I was excited today to learn that our staff here in Burundi are testing a herb species called Tithonia diversifolia, aka. Mexican marigold, which can be planted in farm fields and has the ability to add significant amounts of phosphorus to the soil. Lack of phosphorus or lack of access to phosphorus in tropical soils such as those found in Africa is a big limitation, and typically cost of chemicals to fix the situation is challenging for small farmers. I'm excited about this because, a) it's a low cost, natural solution that not only adds an important nutrient to the soil, it also adds critically important organic matter, essential to soil health, and basically the plant does most of the work b) I learned about this from our staff here, who learned about it because of their collaboration with the government research institute--the fact that our staff here are trying new things, is just greatly rewarding somehow. I would  post a photo of Tithonia from the web, but that seems like cheating. I just learned about it in conversation today. As soon as I have my  own photo, I send it.

Sorry about the not blogging. It's partly to blame on poor internet but also exhaustion. Hopefully I can get back to more regular posts for the next few days.