth on the downhill side of the trench. The rest we were leaving to be groomed by hand. At one point, we hit rock that would have taken hours for the backhoe to chip through. In such cases, it is simplest to try to go around either uphill or downhill around the rock. We opted to go uphill. Apart from that one little snag, the rest of the excavation went as quickly as one could expect considering the soil was nearly as hard as concrete.

We hired a team of ten labourers to groom the site. Because the soils were so hard, however, we had the backhoe come back and chip off the uphill edge of the trenches it dug to make the process faster. The first day of grooming was gruelling work for the work team. They had to rely on picks to be able to chip through the earth to smooth out the edges of the swale. Grooming the mound was much easier as the soil there was already broken up. In the end, I had hoped to get the mounds groomed to a more gentle slope while the workers were there, but time ran out before we could get everything as perfect as the ideal I held in mind. Still, the edges are not steep and erosion should not be a problem.

On the night before the final day of work, the heavens opened up and released a torrent on the site. Excited to see the swales in action, the landowner rushed out in the middle of the night to see them fill up with water that would otherwise have washed down the hill in an erosive flood. When I arrived on site the last day, the top swale and one of the lower swales were full of water due to the slower infiltration from their slightly higher clay contents. Already they were a home to some very happy frogs that, with the rains, had come out of hibernation.

The rains transformed the earth from a concrete-like surface to a soft and yielding one. This made the final grooming much, much easier. In order to help make the swales more durable, I had the work team put in compacted, level-sill spillways set at 90 cm from the bottom of the swales. With them in place, water can spill gently over the top in very heavy rains, greatly reducing the chance of erosion damaging the swales. The workers seemed to get a kick out of me inspecting the spillway with a site level and having them fix spots that were a few millimetres out. While it may seem fanatical, if the spillway is not dead-level, flowing water will concentrate in the lower spots. When it is concentrated, it moves faster, and when it moves faster, it has more erosive potential.

Workers compacting the soil to create a level-sill spillway to allow overflow without eroding the swale.

Since the monsoon season hit just as the project was completed, it started collecting water right away. Within three weeks of the completion of the swales, they had already captured and saved over half a million litres of water. The land owner was initially worried about the amount of land that the swales took up – land that would otherwise have been dedicated to the mango tree crop that is to go in later. But upon seeing the results of the swales in action, he knew they were the right thing to do.

I was very fortunate to have the agroforestry expertise of the Green Tree Foundation to assist in the selection of tree species from the site. The plan was to plant a windbreak crop and living fence consisting of Gliricidia sepium, Caesalpinia crista and Sapindus trifoliate. G. sepium is a fast-growing nitrogen fixer with medicinal properties. C. crista makes a good windbreak and has anti-malarial properties. Sapindus trifoliate, as the name suggests, is rich in saponins, meaning it makes a great soap. Its fruit, which resembles a date, is a valuable crop that fetches a good price on the local market. I have received word from the Green Tree Foundation that these windbreak trees have already been planted on site and are doing well. When the mango crops go in, the Green Tree Foundation will provide nitrogen-fixing support trees to assist in the growth of the mango trees.

Given the swales and the addition of the trees, I suspect that within 3-years time, springs will appear at the bottom of the hill below the site. With the site’s exposure next to the national highway and the growing notoriety of the farmer we worked with, it is hoped that our project will be replicated by others throughout the area. I have been invited back by my friends at the Green Tree Foundation to do more work in the area, and I look forward to the day when funding permits me to go there again and carry out more projects.

The work team and the designer celebrate the project's completion.

Species of the Month: Morus alba (White Mulberry)

Species of the Month: Morus alba
By Douglas Barnes

This month, we’ll take a look at the white mulberry, Morus alba. In the Species of the Month series, we’ve looked at some truly amazing plants and fungi. I thought I would make it easy on myself by doing a "simple" tree. Well, I thought wrong. I knew some of the uses of this tree, but as it turns out Morus alba offers many benefits and carries out many different tasks.


First off, this fast-growing tree is useful for controlling erosion. It also provides shade and can act as a windbreak. The leaf litter improves the soil. White mulberry has been adapted to many climates from tropical USDA zone 11 to chilly zone 4. The tree is coppiceable and survives short-rotation coppicing very well - I have seen M. alba thrive on a 2-month coppicing cycle, which is an amazingly short rotation. Mind you, this was in the tropics. Mulberry would not last very long on such a short cycle in temperate climates.

Mulberry can be propagated through coppicing or through seeds. Coppice shoots can be cut and treated with rooting compound or the coppice stool can be covered with soil after the shoots are around 30 cm tall. Left under the soil, the buried part of the shoots will grow roots. The shoot can then be carefully dug out and cut for transplanting. When propagating from seeds, soak the seeds in cold water for 1 week before planting. Mulberries grow best in dry to well-drained soils.

The wood is useful for both construction and woodworking. As a fuel, it will produce from 4370 to 4770 kilocalories of energy per kilogram or around 25.8 million BTUs per cord, making it an excellent fuel tree. In coppice production, it would make a goode fuel tree, provided it were grown in a small-scale operation. The bark from mulberry has its uses. It is used to make high quality paper and can be made into textile.

The leaves can be used for fodder. Ruminants can be fed up to 60% of diet with mulberry fodder. Mulberry also increases milk yields in cows. The leaves are also famously used in sericulture – raising silkworms. For this, mulberry is grown on short rotation; the leaves are chopped and then fed to silkworms.

Mulberry leaves being chopped for silkworms.

Silkworms fed on white mulberry leaves.

Mulberry can also be used as human food. While the young leaves can be eaten, it is the fruit that is sought after. High in vitamin C, iron, calcium and potassium, the berries are very tasty. Unfortunately, the only way to enjoy fresh mulberries is to pick them. Being quite fragile, they do not pack or transport well. Mulberries are used to make jellies, pies, juice and wine.

There are plenty of medicinal uses for mulberry as well. It has antibacterial properties, is used to treat rheumatism, reduces fevers, and helps induce sweating.

The leaves are used to treat insect bites and the cineole content in the leaves makes them useful as an expectorant. The limone in the leaves has antitumor properties. Some research suggests that the leaves could be used to help prevent type II diabetes. The fruit is used to treat upset stomachs and sore throats. And the bark is used to treat stomach aches, neuralgia pain and edema.
If you have the right conditions and the room, a mulberry tree would make an excellent addition to your permaculture garden.

Permaculture versus Conventional: Corn

Permaculture versus Conventional: Corn
By Douglas Barnes

Note: While this piece is rather hard on the practices of conventional agricultural science, it is not to be taken as an indictment of science or the scientific method. Indeed, I greatly encourage more science. What motivated me to write this is the alarming positions and attitudes of followers of the religion of scientism, which I feel is one of the more harmful fundamentalisms in the world today.


Imagine two different people of two different mindsets want to grow corn: one a permaculturist, the other a conventional agricultural scientist. Imagine both have unlimited resources. One sees corn as being a part of an interconnected system that interacts with everything around it. The other sees corn as a combination of inputs. One view looks at corn as an organism that affects and is affected by its environment. The other view looks at corn as a machine.

The Conventional Approach

The agricultural scientist knows that corn is a demanding crop, so after plowing the land and applying glyphosate herbicide on upstart weeds, he or she fertilizes the soil with a commercial synthetic fertiliser. After all, plants grow better when they have a good nutrient supply. Unfortunately for the scientist, plowing kills beneficial worms and fungi and damages soil structure, increasing erosion. Plowing also oxidizes some of the carbon in the soil, releasing it to the atmosphere as CO2. Apart from being a significant contributor to green house gas emissions, this also reduces the carbon content. Reducing the carbon content reduces the cation exchange capacity of the soil, which is the ability of the soil to transfer essential minerals to plants. In other words, it makes the soil less fertile.

The glyphosate applied might be a brand that has a surfactant which is highly toxic to amphibians. In any event, glyphosate increases the risk of fusarium, a toxic fungus. Glyphosate is also linked to acute health risks including but not limited to headaches, skin and eye irritation, nausea, numbness, increased blood pressure, and heart palpitations and longer term health risks including lesions in salivary glands, inflamed stomach linings, genetic damage in human blood cells, reduced sperm counts (in testing on rats) and abnormal sperm (in testing on rabbits), and cancer (non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in humans and liver tumors and thyroid cancer in rats). So, let’s hope the scientist is careful and has good health coverage.

Hopefully, the fertiliser is not one that holds the nutrients in a cadmium salt as cadmium will further kill off fungi. On its own, the synthetic fertiliser will shift the soil in a bacteria-dominant direction and reduce fungal content with or without cadmium. The synthetic fertiliser also reduces the carbon content of the soil making it less hospitable to life and less fertile, reducing its capacity to retain water, and degrading soil structure thus increasing erosion.

As the corn starts coming up, weeds start popping up again, so a second run with glyphosate is made. This time, the agricultural scientist experienced some tingling skin and burning sensation in the throat.

The corn came up, but the field was full solely of corn, proving to be a smorgasbord for corn borers. Even spraying could not control them all. Clearly there is a problem.

Being clever, the scientist goes into the genetics lab and isolates the cry 1Ab gene from Bacillus thuringiensis ssp. kurstaki, the nptII gene, an intron (a non-coding section of a gene) from the heat shock protein hsp 70, the CaMV 35S promoter gene from the cauliflower mosaic virus and the NOS terminator sequence from Agrobacterium tumefaciens and sets them on the plasmid vector pV-ZMBK07. Plasmid vector pV-ZMGT10 carries the CP4 EPSPS gene from Agrobacterium tumefaciens and the gox gene from Achromobacter strain LBAA and the nptII gene. These are coated on microscopic BBs and fired into corn cells to transfer the DNA. Simple enough, right?

Wow. Millions of dollars later, the copy of the gene cry 1Ab gene was incomplete. If you don’t know what this means, don’t feel bad. No one does. No one knows exactly how this affects the functioning of the genetically modified corn. There was another problem, unfortunately. The terminator sequence to turn off the promoter gene was absent but made it to market anyway. Promoters can affect the DNA 40,000 base pairs down from them. So what is the CaMV 35S promoter promoting besides the inserted transgenes? What are the health implications, if any, of this? What are the environmental effects? Is the incomplete cry 1Ab gene coding for something slightly unique rather than the predicted insecticidal toxin? If so, is this unique attribute helpful or harmful to human health? Independent research has suggested that there were some deletions or rearrangements in the host corn DNA. What affect, if any, is this having on the corn’s nutritional content, human health and environmental safety? Is glycosylation (an enzymatic process attaching carbohydrates to other molecules in cells) causing unpredicted effects when this GMO is ingested? This has been seen with other GMOs. Has the disruption in gene order (something known to be important) had any harmful side effects? And if the only changes made are those that theory designed and predicted, why does this corn have higher lignin content than conventional corn? What about the recent finding of decreased fertility in rats fed the corn?

And it turns out that the pollen and detritus from the plant are toxic to caddisflies and preliminary research done in Russia suggests that the corn is toxic to mice. Further research is not done, however, as industry-lead science is not interested in funding a project that might show that one of its controversial cash cows may be dangerous. The current approach to finding the long-term effects on human health, if any, is to avoid looking at the long-term effects on human health. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. If this were not enough, the corn still has to be sprayed, albeit not as much as it had before.

With millions spent, the agricultural scientist has increased greenhouse gas emissions, decreased soil fertility, increased erosion, increased pest losses, decreased yield, killed off local amphibians, decreased biodiversity, consumed more energy than the crop yielded, and compromised human and environmental health in a number of different ways. If that were not enough, 10 calories of energy were consumed to produce one calorie of corn.

The Permaculture Approach

It must first be noted that the permaculturist uses sustainability as a measuring stick. That means the energy created by his or her system to grow corn must capture and store more energy than goes into creating and maintaining that system. In other words, the net energy balance must be positive without fudging the accounting.

The permaculturist knows that corn is a demanding crop and will require healthy soils. As such, he or she has set aside a patch and has allowed it to overgrow with weeds and has chopped and mulched those weeds in place to build up soil fertility. Perhaps the permaculturist has added some kelp meal for trace elements. He or she has seeded the site with mycorrhizal fungi spores and/or transplants (probably Glomus species) to increase plant health. King stropharia mushroom spawn (Stropharia rugoso annulata) is added to the mulch to benefit the corn and provide an extra yield as is done in Eastern Europe.

Climate permitting, the permaculturist might adopt the Central American technique called frijol tapado. This method involves allowing the land to fallow for 2 or 3 years until woody weeds are dominant. Grasses will be competitive with the crop, but the woodier weeds will not be. Beans and corn are scattered directly into the weeds. Then the weeds are chopped and dropped to create mulch for the crop. (This system works well enough to produce 60 to 70% of the beans grown in Costa Rica.)

If this technique is not possible, the site needs to be cleared for planting. But the idea of tearing up the soil is unthinkable as it destroys fungal life in the soil, decreases fertility, and breaks down soil structure, contributing to erosion. Furthermore, the act of plowing creates an ideal niche for a raft of weeds that thrive in disturbed soils. The clearing could be done by hand, but doing the work yourself when it could be done by another and could benefit another is foolish. So, the permaculturist sends in the chickens. Penned in the desired area and kept on the hungry side, they tear through the weeds and contribute phosphorus-rich, natural fertiliser at the same time. Their droppings will also increase the number of worms on site, further benefitting the soil.

The corn is planted, but to help meet nitrogen needs, it is intercropped with clover and beans to fix nitrogen. Beans have also been shown to decrease outbreaks of leafhoppers and fall armyworm when intercropped with corn. Clover and soybeans have been found to decrease losses from the European cornborer. Weeds want to be avoided, so to back up clover as a ground cover, squash is planted. The added benefit to this groundcover is the food it yields. Squash also reduces losses in corn to spider mites and aphids. Bee balm is thrown in as a beneficial attractor, encouraging predatory insects and attracting pollinators. Over-concentrating corn is avoided as this would be too attractive to pests. Dr. Jane Mt. Pleasant of Cornell University has run trials of 3-sisters plots (3 sisters being a corn, bean and squash mix) against conventionally grown monocultural corn plots and found the calories produced in the 3-sisters system were 17% higher per unit area.

Wildflower strips along the perimeter of the patch are intentionally grown. These provide a haven for predatory insects, allowing them to overwinter and providing summer habitat for them. The flowers act as attractors for beneficial parasitoids, which help control pests such as cornborers. These parasitoids seek out caterpillars like the cornborer and lay eggs on them. The eggs hatch and burrow into the caterpillar, eating it from the inside out. The sugars from the flowers increase the adult parasitoids’ fertility, lifespan, and host-searching activities. The permaculturist is confident in this approach because field studies have shown this technique to be effective in controlling pest insects.

The permaculturist also plants silverleaf desmodium (Desmodium uncinatum) and molasses grass (Melinis minutiflora) in patches amongst the corn, which has been shown to repel stem-borers. Sudan grass (Sorghum vulgare) and napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) are planted on the margins as this has been shown to lure away stem borers. Furthermore, all four of these grasses are useful as animal fodder. In Kenya where this method was developed, stem borers were shown to be cut by 80% over control plots.

As the soil has been built up, it grows healthier food. Recent research by chemist Dr. Donald R. Davis of the University of Texas shows significant declines in nutrition in conventional agricultural produce over the past 90 years. And this falls in line with other studies as well.

So, the soil in the permaculturist’s plot has been fed and the use of plowing and biocides avoided, increasing soil life. In other words, the soil is in a healthier condition than it previously had been. So compared to the agricultural scientist’s approach, the soil is healthier, the food is healthier, biodiversity is greater, the watershed has not been contaminated, pest losses are lower, more calories have been produced, less money has been spent, and human health has benefited from the practice rather than been compromised.


References available upon request.

Nature's Mosquito Control

Nature's Mosquito Control:
Designing Against Mosquitoes, Malaria and the West Nile Virus


By Scott A. Meister

One thing that can always dampen a good summer day is an itchy bite from a mosquito. In some places, a bite from a mosquito can transmit diseases and even end your life. Recent outbreaks of mosquitoes in Texas have caused concern about West Nile Virus. However, Malaria is a global concern. Malaria is the leading cause of death and illness in Rwanda (fightingmalaria.org). According to the Roll Back Malaria website, There are at least 300 million acute cases of malaria each year globally, resulting in more than a million deaths. Around 90% of these deaths occur in Africa alone, and mostly in young children
http://www.rbm.who.int/cmc_upload/0/000/015/370/RBMInfosheet_3.htm



In fact, the vast Majority of Malaria deaths occur in Africa where it has been estimated to cost more than US　$12 billion every year in lost GDP. It’s interesting to note, that Malaria could be controlled for just a small part of that sum.

There are two basic approaches to fixing natural problems such as this. The first (and most costly) is the Capitalistic/Industrial approach and the second (more reasonable) is to use a more holistic and natural approach.

The usual capitalistic and industrial approach to fighting this illness is to spend lots of money and other valuable resources on things that can be manufactured and sold to treat the problem. If humans can capitalise on a problem by making money, that is usually considered the most obvious course of action. In the over-developed world, this is almost always the first course of action. PR firms are the first to broadcast man-made chemical solutions to problems. Commercials posing as news, scream, “…only DEET will do.” Fortunately the logical fallacy of T.I.N.A. (There Is No Alternative)…is just that…a fallacy, and there are numerous other, more ecological approaches to mosquito management. Furthermore, the energy intensive nature of this process and the resource consumption involved makes this an un-sustainable option.

The first, commercial/industrial approach mentioned above, involves using potentially harmful insecticides that kill indiscriminately and destroy the web of life without regard to long-term consequences to health and the ecosystem. Interestingly, pesticides are now known to contribute further down the line to other more costly, and difficult to treat, illnesses such as cancer. Secondly, millions of dollars and resources are spent researching, developing, testing and manufacturing drugs to cure ill patients (again, with largely unknown consequences). Thirdly, chemical repellents are manufactured, shipped and sold. The repellents are often lotions or sprays which are put into contact with the skin. Putting these chemicals on the skin puts people at risk of CSS (Chemical Sensitivity Syndrome) a.k.a. TI (Toxic Injury) which has become a growing and serious problem in the industrial era. Exposure to chemicals has been shown to play a significant role in problems such as “premature birth; male genital defects; learning, attention, and emotional disturbances; early puberty; obesity; and low sperm quality.” (-quoted from (www.environmentcalifornia.org)

To make matters worse large amounts of fossil fuels (limited and disappearing resources) are being used to manufacture and ship these items across the globe. Unfortunately for most, especially in the communities that suffer from malaria such as in Africa…money is not available to pay for the manufacture and shipment of pesticides, medicine and potentially harmful chemical repellents. The Texan “newly rich” from the oil and chemical business, can afford to pay for DEET (in the short term while resources last) but the earth, and the rest of the world can’t.

Fortunately, for the lesser fortunate people on earth, there is a cheaper, simpler, sustainable and eco-friendly approach to managing and controlling both mosquito’s, Malaria and West Nile Virus. It can be practiced anywhere...even in your own back yard, regardless of whether malaria or West Nile Virus is an immediate threat to you or not. It is a natural answer to a natural problem, costs very little, and once implemented...continues to produce long-term results requiring very little energy or money to maintain. It’s a gift that keeps on giving...a gift of nature.

Nature has evolved over millions of years to produce the checks and balances necessary to keep each of its element in control. Humans, with their “free-will” have been able to mess a bit of that up. We are the “loose-cannons” in the eco-system, so to speak. When humans run into a threat from nature, they often believe they have a right to “pull rank” and come up with some man-made piece of technology to address the threat. This technology usually wreaks more havoc, causing more, newer threats requiring further technological fixes that wreak even more havoc…and on and on.

The smarter solution is to observe nature, answer natural problems with nature’s own solutions whenever and wherever possible. It shows more intelligence in man if we can cooperate with nature, and help manage what it has already given us. We’re a part of nature, but our technology isn’t.

In a healthy, ecosystem, pests and diseases don’t run amok. This is because nature’s design uses biodiversity and various tricks such as plants with a certain scent, aroma or color and predators, natural barriers and limits, etc to keep everything in check. There are no mono-cultures in nature, there are no “lawns.”

By mimicking nature’s bio-diverse design in our own landscape, we can come up with a way to protect ourselves from the pesky mosquito and the viruses they carry. Sustainable solutions to natural problems such as malaria follow the following formula. Natural Repellent/Barrier, Predator (and predator attractant/habitat), Natural Herbal Antidote. Let's examine each.


Natural Mosquito Repellents/Barriers　(Plant it…and they will NOT come):

Mosquitoes are often repelled by scent. The scent that has proven most effective in repelling mosquitoes comes from Citronella macronata, which is a tree that can be planted as a hedge. This serves two purposes, first by exuding the scent which repels mosquitoes, and by providing a habitat and food for birds that eat mosquitoes. The Citronella plant attracts birds with berries, while also providing both nesting for them and cover from it’s own predators. Mosquito repellent and predator attractant and habitat are provided all in one tree. Two hits for the price of one..and once planted, they continue growing, and can give free cuttings/seed to be spread to other areas to grow. Did I say free? Yes, and I’d say that’s a rather cheap solution.

The citronella compound has also been bred into the “lemon geranium” which exudes the same scent, and is being used to repel mosquitoes at the herb layer. Lemon geraniums can be planted under or around windows, or can flank the sides of doorways to repel mosquitoes while providing beautiful flowers and a pleasant lemon scent to any shelter where humans spend time and sleep.

Catnip is another common herb that contains an oil that is supposedly 10 times better at repelling mosquitoes than using the expensive, resource-consumptive chemical DEET. Catnip can also be used as a (mildly stimulating) tea for human consumption.

The popular culinary herb, Rosemary, also has an oil that is effective in repelling mosquitoes. Because it’s a tropical plant, and thus not very cold-hardy, it should be planted in pots in cold climates and taken inside for winter. However, if you’re in Africa, it can be planted in window boxes, hung in pots around windows, or planted with lemon geraniums around doorways. It could even be planted and kept indoors near windows that have a lot of light as an interior repellent.

Citronella grass is a tropical grass that grows to be 6-feet tall, and happens to be where companies get the citronella oil that they put in candles and lanterns that can be burned to repel mosquitoes. While not very practical for the dreaded suburban lawn due to it’s height, it could be planted as a decorative grass to flank windows and doors to help repel mosquitoes.

Another grass that has potential in fighting mosquitoes and malaria is the Vetiver grass, which is a clumping grass helpful in fighting erosion and soil stabilization. Vetiver grass roots are aromatic and have been used to weave screens that can be used on windows and ventilation areas for homes. Spraying these screens with a mist of water, helps to cool air flowing through them while simultaneously enhancing the aroma, and thus repellent power of the screens.


-Mosquito Predators, Attractant and Habitat -
“Can’t beat ‘em? Then build it or plant it, and they will come and eat’m’”

photo by Richard Seaman

If we wish to get malaria under control, we need to focus on controlling the mosquito population. We can do this most efficiently and effectively not by using ever-repeating applications of poison (which can backfire on us and our immune systems), but by attracting and providing habitat for the mosquitoes natural predators. Some of the more famous of these predators are Bats, Birds, Dragonfly and a fish so adept to eating mosquitoes that it’s taken on the suiting name Mosquito Fish (Gambusia affins).


By providing the proper habitat for these creatures, we can have them manage the mosquito population for us.


To invite the dragonfly in to help, we can plant Bullrush and Cattail, two plants that attract this mosquito devouring insect that can eat thousands of mosquitoes. Bullrush and Cattail should be planted around ponds, and these ponds can be used to control mosquito larvae by stocking them with the Mosquito Fish (Gambusia affins) and guppies. These fish can eat thousands of mosquito larvae, helping to reduce the adult mosquito population. If stocking ponds with these fish, care should be taken to also stock the ponds with water plants, as Gambusia also require plants to eat, and to provide breeding cover. The population of larvae that survives to become adult, can be eaten by dragonflies and birds nearby.

Last, but certainly NOT the least, when it comes to mosquito population management, is our champion mosquio predator, the bat. A healthy bat population can devour millions of mosquitos in an evening. To insure that they help clear our surrounding areas of malaria carrying pests…we can build and install bat-houses in a nearby area. Perhaps, a bat-house could be placed on a high post between the pond and living abodes. An extra added benefit to building and installing bat-houses…is that bats also provide a valuable fertilizer in the form of guano. This guano can be harvested from below bat-houses and be used in the garden.


Proven Home-Grown Antidote Herbal Remedies:
“Nature’s doorstep pharmacy”



The Chinese have been using Artemisia annua (a.k.a. sweet wormwood) to cure fevers for centuries. Recent scientific studies have found that the substance artemisinin is high enough in the blood after ingesting Artemisia tea to cure malaria. Thousands of plants can be grown from a single cutting, and the leaves can be harvested, dried and stored without too much intensive labor…making for a cheap and easy to produce remedy on the doorstep of any home, village or hospital.

“The daily adult dose of anti-malaria tea requires mixing just 5g of dried A-3 [Artemisia annua-ed.] leaves in 1L of water. This tincture is split into four parts and taken once every six hours. This is repeated for seven days. Given that each plant yields 200g dry weight, 1000 shrubs can cure malaria in 5700 adults…. Even after three years, dried leaves retain practically 100 percent of their artemisinin content, suggesting that under proper conditions Artemisia medicines can be stored for a long time.”
- http://www.newsfromafrica.org/newsfromafrica/articles/art_10249.html



Douglas Barnes pointed out to me recently that if there is an area in need of a medicinal security hedge, the plant Latakaranja (Caesalpinia crista) is considered to be one of the best medicines to cure malaria. However, care should be taken when handling the plant due to the prickliness of it’s branches and fruit, but this makes it a potentially valuable species to use as a security barrier or hedge for a property. Also, compared to Artemisia, this plant requires more processing time, energy and knowledge to successfully make a form of ingestible medicine. Taking that into consideration, it is also worthy to note that this plant is a common mangrove tree climber, and could be made use of in salt-water marsh areas where some plant species might be difficult to cultivate.
To use this plant (famed for use in Ayurvedic medicine all over India for centuries) the website http://www.herbalcureindia.com/herbs/caesalpinia-crista.html suggests...
…“The combination of its roasted seeds powder, pippali (1:1) is given with honey, approximately 0.5 gm., three times a day for 3-4 days duration. Another combination recommended for malaria is the powders of marica and latakaranja (Sakra vati). The splenic enlargement due to malaria, responds well to latakarnja. The leaves fried in ghee, eliminate vata and relieve constipation, hence valuable in piles.”

THE FINAL DESIGN:

Diagram by Douglas Barnes of EcoEdge Design Ltd.

To fit this all into a design is relatively simple. Structures for human use should be built with screens on windows, doors and vents made from vetiver grass (which can be grown and hand-woven on site), herbs such as lemon (citronella) geraniums, rosemary and catnip should be planted below windows (ideally in window boxes) flanked by 6-foot citronella grass on both sides and by doorways. Walking paths can be lined with these same herbs and grasses. Around the structure, a wind-break (if necessary), or security hedge can be planted with the aromatic bird habitat of Citronella Macronata…as an understory to the Citronella tree, we should plant Artemisia annua. By getting into the habit of planting these species together, people can be educated to know that an antidote for malaria is nearby whenever they smell the fragrance of the Citronella tree.

Beyond the hedge on the opposite side from the structure we can construct ponds stocked with guppies, Gambusia affins, cattail, bullrush and other aquatic plants. Between the pond and the mosquito barrier hedge, we can place high posts with bat-houses on top.

With all these things working in concert, we can make a huge dent in the mosquito and malaria problem. By designing our human habitats wisely by mimicking nature’s bio-diverse system of checks and balances, we can also avoid waste of valuable resources (financial and otherwise). The long term benefits of managing nature to our advantage can save us time, money resources and lives.

Sources:

http://www.rbm.who.int/cmc_upload/0/000/015/370/RBMInfosheet_3.htm

http://www.aafp.org/afp/980901ap/magill.html

www.environmentcalifornia.org

http://www.environmentcalifornia.org/center/improving-environmental-health/growing-up-toxic

http://www.newsfromafrica.org/newsfromafrica/articles/art_10249.html

http://www.herbalcureindia.com/herbs/caesalpinia-crista.html

http://tidechaser.blogspot.com/2009/01/woodlands-mangrove.html

http://www.richard-seaman.com/

http://greensborogardens.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/rosemary21.jpg

India: The Talupula Site, Part II

India: The Talupula Site, Part II

By Douglas Barnes

Click here for Part I

First impressions

This May, I visited the town of Talupula in the drought-stricken Anantapur District in Andhra Pradesh, India at the invitation of the Green Tree Foundation. Although I had seen photographs and general climate data for the region, I was struck but how dry Andhra Pradesh is. The province generally receives 350 to 700 mm of rainfall a year, and though I would like to report more specific rainfall for the District where the project was carried out, repeated requests to the government meteorological office by the Green Tree Foundation over the years have gone ignored.

When I first arrived, I met an engineer from Talupula who is living and working in Hyderabad. I went over what I was planning to do in terms of earthworks, which included swales and possibly a dam. When I mentioned that swales can be built with the aid of a bulldozer with a tilting blade or a grater with a tilting blade, he said that the soils were very hard and would require an excavator.

Upon arriving in Talupula, I found the lateritic soils to be slightly more yielding than asphalt. The soils are ferralsols, which are an iron-rich lateritic soil that becomes hard after the land is stripped then subjected to repeated wetting and drying – just the conditions that occur in the dry tropics. When wet, they are very workable and may even bog down machinery working on it. When dry, they are are hard as pavement. In these soils, calcium, magnesium, potassium and sodium are weathered out, and there is next to no humus content in the soil. As a result, the cation exchange capacity is low, meaning that plant health suffers. While these soils do tend to lose potassium easily (another argument against the common practice there of burning pasture land as a management strategy), they do hold onto phosphorus well. They also respond well to amendments of lime and gypsum, though this was beyond the scope of our project.

The Indian government is in the process of building a large irrigation channel to divert the flow of the nearest major river to the drier regions of the south. While I am personally skeptical of the ecological viability of this project, visiting the excavation site for the channel did give me the opportunity to examine the typical soil strata of the area. Lateritic soils are deep – sometimes running down to 20 metres in depth. I could see from the channel excavation that the gravelly soil continued down at least 8 metres to the bottom of the channel. All that gravel meant that I would not be designing and constructing an earthen dam as the gravelly conditions require considerable engineering for dam construction. The focus then became on swales and possibly gabions.

Obula Swami

Before I left Canada, a site in Talupula on public land on a small mountain outside of town was suggested. It is said that the deity Obula Swami lives at the summit of that hill. Our potential site there was the highest practical site to work on. On firsthand inspection, however, I found that the access to the site was difficult and there was very limited space to work in. There also were a number of rock walls already build on the site to combat erosion. And as it was public land, would it be subject to neglect, or destruction? A further problem was that shepherds regularly burn the land there, so establishing trees would be difficult at best.

We looked at a second site at the foot of the same mountain on private land. There was a good catchment and plenty of room to work on. After contacting the farmer, though, the restrictions he set made working there not worthwhile.

Gangahadr

For a few days, we were stuck without a site to work on. Then we got the approval of an organic farmer outside of town to do whatever we liked on a 7-acre hillside patch of his land. The farmer, Gangahadr, had already greatly benefited from the agroforestry advice of the Green Tree Foundation and was eager to see what we could do. The land was not too steep, and the nick point on the land (the point at which the hillside goes from convex to concave) was high enough that we could get up near the top of the hill and put in a series of swales. Being private, the land would be well cared for and access to it controlled. Gangahadr had a growing reputation in the area for excellent results, and the site was visible from the national highway, giving the project more exposure. As an added bonus, the site was adjacent to and would thus compliment a rock check dam built in 2005 by the Rural Development Trust. The effect of that dam has been to change the land downstream from desert-like conditions to a rich oasis. This was the site. I met with the Ganghadr and got his permission to build swales on his land.

In Part III, we will look at site planning, implementation, and the results so far.