NGO
Another Way (Stichting Bakens Verzet), 1018 AM
01. E-course : Diploma in
Integrated Development (Dip. Int. Dev)
Edition
10 : 04 May, 2011.
Edition
11 : 20 September, 2011.
SECTION B : SOLUTIONS TO THE
PROBLEMS.
Study points
: 06 points out of 18.
Minimum study
time : 186 hours out of 504
The points
are awarded only on passing the consolidated exam for Section B :
Solutions to the Problems.
Fifth block : How
the third block structures solve specific problems.
Study points : 02 points out of 18
Minimum study time : 54 hours out of 504
The
points are awarded only on passing the consolidated exam for Section B :
Solutions to the Problems.
Fifth block : How
the third block structures solve specific problems.
Section 4: Food crisis. [5 hours]
02.00 Hours analysis of Model
material.
02.00 Hours in-depth analysis.
01.00 Report.
Section 4: Food crisis. [5 hours]
Analysis of Model material. (At least 2
hours),
Agricultural production and food security and food
sovereignty.
“Earth democracy :
Seed Sovereignty (Beej Swaraj),
Food Sovereignty (Anna Swaraj), Water Sovereignty (Jal Swaraj) and Land
Sovereignty (Bhu Swaraj). ” ( Navdanya Movement website, 20 September,
2011.)
Excellent general
references on food sovereignty.
“-
peasant agriculture, family farming, artisanal fishing and indigenous food
procurement systems that are based on ecological methods and short marketing
circuits are the ways forward toward sustainable, healthy and
livelihood-enhancing food systems; ” It’s time to outlaw landgrabbing, not to make it
“responsible”, GRAIN, Barcelona (Spain) and Los Baños (Philippines), 17 April,
2011.
This work incorporates the principles set out in Towards Food Sovereignty : A Future without Hunger,
Pimbert M., IIED,
See also how “Women
often end up being the shock absorbers of food security” in Quisumbing A. et al, Helping
Women Respond to the Global Food Price Crisis, International Food Policy Research Institute
(IFPRI), Policy Brief 7, Washington,
October 2008.
For the effects
of “globalisation” on Food Security
see Wise T.A., The True Cost of Cheap Food,
Resurgence Magazine, Issue 259, March/April 2010, Resurgence Trust, Bideford,
2010. The author concludes :
“Societies need to
determine their own human values, not let the market do it for them. There are
some essential things, such as our land and the life-sustaining foods it can
produce, that should not be cheapened.”
For an analysis of the effects
of land-grabbing by foreign organisations see:
Odeny E. et al (eds), Landgrabbing in
Kenya and Mozambique, Food First Information and Action Network (FIAN),
For a general
update on the world situation in relation to food sovereignty see Ho. M, Biofuels and World Hunger,
For a review of
losses and wastage in the food chain, see Lundkvist J. et al, Saving Water : From Field to
Fork - Curbing Losses and Wastage in the
Food Chain. Stockholm
International Water Institute (SIWI),
SIWI Brief,
First considerations.
The
projects cover many agriculture-related aspects, such as the management of
communal lands, the sustainable recycling of wastes, local production for local
consumption and the production of bio-mass for high efficiency cookers.
The projects promote local
production for local consumption. It is based on the concept that the first
duty of the inhabitants is to ensure through their own efforts a good quality
of life for all in the project area. The anthropological dimensions of the
projects, with their first level at 200-250 persons, their second level at 1500
persons, and their third level at 50.000 persons, permit diversification of and
specialisation in local production. Through the plant nurseries and the
seed banks set up, the choice of products will be gradually widened, starting
with traditional local products and continuing with the acclimatisation of more
’’exotic’ ones.
The introduction of local money systems will release farmers from
seasonal economic pressures. They can accumulate local money debits for seed
and costs during the crop growing period, according to the natural rhythm of
their activities. The interest-free micro-credit system enables them where
necessary access to funds for the purchase of seeds for which formal money must
be found. In this case they must be able to sell a part of their production for
formal money outside the project area to repay their micro-credits.
The projects privileges local private and cooperative production for
family and local consumption and use of the financial structures created for
this purpose. They therefore tend to act against large-scale monoculture
activities. The projects are formally apolitical. They will not directly or
indirectly support either industrial activities or the importation of
fertilisers into the project area, an important cause of financial leakage.
They will privilege the creation of alternatives to them, including the 100%
useful local recycling of waste products. Full freedom for industrial
activities and the importation of fertilisers remains under the traditional
formal money system which continues to operate in parallel with the local money
system set up by the project.
Management of
communal lands.
The local Money systems set up in an early phase of project execution
enables the creation of classes and groups of owners of real and personal
goods. For instance, benefits from the use of communal lands by nomad
pastoralists or the revenues from the sale of wood from communal land can,
subject to the decision of the responsible organs, be divided amongst the
members of the groups in question. The costs
of the management of communal lands and things can also be distributed amongst
the members of the group of owners. In principle, collectively owned property
remains inalienable. The same applies to mineral rights subject to application
of national laws. For example, gypsum or anhydrite deposits found in the
project zone are the property of the inhabitants in the tank commission area or
the well commission area where the deposits are found. The deposits are managed
by the groups themselves. The project structures therefore make it possible to
formalise the management of traditional possessions without directly changing
any of the rights attached to them.
Waste recycling
structures.
File 06.26
Recycling structures offers a description of the planned waste recycling
structures. The recycling of organic material (urine and faeces) involves both
traditional agricultural activity and activities at household level. In larger
villages, it automatically becomes a sort of urban agriculture. The main
purpose of it is to recycle the
The
system for the collection of recycling of waste waters, urine, excreta, other
organic solids, non-organic solids will be set up during Moraisian organisation
workshops held for the purpose.
The operations will
take place under the local money LETS systems. A separate interest-free credit
fund is provided in the budget for purchase of equipment which is not available
locally and/or which has to be paid for in formal currency. In principle, the
equipment used should not require the consumption of imported energy
(electricity, diesel, petrol etc) which causes an on-going financial leakage
from the project area. Transport distances should be kept as short as possible.
The following drawings and graphs form an
integral part of this project proposal.
DRAWING
OF WASTE DISPOSAL STRUCTURES.
DRAWING OF COMPOSTING TOILET TANK MADE
FROM GYPSUM COMPOSITE(R)
Detailed technical information on the treatment
of grey water is included in
attachment 24.
- (a) Recycling
should always be done at the lowest possible level, starting with the
individual user.
- (b) Recycling at a second level should also be done as late as possible
during the composting cycle to reduce the volume of material handled and to
increase safety in its handling.
- (c) The whole system should be operated within the local money (LETS)
currencies.
- (d) Capital investment for recycling equipment, transport and storage will be
a priority for Micro-credit loans.
- (e) "Dirty" work will be better paid than "clean" work in
the LETS systems, because the rate of pay will reflect the willingness of
workers to do the work. Those doing “unpleasant” work will have an
above-average income within the LETS systems so that there should be no
difficulty finding people to do the work.
- (f) Waste should, as far as possible, be recycled within the project area so
communities are self-sufficient and there is no leakage of formal money from
the system. In particular, materials like metals, paper, plastics can often be
treated at local level for use in local industries creating jobs and local
value added during both treatment and production. The principle also promotes
the export of re-cycled products for formal currency which will be used to
repay the interest free micro-credits loans.
- (g) Lucrative job possibilities are created within the system.
- (h) Export and sale of selected non-organic solid waste through the recycling
centres for formal currency so micro-credits for re-cycling operation can be
repaid.
- (i) Selected non-organic solid waste products will treated locally and
recycled as raw material for local artisan industries.
- (j) Interest free micro-loans for compost collection equipment may need to be
for a longer term than other micro-credits as most of the compost will be
recycled within the local currency system. Some of the compost collection
charges may have to be in formal currency or the equipment may need to be used
part-time outside the LETS systems to help earn formal currency to repay the
micro-credit loans.
- (k) Recycling of special industrial and medical wastes to be addressed
separately.
- (l) The use of
throw-away waste products without value added, such as product packaging, is discouraged.
- (m) Repairable
goods will be repaired at project level under the local money LETS system set
up. Spare parts not locally available will be charged in formal money at their
original imported formal money price.
Use of composted
faeces.
Faeces are
composted without the addition of any fresh material for as long as possible,
but not less than for 12 months, during
which it is aerobically transformed into a high quality safe soil conditioner.
It can then be recycled at home in vertical or roof gardens if there are any.
If there are cultural problems relating to recycling of the compost at
household level, it can be moved under the local money system for local use in
agriculture without health risk and without risk of contamination of water resources.
It is a matter of moving small amounts of material (about one wheelbarrow full
per person per year) over short distances for local use.
Recycling of urine
and food security.
The urine tanks will have to
be emptied regularly unless evaporation systems are used. Wet systems are
preferred because they create more value added in terms of increased garden
production. Urine, with a little lime sawdust or equivalent added regularly,
can in principle be used systematically
for watering plants as long as it is diluted with 10 parts of water or grey
water to one part of urine, substantially increasing the productivity of the
garden.
The small quantities of water in containers
used by urinal users for urinal cleaning and for personal hygiene will be added
to the urine tanks.
Toilets and san-plats are designed to separate
urine from faeces. Where desired, urinals will be available for use by men and
boys. Small amounts of water entering the urine tanks as a result of personal
washing practices and (where applicable) urinal washing do not harm the system.
Small amounts of ash (from the high efficiency cookers used) can be regularly
added to the urine tanks.
In some cases urine, in particular that of
pregnant women and of women breast-feeding their children may have a high
formal money value for the pharmaceuticals industry. Unfortunately in the case
of this project the exploitation of this potential does not appear to exist.
The recycling of urine is usually coupled with
that of household grey water. It is not necessary to add “fresh” water to the
urine. Household grey water, put through a simple filter to remove eventual
fats content, can be mixed with urine at household level. Households without
garden but with a flat roof can install vertical gardens made from gypsum
composites and use them to increase their own food production potential.
Users unable to re-cycle the urine from their
tanks and who do not use evaporation systems will have to arrange for the urine
tanks to be emptied periodically under the local LETS systems for re-cycling
within the project area.
Urine is in principle sterile, but can contain
pathogens where users are ill. While risk of contamination is thought to be
low, users may wish to provide for a
double tank system offering temporary storage of urine for up to six months
when planning their systems. In that case larger storage tanks with a volume of
up to 0.75m3 would need to be used.
The amount of water and fertiliser mixture
available to households this way is at least
In principle, the
For technical information refer to in search of drivers for dry
sanitation in the list of attachments.
Household organic wastes not being urine or faeces are
usually made up of kitchen and food leftovers. These can cause disagreeable
smells if they are thrown indiscriminately into the environment, where they can
form a threat to the health of the residents and increase risk of infection
from animals and insects.
The wastes are, furthermore, valuable. There are
several ways of recycling them usefully. This is a problem in every country in
the world.
The best way of solving
the problem is by keeping animals such as chickens, goats, and, where there are
no religious problems, pigs. This way waste products can be recycled into eggs,
milk, and meat. For example, once chicken consumes, on an average, kitchen
wastes of five people. Since communities served by each of the 297 tank
commissions have about 200-250 people, kitchen and food leftovers can be
collected once or twice every day by one person in the locality. This person
can keep the animals necessary for the recycling of the wastes, creating a productive activity and at the same time
eliminating a serious problem. The income forms an extra source of local money
revenue for the person involved who is also free to sell the eggs, milk, or
meat for formal money is he or she so wishes.
Household organic
solids can also be recycled at household level by aerobic composting in
appropriate bins locally made under the local money system. Leftovers are mixed
with soil. Once they have composted, they can be added to household gardens or
collected by operators working under the local
money system. Naturally, the leftovers themselves can also be collected
by local operators for composting and recycling at tank commission level.
Collection would take place under the local money system by farmers who can
recycle the compost on their lands. They may even wish to sell the compost back
to households.
Kitchen wastes and
food leftovers should not be added to the faeces composting tanks as they can
already be contaminated by flies and other insects capable of reproducing inside the faeces tanks. Once in there, the
only way they can come out is through the toilet seat cover once it is lifted.
Intelligent use of
kitchen waste products can directly create important added value to the local economy,
even in times of water scarcity. Small animals and poultry need very little
water, and can survive of filtered grey water. They can supply food up to the
point where, in periods of extended
extreme drought, there is no water, not even recycled grey water, left
to keep them alive. As a last resort, the animals themselves can form a food
resource for the inhabitants in times of prolonged crisis.
Individual members at the level of each tank
commission will decide which services they feel they can be use. The services
provided in one tank commission area may therefore be different from those at
another one. The services provided are in any case labour-intensive and will
create numerous jobs which will be well paid under the local money systems.
Collection, storage
and recycling systems will be set up during a capacitation workshop which will
be held as soon as the local money and
micro-credit systems are in place and in operation. The local operators will
get priority under the micro-finance structures so they can set up their
activities. Item 60703 of the budget provides a small fund to stimulate rapid
execution of this part of the project structures.
Food and water security
in times of drought and crisis.
In the case of serious drought for extensive periods
of from 2 to 3 years no community in the world whether in the North or in the
South, whether industrialised or under development would be able to survive
without help from outside. In past periods of human history people may
sometimes have been free to migrate to areas which had remained green and
fertile. Demographic pressures in the modern world are such that this is very
rarely an option in our times.
Project areas under the Model undoubtedly enjoy a
greater resistance to droughts and other crises than most other communities.
However, they cannot offer total guarantees against disaster.
Extensive, systematic, construction of infiltration ditches and similar can be
carried out under the local money systems set up in an early phase of each
integrated development project. Refer to Duveskog,
D (ed), Soil and Water Conservation with a Focus on Water Harvesting
and Soil Moisture Retention, Chapter 3 : Overview of water harvesting and soil
retention approaches p.5-19, Farm
Level Applied Research Methods for East and Southern Africa (FARMESA),
For example, recommended solar pumps work at total
heads up to
Under conditions of extended drought for 2-3 years,
reserves of harvested rain-water will have run out. There will be no surface
water available, and perhaps no water left in rivers. The only water available
to the inhabitants will be the
The recommended solar pumps also have the feature that
they can be installed at any depth below the level of the water in the
borehole. It is therefore possible to take strong fluctuations in the water
level in the borehole into account to cover situations of severe water
draw-down during the day in conditions of slow borehole replenishment. However,
where night-time replenishment becomes insufficient to compensate for extra
drawings during the day, the quantity of water pumped must be reduced either by
turning the PV arrays out of the sun or by reducing the number of pumps in
operation. As users start receiving less than
Plant nurseries will be set up under the local money
system created by the project. Tens of thousands of fruit and vegetable oil
trees will be planted in the project area. The trees will take several years to
sink deep roots and create relative immunity from drought conditions. Once they
have done this they will form a second source of food in hard times.
Plant nurseries and food
safety
Nurseries, especially for
the cultivation of native trees, including fruit trees, will be formed as
commercial activities under the local money system set up, with financing of
necessary imported items under the
interest-free micro-credit structures. In principle, there is no formal money
requirement for these activities. Should formal money be needed, the activities
would qualify for interest-free micro-credits. For these reasons, there is no
specific item in the project balance sheet for the nurseries.
Fruit- and vegetable oil trees
will be planted along paths between villages and in public places and placed
under the management of needy families. Tens of thousands of trees can be
planted in the project area. Once the trees have had time to sink their roots
and no longer depend on surface water for survival, they will represent a
second important source of food in times of extended drought.
Cooperative seed banks.
The project will set one or
more seed banks up under the local money system. The seed bank(s) will
serve :
1. For the reintroduction and conservation of local and
regional plant sorts threatened with extinction.
2. The preparation and conservation of seeds for local
farmers.
3. The conservation and reintroduction of traditionally
used medicinal plants.
Local farmers can buy seed
from the seed banks without needing any formal money. They can also extend
their debit limits under the local money system in accordance with their
seasonal business cycle.
Useful local food
technologies.
Some crops offer can offer
year-round healthy food supplements in difficult environments. They are ideally
suited for labour-intensive production
for local consumption within the framework of the local money systems set up in
each project area. They may also be exploited on a small scale for exportation
from a project area.
A good general reference for
especially useful food crops Africa is :
Stone, A. et al, Africa’s indigenous crops.,
Worldwatch Institute,
The cultivation of the
Moringa Oleifera tree is included in the Worldwatch list. Carefully read Growing and processing Moringa
Leaves by de Saint Sauveur A. et al,
published by the Moringa Association of Ghana and Moringanews,
For another example, read Snail Farming by J.R.Cobbinah et al, Agrodok 47, Agromisa Foundation, Wageningen, 20008.
Locally built zeer pots for
food conservation.
Zeer pots are
simple traditional conservation systems thought to have originated in
For a general introduction to
simple equipment for food conservation see E. Rusten, Understanding Evaporative
Cooling, Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA),
Technical Paper 35,
For
step by step description on how to make zeer pots see The Clay Refrigerator
on pp. 15-19 of Clay-based technologies,
Practical Action,
For
a detailed parametric analysis of zeer pots see Appropedia : zeer pot
refrigeration (design),
1. Research.
Make a one-page analysis of the food situation in your project area. Do
the people there suffer occasional or endemic hunger? Who suffer? Why? Can you
supply statistics?
Farmers will be able to buy
seed from the local seed bank without needing any formal money. They will also
be able to obtain extensions to their credit limits under the local money
systems to be able to cover their requirements linked with the seasonal nature
of their activities.
2.
Opinion.
In principle, basic materials for growing nearly all
the food needed are available at family
level .In some factors linked to poverty of section 1 analysis
of the causes of poverty in the first block poverty and
quality of life the example of a can of peas was given as an
example of the industrialisation of the food sector. On one page explain the
links between the two subjects..
3.
Opinion.
The food industry harvests, processes,
and distributes large quantities of food. Industrial operators are often not
the producers of the food. That means that the food exists before its entry
into the industrial chain. Make a once page commentary on this observation.
4.
Opinion.
“The food crisis is a crisis of the
organisation of local production”. Make a one-page analysis of this statement.
5.
Opinion.
Make a one page analysis beginning with
the words «The success of the food
industry is due to ...... »
◄ Fifth block : Section 4: Food sovereignty.
◄ Fifth
block : How fourth block structures solve specific problems.
◄ Main index for the Diploma in Integrated Development (Dip Int. Dev.)
Money is not the key that opens the gates of the market but the bolt that
bars them.
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