second

Main Page

Healthy Soil

Healthy Crops

Healthy People

an Ecology Action Initiative in Afghanistan

Afghan Organic Agriculture Training Center Project 10-Year Strategy

How You Can Help

In collaboration with:
The Afghan Center
The Foundation for Global Community
The Afghan Retraining Initiative for Self-Employment (ARISE)

Why GROW BIOINTENSIVE®?
This method, now called GROW BIOINTENSIVE, is appropriate for the situation in Afghanistan because it:

Brings food security to areas that are lacking in nearly all basic needs, including water and sewage systems, roads, and electricity,
Generally uses only locally available resources,
Avoids use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, which can be difficult and expensive to obtain,
Makes optimal use of limited water and seed supplies— critical for Afghanistan, which has experienced a drought for the previous four years and has a semi-arid to arid climate in the best of times,
Provides the farmer with a significant legal income while also producing nourishing food for families,
Relies on no machinery, thereby being accessible to anyone with basic hand tools,
Has proven capable of producing the highest yields per unit area compared with other systems, and
Builds a healthy, fertile soil while achieving all of this!

Ecology Action is the premier research and training organization for the high-yielding, resource-conserving, small-scale GROW BIOINTENSIVE food-raising method.

Together with the Foundation for Global Community, the Afghan Center, and the Afghan Retraining Initiative for Self-Employment (ARISE), Ecology Action is bringing the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method of sustainable farming to Afghanistan!

After 32 years of research, Ecology Action has developed a method of mini-farming appropriate to the family-scale farmer.

The GROW BIOINTENSIVE® method is being successfully used for economic and nutrition intervention in 130 countries around the world, including:

Kenya where over 50 non-governmental organizations are using GROW BIOINTENSIVE
Mexico where an estimated 2 million people are using GROW BIOINTENSIVE
Ecuador, Uzbekistan, Russia, Argentina, and The Philippines

Our Gardener On The Ground
Devon Pattillo has been practicing GROW BIOINTENSIVE techniques for three years. He received his Bachelor's degree in Biology from Reed College in 2000. He is passionate, motivated, and creative. Devon is learning Dari, the local dialect of Farsi, and should prove to be effective in bringing sustainable mini-farming to Afghanistan.

For more information about the ARISE project in Afghanistan, please visit www.ariseproject.org

Afghan Organic Agriculture Training Center Project 10-Year Strategy

How You Can Help

Afghan Organic Agriculture Training Center Project
10-Year Strategy

The goal of the Afghan Organic Agriculture Training Center (AOATC) is to empower people to utilize organic agricultural practices for improved food security, quality of life, and environmental restoration.

In order to achieve this goal, AOATC will:

Encourage the re-establishment of basic agricultural livelihoods using sustainable agricultural practices.
Increase agricultural self-reliance to reduce dependency on food relief and other types of agricultural aid (donations of pesticides or fertilizers), especially among vulnerable groups such as women.

Phase One Activities: October 1, 2004 to April 1, 2006 (18 months)

Establish a 2500 square foot demonstration farm in Kabul. The site will demonstrate how soil fertility can be recovered to produce high yields and a balanced diet on the smallest possible area without chemical fertilizers or pesticides.
Identify farmer-teachers from six urban communities in Kabul City and 14 rural communities in provinces surrounding Kabul to partake in training courses. Trainers will in turn offer courses to farmers within their own communities and farmer cooperatives with support from the Kabul staff. Special effort will be taken to include female participants.
Establish collaborative partnerships with local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as well as governmental and private sector groups.

Phase Two Activities: April 1, 2006 to April 1, 2007 (12 months)

Provide teacher-training courses for 42 additional farmers and agricultural students from four universities.
Provide technical support for all trainers in their long-term local projects.
Establish a rural demonstration site in one village starting in spring 2006.
Train two agricultural experts from western Afghanistan to begin a demonstration site in Herat Province.
Evaluate soil improvement strategies at urban and rural demonstration farms. Research best practices for building soil organic matter levels to 4% or more.

Phase Three Activities: April 1, 2007 to April 1, 2010 (36 months)

Extend project to the six other major climactic/cultural zones of Afghanistan.
Follow results of individuals and cooperatives that apply the method and incorporate successful techniques at the demonstration center.

Phase Four Activities: April 1, 2010 to April 1, 2015 (60 months)

Identify partners in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, and Pakistan.
Continue to support community projects established in Phases Two and Three.
Host a conference on organic agriculture in South Asia.

top

How You Can Help