There’s a new sustainable ag technique in town, and it’s cleaning up

The farming technique known as push-pull — which involves planting grasses with special properties to protect crops — started out as a rudimentary defense against stem borer insects. But it just keeps getting more sophisticated. It has evolved to fight off parasitic weeds, while also providing animal fodder and fertilizing the soil. Now, in a paper published this month, scientists have described ways to use it in areas without regular rainfall or irrigation.

The story of push-pull starts 22 years ago, when entomologist Zeyaur Khan arrived at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology station in Mbita, Kenya, with an assignment to find a way to ward off the stem borers that were plaguing corn fields in eastern Africa. When he began studying the stem borers’ lifecycle, he began finding grasses that had evolved with these insects. There were some grasses that the stem borers loved to eat — five times more than they loved the corn. There were other plants that had evolved chemical defenses against the bugs — some by repelling them, and others by attracting wasps that ate them.

Read more here.

Maasai women are the new solar warriors of Africa

The Maasai are a semi-nomadic pastoral tribe spread across Kenya and Tanzania, and globalization has not been kind to them. Vulnerable to wildlife that steal their livestock and powerless after the sun goes down, many Maasai often have to walk many kilometers just to charge their phones. But a new project spearheaded by Green Energy Africa has brought solar energy to 2,000 homes in Naiputa county alone, and put new power into the hands of women who sell affordable solar installations.

Green Energy Africa started the 7-month Women Entrepreneurship in Renewable Energy Project (WEREP) in September 2014 with a goal “promote inclusive participation of women and youth in development through solar energy” while bringing much needed energy to people living in Kenya’s Kajiado and Makueni counties.

The group reports only 23 percent of Kenyans have access to the national electricity grid, while only 5 percent of rural communities are connected. To make up for this energy shortfall, people like Jackline Naiputa, who was featured in a Reuters story about the program, have to rely on expensive kerosene or cut down trees for fuel.

Naiputa heads the Osopuko-Edonyinap group, one of the five women’s groups who purchase solar installations from Green Energy Africa at a discount and then transport them by donkey across villages and sell them for a 300 Kenyan Shillings or $3 profit. The proceeds are then stored in a fund which is used to purchase more solar panels, batteries and lights.

Read more here.

Solar power lights African nights

Burkina Faso student teacher Hema Cecile has a lot more time to crack the books thanks to a recent initiative from the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

The launch of the Lighting Africa program (www.lightingafrica.org) by the two organizations this year has made it possible for Cecile to swap kerosene lamps for a solar-powered LED lantern.

That means she and a thousand other households in the town of Dedougou - which lies more than 200 km (124 miles) west of the capital Ouagadougou - can extend hours of study, reading or leisure without cutting back on other things.

Cecile lives in the world's second poorest country, where the choice to keep a light on at night means sacrificing resources for necessities such as food, heat, power and shelter.

The LED lights consume almost no power, and can keep shining all night if required. That should mean a more productive, better educated, wealthier population - a virtuous circle of reduced energy use and increased economic activity.

Cecile, 23, is in her final year of teaching studies at the University of Ouagadougou and shares a single room with another student in a three-apartment building.

"There is no electricity, and the drinking water is from the local fountain," she said when she spoke with the reporter on a mobile phone lent her by a friend.

Her only power is from the solar panel built into her lantern, which she bought for a subsidized price of $20.

Lighting Africa is a $12 million project which intends to bring light to the poorest regions across sub-Saharan Africa. The program works with the lighting industry to develop clean, affordable lighting and energy solutions for millions without access to electric grids.

Its aim is to accelerate the market and to develop education programs that inform off-grid populations currently dependent on costly, inefficient and hazardous fuel-based lighting about modern alternatives.

Cecile used to spend $3-4 a month on kerosene for her lamp. That is a large proportion of her earnings - like 70 percent of the population she lives on less than $2 a day.

"I can work later at night - its good for my studies; I can read a book," said Cecile.

In the weeks since buying her lantern she has managed to read four books including Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and Emile Zola's Germinal.

She is among the most learned in a society which has the world's lowest literacy rate, according to a 2007 UN Human Development Report. When she graduates next year she will teach in a local Junior school.

She makes ends meet by holiday jobs as a cleaner and an IT trainer. To earn her daily ration of cornmeal she does shifts from May to September in a corn field.

Her solar lantern is made and distributed by CB Energie which won an open competition to be awarded the contract.

"We have just started to make these lanterns in Burkina Faso and sold about 3,000 so far," said Arnaud Chabanne a French engineer who founded the company.

The lanterns are designed to look like the kerosene ones they are replacing in order to increase adoption among the population. Each has a small solar panel on the top and costs an average $30, although some cost $100, depending on the size of the battery and the number of LED lights it contains.

Because of the large number of sunlight hours in Burkina Faso, the lamps can be relied on to work whenever needed. The battery life is 2-4 years, and can be replaced once they lose their storage capacity. The LED lights last 5-10 years.

Cecile had tried another solar lantern before she was given one by CB Energie, but "it did not last long each night' she said.

CB Energie has distributed the lanterns to about seven percent of the Dedougou area's 15,000 households, and will continue until every needy household has one.

"Petrol is expensive," said Chabanne, "so they can take this money for other things like food, or medicine."

Although it is barely out of its trial period the project, Chabanne said there are signs the project is a boon for the population in areas other than household savings and education.

"There are fewer people reporting eye problems to the local hospital."

Source: Reuters

Kenyan government pushes traditional crops for food security

About time too. For far too long Kenya has played and pandered to the world market producing virtually nothing but “cash” crops instead of food for the people.

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Kenya's government began giving farmers seeds for traditional food crops recently, hoping to shore up stocks in the face of rising prices and shortage fears.

Poor rains, a bloody post-election crisis at the start of 2008 and fast-climbing prices for inputs such as fertilizer have slowed food production in east Africa's largest economy.

The country will import 3 million bags of maize this year to cover forecast shortages.

"These crops are known to perform well in dry areas where food insecurity is a common feature due to inadequate rainfall," Agriculture Minister William Ruto said as the distribution of cassava, sweet potato and sorghum seeds got under way.

He said production of crops like these had all declined in Kenya due to lack of planting materials, low interest among seed companies and changing eating habits.

The ministry is partnered in the 150 million shilling ($2.26 million) project with the Kenya Seed Company, Kenya Agriculture Research Institute and Agricultural Development Corporation.

"With good crop management this is expected to produce a further 24,100 tons of seeds with a market value of 360 million shillings by April 2009," Ruto said.

The Minister William Ruto said that production of crops like these had all declined in Kenya due to lack of planting materials, low interest among seed companies and changing eating habits. That is a load of dung, and every one knows that, I should think.

We all know too well, I am sure, that Kenya's major problem in regards to food and food security for its people are not just any or all of the above listed problems. The true problem lies with the fact that too much of the country's agriculture is geared to produce “cash crops”, such as coffee (I do like my coffee, so please do not get me wrong, but Fair Trade please). There there are the green beans. Sorry, French “organic” green beans from Kenya is not my way, regardless of whether it gives them an income or not, and it is not green, as in environmentally friendly either. Those crops are gotten to Europe by aircraft and that is an environmental footprint that is about the size of the Yeti x 1000, I should think. In addition to that there are the roses and other cut flowers – again “organic” - that are grown in Kenya for the European market while, at the same time, the country has problems feeding its people. Duh? It has nothing to do with a lack of planting materials, low interest among seed companies and changing eating habits but everything with what I said before and something, sure, does not compute here.

Therefore it is about time that the government of that country did something as to seeds for the farmers. It must also encourage the farmers to think first and foremost of feeding themselves and their families and then the rest of the country with the crops that can be grown on their land.

First and foremost a country's agriculture, and that includes that of that of the developed nations, like the UK and the USA, as well, should grow food for the country's people. And then, and only then, should export be considered. The own people first before export.

Unfortunately that does not seem to be the way the agricultural industrial complex works the world over. It is money for shareholders and profits per se that are considered above the food security of the nation. This must be changed again. The home country must come first, and, I am afraid that also means that aid only goes out then to foreign countries as and when that food is not required in one's own country.

This is not being selfish. This is being practical and realistic.

© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008
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