NGO
Another Way (Stichting Bakens Verzet), 1018 AM
01. E-course :
Diploma in Integrated Development (Dip.
Int. Dev.)
Edition
01: 20 November, 2009
Edition
02 : 07 March, 2011
Value: 06
points out of 18 .
Expected work
load: 186 hours out of 504.
The points
are finally awarded only on passing the consolidated exam for Section B :
Solutions to the Problems.
Fourth block: The structures to be created.
Value : 03 points out of 18
Expected work load: 96 hours
out of 504
The points
are finally awarded only on passing the consolidated exam for Section B :
Solutions to the Problems.
Fourth block: The structures to be created.
Section 4: Productive structures. [12
hours].
10.00 hours : Productive structures
02.00 hours : Preparation report.
Section 4: Productive
structures. [12 hours].
10.00 hours : Productive
structures
1. Units for the production
articles from gypsum-based composites. [2 hours]
2. Units for the
production of mini-briquettes.
[2 hours]
3. Bio-mass production.
[2 hours]
4. Installation and
maintenance cooperatives. [2 hours]
5. Other productive structures.
[2 hours]
02.00 hours : Preparation report.
Section 4: Productive
structures. [12 hours].
10.00 hours :
Productive structures
3. Bio-mass production.
[at least 2 hours]
Cooking and smoke in the
homes.
Cooking is the most energy-intensive activity
in most developing countries. Nearly all the fuel used for the comes from bio-mass,
usually wood. Population growth and migration of people from the countryside to
densely populated slums on the fringes of large cities have serious
consequences, including health dangers, air-pollution, de-forestation and
poverty.
For example, wood often has to be brought great
distances, sometimes hundreds of kilometres, by trucks using imported fuel. It
then has to be distributed. This wood is expensive and the money to buy it
leaves the local economy creating a downward poverty spiral. Fuel costs are
often the biggest budget item of families in the developing countries.
Local production of highly efficient stoves
under local LETS systems can eliminate or at least substantially reduce the
need to import wood into the project area. Under the project proposals wood
will not be needed at all. The benefits of just this single project item are
dramatic, including:
- elimination of smoke
hazards (the cause of more deaths in the
world than all water-borne and infectious diseases together) in and around
users’ homes.
- reduction of fire risks.
- reduction of risks of
accidental burning and scolding, especially of young children.
- halting the depletion of
forests.
- helping to stop erosion.
- reducing the CO2 emissions.
- reducing smog formation in cities, towns and villages.
- releasing users from an unsustainable financial burden.
- using (some of) the financial saving to finance this whole development
project.
- possibility of earning
carbon emission reduction certificates for sale under the Kyoto Treaty.
Cooking stoves
The proposed highly efficient gypsum composite
stoves will reduce the bio-mass needed for cooking by up to 60%. The stoves
will run with any kind of fuel. Importantly, the reduced bio mass needed to
fuel them can be 100% locally produced, creating jobs to grow it, to make
mini-briquettes for cooking and to distribute the briquettes. The production of
bio-mass for cooking must not affect the production of local fertiliser for
agriculture.
Gypsum composite stoves have been preferred to
solar cookers (though these can always be offered as an option) because the use
of solar energy for cooking does not always coincide with users' eating habits.
The stoves also allow people to retain their customary cooking methods and
preferred pot and pan sizes, and are better adapted to preparing traditional
staple foods. They incorporate heat level control, and will allow circulation
of smoke so that the heat in the smoke is utilised.
The stoves will be locally sized to suit the
two or three most commonly used pots and pans. Each family will buy as many
stoves as it needs and can afford using the local LETS currencies.
It is not only a question of reducing
consumption of wood for cooking purposes.
The consequences of smoke deriving from cooking activities inside and
around homes and in villages is rarely brought to the attention of the world
public. Yet smoke causes more death and lung sickness, in particular amongst
young children and women, than all of the viral diseases together.
The
proposed gypsum composite stoves should lead to savings in fuel consumption of
at least 60%. They work with all types of fuel.
Local sustainable production of
bio-mass products with 100% local value added without negative effect on
fertiliser production for local agricultural purposes will create local work
for the production and distribution of the mini-briquettes.
Stoves : some expected technical features.
a) Temperatures to 300
degrees C.
b) Heating and cooling
cycles twice a day for at least five years.
c) Thermal resistance between warm inner fire wall and
cooler external wall.
d) Ecological production in
low cost labour intensive local production units with 100% local value added
e) Recycling of unwanted (old)
items and parts to make new products.
Solar cooker production
Where
their use is not in conflict with local eating habits, solar cookers will be
built under the LETS systems for daytime cooking.
The solar cooker recipients
will be made from gypsum composites.
Recipes
Each of the 35-45 mini-briquettes
cooperatives at well commission level will develop contacts with the structures
for the collection of organic and non-organic wastes in the well commission
area to purchase wastes which can be incorporated in the mini briquettes.
Recipes for
mini-briquettes will vary from one part of a project area to another, and
between one project area and another. Combustion speed can be controlled by the
addition of water and/or used vegetable oils and fats and/or salt and/or animal
wastes.
Basic components
are straw, leaves, waste-wood, paper.
Some of the waste products,
such as used oils and fats, can be supplied systematically throughout the year.
Organisation of harvests.
The greatest part of the
materials used for the mini-briquettes will come from agricultural products and
by-products :
a) Agricultural wastes,
especially those traditionally burnt.
b) Crops specifically grown by
farmers for use as bio-mass for the
mini-briquettes.
Some 12 to 18 contracts are
expected to be signed for the supply of bio-mass for each of the mini-briquette production
units, or 400-500 contractsfor each
individual integrated development project.
Utilisation
of land.
In the
preceding section on units for the production of
mini-briquettes it was seen that
each production unit at well commission level will need to process about
Suppose that
65% of well-commission level
requirements is purpose-cultivated bio-mass. That means about
Bio-mass
supply must follow the following criteria:
1) Bio-mass
commonly used as fertiliser must not be used..
2) Land
commonly used for food production must not be used to grow bio-mass for
mini-briquettes.
3) Forested
areas and the environment (including animals and plants) in general must be fully
respected.
The
organisational workshop.
The structures foreseen are for the production of
mini-briquettes for the stoves to be made by the gypsum composite production
units and for the production of bio-masse to make the mini-briquettes.
The bio-mass production for mini-briquettes will be
combined with the production of pure plant
oil for small-scale use for electricity generation and to run adapted Diesel
motors. This multi-functional approach is expected to improve the incomes of
the bio-mass producers. Some crops produce edible oils. Many oils and
press-cakes can also be used to feed animals. They can also be used to make
household necessities including soaps.
One Moraisian workshop will be held in the project
area.
Indicative participation.
The Moraisian trainers.
The project coordinator.
Consultant to project coordinator.
Consultant gypsum composites.
At least one representative of the ONG.
Representative of the Health Ministry.
Representative of the Rural Development ministry.
At least 5 observers (possible coordinators for future projects).
50 persons indicated by the tank commissions interested in the production of
mini-briquettes.
200 persons indicated by the tank commissions, interested in producing
bio-masse for the mini-briquettes.
Duration of the workshop: about four weeks.
The Workshop will be expected to produce the following
structures:
a) A coordination structure.
- definition of the social form.
- statutes.
- rules.
- professional and administrative structures.
- financial aspects including payments.
- relations with the local money LETS systems.
b) Analysis of requirements.
- detailed analysis of the present systems.
- demand in the project area.
- demand outside the project area.
c) Analysis of the bio-masse resources available.
d) Definition of the recipes (mixtures) socially
acceptable.
e) Creation of the physical structures for briquette
production.
f) Logistics.
- Assembly and stocking of materials.
- distribution of mini-briquettes.
g) Organisation of the cultivation of bio-mass.
h) Commercial.
- Availability of micro-credits for growers.
- Availability of micro-credits for briquette makers.
- Prices for briquette distribution according to the various mixtures.
Costs and
benefits
See
file : Elimination smog, items
60801-60806.
Items 60801-60806 refer to the creation of structures for the supply of
bio-mass. The typical budget amount is just
€ 88.300 as mot of the activities take place within the framework of the
local money systems set up at the rate of €3 per 8 hour day.
Management of bio-mass resources.
The amounts of bio-mass in question are
French
speaking students can refer to the book by
Brehman H. and Kessler J-J, Le rôle des ligneux dans les agro-systèmes des
régions sémi-arides (avec un accent particulier sur les pays Saheliens),
which is available at the Digital library of Wageningen University, Netherlands.
At paragraph
3.2.1 the authors state : In optimal conditions “Type C4 plants can produce up to
This means that C3 ligneous plants can produce up to
Paragraph 5.3.3 of the cited
work (Management of ligneous plants)
reads :
«In most semi-arid regions, present ligneous
coverage is lower than might be considered necessary from the point of view of
sustainability. Whether this is also a
productivity issue depends on individual
circumstances. For reforestation purposes, (passive) natural regeneration and
protection of secondary growth should be encouraged wherever possible, manly against grazing and fire. In some
places, ligneous plants have disappeared altogether. (Active) artificial
regeneration is then necessary, preferably with indigenous species adapted to
the climatic zones in question (tables 2.4 to 2.7). While some species recover
easily and dominate fallow lands (sections 2.2.1.2
and 2.4.4),
others take on in the shadow of the colonising species and have a low rate of growth and a long life
expectancy. To encourage rapid reforestation in situation III (fig.
5.1), micorhize species with a closed cover (table 5.4) may be chosen . In
type II situations (vegetation
production limited by water, criteria for selection would be species with a
high water efficiency, deep roots, and a good bark flow potential. In Ib type
situations, species adapted to severe erosion conditions would need to be
newly planted to restore ligneous
coverage. » (Translation
T.E.Manning)
At
paragraph 5.4.7
«Optimal management of agro-forestry systems depends on the availability
of labour, compared with current prevailing land use in semi-arid regions. That
may be one of the reasons for the preference given to multi-use trees, although
their benefits are always lower than the total of the production of different types of trees each meeting
individual goals. Labour is a limiting production factor for most agricultural
situations in semi-arid areas, with demand concentrated at the start and at the
end of the rainy period. (Brossier et Jager 1983 ; Veeneklaas
et al. 1991).
(Translation T.E.Manning)
Regular
cutting of ligneous plants and the deposit of a vegetation biomass in fields or
the grazing of leaves by cattle are very
demanding activities from the labour point of view and coincide (in part) with
seasonal peaks. In the absence of sufficient labour, the role played by
ligneous plants in fields or pastures cannot be optimised. Although it is less
productive, the spatial separation of
agriculture and forestry calls for less labour , but calls for a greater
level of external means to maintain production levels..» (Translation T.E.Manning)
In their conclusion the authors state:
«In
most semi-arid regions, management of the transition process is not easy : lack
of technical knowledge, the prevailing socio-economic conditions, lack of
labour at crucial times, insecurity of land ownership are the most important
bottlenecks. Until today, ligneous plants have been exploited for their
production. Major changes are needed to bring about change in the use of
ligneous species, from a productive function to a function of stabilisation and
protection. It must in any case be remembered that the use of ligneous plants
in combined agro-sylvan-pastoral contexts has never been easy. Optimal use of
their potential calls for careful analysis. The risk of negative consequences
deriving from experimentation with ligneous species for maximum production is
great. For example, the use of the productive function of ligneous species can
lead to soil exhaustion at deep levels for longer periods. In that case,
short-term production objectives must dominate, which is understandable from
the peasant’s point of view. It is known that local communities are often
unable to select long-term objectives. They therefore need support for an
optimum use of ligneous species assuring a sustainable system of
exploitation. Over a long term, this
type of approach can only serve the interests of the entire population. » (Translation
T.E.Manning)
1. Research.
Setting up an permanent, ecological and sustainable bio-mass production,
both for mini-briquette production and for the protection of fauna and flora and
the environment in general, is one of the objectives of integrated development
projects. It is a more complex operation than it might at first sight appear. Give a one page description of the
points to be taken into consideration for a balanced management of the bio-mass supply for mini-briquettes.
2. Research.
According to
3. Opinion.
Integrated development projects provide for the local production of low
cost solar cookers. If it were possible to use solar cookers for 100% of
cooking requirements, there would be no need for high-efficiency cookers using
bio-mass, mini-briquettes, or biomass for the mini-briquettes. Outline on one
page why you think the use of cookers and locally produced mini-briquettes has
been retained as essential to local integrated development.
4. Research.
Make a one-page description of the potential for the production of biomass in your chosen project area, taking
the three criteria mentioned above into account, ,being :
1) Bio-mass commonly used as fertiliser must not be used..
2) Land commonly used for food production must not be used to grow
bio-mass for mini-briquettes.
3) Forested areas and the environment (including animals and plants) in
general must be fully respected.
Remember that
three pieces of land are needed at each tank commission area, each with a
surface of one hectare. These could be marginal lands, if possible joined to
each other to create a chain of forested areas together with areas made
available in other tank commission areas. These chains should in turn be
«linked » to existing protected forests and reserves so as to create
corridors for free movement of fauna over the entire territory.
◄ Fourth block : Section 4: Productive structures.
◄ Fourth block : The structures to
be created.
◄ 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."
Gesell,
Silvio, The Natural Economic Order, revised English edition, Peter Owen,
“Poverty is created scarcity”
Wahu Kaara, point 8 of the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, 58th
annual NGO Conference, United Nations,
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