Hi everyone, news from SAP-K! This week we finished setting up the new pit where we will be cultivating Azolla from now on. To start, let us explain you what Azolla is:

Azolla is a semi-aquatic, floating plant with bright green colour, which grows on water and in high speed. You can put around 200 gr of it in a pond and, within 2 weeks, it will have largely expanded all over its surface! You can harvest it everyday or every other day and it continues growing on it own. That is why it is a sustainable plant but, why do we want it in SAP-K?The thing is that it is a plant rich in many nutrients like calcium, iron and vitamins but it is more known due to its high levels of proteins, which make it so beneficial for cattle, poultry and other animals. We could say that, instead of giving our chickens and goat chemical food/ medicines to make them strong or laying healthy eggs, we give them Azolla, a natural and organic alternative to all that unhealthy stuff.

We used to grow it in a cement ring of 3 ft-diameter but now we have a pit of 1.5×2.5metres, which is going to increase the amount of Azolla we produce daily to feed our animals. We cannot forget that we need to add some soil and some cow dung since these will be supporting the bacterial process which helps Azolla to propagate. This is the reason why we need to wash it properly before we give it to the animals to feed on it, to avoid any stomach problem.

Moreover, a shed-net like the one you can see in the photos would help Azolla to grow healthily since it required semi-shade.

We need to thank the international work camp volunteers and local MSW students who previously helped us to dig the pit!

We’ll keep you up-to-date! J