Amaranth to Zai Holes: Ideas for Growing Food Under Difficult Conditions

Amaranth is a drought-tolerant plant which provides both high-protein grain and delicious edible leaves. Zai holes use termites to improve soil fertility and increase water filtration in farmers' fields in West Africa. These are just two of the plants and techniques people are using to produce food under difficult growing conditions in the troics.

This book is an expanded, updated compilation of fifteen years of the technical bulletin ECHO Development Notes (EDN). Over 4,000 people in 140 countries share their ideas and experiences through EDN as they assist small farmers and urban gardeners in feeding their families and making a living. This collection of ideas from around the world holds promise for places which face special challenges in growing food. The topics include vegetables, fruits, dryland and hillside farming systems, multipurpose trees, pest control, animals, seeds and urban gardening.

ECHO networks ideas, information and seeds to help development workers and missionaries in their service with people who are hungry. We share information about plants and methods with potential to improve nutrition and income in the tropics so that field workers have more ideas to test in their communities.