Appropriate Technology Transfer for Bio-intensive Agriculture
Project Description:
The Addis Ababa marginal urban environment has some of the worst living conditions in Africa. It is believed that more than 60% of all households in Addis Ababa subsist below the absolute poverty line. The majority of the residents live in slum conditions engulfed with the problems of food subsistence, adequate housing, access roads, sanitation, potable water, health and other basic social services.
Urban farming (vegetable growing, poultry raising and wood-lot development) in Addis Ababa can play an important role in improving the quality of lives of the households. It can be a good source of adequate household food security and cash crops for income generation as most of the urban dwellers have a rural background and are familiar with farming. Environmental protection in Addis Ababa equally deserves due attention.
Bio-farm and CARE, have planned to build on their existing accomplishments in capacity building and education in order to reach a wider audience in urban environments. CARE Ethiopia has a strong and widely accepted good practices in its design and operation of urban poverty mitigation programs and targeting the most needy in heterogeneous urban environment. Bio-farm has had also significant success in the development of agricultural technologies appropriate for the Ethiopian environment. With support from the Addis Ababa city Administration it has developed a center on 7.5 hectares of land that is parceled into various demonstration plots that focus on natural resource management and improved agriculture. This includes bio-intensive gardening, vermiculture/composing, apiculture, sericulture, integrated pest management using odor baited traps, aquaculture, water treatment, hydroponics farming, mushroom farming, solar ovens, forestry, drip irrigation, tree farming, biogas systems and organic fertilizer production. The two organizations will thus partner through the existing GOE extension system to test and promote alternative technologies in the hopes that the reliance on chemical fertilizers, pesticides and similar inputs will decrease and that effective, environmentally sustainable methods toward natural resource management will be adopted by urban household in general and the food insecure ones in particular. The plan worked out will emphasize an integrated approach toward ecosystem.
Project Appropriate Technology Transfer for Bio-farm Agriculture will develop, deliver, and evaluate a program to build the capacity of schools, women groups and line governmental bureaus to partner in adoption and utilization of environmentally restorative practices. Partnering with schools staff, women groups, grass root administrations, and Bureaus of Agriculture and Education in three Addis Ababa neighborhoods and ten Addis Ababa high schools close to Bio-farm, the project will:
1. attract households adopting improved agricultural technologies and enable number of schools to enrich their curriculum with bio-farm technology; and
2. increase the number of visitors to the Bio-farm.
Project Description:
Bio-farm proposes the promotion of environmentally friendly appropriate technology transfer in peri urban poor communities in Addis Ababa through a community based integrated approach. The intervention include capacity building through training and development of curriculum and instruction materials, strengthening of school committees, women groups and local level capacities, designing information and extension materials for farmers training. The partnership of CARE and Biofarm will also focus on strengthening the capacity of Biofarm in Addis Ababa through the provision of inputs for the center, the development of education materials and curriculum for peri urban and urban settings, and the education of peri urban and urban groups in appropriate technologies. Direct participants in the realization of the project will be 80 high school teachers, 10 kebele development agents and 90 women in three Kebeles/neighborhoods in Addis Ababa. The project will be run by Biofarm using its existing office and infrastructure.
