Kenya
We received an interesting report
from Emmanuel Omondi, Director of Manor House Agricultural
Centre, about some of the groups which have received
training as Community Mini-Training Centres (MTC):
Koinonia Self Help Group has established
a double-dug bed 32-bed BIA [Biointensive Agriculture]
demonstration garden. Members were able to raise
over Ksh.3,300 from their demonstration garden which
inspired each member to have at least 5 double-dug
beds in their individual farms. One member was able
to purchase a calf from the vegetable proceeds while
another started a poultry project.
Engakha Self Help Group was formed
in 2000 to improve the living standards of the members.
A greater percentage of the community in this area
were victims of the 1996 politically instigated
tribal clashes, displaced from their original homes
on Mt. Elgon and resettled in Chorlim. Since being
trained by Manor House, the group has established
a 25-bed demonstration garden, has sunk a bore hole
for domestic water supply and irrigation—with
help from Vi-Agroforestry, and have initiated a
bee-keeping project as well as small livestock enterprises.
Three members have been able to start flourishing
kiosk businesses.
Machungwa Self Help Group was
formed in 2003. It has an average of 5-acre plots
per family—a fairly large size. The main income-producing
activity is selling vegetables they have grown ,
usually with manual irrigation from the local river.
The group's chairlady donated two acres of her land
as a demonstration center for the mini-center, and
each member helps maintain it. Since being trained,
each member has at least 6 double-dug beds while
one member has 24. Several members have established
agro-forestry tree nurseries with over 1,000 assorted
tree seedlings. They have organized themselves into
a cooperative to market their maize and beans, maximizing
their profits.
Junior Organic Agriculture Network
(JOAN) was one of the original mini-training centers
established by Manor House. However, Manor House
has maintained contact with the group over the years,
“partly due to the great potential it has
of scaling up its activities and positively influencing
other up-coming mini-centres. Most MTCs in the area
and beyond have found it useful to include JOAN
in their farmer-to-farmer exchange visits due to
the mini-centre's exceptionally well-organized demonstration.”
In a recent symposium at Manor House, the group's
coordinator said: “Two acres of land have
been set aside for Biointensive agriculture demonstration
for the group. This contains 120 double-dug beds
in which a diversity of crops are maintained. The
centre also has a demonstration for small livestock
(pigs, rabbits and poultry), beekeeping and agroforestry.
“Armed with training in
BIA from MHAC, we have improved productivity in
our kitchen garden and increased our income. Once
every week, we conduct a one-day training to the
rest of the community members on various lessons
of sustainable development. We not only conduct
lessons on what we learned at MHAC, but also allow
farmers with technical local knowledge to share
with others.
“When we started out, MHAC
staff visited us regularly to provide backstopping
services during our local training until December
2001 when we graduated. Since then, we have been
conducting our training independently and have also
been visiting other centres and institutions to
broaden our skills. Besides our local farmers, people
from all walks of life around the globe have visited
our centre, which has been quite inspiring and knowledge
broadening. We have been able to train many secondary
and primary school students as well as students
of the Moi University from Eldoret in BIA. To date
we have trained more than 700 people of different
backgrounds. We have also organized several field
days for farmers as a way of extending knowledge.”
Mexico
Las Canadas Eco-Farm in the cloudy
rainforest of Veracruz state, Mexico—the most
developed of the Biointensive projects in Mexico—is
offering an Apprenticeship Program in several program
areas. These include Biointensive mini-farming,
agro-ecological farming, pre-school and elementary
education for children, ecotourism, organic dairy
production, eco-technology, cloud forest conservation,
and tree nursery. The fee for an apprenticeship
is $300 a month and covers lodging, access to a
kitchen as well as the basic meal ingredients (not
including meat), and mentoring and instruction by
the person coordinating the area in which the intern
is volunteering. For more information, contact Ricardo
Romero, Apprenticeship Program Coordinator, Tel/Fax:
52 (273) 7341577; www.bosquedeniebla.com.mx.
Afghanistan
Naqibullah Salik writes that the
GROW BIOINTENSIVE project on Ministry of Agriculture
land is going very well. In June three groups of
50 to 60 students each toured the demonstration
garden, as well as a large group from the Ministry
of Agriculture. There is another large opportunity
in Lalander, a village a short distance south of
Kabul. In May Phil Donnell of Palo Alto sent a copy
of our May 2005 newsletter— which mentioned
that Devon Patillo would be going to Afghanistan
again soon to help guide the project—to Budd
Mackensie, founder of Trust in Education, a grassroots
non-profit which has built a school in Lalander
and is undertaking other projects there. Soon after,
Devon, Phil and Budd met. Budd offered a 150- to
200-acre piece of land, farmed cooperatively by
150 farmers, to be farmed Biointensively. Devon
has been pursuing this possibility and has been
sending many emails to Ecology Action, getting necessary
background information for such a large project.
Israel
This is part of an email we received
in June from Alex Kachan in Israel: We are very
happy to update our international GROW BIOINTENSIVE
network of friends about an exciting project to
bring GB mini-farming to Palestinian villagers.
The project received a $1,000 grant from the Peres
Center for Peace (www.peres-center.org), a well-respected
non-governmental and non-political organization
that works on economic development towards peace
in the Middle East.
The project is meant to create
an active GROW BIOINTENSIVE training center in the
village Kifeen (population of about 30,000), staffed
and operated with local people. This will be accomplished
using the Arabic translation of How to Grow More
Vegetables and workshops taught by Alex Kachan and
Itai Hauben. [Alex took a Teachers Workshop several
years ago, and Itai was an intern at Ecology Action
last year.] The training center will include, of
course, a thriving mini-farm for actual demonstration,
and we've already located an available plot of uncultivated
land, 1 acre in size, in a great location within
the village. The aim is to gradually train the local
people so they can propagate this knowledge among
themselves and other villages, creating thriving
communities that grow food, soil and people.
This project is being carried
out by the Galim Center for Environmental Education
[Alex's organization] and the Palestinian Agriculture
Relief Committee, a Palestinian grassroots organization
working to promote organic sustainable small-scale
food production in Palestine.
[Unfortunately, after writing
this article we received another email from Alex
saying the Palestinians have rejected the training
and the money because they are being offered by
Israelis. He bemoans the depth of the hatred.]
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