NGO Another Way (Stichting
Bakens Verzet), 1018 AM
SELF-FINANCING, ECOLOGICAL,
SUSTAINABLE, LOCAL INTEGRATED DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS FOR THE WORLD’S POOR
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Edition
08 : 03 May, 2009
Edition
11 : 11 January, 2013.
08.40 Agricultural
production and food security and food sovereignty.
“Society is
undermining the ecological foundation of its own food system.” (Alder, J. et al, , Avoiding Future Famines :
Strengthening the Ecological Foundation of Food Security through Sustainable
Food Systems, United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP),
“…initiatives [need] to be taken to reduce the substantial quantity of food
wasted annually around the world. The potential to provide 60–100% more food by
simply eliminating losses, while simultaneously freeing up land, energy and
water resources for other uses, is an opportunity that should not be ignored.”
(Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Global Food : Waste Not, Want Not, London, January
2013, p. 5)
08.40.00 Excellent
general references on food sovereignty.
This work incorporates the principles set out in Towards Food Sovereignty
: A Future without Hunger, Pimbert M., IIED,
See also how 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.
A good general reference for
especially useful food crops Africa is : Stone, A. et al, Africa’s indigenous crops., Worldwatch Institute,
08.40.01 First
considerations.
The
project covers 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 project
promotes 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 project, with its first level at 200-250 persons, its second level at
1500 persons, and its 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 project privileges local private and cooperative production for
family and local consumption and use of the financial structures created for
this purpose. It therefore tends to act against large-scale monoculture
activities. The project is formally apolitical. It will not directly or
indirectly support either industrial activities or the importation of
fertilisers into the project area, an important cause of financial leakage. It
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.
08.40.10 Management
of communal lands.
The local Money system 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.
08.40.20 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.
08.40.21 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.
08.40.22 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.
08.40.30 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.
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.
08.40.40 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 (nd 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 surfrace water for survival, they will represent
a second important source of food in times of extended drought.
08.40.50
Cooperative seed banks.
The project will set one or
more seed banks up under the local money system. The seed bank(s) will serve :
a) For the reintroduction and conservation of local and
regional plant sorts threatened with extinction.
b) The preparation and conservation of seeds for local
farmers.
c) 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.
08.40.60
Biomass for the production of mini-briquettes.
Another aspect of agricultural activity under the project is the
cultivation of biomass for mini-briquettes for high efficiency stoves which
will be made available to all households. It is assumed that each family will
need 3.5kg of mini-briquettes per day. With 50 families in a tank commission
area, that is 175kg per day. Over 365
days, that is about 65 tons per year in each of the tank commission area
(usually about 200) in the project area. A mini-briquette manufacturing unit
will be set up in each of the (usually about 35) well commission areas. The
mini-briquettes will may made according to a recipe which takes into account
the household waste available for recycling, waste agricultural materials and
specialised crop-growing. Since each
well commission serves 5-9 tank commission areas, the average production of
each of the units will be about 500 tons. The production unit will sign contracts
with 2 or 3 farmers in each tank commission area (therefore 600-900 farmers in
the project area) to supply the required biomass. Each farmer will supply 20-30
tons of biomass, where possible equally divided over the year. Or from 2 to 2.5
tons per month.
Assuming a fuel saving of 6.5 kg/day of fuel in each of 10.000 families
in a project area, savings amount to 65 tons of wood per day or 23725 tons per
year. Converted into tons of CO2, that is 18705 tons of CO2 per year. Assuming
a market value of Euro 24 per ton of
CO2, this amounts to a credit of nearly €450.000 per project per year to which
other cost and time savings can be added. Over ten years this alone would be
enough to finance the project. As described in 09.33 CER certificates Kyoto Treaty : programme of activities as a single CDM project
activity some timid steps are being taken to help groups of smaller projects
participate in emission rights trading.
Carefully managed high application and compliance costs have so far kept
them out.
08.40.70 Water conservation.
There are three main aspects to water conservation in projects under the
Model : utilisation; protection; conservation.
08.40.71 Utilisation
Water use if kept to the minimum strictly necessary. This minimum requirement
is
The 1400m3 of drinking water are 100% recycled. First, through the
recycled urine. Secondly the re-cycled household grey water which is mixed with the urine.
Thirdly, any other grey-water which is recycled separately from the urine.
Rainwater will also be harvested for other personal domestic
applications. Rainfall in the project area and the physical features of
peoples’ homes are such that the additional capacity for the harvesting of non
potable water is a maximum of 25 litres/person/day. This water is never
passed contaminated into the environment.
None of the water supplies comes into contact with faeces at any
time.
Water collected in public places, and roads is collected in covered,
protected reservoirs for small-scale drip agriculture.
Eventual water surpluses are fed directly into natural water courses.
The project does not foresee the use of underground water fro
agricultural purposes. Neither does it foresee large-scale irrigation or water
accumulation in the form of open ponds or dams. The project as such does not
foresee the raising of fish
(agricultural production is usually more efficient); but the populations
are free to support such initiatives in the framework of the micro-credit
structures set up subject to proper on-going hygiene control to eliminate all
risk of malaria and other water-borne infections.
Water used for the production of items made from gypsum composites is
recycled for 100% within the production system itself. There is no loss of
water into the environment.
08.40.72 Protection of water sources.
Water sources, be they bore-holes, wells or reservoirs are hermetically sealed against
contamination.
Underground water never comes into contact with contaminated surface
waters. First, because all stagnant
surface waters are eliminated. Secondly because run-off rainwater is drained
without getting polluted into water courses.
Initiatives for the total
elimination of stagnant waters will be taken at the level of each tank
commission under the local money system set up in an early project phase. In
cooperation with the local public authorities, inhabitants will pay
maintenance groups in local money to
carry out simple drainage works as necessary. These works can be expected to
extend to the creation of foot- and bicycle paths.
Refer to section 08.10 List of files specific to hygiene education,
drinking water supply and sanitation for more
information on the drinking water structures
for
drawings of water points with the elimination of all surface waters so
as to guarantee dry foot-walks and other surfaces to protect users from
water-borne infections.
Rainwater will be harvested at household level. Streets, roads and
public places will be drained.
Rapid elimination of stagnant water is just one of the activities
contributing to the fight against malaria, water-borne diseases, vermin, and
bad smells.
08.40.80 Conservation
Except for 1400m3 per day of
clean drinking water drawn from deep wells or boreholes for direct personal use
by the population, the project does not use any environmental water resources.
Large scale water storage is not foreseen. The project is therefore in
principle (except for the 1400m3/day of ground water) water neutral. The
purpose of the project is local development
to attain a good quality of life for all in the project area. This does
not require any large scale intervention which could have negative
environmental effects.
On the other hand, the project will have profound sustainable effects on
the conservation of nature in the project area. For details of these, refer to section 08.30 A list of
files on specific ecological issues. The project offers valuable
instruments to stop deforestation, to protect fauna and flora, to improve the
quality of the air, to promote optimum use of the territory, to clean and
beautify villages, public places and paths between villages.
NEW HORIZONS FOR DEVELOPMENT: SOME SHORT POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS
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MORE ON SOME BASIC ISSUES COVERED BY THE MODEL:
Next file :
09.10 List of attachments to the project.
Back : 08.30 The
ecological aspects of the project.
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