19/10/2011 meister13.htm Home -immediately access 800+ free online publications. Download CD3WD (680 Megabytes) and distribute it to the 3rd World. CD3WD is a 3rd World Development private-sector initiative, mastered by Software Developer Alex Weir and hosted by GNUveau_Networks (From globally distributed organizations, to supercomputers, to a small home server, if it's Linux, we know it.) ar .cn .de .en .es .fr .id .it .ph .po .ru .sw Amaranth to Zai Holes, Ideas for Growing Food under Difficult Conditions (ECHO, 1996, 397 p.) 28 additional technical notes about tropical agriculture A few alternate seed sources that we commonly use Amaranth - grain and vegetable Arid region farming primer (introduction...) Introduction Agricultural techniques for arid lands Citrus propagation and rootstocks Cucurbit seeds (introduction...) Literature cited Dry farming (introduction...) Fundamental principles Requirements I. Increase water absorption II. Reducing the loss of soil moisture D:/cd3wddvd/NoExe/…/meister13.htm 1/242 19/10/2011 meister13.htm III. Dry farming practices Muscovy ducks for png villages Fruit crops Fruit vegetables Grain crops Ground covers and green manures Green manure crops Industrial crops The lablab bean as green manure Leafy vegetables Leguminous vegetables The moringa tree Recipes to learn to eat moringa Miscellaneous vegetables The poor man's plow Pulses (grain legumes) Rabbit raising in the tropics Letter from fremont regier, mennonite central committee, Botswana (and earlier in Zaire) Roots and tubers Sunnhemp as a green manure The sweet potato Tropical pasture and feed crops The velvet bean as green manure D:/cd3wddvd/NoExe/…/meister13.htm 2/242 19/10/2011 meister13.htm Amaranth to Zai Holes, Ideas for Growing Food under Difficult Conditions (ECHO, 1996, 397 p.) 28 additional technical notes about tropical agriculture A few alternate seed sources that we commonly use • CATIE (Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigacion Ensenanza), BLSF, Turialba, Costa Rica, Central America. Supplies fruit and forest trees. • Cornucopia: A Source Book of Edible Plants. Supplies sources for 7000 varieties (see EDN 35-6). From Kampong Publications, 1870 Sunrise Drive, Vista, CA 92084. Incl. postage: $37.50 US; $40.25 surface/$56 air overseas. • CIMMYT (Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo), Londres 40, Apartado Postal 6- 641, 06600, Mexico. Improved varieties of corn and wheat, including Quality Protein Maize. • Fruit Spirit, Botanical Garden, Dorroughby, NSW, Australia 2480. Unusual fruit, nut, ginger and other crops. • Multipurpose Trees and Shrubs: Sources of Seeds and Innoculants. By Peter C. Von Carlowitz, ICRAF, P.O. Box 30677, Nairobi, Kenya. • High Altitude Gardens, P.O. Box 4619, Ketchum, ID 83340. Some vegetable selections suited to higher elevations. • Inland & Foreign Trading Co., LTD., Block 79A, Indus Road #04(c)418/420, 0316, Singapore. Legumes, pasture grasses, special purpose trees. • J.L.Hudson, Seedsman, P.O. Box 1058, Redwood City, CA 94064. Ethnobotanical catalogue of a wide variety of plants. D:/cd3wddvd/NoExe/…/meister13.htm 3/242 19/10/2011 meister13.htm • National Tree Seed Centre (NTSP), PO Box 373, Morogoro, Tanzania; tel: +255 56 31 NTSP TZ. Provides more than 100 tree species for most purposes. • Plants of the Southwest, Agua Fria, Rt 6 Box 11-A, Santa Fe NM, 87501. Phone and Customer Service Orders: (9-5 MST M-Fri.) (505)471-2212, Fax: (505)471-2212. Corn, cover crops and vegetables for arid gardens. • Phoenix Seeds, P.O. Box 94619, Tazmania 7331, Australia. Vegetables, trees, winged beans, jicama. • Richters Herb Specialists, Goodwood, ONT LOC 1AO Canada. Very complete herb listing. • SETROPA, P.O. Box 203, 1400 A.E. Bussum, Holland. Trees and forages. • Shivalik Seeds Corporation, 47 Panditwari, P.O. Prem Nagar, Dehra Dun-248 007 (UP), India. Phone: 91 135 683348. Fax: 91 135 29944. Seeds of a wide range of (agro)forestry, medicinal, horticultural, ornamental plants. • Tomato Growers Supply Co., P.O. Box 2237, Fort Myers, FL 33902. Wide variety of tomato and pepper varieties. • Twilley Seed Co., P. O. Box 65, Trevose, PA 19053, USA. Ordinary temperate vegetable and flower seeds. • University of Hawaii, Seed Program, Dept. of Horticulture, 3190 Maile Way, Rm. 12, Honolulu, HI 96822. Limited range of selected/improved tropical vegetables and papayas. Amaranth - grain and vegetable amaranthus hypochondriacus, a. cruentus (grain) & a. tricolor (vegetable) amaranth Compiled by G. Kelly O'Brien and Martin L. Price D:/cd3wddvd/NoExe/…/meister13.htm 4/242 19/10/2011 meister13.htm Characteristics Amaranth is a plant with an upright growth habit, cultivated for both its seeds which are used as a grain and its leaves which are used as a vegetble. Both the leaves and seeds contain protein of an unusually high quality. The grain is milled for flour or popped like popcorn. The leaves of both the grain and vegetable types may be eaten raw or cooked. The amaranths that are grown principally for vegetable use have better tasting leaves then the grain types. Amaranth has been cultivated for more than 8,000 years, dating back at least to the Mayan civilization of South and Central America. It was a staple of the Aztecs and was incorporated into their religious ceremonies. In 1516 the conquistadores prohibited the growing of amaranth. In that area today only a limited amount of grain is grown, most of which is popped and mixed with honey to make "alegria" candy. However, much of the genetic base has been maintained because amaranth has continued growing in the area as a weed. Amaranth is considered native to South and Central America, but over 400 varieties are found throughout the world in both temperate and tropical climates. Vegetable amaranth has been used in China for 400 years, and is commonly found in the Caribbean and Africa. Amaranths are moderately branched from a main stem. Grain types form large loose panicles at the tips of the stems. Vegetable types form flowers and seeds along the stems. They are indeterminate in growth habit, but may set seed at a smaller size during short days. Grain amaranth grown in winter at ECHO (southern Florida) began flowering at less than half of the height of amaranth growing in May. Grain types may grow 1 to 2 meters tall and produce yields comparable to rice or maize. Amaranth has the "C-4" photosynthetic pathway (along with such plants as corn and sorghum), which enables it to be uniquely efficient in utilizing sunlight and nutrients at high temperatures. It is more drought-resistant than corn. Nutritional value D:/cd3wddvd/NoExe/…/meister13.htm 5/242 19/10/2011 meister13.htm As can be seen in Table I, amaranth is quite nutritious. Amounts of vitamin C, iron, carotene, calcium, folic acid and protein are especially high. There are reports that the incidence of blindness in children due to poor nutrition has been reduced with the use of 50 to 100 g of amaranth leaves per day. On a dry weight basis, the content of protein in leaves is approximately 30%. The presence of rather high amounts of oxalic acid and nitrates places some limitation on the quantity of amaranth leaves that can be consumed daily. The amount of oxalic acid is roughly the same as that found in spinach and chard. Excessive amounts (over 100 g per day?) may result in a level of oxalic acid that begins to reduce the availability of calcium in humans. This is especially a concern if calcium intake levels are low to begin with. Nitrate in vegetable portions of amaranth is a concern because it is hypothesized that nitrates may be chemically changed in our digestive tracts into poisonous nitrosamines. Evidence for this is lacking at the present time. Nevertheless, over 100 g per day may be an unsafe amount to eat, according to scientists. The levels of both oxalic acid and nitrates are reduced by boiling the leaves like a spinach, then discarding the water. Amaranth grain has more protein than corn, for example, and the protein is of an unusually high quality. The protein is high in the amino acid lysine, which is the limiting amino acid in cereals like maize, wheat and rice. The protein is also relatively rich in the sulfur- containing amino acids, which are normally limiting in the pulse crops (e.g. beans). The "protein complement" of amaranth grain is very near to the levels recommended by FAO/WHO. It has a protein score of 67 to 87. Protein scores are determined by taking the ratio of the essential amino acids to the level for those amino acids recommended by FAO/WHO, and multiplying by 100. By comparison, wheat (14% protein) scores 47, soybeans (37%) score 68-89, rice (7%) scores 69, maize (9%) scores 35. Although amaranth is theoretically close to the ideal, combining it with another grain increases the quality to very close to the FAO/WHO standards. Weight gain studies with rats point out, however, that the actual nutritional value is considerably less than would be expected from the above considerations. This is apparently due to certain anti-nutritional factors in raw amaranth. Performance is improved somewhat by cooking. For example, Dr. Peter Cheeke at the University of Oregon compared the rate of weight gain by 120 gram rats fed a corn-soybean diet to rats fed a diet D:/cd3wddvd/NoExe/…/meister13.htm 6/242 19/10/2011 meister13.htm of corn and seed from A. hypochondriacus, either raw or cooked. The average daily gain for rats on the corn-soybean diet during the first 20 days was 3.9 grams. Rats fed the corn-amaranth diet gained only 0.3 grams per day. The average daily gain for rats fed corn and cooked amaranth was 1.6 grams. Raw amaranth seed is extremely unpalatable to rats (i.e.