AwRastaale wrote:Gurey,
Nice one. What about teff? I heard it needs less water and is now regarded as one of the best grains. As well as people (poppy seeds) animals can enjoy the grass. Therefore you kill two birds with one stone.
I reckon we should experiment some in Sanaag, Gabiley and the Togdheer savanna. It needs very minimal water. It grows super fast. You need a crop with quick turn around to mass feed the people and animals.
I'm considering trying some in Sabawanaag. I have never farmed but currently I'm searching for Australian farmers in my state where I can volunteer on weekends to learn few tricks.
Recommend reading:
http://www.aginnovators.org.au/news/glu ... down-under
Teff is excellent, nutrition wise it is one of the best grains, but growing it the traditional way takes to much drudging labour,
and somalis dont like hard work at all.
harvesting is not a problem, it can be mechanized and even if done by hand, its no problem,
treshing it is difficult and time consuming, but new simple machines , hand powered can solve this.
The problem is planting and weeding.
Preparing the ground for sowing and weeding is too difficult.
We need to redesign the entire process around somali mentality.
It can be done..
Why not let the animals do all the work, the weeding, ground preparation and fertilizing?
It will be messy, look disorganized, and we need to get used to dozens of plants growing along with our crops
but its doable.
Why not select a good patch of grassland, then we mob graze it with sheep, let them eat everything and shit all over the place.
You make them run up and down the patch of land, 100 hectares or so, till they trample over their manure .
Then you move them.
just before the rains you use clay seed balls like masunobo fukoaka pioneered, and broadcast them all over the place in a high density.
It rains and the teff, sourghum, pearl millet, and barley that you sow will start growing.
They will grow faster than the perrenial grasses that were already there and are regrowing on their own.
In 45-50 days you come back and harvest the teff, then 60-80 you harvest the pearl millet and the sourghum in 100 days, along with the barley.
Then you run your livestock all over the land to eat all the yummy plants, and start the cycle again.
The mix of plants prevents disease,no need to weed.
The yield will be lower than commercial farms, but potentially still good at ~900 tonnes per hectare.
low labour requirment, no fertilizer or pesticides.
and you get to feed your livestock on the same land.