SoilMate

Short description

Education for the peasants of tomorrow.


Which problem do I aim to solve ‐ and why?

Every ninth person suffers from hunger worldwide. In Africa an average of about 20% of the population is insufficiently nourished due to the high food prices and the low food supply. Worldwide about 3 million children under the age of 5 die each year from the effects of undernourishment.

A better food supply allows a healthy physical development of children and adolescents and also generally ensures a stronger immune system. Furthermore, it allows people to meet their daily energy and nutrient requirements and enhances the ability to concentrate during other activities, such as profession and education.

An improvement of these factors allows the citizens to eliminate one fundamental problem and overall enables them to live a healthier life. Besides a higher productivity at work this will significantly have a positive impact on the personal development, thus paving the way for a better future.


My idea for a solution

The solution to the problem is the increase of the availability of food and the resulting reduction in prices. To make this possible, we want to invoke the concept of permaculture.

The concept of permaculture is the alternative to the prevailing industrial agricultural system and aims to form agriculturally productive yet resilient ecosystems. Instead of continuing to promote monocultures, local environmental factors are considered in the architecture of cultivation during the planting of the fields. This allows symbiotic effects between different farming products and an integrated, sustainable use of the soil, without damaging it.

The resulting higher agricultural yields can be used by subsistence farmers for their own consumption and for sale, thus directly and indirectly combatting the problem of malnutrition.


Why is my solution an innovative idea and tackles the challenge from a new
perspective

Although the concept of permaculture has been known since the 1970s it offers, besides targeting the core problem of malnutrition, additional positive side effects. It offers the farmers the option of entrepreneurship and is at times of climate change more sustainable than other farming concepts due to its environment-oriented cultivation without chemical fertilizers.


How is my idea feasible?

Our plan includes the construction of an educational center for organic farming in the city Kitale. This center is aimed at subsistence farmers and other interested parties in the area. The establishment of the educational center would also include the purchase of a suitable property.

A selected partner would emerge there as a teacher and would introduce 20 students simultaneously to the theoretical and practical concepts of permaculture by facilitating workshops.

Which methods and channels do I want to utilise?

The key element of the project is the implementation of the concept of permaculture. Furthermore, a website about the project shall be created, on which our partner will write a blog on the subject. Participants for the workshops shall be gained primarily via a Facebook page and word-of-mouth recommendations.

What’s my expected outcome and improvement?

The objective will be the training of farmers, which will successfully implement the concept of permaculture and thus improve their yield. To assess this yield increase the harvest of the educational center can be analyzed already during the workshops. Any negative differences would indicate a lack of comprehension. After completion of the workshop participants and their families could be asked about their yield situation.

What's my budget and which partners I/we would expect to be valuable

The costs including the running expenses are estimated at 13,000 €, of which € 4,000 each would flow into the purchase of the land and construction of the educational center alone.

Of great benefit would be a partner who is already familiar with the concept of permaculture.

SoilMate

Team: Sebastian Buchholz

Leave a Reply

By continuing to use this site, you agree to the use of cookies. Further Information

We use cookies. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you agree to this. You can delete our cookies. How this works is explained in our privacy policy.

Close