" FERMES ACTUALITES " ………. NOUVEAUTES TECHNIQUES DU RESEAU……..

SONGHAI-FORMAP
BULLETIN N° 03
FORMATION ET ANIMATION PAYSANNE
JUIN 1997

Soil fertilization with cotton seeds

• Make beds on all the surfaces to be planted
  
• Make small holes in the beds
  
• Fill the holes with cottonseeds
  
• Cover with a good layer of sand and water for 4 or 5 days. The seeds decompose and thereby fertilize the soil. Any kind of plant may be grown and left for at least one month without using any other fertilizer. Sylvain de SOUZA (Bolicon)
  

Eucalyptus nursery

• Collect from the tree the fruits which are still in their covering.
  
• Allow the coverings to open by themselves. The seeds are thus set free.
  
• Collect them and dry in a container or a drier exposed to the sun. The seeds are very small (20 times smaller than a grain of rice).
  
• Fill the seed tray with laterite or red earth and set aside in a shaded place.
  
• Scatter the seeds on it and wet slightly (the use of a spray is very efficient), then properly cover with straw. The seeds have completely germinated by the end of 10 days and can be bedded after 2 or 3 weeks. (Gabriel EZIN, Aheme Village, Mono)
  

Treatment for scabs, moths and sores in rabbits and other animals.

You can effectively treat the scabs, moths and sores which attack animals very often, especially rabbits. All you need to do is prepare a good solution of wild tomato leaves (lycopersicum esculentum). Here is the procedure.

Preparing the solution:

• Look in the bush for wild tomato leaves.
  
• Crush or pound them to extract the liquid.
  
• To ¼ liter of liquid add a capful of kitchen salt, 25ml of kerosene and 2 capfuls of ground sulphur.
  
• Mix thoroughly. The product is ready.
  

Application
To effectively apply this product

• Scrape or clean properly the infected part
  
• Apply the product on the part. The animal is healed quickly!
  

"Anti-flight" collar for poultry

• Take a rope which is not too long but strong enough.
  
• Attach one end to one of the bird's wings, without knotting too tightly.
  
• Pass the rope against the animal's chest, and then attach the other wing with the second end of the rope.
  Your poultry (hens, pigeons, ducks, etc.) is now restrained. No more flying away again!
  

N.B:

1. For young chicks, check the knots once a month.
2.Adult birds don't need checking once the rope has not been tightly knotted from the start.
(GROPERE Villagers, Mono)

A THOUSAND-AND-ONE SECRETS

Grasscutters (African giant bushrat) love hay made from rice, soya or beans, seasoned with a bit of kitchen salt. (Alain CHABI)

How delicious! The kernel of baobab seed is very rich in protein (41%). When added to a sauce, its taste and aroma are incomparable. It is good for animals as well as for humans. Have a taste - you won't regret it!

Treat malaria with baobab fruit

• Malaria can be treated by regularly drinking the juice of baobab fruit.
  
• Dilute in water the white powder of the baobab fruit. Add some sugar - Your "anti-malaria syrup" is ready.
  
• Drink and you will be cured. Use baobab leaves flour to fatten up animals.
  
• Enrich your feed with well-dried baobab leaves. It is good for the animals and makes them grow fast. (Louis BANGANA)
  

Mosquitoes out!

Wipe out mosquitoes cheaply by putting a live coal in the very ripe pulp of a baobab fruit. An anti-mosquito smoke is produced. This secret works for humans as well as for animals.

How to make black stone for removing the venom of snakes and scorpions:

Technique

1. Cut the fresh tibia (uncooked) of a cow (according to the required size).
2. Put the piece of bone in a tin and close tightly.
3. Firmly tie some wire around the tin.
4. Throw the tin into the fire and allow to burn for 30 minutes.
5. Remove from the fire and allow to cool.
6. Open and remove the piece of carbonized bone.
7. Polish and file the bone. Your black stone is ready.
(Leon ADJAKOUN, Bante)

MARK ALL YOUR PIGS - IT MAKES MONITORING EASIER

• Monitoring of weight.
  
• Monitoring of generations
  
• Monitoring of consanguinity
  
• Buy a new razor blade, choose the sign, letter or number you will use to mark the animals so as to properly monitor them.
  
• Inscribe the sign, letter or number on the animal by shaving off the hair on the most visible part of its body.
  
• Use the same sign for all the animals belonging to the same lineage. This way you can better supervise your animals. (GROPERE Villagers, Mono)
  

TOPOGRAPHY WITHOUT BEING A SURVEYOR

To partition a piece of land into smaller areas dedicated to growing different kinds of plants, you don't need a surveyor. Here is a simple method that makes you succeed like a professional.
Using some rope, make a square which will enable you to obtain right angles or perpendiculars or parallels with respect to a given right.

Details of the method:

• Using the rope, make a very straight line. This will serve as the mark on which the square will be placed for obtaining perpendiculars (or parallels). Use the Pythagorean Theorem of the triangle to make the square.
  
• Take another piece of rope and make the knots (A,B,C).
  
• To each of the knots, attach a piece of wire as follows;
  
• Put in stakes at points A and B on the line earlier made by the piece of rope.
  
• Put a stake at point C also and join the two ends of the rope.
  
• You will obtain a triangle/ rectangle: starting from lines BC and BA, marked by the stakes, trace perpendicular and parallel lines in relation to your original reference line, using a very long rope. You can thus map out, bit by bit, rectangular and square portions of land at right angles, which will be your planting areas.
• Trace out alleys also, in order to make more rational use of your piece of land.