Sustainable agriculture

Our large scale triple-bottom line approach to farming will make greater availability and convenient delivery of local produce to the community a viable option. Furthermore, Nevara will optimize the whole value chain from seeds to restaurants, seeking to create efficiencies by extensive use of high-tech and introducing innovations and best practices. We believe that the impact of this work will also promote resilience and revitalization of communities. Nevara’s focus on Urban Farming will bring all the pieces together for organic farming to become sustainable, eliminating use of pesticides, soil contamination and Genetically Engineered (GE) produce of lower nutritional content. Communities with high levels of crime and unemployment will be given a path to prosperity by stimulating local trade and keeping more funds in the community.

Since building Haiti’s first EcoSan toilet in 2006 and Haiti’s first urban waste treatment site in 2009, SOIL has gone on to become one of the larger sanitation providers in Haiti with effective toilets and waste treatment facilities around the country, strong partnerships with the non-profit, business, and government sectors, and an information-sharing and educational program that has helped increase the use of EcoSan globally. SOIL now transforms 5,000+ gallons of human waste into compost on a weekly basis and 30,000+ people have accessed SOIL EcoSan toilets. 700+ people from more than 25 countries have downloaded The SOIL Guide to EcoSan and 1,000+ people have participated in SOIL educational activities. Over the next 3 years, SOIL's aims to treat 150,000+ gallons of human waste per year, provide sanitation for 40,000+ people, create 200+ jobs, and sell 250+ tons of compost.

The project has been going for seven months and employs eleven people. All employees have been or will be trained in permaculture and making value added products (eg: jam, soap, dried fruit). Moringa and other trees have been planted in the village where AMPP operates. Community members in contact with us are planting home gardens and more trees. Land is being prepared and tree nurseries built for planting to begin in earnest next rain season with several thousand Moringa, fruit, fuel and soil building trees being planted in the community and on AMPP land. Community produce will be consumed locally and sold in Malawi with AMPP providing market linkages and processing facilities. AMPP has established favourable links with local hotels and farmer's markets for the sale of fruit, vegetables and value added products, providing opportunities for employment and cottage industry development.

Over 100,000 vegetable farmers have been using moringa plant growth hormones on their vegetables since 2010 with a resultant increase in their produce three to four times giving them more income. 25,000 farmers have been introduced to the use of aerobic disease suppressing compost. The enthusiasm generated by this program is quite high and we are encouraged to institute farmer field schools. Soil fertility and human health is improving quickly as moringa is incorporated in various forms: disease suppressing compost, plant growth hormones, organic fertilizers, food supplements to fight malnutrition, food fortification, water purification agents and a number of notable products. For now, 25,000 farmers are being served directly and 300,000 indirectly. 150,000 farmers are to be reached directly and 1,000,000 indirectly in the next three to five years.

To date, the project has constructed 63 biogas digesters. Furthermore, 8 have generated income from their compost and foliar fertilizer business. More than 78 households have reduced application of chemical fertilizer (some even have farmed without chemical fertilizer) and have benefited harvest increase 15-20%. 78 households have enjoyed cooking fuel cost saving at least 80% and 10 households have saved electricity cost up to 30%. Furthermore, 57 people have been trained for fermented cow feed (silage). 4 farmer groups have been facilitated cow agribusiness credit amounting about US$ 100,000 from bank. Another impact of the project is promoting confinement of cows (not free grazing) which contributes to the reduction of greenhouse gases emission. Less pollution and better sanitation are also reported by some biogas users while some others reported to stop cutting trees for cooking fuel.

Current reach: Our Technological Modern Rural Market (TMRM) through mobile phones and social networks is reaching up to 5% of farmers (19males, 1 female) in rural communities we have just started with in 2012 till now, and reaching up to 500 Ibadan/Lagos dwellers for marketing and environmental campaign through our social networks.
Future reach: We would Improve income level of about 5 million rural dwellers above an average of $2 USD per day, by growing their agribusiness through a controlled market price, optimum storage, and zero-waste management, starting from Ibadan, sub-Saharan Africa, in the next ten years.

If we could get funds, aids, and other grants up to $500,000 USD; we would grow to reach up to 50, 000 rural farmers in affiliation; also, we would market and campaign to about 5,000,000 urban communities' dwellers in the next one year.

AmpleHarvest.org's goal is educate, encourage and enable America's 40 million gardeners to share their excess food with a local food pantry.

Heretofore "invisible" Pantries must become "visible" to the local grower before donates can be made. As of 5/1/13, nearly 6,000 (and growing) pantries serving an estimated 8 million food insecure people have become accessible via AmpleHarvest.org to these gardeners.

The education/encouragement is best measured in the media/blogger coverage we've had to date (see www.ampleharvest.org/news-merged.php) along with the outreach by people such as First Lady Michelle Obama (www.AmpleHarvest.org/WhiteHouse), USDA Master Gardener administrators, the faith community and growers themselves.

Current estimates are that more than 30 million lbs of food was donated through the end of 2012 - getting fresh food to those with least access to it.

To date, The Cookbook Project has trained over 300 Local Leaders to work in their communities through online and on-site training programs, reaching an estimated 4,000 at-risk youth. We have partnered with 22 organizations worldwide, in 18 different countries. These Local Leaders are currently working with The Cookbook Project to collect behavior change data for a Curriculum Impact Study, which will span over a two year period. Moving forward, The Cookbook Project plans to train 150 Local Leaders each year through online and on-site programs.

Qualitative reviews of the training program have been overwhelmingly positive:

Tschepo Ramutumbu, from a training in Soweto, South Africa, noted that “This program has taught us a lot about the health challenges facing our own community, and how we can start to change our habits and to use our own food cultures to become healthier."

While our past results are impressive for such a small organization (reaching, teaching and inspiring millions of people with an annual budget of under $100,000), we're most excited about our future impacts, especially in connection with our new mini-grants program called Sow It Forward. Launched last year, Sow It Forward leverages the volunteer resources of our community along with the financial and material resources of gardening companies and funders to plant and sustain food gardens that serve vulnerable and underserved populations. In our first year, we offered 80 grants (73 in the US, 7 abroad) that reached 24,000 people and helped them to grow 80,000 pounds of healthy food. Yet, we're just scratching the surface of this program's potential: our online application received over 920 applications in just 5 weeks. Our goal in 2014 is to double our grants and impacts.

Cooking local material in the community kitchen will become a routine excitement. Community farmers and cooks will be recruited as volunteers or professionals. Community level management of the gardens and kitchen will be a challenging endeavour, creating new expertise useful for overall community affairs. The successful managers could be promoted into administrative or political positions at the village or higher levels. Change-making leaders will be recruited and trained systemically. Further social and cultural innovation will be created without imaginable limitation. The low income and marginal communities will have good vehicles for sustainable learning process, making them more creative and self sustaining. Politically this process will enhance the building of political independence and money-politics resistance. Horizontal cohesion under cultural diversity will be enhanced.

Quantitative: 200 Malawians trained in permaculture over the past year; 20 household demonstration sites established; Access to nutritious foods increased for approximately 400 individuals; Over 60,000 multi-use trees planted for food, fuel, fodder and soil fertility
Qualitative: Improved ability to sustainably increase food security; Improved soil health and nutrient content through natural fertilizers; Increased livelihood resilience through income diversification; Improved environmental stewardship through a better understanding of the connection between human health and the environment
Future: Increase uptake of permaculture spreading from community permaculture demonstrations; Further in-depth trainings to increase number of demonstration sites; Expansion into surrounding communities; Surveys to measure exact impact on household diet diversity and food security

To date, GCC has assisted on one land use planning project and is currently working on developing another model farm. The land use planning project was with NEED-Myanmar’s new school in Burma, helping to design the layout of the farm, mud-brick making for buildings, and installing water access points for running water and irrigation. The school will house 50 youth for a 10 month program annually and will offer supplementary university agriculture courses for the local colleges and government personal within the next 5 years.

Our current project includes a model farm and model agro-forest. Trainings conducted here and organic produce and chickens will help provide healthy foods and sustainable livelihoods to the local villages. This has the potential to reach 1000s through trainings and food security.

Our impact can be felt on multiple levels. An example is Khalil: a 10 year-old boy. We met him at our first farmers market while hitting one of our yard-signs. When I gently approached him, I jokingly asked if he had something against vegetables; he blushed with embarrassment, as his friends laughed. I asked him to return to the market the next week along with his friends. They returned, along with several other friends, at 7:30am every Saturday for 18-weeks. We are now growing Khalil and friends as new leaders and community voices through a structured youth development program for 15 youth, primarily African-American males. By June 2013 we will have two market locations; will hire two returning citizens, or ex-offenders, in the markets and start a pre-order vegetable delivery service supported with our recently purchased refrigerated truck to four sites.