• Dr. Abawi
• Dr. Bellows
• Dr. Esnard
• Dr. Nelson
• Dr. Thees
• Dr. Thurston
• Dr. Trutmann
• Dr. Uphoff
• Dr. VIllani
• Dr. van Wambeke

Primary Partner

Zamorano
Dr. Alfredo Rueda, Project head,
Head of Crop production
(picture)

Dr. 

History of Soil health between Cornell and Zamorano 

(Picture of Zamorano)

Cornell has had a close partnership with the Pan American School for Agriculture (Zamorano) for over 20 years. , Cornell began to support Zamorano in soil health through the efforts of local Cornell coordinators and professors such as George Abawi, Mike Villani and Eric Nelson. In 1998 a well attended workshop was held at the College. Following the establishment of the International IPM initiative at Cornell in 1999 a collaborative project, funded by USAID, was begun in 2000 to support Zamorano in its efforts to improve bean, coffee, livestock and plantain production in various regions of Honduras. 

Reasons for soil health in Honduras:

Increasingly with intensification of agriculture, economic impoverishment and natural disasters, problems of maintaining soil health are becoming a concern in Honduras. Concerns include:

• loss of soil fertility through macro and micro nutrient imbalances, loss of organic matter and soil erosion, 
• increased levels of parasitic nematodes,soil-borne pathogens and arthropod pests through intensification and poor management practices, 
• increased pesticide residues in certain crops such as coffee, etc, and 
• water contamination or reduction due to poor land use practices. 

Concerns about soil health have intensified after hurricane Mitch. The effects of severe rainfall on erosion and landslides and flooding are still visible two years after the event. At the present time soil health is a high priority for farmers and local organizations. It is a ‘receptive moment’ to increase consciousness of farmers and field officers of organizations about the importance of soil and the need to change management practices. 

This project provides support in soil health to Zamorano’s efforts to increase production in beans, coffee, plantains and livestock. 

Administrative:

The soil health subcontract was agreed on in February 2000. Activities began soon thereafter on a soil health guide by the faculty at Cornell. In April the coordinator, John Reilly was hired half time. In July his position was increased to full time. The added capacity enabled work in Honduras to proceed at a faster pace. In November, the formal contract was signed between Cornell and Zamorano. Project funding became available in December 2000. 


Objectives and progress:

1. To collect, synthesize and analyze available information on soil health management for beans, coffee, plantains, and pastures both internationally and in Honduras, taking account of local best practices and knowledge.

Progress

In the first months of the program material was collected at Cornell through a soil health group and in Honduras to make the first draft of a soil health manual. The process of collection is an ongoing one, through collection for guide content (see section on the guide), student projects, Short term diagnostic visits by specialists and feedback from the experience of commodity programs. What has become clear is that much information that we thought existed does not exist, or is in an undigested, non-collated form, scattered within numerous institutions. The need for diagnosis has become ever more apparent and it conflicts with the aim and duration of the USAID Post Mitch reconstruction guidelines. These emphasize transfer of knowledge and technologies and tangible practical outcomes in a short period of time, rather than assessment and consideration of medium and longer-term needs.

Pictures Diagnosis ( Joseph, Peter, …)


2. Develop and use a simple and practical guide on soil health management for farmers and farmer support groups for each of the cropping systems.

Partners

• World neighbors
• Catholic relief Services
• FHIA
• CIAT
• Others

Progress

One of the products of the project is a soil health guide that is aimed primarily at the level of ‘promotores’, but with relevance to extensionists, teachers, and certain literate farmers. The guide follows the model of David Werner’s well known, highly successful medical guide called ‘Where there is no doctor.’ that has been translated into close to 130 languages. The guide is based on of, ‘where there is no doctor’, a self-help manual developed for human medicine for village workers, teachers, and families. Since August two rough versions of the draft prepared in English were translated into Spanish and distributed for comment to national partners, who range from NGOs, national and private research and training institutions, an international research center (CIAT) and Zamorano faculty. 


The guide is being prepared in stages. It includes many organizations. The first draft in English was developed by the Cornell soil health group and widely circulated for comments. The draft was translated into Spanish in September.

In October, a workshop was organized at Zamorano for partners to work through each draft chapter of the Spanish version together with an artist and designer. The coordinator and Zamorano faculty were supported by four Cornell faculty: Dr. Armand van Wambeke, professor in tropical soils , Dr. Joseph Esnard, nematologist, Dr. Barbara Bellows, extension specialist in natural resources and Dr. Peter Trutmann, IPM/Soil Health coordinator at Cornell. At the workshop changes were made by each group to improve the guide and future commitments made to oversee revisions of individual sections. The Catholic Relief Agency volunteered to test the guide in the field this season. 
where participants from Zamorano, World Neighbors, CIAT, Catholic Relief services, FHIA, and other NGOs looked at each chapter in teams and made changes and divided up responsibilities for the follow-up, of writing and testing the manual. 


(Pictures workshop)

After the workshop, the tasks were sent out to participants and work began on illustrations and formatting. A list serve was set up for members within the group to discuss issues within each task and on soil health in general. The list serve address is. If you wish to be placed on the list serve please contact P. Trutmann (pt15@cornell.edu), or Lucy Fisher (lhf2@cornell.edu). 

In April a new draft was developed 
(picture of cover) 

In June the guide is expected to be evaluated and improved again in the field


3. To develop soil health training courses and to use the guide to train trainers of farmers and individual farmers in soil health management within the ongoing programs in beans, coffee, plantain and pastures.

Cornell Staff and faculty involved

• John Reilly (Training in Honduras)
• Joseph Esnard (Nematode identification and methodology)
• George Abawi (Soil borne pathogen/nematode control)
• Mike Hoffman (Parasitioid multiplication and NY IPM training)

Activities

Mini-courses in soil health were developed for three of the commodity programs. The primary intent of these training activities was to gather relevant field information about farmer’s perceptions of soil within the USAID/Zamorano specified areas of coverage. Field visits were held in the bean, plantain, and coffee programs with over 250 farmers attended to throughout the month long process. The protocols for soil health analysis stemmed from a Soil Quality Test Kit (SQTK) developed by the USDA/ARS. The SQTK seeks to provide extensionists/promoters and farmers with portable tools to help define and assess soil health in a field-based situation. In certain instances the use of the SQTK was complemented by a participatory soil health scorecard methodology developed by the University of Wisconsin. The scorecard attempts to assist farmers/community members, through a simple evaluation process, to assign quantitative numbers to an overall assessment of their soil resources. Modification and translation of the original Wisconsin Soil Health Scorecard was provided within Honduras by the Centro de Investigacion Agricola de los Tropicos (CIAT). Comments by field-day participants suggest that the exercise is a helpful way to start the process of monitoring and evaluating soil health in local communities. 

Although it is clear that the guide will only become a basis for training later in the project, training courses have been developed by John Reilly on soil health for staff and farmers for beans, coffee, plantain and pastures. The courses were well attended and well received. The problem will be up scaling the work . 

(Picture of John with trainees)


4. To find and develop plots to demonstrate the effects of various practices and serve as a soil health methodology supermarket for farmers.


5. To initiate and complete short term applied studies to fill information gaps crucial to the development of the soil health management guide and training courses.

Cornell faculty, staff and students

• Dr. Mike Villani
• Mr. Paul Robbins
• Ms. Jodi Collins
• Mr. Timothy Porch

 · Jodi Collins, an MPS student conducted a project to diagnose the extent and severity of white grubs in Coffee in Honduras. Sampling methods were used to obtain both scientific and local farmer information. The results suggest that white grubs are considered a problem by farmers, but appear to be so only in nurseries and young plantations. 

· In a follow-up visit by Paul Robbins, white grub and pheromone specialist, further samples and species were identified. The study could lead to clear information on the severity and distribution of white grubs and management tools.

· The doctoral dissertation research of Timothy Porch in Plant Breeding was partially supported by the Soil Health Initiative 

6. Interchange of scientists and students between Zamorano and Cornell.

Five Cornell professors and two students visited Honduras and four Zamorano faculty have visited Cornell. We expect further exchanges to take place in 2001. 

(Picture of four Cornell faculty). 

So far, three Honduran technical personnel have come to Cornell for training and information. The visits included a three week training in nematological methods and identification in Dr. Joseph Esnard’s laboratory; visits to organic farms and laboratories of other faculty such as Dr. Abwi’s laboratory for support in soil pathogens, training in Dr. Mike Hoffman’s laboratory mass rearing of parasitoids, and visits to the NY IPM program to look at extension training. 


7. To archive soil analysis information from within the four commodity programs.

Cornell staff responsible

Mr. John Reilly

Activities

Soil samples have been taken in many sites. These are being evaluated and used to develop a baseline database on the current state of soils in the regions in which Zamorano works. The database will form the basis of a more extensive future reference source that will enable better monitoring of progress. 

8. To provide supervision in Zamorano student thesis projects.

Cornell Staff 

• Mr. John Reilly (
  Dr. George Abawi (support)
• Dr. Joseph Esnard (support) 
• Dr. Janice Thees (support)
  

Various students have been supported through the project:

· Ricardo Espinoza (coffee) is nearing the completion of a study that seeks to evaluate the effect of slope on certain biological, chemical, and physical soil quality indicators in two distinct coffee management systemss

· Juan Pablo Flores (beans) has completed field work in the preliminary evaluation of the effect of organic (bocashi) and chemical/traditional fertilization on a pre-selected set of soil health indicators.

· Mauricio Rivera (pasture) is closing the field component of a study that is monitoring the effects of soil quality on pasture systems that have been treated with different organic (cow manure) and chemical fertilization.

· Julio Mora (coffee) has begun the prescreening stage to isolate the most virulent strains of Fusarium oxysporum, one of the known casual agents of “damping off” disease at the seedling stage of coffee plants. His experimental design looks at the effectiveness of mycorrhizae and Trichoderma bio-control products in the control of this disease. 

· Virna Saenz (coffee, beans, plantains) is at the beginning stages of a study that will assess an array of different mycorrhizal fungi products in three production systems: coffee, beans, and plantain. The intent is that with her study Zamorano will have the necessary scientific information to be able to recommend mycorrhizae as an alternative biofertilizer and biocontrol product.


Priorities for Next Period

a) To finish the changes and additions agreed to in the October workshop to the soil health guide.
b) To continue testing the draft guide in the field
c) To organize a follow-up workshop in Honduras before the next rainy season to integrate new information into the guide.
d) To further develop training courses and extend them to producers
e) Strengthen the research support to provide essential new information for training
f) To complete multimedia presentation of project overview.
g) To enlist/interest new graduate students in applied research programs here in Honduras.
h) To facilitate farmer-to-farmer field visits to areas of farmer-led experimentation in soil health management practices.