Green Dreams Organic Farming in East Africa

As I hit the tracks, I lost sight of the chaos on the hill, the sounds of children shrieking and the sweet smell of rotting garbage, shrouded in the acrid smoke of burning banana skins. The scent of my flesh scorched on the hot tracks , sizzling beneath me. I lay limbless now, my skin drying as the merciless sun rays vaporised my being towards the heavens , juices oozing from my lacerated body, attracting carnivorous ants from miles away. What on earth and in hell had I done to deserve this torture metted out by an ignorant child, ignorant to the value of my being, ignorant to the need for us to exist together.

We live in Kibera. We thrive in Kibera. We are ignored and abused in Kibera.

The silver sunrays baked the mud that housed us, radiating a warm glow through our bodies, slowly drawing the night chill upwards and away. Drawing with it moisture from the depths and encouraging a flurry of activity of all those around, resulting in an everincreasing sweet stench to fill the pockets of icy night air. The land was still. Our land was good. Our land was fertile, we kept it this way. We encouraged the growth of crops we did not eat, but took pleasure in feeding. We defecated tirelessly, endlessly. We fornicated often, polygamously, under cover, privately. Our population increasing by the day in this slum, the biggest in Africa. Surviving as scavengers, our children merrily wandering through the piles of garbage, oblivious to the dangers of suffocation, the threat of playing or feeding too close to plastic bags. Oblivious of dangers of vermin, rodents and children.

The quake was sudden! As most quakes are! The ground ripped from around us, under us, and turned above. The worst quake ever felt in Kibera. Bodies were severed. Body parts writhing in the glistening sodden mud, chaos all around. WHAT THE……..!!!!!

Shards of bright light forced us to cringe and seek escape. Disoriented by the sounds of ripping earth and foreign voices, we tried to tunnel downwards , upwards, anywards, desperately trying to survive, to escape from the unfolding hell that surrounded us.

Hours later, in the calm, I lay in a strange stillness. My body unscathed. All in one piece. How had I survived, Why? Where were the others? The moist walls around me reminding me I was still underground. Sickly sweet rotting fruit drizzling over my body, marinating me slowly. Tantalizing me and tempting me to reach out and take a mouthful. I was starving. Just a bite. It was good. It went through my system in no time. I felt I could eat my way through this icky rotting mass if I had to.I began to regain my strength, and decided to squirm through the debris searching for my family. Where were they. My world seemed upside down. The sky, blue as ever lay beneath me. The sun threatening from above. Was I hallucinating? Was it something I had eaten.

And then suddenly, the chaos started again. A second quake, bigger than the first tore through my universe, exposing me to the world around. In seconds the sound was unbearable!! My body gripped at the waist line, tighter and tighter until I was sure to black out as I was lifted from mother earth, strangled, squeezed. I recall urinating, not in fear, but by force. Gasping for air I was suddenly surrounded by it, as I took flight.

Was this a dream? I was flying!!

Green meadows swirling below me. Silence filling the air with every second. Was this for real? Was it something I’d eaten?

I tried to look down my flight path. Everyone was staring.

Someone was shouting “Snake!!”

Snake??!!!Geepers, where??? From my vantage point I couldn’t see one!!

Su was shouting. “Hey!! Wewe!! Kwanini wewe ame fanya hiyo? Hawa ni rafiki yako. Ni mzuri”

(Hey , why did you do that? They are your friends!!)

The little boy looked on puzzled. He raised his soily hands in confusion.What was going on? What had she said? What language was she speaking? He had saved the crowd from the snake hadn’t he?

Instinctively recognising the confusion, Dino Martins (our superman!!) came to the rescue of all and translated in perfect swahili “Don’t harm the earthworms, they are very good for the soil, they are our friends”

They are very good for the soil??I knew that all along……………….Is this what you do to friends?????

As my soft body lay on the searing rail tracks, I hoped that the sacrifice of my life, collateral damage, would be a lesson to the future farmers in Kibera. We need each other.

(The story of an earth worm, captured and put into a blue crate to be shown as an example to the children of Kibera. One child however,on seeing the worm grabbed it and flung it over the edge onto the railway track.)

Technorati : Africas’ biggests slum, Dino Martins, Kibera, Vermiculture, earthworms

Nothing is quite so annoying as deleting an entire page of writing ‘by mistake’……………………….sigh,………

Saturday April 26th is a day I will always remember as being a huge eye opener for me. Claire sent Erik over to collect Wakio and I to take us in to Kibera to the site. On the journey, Erik gave us a running commentary on Kibera, the social systems, the networks, people, ‘villages’, chiefs etc. Kibera began to feel like a country within itself, with its own governing mechanisms and law courts. We drove into Kibera through the route behind Uchumi Supermarket on Ngong road.

It was a beautiful day in Nairobi, the city in the sun, the roads decorated with colour and pace as Kenyans of all walks of life got on with whatever the day had to offer. I remember a couple of ladies who waved recognition to Erik as we turned in the slum road, they didn’t look as afraid as I expected them to. In fact, what was noticeable is I was looking for something that did not exist. Where were the angry people, where was the chaos? The ambience was full of ’soul’ as folk just got on with the day. Everyone oblivious to the questions swirling around in my head.

My mind was racing back and forth finding conclusions around every corner, and contrast and confusion on the way back. Where were the furious folk that had only months learlier stripped the rail tracks right off the ground, turning what appeared to be an angry powerful rusted centipede upside down? Footage adept for the next Mad Max.

I asked Erik why folk had done this to sever a system connecting themselves , their trade, their job routes. His response was not one we had read about in the media. He told us that during the electoral violence the people within Kibera were cordonned in by the police who did not allow folk either in or out. In this quest for security of our city of Nairobi and it’s environs, the people of Kibera began to starve as there was no incoming food. Recognising the need to attract the media as no one else seemed to take notice, the people of Kibera made the biggest statement they could to attract attention. In a frenzy of anger and fury, they defeated the iron centipede and tipped it on it’s side. The media came running……………the photos were spectacular……….the voices of Kibera were heard and translated into a story that failed to get the point across. Kibera fell silent and ignored a few days later. So they did it again. Interestingly enough, turning the railtracks is now a silent threat and I am sure we have not seen or heard the last of it.

Whilst telling me the stories, we passed, people, many people, all busy with life. Then we pulled into the side road next to the Youth Office next to a big black water tank. This was the farm site. There were about 15 young men around the area and as Wakio and I pulled our gum boots on in the car, I tucked my cell phone safely in my money pouch. My first impression was where do we start? Apparently the youth had been removing plastic garbage for weeks! And there was still alot of that kind of work left to be done.

Erik had to leave and said he would be back in a bit. So there stood Wakio and I amidst a group of self reformed youth, in Kibera, on our own, in our boots, in the mud, without an escape route,ready to turn this space they had diligently preserved and tried to clean, into an organic farm. For a split second I was actually looking for the safest exit route just in case we were attacked, robbed, mugged………………then the guys shyly introduced themselves and began to show us their proud farm.

70 Meters long by 13 Meters wide. In a flash I ruled out cattle farming and goat farming and began to question if there was any space for rabbits! I remembered an incidence in Switzerland where I was part of a discussion about a project in Arusha Tanzania. I objected to being involved and said I thought the best course was for the folk to go there and see what is on the ground and asses the needs whilst there. It reminded me how only minutes before in the car, my discussion about milking goats for the farm would have resulted in some very miserable starving goats………….unless we fed them on the crops we were growing…………..or grew some vertical foliage?? Tithonia fences perhaps? Which made me think of composting material……………..there was simply nothing to realistically compost……….a road on one side and a railway on the other.

Mohamed , one of the youth in charge, led us over the land.Whilst most of the garbage had been removed, there were tufts of plastic and glass at most intervals. I take my hat off to these guys, they had sifted through over 3 feet of compacted plastic garbage to unveil what I knew we could turn into the jewel of Kibera.

The plastic was now all lined up alongside the edge of the plot, which fell away to the railway track about 10 feet below. I believe we should make as little change as possible to the ways of nature so began to study the foliage that had survived the trash and clearing excersise. This is what I found.

Pumpkin,Potatoe, Eggplant, Tomato, Amaranthus, (in the pics)not in the pics, melon, bean, wild sorrel, wild purslane and malva. Those are the family types that like the soils on this plot, mainly cucubit and solanacea. However, I assume the brassicas were not present as the chances of their seed being in the garbage were nil. There were a few of their wild ancestors notifiable by their seed pods, in the narrow row of weeds between the wall of plastic garbage and the steep incline to the tracks.

We talked and walked and made plans quickly scribbled in a note pad, but firmly printed in my mind. As I showed Mohamed and his team how to prepare the planting beds for the next week, I noticed how they were as captivated as I was by the unfolding plans, even opting to dig the more difficult double dug beds if need be.

I left them at 2 pm digging and I am told they continued for the rest of the day as well as the whole of sunday!

Technorati : Kibera, garbage site, organic farming

A few weeks ago I was honoured to visit a farm in Thika with Mr Pierluigi Maggioni. Thika is on the outskirts of Nairobi city, about an hours drive from the heartbeat of Kenya. This area has over the years developed into quite a prosperous agricultural zone, home to Kenya’s biggest pineapple plantation and processors, Del Montes. We drove into what appeared to be oblivion before reaching the Farm, nestled within arcades of trees, with fields of what appeared to be carefully manicured crops. The farm produces 3 main crops for export, Baby corn, French beans and Baby courgettes. Production is along conventional lines, following the european requirements Global Gap, HACCAP etc.

PierLuigi is the chief agronomist for the farm, Italian by birth but pretty Kenyan now after residing here for the past 20 years. His interests span beyond conventional methods of production and he has been at the forefront of intergrated pest management IPM of production locally. He is ever experimenting with new systems, a firm believer in trial and error and has more patience than I will ever have. Of late, he has been doing trials on ‘Zero Tillage’ on maize and has managed to produce three crops with outstanding results!

French beans are first grown using fertilizers, which after harvest are dried with the use of round up. The bean waste is left in the field and using a seeder, the maize is planted directly into the same area. The maize does not get any addittional fertiliser. After the baby corn harvest, the maize is chopped above ground level and beans are planted again , this time also with fertilizer. Considering this process to be one cycle, after three cycles, the soil is aerated from beneath using a special implement. As the photos will show, the top soil is covered with maize and bean mulch, which improves the soil condition and quality over time. What the photos will also show are the uniformity of the growing blocks.

The savings of this system are incredible. According to Pierluigis calculations, he uses 75% less diesel……….as he simply does not use his tractors as much……considering he was using 1000lts with the system before, this is an incredible saving. And suprisingly, he has reduced his pesticide use to ‘ZERO’ !! Yes, he does not use any pesticide on the crops as the pest damage is at negligible levels. Absolutely incredible!!! And equally as important, he has increased his yields by up to 70%!! This he says is due to better germination realised by this new planting method.

This is a huge eye opener for me. Why are the other exporters not doing the same? In a world of increasing fuel and fertilizer costs you would think it would be a high priority! Maybe they just don’t know, and sadly, perhaps the pressures of the export demands do not allow them to experiment too much.

Pierluigi is now experimenting with zero tillage on other crops. I’m fasinated and would love to see this approach adopted by more large scale exporters.

Technorati : fuel efficient, pesticide reduction, zero tillage

Mr Pierluigi Maggioni can be contacted on 0721121595

Training small scale organic farmers through The Organic Farmer Support Program (kindly funded by BioVision) entailed teaching farmers how to construct a simple wormery. This exercise was always great fun. Before we started we would discuss earthworms and find out how much the farmers actually knew. Sadly , due to lack of access of knowledge, most farmers would go to great lengths to destroy any earthworms they came across, believing they damaged their crops. Worms were always a humourous topic, Farmers were always astonished to realise that they were so beneficial and could be ‘farmed’ very economically, to produce a super liquid fertilizer.

To begin with, a team of youth were selected to be the ‘technical’ group. This was normally about 6 people. They would then be taken through the steps of constructing the wormery or ‘worm hoteli’ using locally available materials, before being left to construct a second one by themselves. This way we were sure that we would leave the technology in the group.

The group meanwhile would be learning how to fill the interior of the ‘worm hoteli’ making it hospitable for worms. It was crucial they learn of all the things that could go wrong, how to identify them and how to correct them. They also learnt how to tend the worms and how to extract the juice by flushing the entire system with water once a monnth. Worm juice when produced properly is one of the easiest and most nutritious bio feeds one can give ones crops, In the rural setting where incomes are low it is hugely appreciated.

The morning session of the training would be taken up making the wormery and teaching the theory, In the afternoon, the two would be put together. Duplication of this system within the group is quite easy, members can take worms from the demo site when they have constructed their own systems. The initial trend has been farmers taking juice form the demo site and using it for a time until they are convinced of its benefits before investing in setting up their own system.

Technorati : earthworms, worm juice, wormery

The Green Dreams farm is a heaven for little folk. Hardly a week goes by without the birth of a newcomer, calf, kid, bunny, puppy…..Kids love the farm…Children are alot more daring than adults and fascinate me by how far out- of- the- box they dare to think. Did you know that shadenet is to catch leaves?

That in order to extract worm juice you can do any of the following 1) Hold worm between thumb and first finger of left hand. With right hand grasp worm close to the two fingers securing the worm, and slowly slide your fingers squeezing all the while, down the length of the worms body. Make sure to collect the worm juice in a jar. And make sure you start with the worm in upright position. OR 2) Put worms in a large bucket. At one end, put a potty. Train worms to go to the potty. Did you know the tiny little microscopic creatures within a compost pile that help to break down the material are called GERMS!

One little girl made my day when she said she wanted to be a farmer when she grew up

Our training team consisted of Su Kahumbu (1st pic) Dominic Wanjihia (2nd pic), Anne Bruntse (3rd pic kneeling) and Musa Njoka (EnCert). The program training was sponsored by The Organic Farmer(BioVision) thus called The Organic Farmer Support Program. Our aim was to help empower farmers who were looking to commercialise their organic production. To do this we found we needed to start at the very beginning with basic organic production so as to ensure everyone was on the same page. When this was achieved we then began to focus on the regulations, in this case the EnCert Organic Standards. An important area was that of the prohibitted substances, many farmers were totally unaware of these. We also found there was a great need to teach the basic solutions to pest and disease.

We also built in a demo site for each project comprising of simple and affordable solutions to some of the problems the farmers face. On the site we installed drip irrigation , vermiculture (earth worm tank) and also a fortified compost pit.

Technorati : BioVision, EnCert, The Organic Farmer, The Organic Farmer Support Porgram, Vermiculture

Training small scale farmers in the beautiful scenic hills of Gilgil. Our first training, totally memorable! The entire community was involved, starting with the children, we used their class room, a wooden structure with an internal partition mid way. The partition was made of two huge doors which when opened turned the room into one large class room, when closed, it divided the class room into two, producing two smaller rooms. For our training we used the bigger size.

Our first task was to repair the desks and benches, before preparing the room for the adult training.

Technorati : Gilgil, small scale farmers, training

Just a short note on my successes and failures as a blogger.

The Ugly
1. For a while I just kept writing, and writing and writing…………and every day I’d check to see if there were any comments
I began to wonder how anyone was even going to know about the blog…………as I mentioned in the beginning I am a very late learner and started out with an allergy to computers and all things IT.

I remember as a child I shared a post box in the hedge with my neighbour…….it was a coffee tin hammered to a piece of wood. He was really cute. We’d exchange notes, I’d write 10 times more than he did (typical boy)……….It’s amazing how so many years later, checking a blog and seeing there are no comments brings back memories of that empty coffee tin.

2. I can’t quite figure out the clock. I’ve posted the same page about five times and changed the clock as many too. I feel sorry for the edublog team………….bare with me…………..I’m learning. I will get it right one day.

3. I still can’t upload photos. I have a trilllion. I’ve sent 4 into space. I wish you could see them…………….again, one day…………I’m no further to getting it right than I was a week ago

The Bad
1. I’m actually spending time and getting excited about blogging.
2. I’m fighting my kids off the computer
3. It’s lunch time, I’ve been at this all morning…………….I wish I could learn faster. Paula tried, I should have taped her and played it back in short bursts. At the time I was thinking about the competition deadline. She was jabbering all sense at twice the speed of light. It’s all coming back to me now (Celine sang that song)……….I’ll have photos up within the week I swear.

The Good

I recieved a mail from one of my friends saying my blog made her Monday! I couldn’t believe it. She also commented on the farmers market, agreeing we should rethink how it can be done, and supported the idea of the market being held outside the store. I’m really excited at being able to reach out to our organic stake holders in such a broad way. Thank you Mary.

So as I learn, I shall teach……………………….folk who are new to blogs like me, this is the first TIP Make your reply public by doing so in the comments section at the bottom of the page. Share your views. Happy Blogging !!

Last night was the close of the Development Market competition. My friend Wakio has been working with me on the project proposal………for what is now officially called the GDVA Center-Pilot (Green Dreams Value Adding Center). Days of work have gone into the project, hours of discussions, arguments, laughs and writing for africa. I,m hopeless with converting time, even tracking time and Wakio had set up a page on the internet that showed us the deadline entry time. We should have set an alarm on. As the day inched into the night we became more stressed, tired and hungry, eating and drinking whatever was available and in closest vicinity……at one moment banana crisps with deadly hot chilli…………Moniko (my son) fighting to keep them in his corner as he watched t.v waiting to be taken swimming as soon as we were through………The project demands seemed to grow with every hour frustrating us as it felt we were repeating issues constantly……….at one point I stopped to nap…..5 minutes………Wakio slogged on..thankfully.
The girls came home I rememeber them somewhere on the perifery of the evening chatting excitedly about their day tomorrow. Moniko like a lounge lizard was still watching t.v, now dvd….Mulan keeping the family entertained.
I had wanted us to submit the proposal well before the deadline time, giving us a few hours in case of hiccups……..power outages, network failure, the need seek an open internet cafe in the night………………..But fate had something else in store.

The final page of submissions kept bouncing back saying we were over the word count………(we had about half an hour to competition close). Wakio working faster than I could even visually keep up was punching away trying to submit time after time. For a while I imagined her putting in the same answer for all 9 questions…….I really couldn’t keep up. It seemed the answers were somehow gaining characters behind the scenes. I imagined I could have a darn virus on the machine……if this was to continue we would never get the darn thing submitted.

The bold red text kept popping up with every submission………..first it was question 6,4,5,9………..we rectified them………then it was 1,6,4,9,5,,,,,,,,,,,,,I was more convinced by the minute that she was posting the same answers into all the questions and was begining to think the situation was out of hand and that Wakio had gone quite mad……..and frankly it was way past my bed time……………..the kids had vanished, the puppy was asleep……….nothing was making sense……………………………….Then all of a sudden our worst nightmare came true………..THE COMPETITION CLOSED!!!!

The room was filled with deadly silence as we read the screen. We had been working on this for 12 hours straight!! How could the world be so darn cruel.???
How did we miss the time? We were what looked like half an hour late. Wakio said we were within time but questioned the repetetive mistakes on the word count as we were well within the parameters.

For a moment I thought of the project. Was that it? It had become a permanent thought in my mind, developing day after day, hour after hour……….there was still so much to do. I looked forward to discussing and designing the floor plans with my brother Dominic………this simply could not be. ………….I was holding myself back from yelling at Wakio, how could we have missed the time line??

Wakio was outwardly very calm, I suppose we both were. Though raging internally. What could we do? Just accept we had missed the bus and pack it in? At one point Wakio said ‘ Well, we’ve done it, it’s all here, you have a project’…………again I had a quick thought about her sanity……….and now what? Go back to hustling this idea in the donor and Ngo world? Idea hustlers? Again?

I remember at the outset, she told me she would do all that was needed as she believed in the project, and she knew I would simply not have the patience to deal with the back n forth involved in the thing.
The project concept is great, the proposal put together by Wakio is brilliant! There just had to be something we could do!!

Our minds started racing Wakio was still punching keys and flipping through pages. The reality was, we were time barred!
Not in my world….I grabbed a momment on the computer and wrote a letter begging for a chance to get our proposal submitted, using every excuse in the book, I mentioned the rain outside, poor internet conectivity,the bouncing back of our answers erronously, and in a final last ditch attempt I even mentioned the post electoral conflict in the country and the need for projects like ours to happen. Then I sent it. To an address of someone at the world bank. Someone……….who knows who. The sanity tables had turned meanwhile and Wakio was looking at me strangley. I must have looked pathetic. I was desperate. If it wasn;t for her help the letter would never have gotten to the right place. And some poor guy/girl out there would wonder about us africans when they recieved my panic letter in the morning. Wakio however found a glaringly obvious adress to send it to that somehow I could not see at the time…………..I was prepared to send it to everyone at the world bank, and in every country too!

The letter went and I proceeded to get ready for bed. It was back to normal chores, and somewhat in a daze I found myself swotting mosquiotes in my bed room singing Chers ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’……..it seemed appropriate. It was better than crying. Somehow it felt impossible that that this had happened. Impossible but not final.

As I was preparing the living room bed for Wakio, she called me back to the computer. I had really had enough. What more torture could there be. My eyes were so tired I could hardly even read the screen. But there it was.
Staring out at us. BOLD RED WORDS ‘Due to technical problems, the DM2008 competition closing date has been extended to March 22 GMT3.00.’
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!The rest is history. Wakio punched the proposal back in and submitted it, we even got a response giving us a reference number. Meanwhile I decided to do the dishes and mopped floor with puppy painfully attached to my ankles.

Deep in the back of my mind I was questioning the probability of this actually happening. Could it be a practical joke?

Nevertheless, the project was submitted. And then we recieved an email response from the DM2008 team apologising for the inconvenience and informing us of the extension time. There really is a God!!!

And finally as I got ready for bed after 15 hours of project writing, I realised I was still in my swimming costume. We missed the pool, not the bus.

We’re applying for a grant through a competition,…………….this is what we hope to do with the $200,000 if we win!!

Organic Value Addition Center- Pilot

Value addition is without a doubt one of the ways to increase earnings at individual and community level. However, the challenges to do so are many

1) Lack of knowledge of the possibilities of different value addition methods
2) Lack of knowledge on the value added final products
3) Lack of knowledge on the labelling and packaging possibilities
4) Lack of knowledge of the packaging and labelling statutory requirements
5) Lack of knowledge of market hygiene and other standards
6) Lack of knowledge on statutory marketing requirements
7) Lack of knowledge on the costs related to value addition
.8) Lack of knowledge of how to formulate a business plan
9) Lack of knowledge on how to access capital
10) Lack of knowledge on the market possibilities both nationally and internationally.

The Organic Value Addition Center Pilot (OVAC-P) sets out to lead small scale organic farmers, or entrepreneurs through the various stages mentioned above, whilst allowing the beneficiaries to enter the value chain at any level.

The center will consist of premises where under a single roof, a multitude of options and experts will be available to assist the small scale organic farmer from raw material to final product phase and/or help him to achieve a preconceived objective.

The center will have various stations equipped with machinery to carry out the training, and will also be certified by a local and international certification body. Because it will essentially be a fully functional production facility, the center will also act as a small production house.

Sustainability can therefore be achieved through income generating activities, including sale of processed products. Other income generating activities would include training fees, labelling, hourly hire of machinery, purchase of packaging, consultancy fees for areas of customised expert assistance.

Different aspects of the training may be outsourced especially in the beginning as the center develops to afford full time in-house experts.

Examples:

1. A farmer comes into the center with a raw material; e.g., mangoes, and leaves with knowledge on how to produce a variety of value-added products; e.g., mango chutney, mango juice, dried mango, mango concentrate, mango baby food, dried mango bits for cereal, dried pet food etc. The farmer also leaves with knowledge on how to package his value-added product, source markets for his products and a business plan that will allow him to seek financing for production for either wholesale or retail.

2. A farmer may also come to the center with ideas for value-added products, but only requires information and assistance with art design and labelling.

3. Similarly, the farmer may come to the center with a fully completed value-added product, but seeking organic markets for the same.

Once the training Center has developed through its pilot stage, the model can be replicated in different regions throughout the country and elsewhere.

The model is not limited to the organic arena and can also be replicated in the conventional world.

The situation to date:

Currently there is no facility of this kind in the country, and furthermore there is very little value added organic produce on the local markets. The opportunities for the small scale farmer to access markets with value added organic products is thus the logical direction of growth for the organic industry.

Horticultural Crop Development Authority developed a series of pack houses around the country to be used by farmers. These facilities operate fresh produce mainly for export, thus due to economies of scale lock out the small scale farmers who remain the raw material supply of the larger exporters supply chain. Most of the facilities are rented on a yearly basis by these exporters, prohibiting the inclusion of use by small scale farmers. Those that currently stand idle in the country do so due to logistics. Some do not have cold storage and are too far away from the raw material source and the airports.

None of the HCDA centers teach or train or include any type of value addition other than fresh produce handling and packaging.

The development of the OVAC’s will open a wide area of agricultural competence and entrepreneurial agri driven business in the country, empowering the small scale producer to increase his income and thus quality of life.

As the main prototype will be for small scale organic producers, there will also be demand for a larger production of organic raw materials. This will add to the growth of the organic industry.

We’ve asked Biovision to partner with us, and if they agree, hope The Organic Farmer magazine will be used to disseminate the information about the center and it’s operations.
Last year Biovision launched a wonderful product Infonet. An internet site about organic solutions to pest and disease problems in the tropics. As our farmers become more computer literate, we will encourage them to use the web site that will be developed for the center.

Fingers crossed…………..