interesting project. can't tell you how many times out in the country in on several visits to Ghana my favorite African country i have found myself virtually talking to myself every time i've passed a woman, man or child along a bush road with a headload of firewood. That is a whole lot of talking to one's self! because if nothing Africans are skilled farmers and all this carrying stuff up and down roads diverts workers from doing their thiing is bad economics. If there is something in the literature on this it seems to have made little impact. i would be very gratefull if you could let me know if you find anything that covers this subject. average farm size either rainforest or savana is 4-5 acres. the best thing is to get on down there and study farm lay outs vis a vis villages and towns. then compute how to slide communal fuel plantations into the matrix. i'm pretty sure individuals can't do this by themselves. we are talking about subsistance farming. at first glance no money to buy trucks etc. clearly farming companies have a role to play. government marketing boards have to get off the peoples backs and allow efficient farmers to make a little money, invest in equipment and etc. george pope :32 PM 6/1/96 +0200, you wrote: >Dear subscribers to this list, >I am currently working on the design of an agro-forestry project in tropical >Africa. In this context, trees such as Acacia and Albizia sp. can be >useful as means to fertilise agricultural fields and to provide firewood to local >communities. >I am wondering if such leguminous trees could be used as raw material for products such as >MDF, so that an industry could be set up and the wood produced by these trees could provide >cash to local communities. Also, I would like to have an idea of the minimum size to >envisage for a commercially viable processing plant, and the minimum quantity of raw >material neeeded per year. >I hope somebeody can help me with this question. >Regards, >Jean-Pierre Kiekens >University of Brussels & >Environmental Strategies Europe >http://www.infobahnos.com/~kiekens/ > >
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