The architect Diebedo Francis Kere from Burkina Faso who studied in Berlin, Germany, went back to his home village to build a school and other buildings with the community. He explains the methodology. By involving the entire community in the building process, he simultaneously created community cohesion and pride, and gives locals the opportunity to acquire skills and knowledge they can use for creating economic opportunities. … Read more
Harvesting the wind with scrap metal An amazingly inspiring piece of African ingenuity
William Kamkwamba was a son of poor farmers in Malawi. During the severe drought of 2001, the whole country was starving as soils lay bare. Kamkwamba refused to accept the horrible fate that was upon him and his family. By studying the images in a handful of English books on natural science, he learned to build a windmill from scrap metal and was thus able to pump up water for crowing crops. 'I tried and I made it. Never give up.' … Read more
Wise irrigation system (foungara) Wise irrigation system (foungara)
The Fougara is a system of water irrigation which was invented to quantify and measure the necessary water for each plant in the desert. It is a complexed system which goes back to long time and used by our ancestors to use the water wisely. This system is inspired from what we call Qanats in Iran. (FRANCAIS) La fougara est un système d'irrigation de l'eau inventé pour permettre de quantifier l'eau nécessaire pour les différentes plantations dans le désert. C'est un système complexe et très … Read more
Seed sovereignty in agriculture Seed sovereignty for food sovereignty
Indigenous seed are endangered and are getting lost due to emergence of industrialized seeds i.e. Hybridization, GMOs and the Terminator seeds. It is evident that a majority of our farmers in Kenya have no access to affordable seeds. The presence of multinational companies in Kenya have led to disappearance of indigenous seeds because they have been forced to believe that hybrids and GMOs are the best and that they are able to produce more food and save them from hunger. Our seeds is our … Read more
Sustainable food Wild fruits
Wild Fruits like baobab are used to make natural juices. Women are mostly involved in making these juices and they get substantial incomes from their sales. It is said that they are a good source of vitamin C and they are very tasty. HONEY honey is not a fruit, but bees make it from the flowers of trees, and mostly wild flowers which eventually become fruits. Some of these fruits are not directly consumed by human beings, but are indirectly consumed when we take honey. Perhaps that is why honey … Read more
Making charcoal briquettes for fuel Recycle waste charcoal into new fire-starter
Charcoal biquettes or 'earth orbs' are balls of compressed flamable matter for starting and maintaining a fire. How to make them: Collect the remains from charcoal cooking fires. Mix the charcoal remains with corn cobs or other such material and Pyrethrum Plant (Dalmatian insect flower, Big Daisy). This plant improves the combustion (fire power) of the orb and its smoke chases away mosquitoes. If no pyrethrum is available, you can replace it with a local plant with similar properties. Mold the … Read more
Seed Bank Saving Seed
Seed Banks are cooperative constructs where local seeds are stored, saved and borrowed out. Our seeds is our heritage. They are used to local climates and they are thus adapted to locally harsh conditions. We need to empower our communities to go back to their roots and restore the culture of the use of indigenous seeds. Farmers can be empowered to come together and share seeds in different forums, but the most sustainable one is where farmer groups establish operational seed security systems … Read more
Lack of water in desert Wise use of water for agriculture
La fougara est un systeme d'irrigation de l'eau invente pour permettre de quantifier l'eau necessaire pour les differentes plantations dans le desert. C'est un systeme complexe et tres ingenieux qui remonte quelques centaines d'annees. C'est un systeme unique dans le Sahara que l'on trouve dans les Oasis du Gourara pres de Timumoun. Ce systeme d'irrigation est inspire des Qanats en Iran. … Read more
Water Harvesting: Swale / Sagia Water Harvesting in Drylands
Water is very precious especially in arid and semi arid regions. Every single drop of rain must therefore be saved and not wasted, evaporation should be decreased, and fertile topsoil should be prevented from running off with the rain, therefore loosing nutrients and causing soil erosion. To prevent this, Sagias or Swales can be implemented to slow down water after a rain and to hold it for the longest period possible for it to sink in slowly and hydrate the landscape. Swales are ditches dug … Read more
Drying mechanism for rice Building drying box from local materials
This link features instructions on how to build a fixed batch heated air drying bin from local materials. The goal of this design was to create a dryer that could maintain rice quality at a low capital and operating cost yielding a reasonably high dry time while remaining accessible to small-scale processing. … Read more