Protecting crops from birds
We are trying to protect our rice crops from bird pests. Rice is a major crop here. We are finding it very difficult to control and avoid the threat from birds. Farmers are staying in the fields all day to chase away the birds. This tires them and prevents other domestic activities. Can you provide us with technical advice so that our farmers can grow their rice, sleep peacefully and also develop more effective techniques for controlling these predators without killing them? If other readers have overcome this problem we would be delighted to hear from them.
Innocent Balagizi
Box 373 Cyangugu Rwanda
Email: balkarh@yahoo.fr
Help with epilepsy
I write to thank readers of Footsteps for responding to our request about understanding and managing epilepsy, published in Footsteps 44. We are particularly grateful to Mr Ebire of Oweri in Nigeria. He has helped us to focus on developing the capacity of patients to recognise the signs of oncoming seizures and so avoid seizure-related accidents. However, this new approach, which mainly involves training, is not so popular with the patients who still prefer material support through drugs. So we would like advice on how to increase demand for this training, especially among young people.
Jamils Richard Achunji Anguaseh Director Global Welfare Association-Cam
Email: glowa_cameroon@yahoo.co.uk
Plant dyes
I read with interest your page on home-made dyes (Footsteps 21) and thought you might like to know about eucalyptus plants. These plants contain dyes that will colour protein fibres such as silk and wool without additional chemicals. Eucalypts are increasingly used as timber crops and to help restore degraded land areas, so are becoming more widely available. Lichens, on the other hand, generally grow very slowly and release their dye potential only after careful and experienced handling. I suggest that their use as a dye source is not sustainable and ought therefore not to be generally recommended.
India Flint
PO Box 209
Mount Pleasant 5235
Australia
Email: India.Flint@unisa.edu.au
Website: www.leafprint.tk
Breeding termites
I would like to respond to the request for information about breeding termites in Footsteps 66. I would recommend that you do not use termites because they are highly destructive. There are no nutrients in termites which you can’t get from the other types of poultry feeds available. When you use termites to feed poultry, some of them will escape into the ground. They will destroy anything in the area that is made out of wood. It is difficult and expensive to get rid of them. It would be better to look for alternative poultry feeds, as using termites is not very cost effective.
Oluwafemi Ogundipe
Ibadan
Nigeria
Email: ogundipeok@yahoo.com
Turkey eggs
My turkeys usually lay in March, the peak of heat here, about 42 degrees and above. All the eggs usually spoil. I would like some advice please.
Samuel Angyogdem
Email: sangyogdem@yahoo.co.uk