Enset – the ‘False Banana’ Gives Food Security and More
Food Forests, Food Plants - Perennial, Medicinal Plants, Plant Systems, Trees — by Alex McCausland November 4, 2010
The really fascinating thing about south Ethiopia is its diversity, both cultural and ecological. And the crossover between these two is agriculture. So when one moves about in the south, one encounters different agricultural systems which usually have interesting features specific to the area you are in, depending both on the cultural practices of different ethnic groups and on the local climate.
These last few days I was lucky enough to be able to take the time to visit my in-laws in Siltie country (where my wife comes from). Siltie is an area about 200km south of Addis and about 400km north of Konso where we are based. In Siltie the crop of greatest importance is Enset ventricosum, a species endemic to South Ethiopia which has some fascinating properties making it of great interest to Permaculture applications in other areas of the world. Enset is farmed in a mixed system along with grain crops, coffee and others. It is a fascinating plant, related to and resembling the banana tree, but taller, fatter and with no bananas (which gives rise to its English language name “the false banana”).
Comments (10)Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge, Ethiopia: Black Water Filtration System
Aid Projects, Biological Cleaning, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Land, Waste Systems & Recycling, Waste Water — by Alex McCausland October 26, 2010
Black water is the term applied to domestic waste water which carries solid organic waste materials and has a high level of nitrogen and phosphate containing compounds which may be in soluble and non soluble forms. Black water is generally assumed to refer to discharge from flush toilets, while grey water refers to outflow from showers, baths and hand basins, which contains no solid material and generally lower levels of nitrates and phosphates. Since all our toilets at Strawberry Fields are dry composting toilets our black water system does not have to deal with human waste at all. However, what we are dealing with is the waste water from the kitchen. Kitchen water can be considered as black water because dirty plates, frying pans and utensils carry a lot of fats, starches and protein. As well as this, the detergents which are necessary to remove all those from the surfaces of the utensils are stronger than body soap and carry a lot of phosphates which need some breaking down. The resulting mixture of soapy water, fat, protein and starch will quickly become very rancid if bacteria begin breeding in it, as it will go anaerobic and start producing swampy smelling gasses like nitrites which are poisonous to most plants (except for swamp plants which are adapted to deal with them).
Comments (2)Strawberry Fields Update – Flood Protection and Water Control in Ethiopia
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Conservation, Dams, Demonstration Sites, Earth Banks, Education Centres, Gabions, Irrigation, Land, Regional Water Cycle, Roads, Soil Conservation, Storm Water, Terraces, Water Harvesting — by Alex McCausland October 8, 2010
One of the biggest challenges of doing Permaculture in a semi-arid place like Konso is the drought-flood hydrology besets in degraded dry-lands. The whole of south Ethiopia has now been so deforested, added to the fact that the global climate is getting completely messed up, that rainfall is now completely unpredictable. The old folks are always talking about it here – “you can’t tell when it will rain any-more, it’s not like the old days….” That makes planning plantings much harder for one thing. The other thing is that when it does rain, it pours.
Our site at Strawberry Fields is placed (purposefully) at the bottom of a watershed and at the junction of this watershed and a larger watershed which carries run-off down the main road from the town.
Rough Topographic sketch of the site at SFEL. Shows approximate
positions of the 3 ridges (R1,R2, R3 and 3 primary gulleys G1, G2 and G3
as well as the Main Gulley on as well as the 2 main flows of run-off
effecting the site.
Drip Irrigation in Ethiopia – the Need, the Equipment, the Set-up and Establishment
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Conservation, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Irrigation, Land, Rehabilitation, Soil Composition, Soil Conservation, Waste Systems & Recycling — by Alex McCausland September 23, 2010
Prior to July 2010 we had been over-using water at Strawberry Fields. This disturbed me for a number of reasons. One was that it was a poor example to the local community who do not have a limitless water supply to spray all over the place. The second was the huge water bills we were receiving. The third was the un-sustainability of using huge amounts of ground-water in a semi-arid area. As project director I had not been in charge of operations on the ground, and I was not able to attack this issue myself, other than by trying to encourage the focusing of the zone 1 irrigated beds into as small an area as possible, with limited success. In July I took over the running of the Permaculture project on the ground and the first thing I did was to begin installing the drip system I had been dreaming of for almost 2 years.
Comments (4)The Challenges and Rewards of Implementing Permaculture in Ethiopia
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education Centres, Village Development — by Alex McCausland July 20, 2010
Editor’s Note: This is the most pleasureable part of my work – seeing people soaking up permaculture goodness, being empowered by it, and benefitting from their labours. Alex gives us a great update on his selfless labours in Ethiopia – nicely loaded with documentary images. If you appreciate the work Alex is doing, and haven’t yet taken your Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course, you might want to consider studying in Ethiopia – so your course fees will help fuel the juggernaut project described below even further. The August 02 – 12, 2010 course will be particularly relevant to you if you live in a semi-arid climate zone.
Our international PDCs use the schools’ project in its learning exercises;
Participants act as judges for our schools’ competitions. This both helps to
motivate the schools (prizes for best school, best parent, best child and best
teacher are awarded bi-annually) and is a learning exercise for the
international participants.
 Tichafa, our facilitator/consultant, trainer for ReSCOPE – 15 years experience around southern Africa |
In much of Africa, environmental problems and rural depravation are closely tied together. The rural poor lack access to education which means they have no chance to earn better incomes. Stuck in a poverty trap, they often resort to practices which degrade the very environment that supports them; clearing indigenous woodland to make charcoal, overstocking animals, or planting harmful species which give fast cash rewards such as Eucalyptus and so on. Population growth, of course, worsens all this. As a result land is wrecked and won’t produce enough food to feed them.
In the case of Ethiopia we are all familiar with the dust bowl image and the starving kids. Geldof’s Live-Aid was supposed to put an end to all that in the 80’s, but 30 years on many communities there are still reliant on handouts. In fact it’s the same in much of Africa. Why? It’s not that the land does not have the capacity to produce the food. There are many places on earth which are less productive but people manage to grow what they need. It’s not that the people are lazy either. Women especially, live a life of constant toil and drudgery in many areas of the continent.
Comments (1)Permaculture Design Certificate Course, Ethiopia, June 7 – 17, 2010
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres — by Alex McCausland April 16, 2010
The ‘master plan’ concept is alive and well in Ethiopia – allowing low-income
locals to have their permaculture training subsidised through the tuition fees
of western students, who in turn benefit from indigenous wisdom
and exciting cultural immersion
You are invited to book on the Permaculture Design Course to be held in Konso, Ethiopia: Permaculture for the Rural African Environment – oriented towards food security development for rural communities and lead by Tichafa Makovere; Strawberry Fields Eco-Lodge: June 7 – 17, 2010.
Tichafa Makovere, lead trainer for the re-SCOPE (Regional Permaculture in Schools and Colleges) initiative and the Fimbadzanai Permaculture Centre in Zimbabwe, is to lead a 10-day residential PDC (English language medium) in Konso, South Ethiopia in June 2010. This PDC focuses on application of Permaculture to semi arid environments in rural Africa, of particular relevance to those wanting to apply PC in the rural developing world. Attention is given to appropriate technology, soil and water harvesting, indigenous knowledge systems and Permaculture in schools as a key focus point for the community, and a chance to influence the coming generation.
Comments (1)Work of Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge Begins Snowball Effect for Entire Region
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education Centres, News — by Alex McCausland March 8, 2010
Editor’s Note: This is an exciting update on progress from the Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge project in Ethiopia. Congratulations to the whole team in Ethiopia!
It was a moment of fulfillment for us at Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge (SFEL). The head of the Konso Woreda Education Bureau, Mr. Geyeto Gedeno, stood in front of those gathered, his fumbling speech soon beginning to gather momentum:
We now want to see this program expanded to all the schools in Konso, making us an example to the whole society and the rest of Ethiopia! Permaculture shows us how to achieve food security and environmental preservation, how to improve our nutrition and benefit our ecology, all through direct community action!” We all clapped and cheered heartily.
Gathered around the training room were teachers, parents and children from the three schools where the Permaculture in Konso Schools Project (PKSP), pilot project, had been underway since May 2009, when it began with training of teachers at SFEL, in a PDC that was part funded by a former volunteer (and a good friend of ours, Sarah Davis from Austin Texas) and part funded by Save the Children Finland (STCF).
Comments (3)Permaculture Design Certificate course in Ethiopia – February 1-13, 2010
Aid Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres — by Alex McCausland October 17, 2009
Certified 72 hour Permaculture Design Course, Konso, Ethiopia: Permaculture for the Rural African Environment – Oriented towards food security development for rural communities lead by Mr Tichafa Makovere Shumba, at Strawberry Fields Eco-Lodge: February 01 – 13, 2010.
Mr Tichafa Makovere, formerly a lead trainer for the SCOPE initiative and the Fimbadzanai Permaculture Centre in Zimbabwe, more latterly a trainer for the regional Re-SCOPE initiative, Tichafa has trained participants in Malawi, Zambia, South Africa and Uganda. He has lead the development of the PC demonstration site at Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge (SFEL), in Konso, Southern Ethiopia (Ethiopia’s first) over the last 12 months and has lead the Permaculture in Konso Schools Project run by SFEL in partnership with Save the Children Finland.
Comments (0)Volunteer Eco-Builder/Handyman Sought for Ethiopia Permalodge Project
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Project Positions — by Alex McCausland May 7, 2009
Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge in the Konso Special Woreda, Southern Ethiopia seeks volunteer sustainable builder/handy-man to assist with maintenance and minor construction tasks as well as some training and supervision of project staff and local workers. Food, accommodation and pocket money provided (and possibly internet access too)!
Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge is a community oriented business operating in rural south Ethiopia in Konso Woreda, an area noted for its unique local culture and indigenous agricultural system, but suffering from repeated food insecurity due to re-occurring droughts in the last 50 years. SFEL promotes community well-being through Permaculture design training and consultancy services delivered to local schools, as well as though developing community based tourism activities to generate alternative income for the community grass-roots. The project combines a lodge, farm, organic restaurant and Permaculture school as well as organising off-site trekking and cultural activities.
Comments (2)Spotlight on Ethiopia
Aid Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres — by Alex McCausland February 4, 2009
Ethiopia is a land of fantastic natural wealth and cultural diversity. In few places on earth can you buy locally grown apples and mangos from the very same market stall. But Ethiopia has a huge range of climates, which result from its truly awesome topology, making this a reality.
The great plains of Abyssinia sit atop two massive highland plateaus, cloven, as a coffee bean down the middle, by the Great Rift Valley. From the sweltering dry deserts of Somali Ogaden in the east, Sudan in the west and the Danakil in the North, where Africa crashes into Arabia, the land sweeps up, rising through semi-arid lowlands and pockets of tropical jungle, to montane forests, to alpine pastures on the slopes of the Simien, Bale and Ghugi mountain ranges, all of which top 4000m, and all of which are home to numerous endemic species of flora and fauna.
Comments (0)Teacher & Design Position for Southern Ethiopia
Project Positions — by Alex McCausland September 16, 2008
Urgent Request for Permaculture Development Trainer(s) in Konso, Southern Ethiopia!
Strawberry Fields Eco-Lodge (SFEL) is a combined Permaculture and ecotourism project now establishing in the Konso Special Wareda, Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s Regional State, Ethiopia. The climate is a semi-arid (Kolla) with an elevation of 1000-2000m. The Konso people are renowned in Ethiopia for being very hard working. Our project has a close relationship with the local community. In the establishment stage we have been offering employment to local people, as well as networking with local stake-holders, NGOs, GOs and private initatives in the wareda. We hosted two 13-day PDCs given by Rosemary Morrow in May and June, for which we postponed the construction of the project for 2 months and financed 8 participants from Kambata Zone (sent by the NGO KTMM), as well as training local agricultural extension workers and community members. We are now fielding proposals to target donors to run a continual program of PDC training for local stakeholders, community members as well as regional and national participants from interested organizations. International participants will also partake on a self funded basis.
