METI Permaculture Demonstration and Training Centre

Project Concept

An integral approach to the Sustainable Development of agricultural practices and village planning in Samoa. The project addresses the issues of sustainable development as they relate to the physical environment, the Samoan culture and the needs of individual farmers and their families.

The project will involve the establishment of a Demonstration and Training Centre on METI’s existing organic farm. The aim is to educate the farmers of Samoa in Permaculture design principles and practices. Utilising culturally appropriate and locally available and affordable resources, the demonstration and training aims to empower farmers with the means of designing and implementing highly productive, sustainable, resilient and ecologically sound farming systems, and the personal and social problem solving and organisation skills to maximise the benefits to farmers, their families, their community and the surrounding environment.

Detailed Project Description

The project will be co-ordinated by Matuaileoo Environment Trust inc. (METI), an active NGO in Samoa with past experience in the areas of Organic farming & Agroforestry, Environmental conservation and restoration, Adult Education, and the formation of village-based farmers' Co-operatives and Small Business Enterprises.

The initial Permaculture design training and consultancy will be conducted by Cam Wilson through the AYAD program (a well supported volunteer program, funded by AusAid, which matches the capacity building needs of various organisations in the Asia Pacific region with young professionals from Australia). Cam was nominated for the assignment by The Permaculture Research Institute of Australia, which is acting as the supporting Australian Partner Organisation (Thanks Geoff). Cam will be followed by two further one year AYAD assignments, and by the end of this period, it is envisaged all further training and resources will be sourced from within Samoa.

Funding for the project is through the ‘European Commission: Non-State Actors and Local Authorities in Development’ programme.

There are two main areas of activity in this initial project: demonstration activities and training activities. There are three main phases to this initial project: the development of the demonstration and training centre; METI’s Permaculture Design Training for 300 farmers+; and the training of Permaculture Design Trainers in key locations around the country (chosen from outstanding initial course participants)

Demonstration Activities

The development of a Permaculture demonstration and training site, at METI’s Vailele Farm is a key element in the training of farmers. To enable widespread replication and multiplication of the demonstrations, care has been taken to ensure that they address the needs of Samoan farmers, that they are culturally acceptable, and utilise locally available and affordable resources. Each of the demonstrations, in conjunction with the training course, aims to provide a range of benefits to individual farmers and their families, to society and to the environment including:

• Benefits to farmers: Increased productivity, income and yield through intensification and integration of elements; diversification of the range of farm yields as insulation against adverse market forces; new niche market opportunities; capital and labour saving techniques by utilising renewable biological resources; lower energy inputs in a time of steeply rising oil prices; increased fertility of farmland; reduced costs and improved human health through decrease in chemical use; improved animal health and productivity; Stability against climatic extremes.
• Benefits to society: New income opportunities for unemployed youth; increased disposable income amongst the farming community; improved human health through decreased chemical use; health benefits from replacement of hormone-filled imported meat through an increase in local-organic livestock; sustainable management of natural resources, ensuring availability for future generations.
• Benefits to the environment: Protection of valuable top soils; reduced CO2 levels through soil carbon absorption; improvement of water courses through reduced chemical use and erosion control measures; protection of marshland, mangrove and coral reef biodiversity and fish breeding sites through improved health of waterways; reduced pressure on forests through the integration of Agroforestry practices; sustainable management of existing natural resources through education and viable-economic alternatives; habitat provision for native birds and bees in specially designed shelterbelts.

As well as these benefits, the demonstration examples will assist the participants’ understanding of the application of universal Permaculture design principles during the training. These examples include:

The integration of tropical-mushroom growing and chicken rearing - This demonstration utilises common agro-industrial waste products – spent brewer's grain and copra meal from coconut oil extraction – for the growing of Tropical mushrooms. The mushroom growing process breaks down the cellulose in the substrate materials, increasing the protein levels, creating a valuable-organic chicken feed-supplement (expensive feed is a barrier to the formation of a local organic chicken and egg industry, with the huge demand for meat market met largely by hormone filled American imports). Feed will be further supplemented by fodder trees and vermiculture as mentioned below. All stages of mushroom production will be demonstrated, and inoculant will be made available to farmers wishing to proceed.

Integrated livestock and cropping system - This demonstration integrates common Samoan-farm elements into a highly-productive Permaculture design system:

• A Taro field (the traditional staple in Samoa) is divided into eight rotational cells.
• The dividing fences utilise various affordable options including a variety of living fence materials and other locally available resources and ‘waste’ materials.
• Pigs (very common and usually left to destructively wander) are contained in one cell at a time and then rotated monthly; weeding, cultivating and fertilising the fields in preparation for taro planting.
• All animals are excluded for the first month after planting. The space between the taro is utilised for short term leafy vegetables.
• Following the vegetable harvest, the cell gate is opened, allowing chicken access for the remaining six months (chickens also usually wander, uncontrolled, unutilised and unprotected). The chickens will reduce weed competition and the digested spent mushroom compost becomes fertiliser for the taro crop.
• A deep litter system in the chicken house (securely locked at night to prevent common thievery) is utilised for compost production.
• Living fences and alley cropping trees (rows 5-6m, spacing 50cm) are utilised as shade or are chopped back to mulch and fertilise the field.
• Excess alley-cropping branches provide a sustainable cooking fuel supply.
• The permanent chicken run, which provides access to the open cells, is planted with perennial cash crops such as papaya and chilli.

Organic agriculture & seed saving - The METI demonstration site has been a working organic farm for 20 years, and will draw on the vast experience and local knowledge of Semau, the farm manager. This demonstration will equip farmers with modern organic and agroforestry fertilising practices, organic means of pest control, and the development of vegetable crops which are adapted to the local climate, soil, pests and diseases through careful selection of seed stock.

Agroforestry - barious examples are included:

• Alley cropping: Incorporated into the integrated livestock and cropping system and organic agriculture as mentioned above.
• Fodder Trees: To provide a high-protein feed supplement for chickens and pigs.
• Living fences: A range of species including coppiced legumes and tight clumping bamboo (also suitable for stakes).
• Forest Gardens: Diverse plantings of fruit trees and traditional medicines planted with appropriate support species.
• Timber: A small forestry demonstration, designed with multiple species to provide a steady yield through time (Harvests at 5yrs, 8-9yrs, 15 yrs and 25-30yrs).
• Bamboo: METI has been the National Co-ordinator of the Bamboo Crop development project since 2005, working in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. A 1 acre demonstration plot is already established with a variety of species chosen by Australian expert Mr Durnford Dart. The bamboo plot is inter-planted with bananas and Moso’oi (ylang-ylang scent) a shade tolerant native tree in Samoa.
• Productive-multifunctional windbreak: Focusing on the use of native species to help alleviate the ecological problems associated with the widespread deforestation in Samoa. Benefits to farmers include: short- and long-term timber species; fuel wood for cooking; bee fodder for honey production; native bird habitat, including pigeons which are considered a delicacy.

Vermiculture - Utilising a worm farm, excessive manure from pig pens, a common pollutant in Samoa (especially in built up areas), becomes a valuable resource - a top-grade organic fertiliser. Worms are harvested as high-protein chicken, pig or aquaculture feed.

Honey production - Provides added income for farmers and assists with the pollination of crops.

Energy efficient house retrofitting - An existing building will be fitted out as the classroom. This building will also demonstrate simple and affordable ways to retrofit homes for more energy efficient, comfortable and healthy living. Demonstrations will include coconut fibre insulation, solar chimney/earth tunnel cooling, trellised shading, solar hot water, efficient cooking devices and food preservation techniques, and the treatment and cycling of waste water.

Training Activities

To provide farmers with the means of observing and understanding the systems mentioned above, a Permaculture Design Training Course (PDTC) has been designed. The PDTC will attract participants from 15 selected villages and be 3 weeks in duration. At least 15 such courses are planned during the action period. Each course will have 20 participants (all participants coming from the same village) and will be conducted at the site. In all, more than 300+ farmers will be participating in the training during the action period.

For effective transference and replication of the ideas, the planned PDTC has four major components:

1. Instruction in Permaculture principles and design solutions - empowers participants with the ability to design efficient, effective and appropriate farming systems in any context, not limiting farmers to the techniques used on the demonstration site.
2. Hands-on training in specific Permaculture techniques – training in the implementation and management strategies of the demonstrations mentioned above.
3. Life Skills Training – This training focuses on developing participants' problem-solving skills, specifically applied to the areas of self, family and community. Life Skills Training conducted with abusive teachers and young criminals has been very successful here in Samoa. This element of the training promotes effective and empowered application of the training received by the farmers, and the means to work with others in the formation of co-operatives and skill sharing.
4. Co-operative and marketing awareness raising – the means by which communities can establish village-based farmers' co-operatives, with the support of METI, to build the marketing potential and buying power of individuals and the means of reducing costs through co-operation.

Training will be conducted by four Samoan trainers, who will be trained by the AYAD Permaculture Design Consultant and Educator working with METI. Each of the trainers has an agricultural background, has worked on environmental restoration projects and is qualified as a Life Skills Coach.

The training will be conducted at the METI Demonstration and Training Centre, which is an ideal environment for this form of education. The site provides tangible and interactive examples of the training content and in conjunction with the utilisation of participatory adult facilitation techniques, and the detailed and illustrated training course manual, will ensure adequate utilisation of each of the learning access modes - audio, visual and kinaesthetic - facilitating a high retention of knowledge.

Means of Securing Sustainability

The techniques demonstrated have been developed by applying the Permaculture principles to the Samoan culture, climate and resources, thereby encouraging ‘local ownership’ of the techniques. It is envisaged that the beneficial results obtained by farmers through the implementation of the training content will facilitate replication and multiplication within their communities.

To enhance the multiplication effect, once the initial 15 courses are completed, the action includes the training of 15 Permaculture trainers, one from each of the participating villages. Outstanding participants will be chosen and approached to participate in further, more in depth education in Permaculture Design Principles and Practices. They will be allied to METI, which through future planned initiatives will give support for them to develop their land as satellite-demonstration centres and to conduct workshops and open days. The key locations of the satellite demonstration centres will enable easy access to training for farmers from any region of the country.

To facilitate the replication and multiplication of the training amongst the wider farming community, it is important to gain the support of the participants’ communities, who will ultimately benefit from the action. This is assisted by the relationships which are being formed through past and present METI initiatives, including the establishment of farmers’ co-operatives in 5 of the proposed participating villages, and the commencement of the Second Chance Education Programme in July 2009 in the other 10 proposed villages. Participatory community awareness raising workshops, of which METI has much experience, will be conducted in each of the villages prior to the commencement of training. Awareness will be raised of the direct impacts of environmental degradation, climate change, and rising global food and oil prices on the people, their children and grandchildren. The positive alleviation of these problems which Permaculture training can offer will then be presented. The aim is to build community support for the important work to be undertaken by the farmers, raising their cultural status and creating a cultural environment for the wider transference of the knowledge gained.

Community interaction and support will be further enhanced by the positive outcomes resulting from the formation of the village’s own farmers' co-operative. Following the awareness raising conducted during the PDTC, METI’s past experience enables it to facilitate the creation of village farmers' co-ops for those who wish to proceed. Co-operatives improve the marketing capacity and reduce processing and transport costs for individuals, and once established, the united nature of a co-op leads to skills and knowledge sharing amongst participants, encouraging ongoing sustainability of the action.

METI is also a participating partner in the Samoa Micro-credit Assistance Programme, through which farmers can access funds to assist with initial implementation costs of the co-operative or individual enterprises.

Project Duration & Schedule:

Short Term

Start date: September 2008
End date: March 2009
Phase details: Development of the demonstration site and fitting out of classroom. The continued training of METI staff as Permaculture Design Trainers and the development of training resources in the Samoan language.

Medium Term

Start date: March 2009
End date: March 2010
Phase details: The training of 300 farmers from key locations around the country. Training will be conducted by Samoan Permaculture trainers who will receive ongoing support from the appointed AYAD Permaculture Consultant.

Start date: March 2010
End date: September 2010
Phase details: Training of Trainers program, part time over six months. Outstanding participants will be selected from the initial 300 farmers who completed the training, from 15 key locations around the country.

Long Term

Follow up Project: 2010 onwards
Project aim: Support the trainers from the 15 key locations around the country to further develop their land as satellite permaculture demonstration sites. They will receive an income to conduct courses and workshops on their site, facilitating the wider exposure, transference and replication of permaculture design amongst the villages and plantations of Samoa.

Blog Updates for this Project:

• Permaculture Samoa
• Permaculture Samoa - Part II
• Post-Tsunami Bamboo Housing Solutions
• Permaculture Samoa - Part III