CIESA-Argentina
Fernando Pia, director of CIESA in Argentina, continues
his busy schedule, teaching workshops in Argentina,
Bolivia and Chile. April 13 and 14 he gave a workshop
at Santa Cruz de La Sierra in Bolivia. This was
organized by Belinda Ferrufino, director of the
Bolivian NGO ASEO. Fernando reports that there were
27 participants, 70% of whom were agronomic engineers,
working in rural extension programs all around Bolivia.
The participants, as noted on their evaluation sheets
after the workshop, believe that the Biointensive
system is a useful tool, particularly for small
farmers and urban gardeners.
From April 19 to 23 Fernando taught a five-day workshop
at CIESA for four people. Tomas Lazzari is a math
and garden teacher who belongs to a foundation that
has developed 10 primary and high schools in poor
neighborhoods of Bariloche. The foundation president,
a friend of Fernando's, wants to introduce the Biointensive
method at the foundation schools, as soon as he
can find a good teacher. Fernando notes that 50%
of the Bariloche population lives under the poverty
level. Carmen Cardenas teaches organic gardening
to poor women in Neuquen. She also belongs to an
NGO that works with hundreds of women. Carmen stated,
"This kind of information I was looking for
a long time." Luis Currhinca is an indigenous
Mapuche who is the garden manager of the Biointensive
demonstration garden at INTA Viedma. Jose Daniel
Almonacid Cardenas works at a hotel whose owner
is a former international rugby player and very
well known in Argentina. The owner has visited CIESA
and is thinking about developing a Biointensive
garden to provide organic fresh produce for his
customers.
Fernando also taught a workshop March 30 to April
1 at Escuela Agroecologica in Pirque, south of Santiago,
Chile. He notes this is the first agroecological
high school in Chile.
Kenya
Sandra Mardigian, director of
Kilili Self-Help Project, sent us a report on a
project undertaken by fifth class students in Joshua
Machinga's Pathfinder Academy, funded by the Mental
Insight Foundation:
Twenty-one students, as well as school staff, trained
members of Bafubi Women's Group in Matunda village,
Trans-Nzoia district. The students had previously
been trained at school on various methods of food
production, nursery establishment, health care and
extension techniques. Bafubi group has 30 members
with 89 children, 50 of whom are HIV/AIDS positive.
It was noted that their pieces of land were producing
very little due to poor production skills. The students
visited the group once a month and taught the women
compost making and double-digging, with school staff
visiting twice a month for followup. The students
also helped group members establish beds and nurseries
for tree seedlings and vegetables for the sick,
while training the rest on other GROW BIOINTENSIVE
techniques. A total of 89 gardens were established
in Matunda and Kiminini.
Manor House Agricultural Centre The
following are notes taken from recent reports sent
by MHAC's director Emmanuel Omondi:
- Income increased from about
$100,000 in 2003 to about $150,000 in 2004. Due
to MH's continuing efforts towards self-sufficiency,
about 50% of its income is now being raised internally.
- The Centre registered 30 first-year
students this year in its two-year course. This
is the largest number in a long time.
- There are two participants
at the Centre's three-month course, one from Chad
in Central Africa and a Kenyan who works with
International Childcare Trust, an organization
whose mandate is to rehabilitate street children.
- After a Land Use Design exercise
held last November, MH is planning many changes
in its current site use, one of which is to convert
a netball field into a demonstration garden, with
strict data collection and record keeping observed.
In other areas, a variety of drought-resistant
field crops will be grown, and an agroforestry
wood lot will be grown in many of the open spaces.
Russia
Carol Vesecky, director of Biointensive
for Russia, sent us a report on the activities of
the NGO Viola, compiled by Ludmila Zhirina, co-director
of the organization. Following is a summary of that
report:
During the last part of 2004, Viola conducted seminars
in Orel, east of Bryansk. This was a three-step
project, starting in August when Ludmila Zhirina,
Albina Samsonova and Oleg Zavarzin went to Orel
State University for three days to help plan the
seminars. Their main host was connected with the
university's Natural Geography Department. A task
group was organized among instructors, scientists
and students, and a round table was held where Viola
members spoke about GROW BIOINTENSIVE and its background.
Times and locations were chosen and potential participants
selected.
The theoretical seminar was conducted September
5-6 at the university, with 132 people attending,
including leaders from the regional department of
education, employees of the Institute of Advanced
Educational Studies, scientists, school and university
teachers, political figures, and horticulturists.
Besides the three people mentioned above, seminar
trainers included Igor Prokofiev and Nataliya Karyagina.
Conference participants asked Viola to conduct several
small seminars at several regional centers in the
spring.
November 26-27 the second seminar was given, hands-on
training at the university's agrobiological research
station. For this seminar the students prepared
short reports on the main vegetables that they themselves
grow in their own gardens. The methods that they
use were discussed and compared with GROW BIOINTENSIVE
methods. All of the participants concluded that
GB is an ecological farming method.
Viola also sent a report on its
third year of researching the Biointensive method
in the area heavily contaminated by the Chernobyl
nuclear accident. Despite the contaminated soil,
people still need to grow food to survive. The research
showed that double-digging and the use of compost
significantly reduce the uptake of radionuclides
by the plants. Viola is now looking for US-based
researchers they can network with. |