Project Overview
Annual Reports
Commodities
- Vegetables: cabbages
- Animals: poultry
Practices
- Animal Production: housing, animal protection and health, free-range, manure management
- Crop Production: organic fertilizers
- Education and Training: extension, farmer to farmer, participatory research
- Production Systems: holistic management, integrated crop and livestock systems
Proposal summary:
The cost of materials, supplies and labor for agriculture in the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI) has discouraged adequate production of fresh produce. The demand for this local produce is increasing with the growing population, but cheap and consistent imports from the United States and Japan are presently the CNMI mainstay.
Joshua Calvo, a Rota producer, will use his Farmer/Rancher Grant to pioneer on the island an integrated system of growing cabbage inexpensively and consistently by utilizing inputs from his chickens and fishponds. This project will demonstrate economically and environmentally sustainable practices by reducing labor, fertilizer and pesticide use and enhancing the quality of the soil. Chicken and fishpond waste will replace chemical fertilizers on the disease-resistant cabbage cultivar, chickens will be used to clear weeds and mulched grass clippings will return organic matter to the soil.
The success of this project will not only raise the producer’s standard of living, but also will be documented and shared to encourage a variety of inexpensive and consistent crops from the islands’ ideal climates for agriculture production. Project results will be disseminated through television, newspapers, field trips and brochures.