I want to find community development projects that either make money or reduce costs that are themselves free or almost free. I've started with a simple solar cooker, made by Solar Cookers International (SCI), in Nairobi. But they cost 500 Kenyan shillings (around £4.50), which would also buy you about 12 kilos of the staple food, ground maize meal. That's food for quite a few people, and I wouldn't blame people for saying 'it's a great idea but I can't afford it now'. Especially when you can buy a charcoal burning stove for about 150 shillings.
Of course, charcoal is a significant expense and people with families can use 15 or more shillings a day worth of it. True, you could point out how much less charcoal you would use if you invested in a solar cooker. But the word 'invest' is the big problem. Many people wouldn't have the amount of money they need to invest all at once. And even if they had the money, they still might use it for something else, such as a solar powered light or a battery powered torch. People use their money as they see fit and make their spending decisions based on their own criteria.
I love SCI's cookers, I use them myself. I have the luxury of being able to afford several, which is ideal on a sunny day. They are also great for demonstrating the concept because they fold up and I can easily carry three or four, along with the other paraphernalia needed to show people how to use them. They are resilient and so simple, I'd recommend them to anyone. They are cheap, but not free.
However, when the money available is a hundred or two hundred shillings a day, perhaps less, these cookers are not going to fly off the shelves. I have tried suggesting to people that they could make their own, given that they are simple and require cheap materials. I've said I would come and help them to make cookers so they would have them for a maximum of about 50 shillings. This has been met with some enthusiasm, but not much. I'm not terribly sure why this is, but I'll be looking out for the explanation.
Anyhow, when you demonstrate the use of solar cookers, people are excited, inspired, even stunned. They start off by dismissing the possibility of cooking with a piece of shiny cardboard, regardless of whether you paint the pots black or any other colour. But when they see their everyday foods cooked they are speechless. Even ugali, the tasteless and almost nutrition-free (it's pure starch) staple, boiled maize meal, cooks far more easily than it does on a charcoal stove. At least some people are interested. But there's still the problem of cost.
So after demonstrating their use in Salgaa, half an hour West of Nakuru, I said I'd come back and help people to make them. They make all sorts of things themselves, so cutting out a shape in cardboard and sticking on shiny paper shouldn't be a problem. The cardboard can come from large boxes and the shiny paper could be aluminium foil. These are cheap. Compared to the manufactured solar cooker, it's really cheap, almost free. But that doesn't impress people. They have to pay for cardboard boxes, they are very useful. And aluminium foil is not cheap enough for some people, though the amount you'd need for a solar cooker is small.
Well, it's possible to get large amounts of cardboard very cheaply, perhaps free, if you look in the right places. And it's possible to get very good reflective paper, very durable, much better than aluminium foil. I wandered the streets looking for products that use this material and discovered that new vehicle wheels are wrapped in this untearable material, which is almost shiny enough to see your face in. Also, supermarket products, such as chocolate, sweets, tea and various other things are wrapped in similar materials.
I knew I would be met with more objections, we don't have a car, we don't eat chocolate, etc. But neither do I have a car nor do I eat most of these products. The thing is, someone does. They are not stacked in the supermarkets for no reason. And when people have finished with things, they throw them away. Over the fence, in a ditch, anywhere. Occasionally, they throw things in a bin and they end up in a dump. But still, this means that this great reflective material is available, you just have to look.
I looked and enquired and asked whoever I could think of. I was met with complete incomprehension when I said I didn't want to buy vehicle tires. But when it was realised that I placed a value on the material they were wrapped in, availability suddenly dropped. It was clear that I would have to pay money if I wanted this stuff, being white, and therefore incalculably rich. But the people who were going to make the solar cookers, they wouldn't have to pay money. Not much, anyhow. And people here are good at finding things they need or getting them very cheaply. So I left it up to them to collect the materials.
This hasn't worked so well. On the appointed day, I turned up to find 40 people, 2 cardboard boxes, one too small to be of much use, and three wrappers, around half a square meter of reflective material altogether. But I had brought glue and glue brushes and most of the materials were there to make a start. I said what had to be done and sat down and told people to go ahead. Eventually one person volunteered and a few others joined in. They couldn't complete the cooker, but I think it was clear to everyone there how easy it is to make the cooker. I'm just hoping that they will also see that they have to collect the materials needed, because I can't do that.
Of course, for less than £200 I could buy every person there a solar cooker. For about £50, I could supply them with all the materials to make their own. But how sustainable is that, for a start? And how many people would use the solar cooker if I presented them with it for free? This would not be sustainable, not at all. And I have given people with plenty of education and free time presents of solar cookers. Not one of them has used it. I know solar cooking is a hard sell, in terms of people actually using the technology. And I also know that you can't just thrust it on people.
It's going to take more time. There are community leaders in Salgaa who are very keen. Slowly, we will push the issue and hope that even a handful of people will start to find some way of including the solar cooker in their day to day lives. Who knows what the result will be. Solar cookers are not the only example of free or almost free community development projects, but this is the first time that I have tried one of them with the aim of establishing 'free or almost free' as a development model (or micro model). It's early days and I'll report back in due course.
Showing posts with label solar power. Show all posts
Showing posts with label solar power. Show all posts
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Experimenting with Diversity
It's odd how the weather can go from very dry to very wet quite unexpectedly. During the wet season, there was sometimes too much rain all at once, which threatened to wash away crops which were about to be harvested. Rain delayed the harvest of beans, which also resulted in some losses. Then the dry season started, so after harvesting, we returned to the practice of irrigating the other crops that were planted to overlap with the harvesting, a field of watermelon. And then the dry season was interrupted by a week of torrential rain, which threatens the watermelon, due to be harvested in Late March.
With any luck, the dry weather will return and what is left of the watermelon crop, hopefully most of it, will do well. But the field is waterlogged and some of the smaller fruit and plants have been overwhelmed by the thick mud that has been stirred up. All we can do is make sure water is not collecting anywhere and that any plants and fruits that can be saved are saved. Things have been looking brighter and drier for the last two days.
And with the brighter, sunnier weather, we at Ribbon of Hope have been able to return to demonstrating solar cookers. We had a good day at Mogotio, North of Nakuru, last week before the heavy rains started. Over thirty people came to see the demonstration and the debate about whether it was or wasn't possible to cook with 'a piece of silver cardboard and a saucepan painted black' was noisy. Scepticism turned to interest as we checked the food's progress about one hour in; interest turned to amazement when we invited people to test out the result half an hour later.
Today, we went to a town called Salgaa, also North of Nakuru. Closer to 40 people turned up and asked many questions as the rice and ugali (boiled maize meal, the staple food) and sukuma wiki (kale) cooked in the hot sun. In fact, giving a lot of time to answering questions was good because many people cook things one way and one way only. Today, they saw their beloved staple food cooked without using boiling water and without stirring. The whole thing can be put on to cook while the chef attends to other things. And that's just one of the many advantages of cooking this way!
Our aim is to increase self reliance through a variety of income generation schemes and ways of reducing day to day costs. So next week, we hope to return to Salgaa and show people how to make a solar cooker. Buying one is good, because people can save a lot of money and learn a great technique. But if they could make a solar cooker themselves, they could save even more money and they would always be able to make another when the original one wears out. Someone today was asking me if it was really sustainable to sell people a solar cooker for 500 Kenyan shillings (about 4 UK pounds). Well, it is a lot more sustainable than using charcoal or wood. But being able to make these cookers, and it's not difficult, would really put the icing on the cake.
On the opposite end of the scale in terms of self reliance, there is a big problem with the country's dependence on maize for almost all their food needs. It is not an indigenous crop and, for various reasons, it is becoming less productive. Because the weather has been so unpredictable lately, it would be far better to grow more resistant crops such as millet, sorghum, amaranth and many others. These do better in challenging conditions, like drought and flooding. But they also tolerate poorer soil and require less fertilizer and pesticides, substantially reducing the costs that farmers face.
Many farmers remain too dependent on a government that has never actually done very much for them. The scandal of the subsidized maize scheme, which allowed well connected people to make money out of 'relief' food supplies while the costs to ordinary people continued to rise and around a quarter of the country faced serious shortages, was less than a year ago. But the failure of farmers to produce enough food is partly their own fault. Some try to produce cash crops that end up making money for someone or some industry, but don't make much for individual farmers. Others, most farmers in fact, rely on rain fed agriculture, rather than employing some relatively simple method to harvest rainwater.
Small farmers are, of course, in need of ready cash, no less than non-farmers. But there are also those who produce far too little food for their own family and yet also make too little from cash crops to purchase additional food. There should be enough land in Kenya for the country to be food secure, regardless of how weather patterns are changing. True, the government should do a lot more, but perhaps people shouldn't wait for their politicians to do things that it has never done before. Hence the need for anything that increases self reliance.
Sadly, I am not an experienced farmer, I have to go around asking people for advice on what to plant and how to deal with problems that arise. But I feel that the very practice of experimenting with diversity is a good thing in itself. Equally, I think people need to experiment with cooking and eating different things and cooking them in different ways. I can't claim to have many converts yet but this kind of experimenting can be done without spending very much money. And development at low cost is, I think, well worth striving for, especially given the relative lack of success with development at high cost.
With any luck, the dry weather will return and what is left of the watermelon crop, hopefully most of it, will do well. But the field is waterlogged and some of the smaller fruit and plants have been overwhelmed by the thick mud that has been stirred up. All we can do is make sure water is not collecting anywhere and that any plants and fruits that can be saved are saved. Things have been looking brighter and drier for the last two days.
And with the brighter, sunnier weather, we at Ribbon of Hope have been able to return to demonstrating solar cookers. We had a good day at Mogotio, North of Nakuru, last week before the heavy rains started. Over thirty people came to see the demonstration and the debate about whether it was or wasn't possible to cook with 'a piece of silver cardboard and a saucepan painted black' was noisy. Scepticism turned to interest as we checked the food's progress about one hour in; interest turned to amazement when we invited people to test out the result half an hour later.
Today, we went to a town called Salgaa, also North of Nakuru. Closer to 40 people turned up and asked many questions as the rice and ugali (boiled maize meal, the staple food) and sukuma wiki (kale) cooked in the hot sun. In fact, giving a lot of time to answering questions was good because many people cook things one way and one way only. Today, they saw their beloved staple food cooked without using boiling water and without stirring. The whole thing can be put on to cook while the chef attends to other things. And that's just one of the many advantages of cooking this way!
Our aim is to increase self reliance through a variety of income generation schemes and ways of reducing day to day costs. So next week, we hope to return to Salgaa and show people how to make a solar cooker. Buying one is good, because people can save a lot of money and learn a great technique. But if they could make a solar cooker themselves, they could save even more money and they would always be able to make another when the original one wears out. Someone today was asking me if it was really sustainable to sell people a solar cooker for 500 Kenyan shillings (about 4 UK pounds). Well, it is a lot more sustainable than using charcoal or wood. But being able to make these cookers, and it's not difficult, would really put the icing on the cake.
On the opposite end of the scale in terms of self reliance, there is a big problem with the country's dependence on maize for almost all their food needs. It is not an indigenous crop and, for various reasons, it is becoming less productive. Because the weather has been so unpredictable lately, it would be far better to grow more resistant crops such as millet, sorghum, amaranth and many others. These do better in challenging conditions, like drought and flooding. But they also tolerate poorer soil and require less fertilizer and pesticides, substantially reducing the costs that farmers face.
Many farmers remain too dependent on a government that has never actually done very much for them. The scandal of the subsidized maize scheme, which allowed well connected people to make money out of 'relief' food supplies while the costs to ordinary people continued to rise and around a quarter of the country faced serious shortages, was less than a year ago. But the failure of farmers to produce enough food is partly their own fault. Some try to produce cash crops that end up making money for someone or some industry, but don't make much for individual farmers. Others, most farmers in fact, rely on rain fed agriculture, rather than employing some relatively simple method to harvest rainwater.
Small farmers are, of course, in need of ready cash, no less than non-farmers. But there are also those who produce far too little food for their own family and yet also make too little from cash crops to purchase additional food. There should be enough land in Kenya for the country to be food secure, regardless of how weather patterns are changing. True, the government should do a lot more, but perhaps people shouldn't wait for their politicians to do things that it has never done before. Hence the need for anything that increases self reliance.
Sadly, I am not an experienced farmer, I have to go around asking people for advice on what to plant and how to deal with problems that arise. But I feel that the very practice of experimenting with diversity is a good thing in itself. Equally, I think people need to experiment with cooking and eating different things and cooking them in different ways. I can't claim to have many converts yet but this kind of experimenting can be done without spending very much money. And development at low cost is, I think, well worth striving for, especially given the relative lack of success with development at high cost.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Income Generation Activities Galore
Just over a year ago I appealed to people I know, especially on Facebook, to help me to identify possible income generation activities suitable for developing countries where little capital, skills or infrastructure are available. I was overwhelmed by the slightly fewer than two responses I received and the first one didn't fly. So I set about researching on the internet, contacting people and talking to anyone who was prepared to discuss the subject. Now that I have started making a list, I decided to post it here on my blog so that others trying to research the same thing won't have to start right at the beginning. And maybe some people will even contribute to the list!
The list is by no means exhaustive and the categories are just based on the way things look from here. They overlap to some extent and they are in no particular order, though I think the first two are particularly important because local acceptability can make or break an income generation activity, no matter how 'good' it may seem. And some of the activities that are already widely carried out have a lot to recommend them. The community based organisation I work with, Ribbon of Hope, already grow a number of crops and have financed several livestock programmes. But it's time to branch out, try new things, diversify and ensure that people get the maximum benefit possible.
The approach we are likely to take is to ask our clients what gaps they feel there are in their local market, what local materials are available or could be made available. Also, what skills are there, what do people already know how to do. There must be local products that we don't know about and sometimes it turns out that people can make or do things but just hadn't realised the value of that skill. I'm not sure in advance what we will gain from this or how we are going to elicit the sort of information we want, but I think it could be a valuable exercise. Rather than just teaching people a skill or a few skills, we would also like them to be able to assess all the opportunities that exist and consider acquiring as many skills as possible. So that's the first category.
The second category is to get people to help us make an inventory of what could be produced in the area and sold in a local market or business. I'm thinking of things like sunflower or sesame oil, peanut butter, jam from seasonal fruits, honey, butter, cheese or anything else, even things that are already produced but for which there is little or no market, yet. I'm thinking of a campsite I stayed at in Tanzania which sourced things like this in a relatively remote area. The result was spectacular because many of these products here are only available in highly processed, branded forms (which taste disgusting). They should be produced locally if at all possible.
Ribbon of Hope already supports several shambas (smallholdings), which I have mentioned several times on this blog. Those smallholdings should produce everyday foods that people in the area need but they could also produce high value crops, such as sesame and sunflower seed, where clients can also produce the sesame or sunflower oil. These have the advantage of yielding highly nutritious oil cake as a by-product, which makes excellent animal feed. We should produce animal fodder, especially fodder that can be stored for use during dry periods, which are all too regular and protracted here. And there are all sorts of interesting crops we could consider growing, just to keep things diverse.
Dairy cattle, goats and chickens are a well tried income generation scheme and they are usually successful. Because they are such a good bet, they can require a fair amount of capital, which some of the more risky and less well tried schemes don't. But not everyone can afford to take risks. I'd say, get the low risk schemes started first and then add the others in at leisure. We mustn't forget the hides and furs of stock such as cattle, goats and sheep, either. Certainly, there are many uses for sheep wool, regardless of the quality. But another type of livestock that you don't see so much around here is rabbits, especially the very big ones that are bred for meat. There must be many uses for their fur, too.
There are good opportunities for different types of food processing here, especially food drying. Fruit and vegetables can be solar dried at very low cost. Many crops, such as mango, pineapple, banana and tomato flood the market at certain times of the year and a lot is dumped. These are all good when dried. Ribbon of Hope produced a beautiful crop of coriander in the last few weeks and this would be as good dried as fresh, except that it would be a far more viable crop if we could dry large amounts of it. Mushrooms are grown locally and are a potentially lucrative and nutritious crop that is also good dried. Yoghurt is already widely produced, cheese isn't so popular and maybe there's a reason for that. But many things could be made with local ingredients, such as biscuits, cakes, bread, cassava chips and the like.
Some of the areas here are blighted with a monoculture, especially sisal. But I'm sure people could be persuaded to make things of higher value rather than rope, which is how most of the local sisal ends up. We'll see what people who have been surrounded with sisal all their lives come up with. Not too far from here, silk worms are farmed, so that's another possibility. I've mentioned before the possibility of producing reusable sanitary pads. There are probably going to be lots of objections but many people, especially young girls, can't afford disposable ones so it's worth some effort. Leather goods may be another possibility, especially if local people are successfully breeding relevant livestock. No doubt there are other artisanal products, such as pottery, candles and whatever else. Sorry for being vague but the gaps will be filled in eventually.
Ribbon of Hope has already funded a successful project selling water and this raised surprisingly large amounts of money. Another possibility would be to pasteurize water using solar cookers or solar heaters and selling it. Included in this category, not many people in this dry province of Rift Valley use irrigation, nor do many people harvest rainwater. This is short-sighted and even journalists are apt to bemoan the fact that there is an unwise dependency on rain fed agriculture throughout Kenya (if journalists notice, it’s probably been a problem for decades). It's time to change this, even if it's only to a small extent. Equally, many people don't irrigate their land, even when there is a source of water close by. Since Ribbon of Hope started irrigating its fields, neighbouring farmers have started borrowing their pump. So it is catching on!
One of my favourite types of income generation activity or cost saving activity relates to fuel or energy. I have mentioned solar cookers, such as simple reflective boxes or more complicated parabolic cookers. These are great for cooking food, drying food and for pasteurizing water or milk. Some of our projects involve milk production so free pasteurization would help reduce costs a lot. I've also mentioned fuel briquettes made from waste of various kinds. People could produce these for their own household but they could also produce them for sale in the local area. Wood and charcoal, the most common cooking fuels, are expensive and likely to go up in price. Solar is cheaper, cleaner and better for the environment and could be used to supplement other sources of fuel. Biogas is more difficult to produce but we are hoping to get some to train us in how to produce the stuff.
Some trees and shrubs could be a useful addition to any shamba. The Kenyan government is thinking of introducing a law about people growing a certain number of trees per acre. True to form, they are not giving any advice as to what trees should be grown and which should be avoided (there are some serious problems that result from choosing the wrong trees). And people with very small, possibly rented shambas, will not want to risk reducing their yield by sticking something unproductive in their fields. But there are productive trees and ones that are good for the soil. There are some that produce fruit without compromising the field crops and others that produce oils and even animal fodder. There are trees that can benefit in various ways, so these should be carefully selected.
Finally, some organisations end up with assets that they only sometimes use, such as equipment and tools. These could be rented out to neighbouring farmers or swapped for other benefits, such as labour or tools that are lacking. Tools and machinery are prohibitively expensive here, which is why so many farmers try to fly by the seat of their pants and sometimes fail. Even rainwater harvesting and irrigation involve costs that small farmers can't always meet. But they might be able to share, for a fee, of course. Ribbon of Hope's neighbours have increased their yields so much in the last few months by using their petrol pump that they could easily afford to pay a small fee.
Well, that's it for the moment, but that's quite a list. I'll continue researching and noting progress (and problems) and I'll add links to further information when I can get around to it. I hope people find this list useful and if anyone has other ideas for income generation activities, please let me know. Thank you in anticipation!
The list is by no means exhaustive and the categories are just based on the way things look from here. They overlap to some extent and they are in no particular order, though I think the first two are particularly important because local acceptability can make or break an income generation activity, no matter how 'good' it may seem. And some of the activities that are already widely carried out have a lot to recommend them. The community based organisation I work with, Ribbon of Hope, already grow a number of crops and have financed several livestock programmes. But it's time to branch out, try new things, diversify and ensure that people get the maximum benefit possible.
The approach we are likely to take is to ask our clients what gaps they feel there are in their local market, what local materials are available or could be made available. Also, what skills are there, what do people already know how to do. There must be local products that we don't know about and sometimes it turns out that people can make or do things but just hadn't realised the value of that skill. I'm not sure in advance what we will gain from this or how we are going to elicit the sort of information we want, but I think it could be a valuable exercise. Rather than just teaching people a skill or a few skills, we would also like them to be able to assess all the opportunities that exist and consider acquiring as many skills as possible. So that's the first category.
The second category is to get people to help us make an inventory of what could be produced in the area and sold in a local market or business. I'm thinking of things like sunflower or sesame oil, peanut butter, jam from seasonal fruits, honey, butter, cheese or anything else, even things that are already produced but for which there is little or no market, yet. I'm thinking of a campsite I stayed at in Tanzania which sourced things like this in a relatively remote area. The result was spectacular because many of these products here are only available in highly processed, branded forms (which taste disgusting). They should be produced locally if at all possible.
Ribbon of Hope already supports several shambas (smallholdings), which I have mentioned several times on this blog. Those smallholdings should produce everyday foods that people in the area need but they could also produce high value crops, such as sesame and sunflower seed, where clients can also produce the sesame or sunflower oil. These have the advantage of yielding highly nutritious oil cake as a by-product, which makes excellent animal feed. We should produce animal fodder, especially fodder that can be stored for use during dry periods, which are all too regular and protracted here. And there are all sorts of interesting crops we could consider growing, just to keep things diverse.
Dairy cattle, goats and chickens are a well tried income generation scheme and they are usually successful. Because they are such a good bet, they can require a fair amount of capital, which some of the more risky and less well tried schemes don't. But not everyone can afford to take risks. I'd say, get the low risk schemes started first and then add the others in at leisure. We mustn't forget the hides and furs of stock such as cattle, goats and sheep, either. Certainly, there are many uses for sheep wool, regardless of the quality. But another type of livestock that you don't see so much around here is rabbits, especially the very big ones that are bred for meat. There must be many uses for their fur, too.
There are good opportunities for different types of food processing here, especially food drying. Fruit and vegetables can be solar dried at very low cost. Many crops, such as mango, pineapple, banana and tomato flood the market at certain times of the year and a lot is dumped. These are all good when dried. Ribbon of Hope produced a beautiful crop of coriander in the last few weeks and this would be as good dried as fresh, except that it would be a far more viable crop if we could dry large amounts of it. Mushrooms are grown locally and are a potentially lucrative and nutritious crop that is also good dried. Yoghurt is already widely produced, cheese isn't so popular and maybe there's a reason for that. But many things could be made with local ingredients, such as biscuits, cakes, bread, cassava chips and the like.
Some of the areas here are blighted with a monoculture, especially sisal. But I'm sure people could be persuaded to make things of higher value rather than rope, which is how most of the local sisal ends up. We'll see what people who have been surrounded with sisal all their lives come up with. Not too far from here, silk worms are farmed, so that's another possibility. I've mentioned before the possibility of producing reusable sanitary pads. There are probably going to be lots of objections but many people, especially young girls, can't afford disposable ones so it's worth some effort. Leather goods may be another possibility, especially if local people are successfully breeding relevant livestock. No doubt there are other artisanal products, such as pottery, candles and whatever else. Sorry for being vague but the gaps will be filled in eventually.
Ribbon of Hope has already funded a successful project selling water and this raised surprisingly large amounts of money. Another possibility would be to pasteurize water using solar cookers or solar heaters and selling it. Included in this category, not many people in this dry province of Rift Valley use irrigation, nor do many people harvest rainwater. This is short-sighted and even journalists are apt to bemoan the fact that there is an unwise dependency on rain fed agriculture throughout Kenya (if journalists notice, it’s probably been a problem for decades). It's time to change this, even if it's only to a small extent. Equally, many people don't irrigate their land, even when there is a source of water close by. Since Ribbon of Hope started irrigating its fields, neighbouring farmers have started borrowing their pump. So it is catching on!
One of my favourite types of income generation activity or cost saving activity relates to fuel or energy. I have mentioned solar cookers, such as simple reflective boxes or more complicated parabolic cookers. These are great for cooking food, drying food and for pasteurizing water or milk. Some of our projects involve milk production so free pasteurization would help reduce costs a lot. I've also mentioned fuel briquettes made from waste of various kinds. People could produce these for their own household but they could also produce them for sale in the local area. Wood and charcoal, the most common cooking fuels, are expensive and likely to go up in price. Solar is cheaper, cleaner and better for the environment and could be used to supplement other sources of fuel. Biogas is more difficult to produce but we are hoping to get some to train us in how to produce the stuff.
Some trees and shrubs could be a useful addition to any shamba. The Kenyan government is thinking of introducing a law about people growing a certain number of trees per acre. True to form, they are not giving any advice as to what trees should be grown and which should be avoided (there are some serious problems that result from choosing the wrong trees). And people with very small, possibly rented shambas, will not want to risk reducing their yield by sticking something unproductive in their fields. But there are productive trees and ones that are good for the soil. There are some that produce fruit without compromising the field crops and others that produce oils and even animal fodder. There are trees that can benefit in various ways, so these should be carefully selected.
Finally, some organisations end up with assets that they only sometimes use, such as equipment and tools. These could be rented out to neighbouring farmers or swapped for other benefits, such as labour or tools that are lacking. Tools and machinery are prohibitively expensive here, which is why so many farmers try to fly by the seat of their pants and sometimes fail. Even rainwater harvesting and irrigation involve costs that small farmers can't always meet. But they might be able to share, for a fee, of course. Ribbon of Hope's neighbours have increased their yields so much in the last few months by using their petrol pump that they could easily afford to pay a small fee.
Well, that's it for the moment, but that's quite a list. I'll continue researching and noting progress (and problems) and I'll add links to further information when I can get around to it. I hope people find this list useful and if anyone has other ideas for income generation activities, please let me know. Thank you in anticipation!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
When Water is Scarce, Develop Hydroelectric Power Installations
It hardly comes as a surprise, but electricity prices in Kenya are increasing because of unreliable rainfall patterns. Unwisely, Kenya depends to a large extent on hydroelectric power. So when there is a prolonged drought power is in short supply. Expensive, inefficient and highly polluting emergency power is generated using fossil fuels to make up some of the shortfall.
Hydroelectric dams have been built in developing countries for many decades. This may have seemed like a good idea a long time ago, although it is more likely to have appealed to the Western engineering companies and others who reaped substantial profits from the building of these installations. But the multiple disadvantages of hydroelectric power are now widely recognized, disadvantages including inefficiency, expense and irreversible environmental damage.
For the moment, I'll leave aside the (albeit important) question of who is profiting from the production of emergency power over such a long period of time, which makes it seem less of an emergency and more like plain stupidity. But the cost increases for electricity, said to be about 60% over the past six months, are being passed on to hard pressed consumers. This is particularly galling in a country where only a minority of households have an electricity supply.
Already, well over half of Kenya's power is, ostensibly, generated by hydroelectric installations. This suggests a surprising overdependence in a country that has several viable alternatives. But there are now plans to build a new dam in Coastal Province (where most of the country's hydroelectric power is produced) to provide domestic water supplies, irrigation and electricity. Tens of millions of dollars will be spent on something that is unlikely to work very well and will have serious adverse impacts. The money is coming from the Chinese government and, while water infrastructure is badly needed, another huge dam hardly seems like the best approach given the history of such projects in developing countries.
Kenya could produce enough electricity for all its citizens using sustainable and relatively cheap sources, such as wind, solar and geothermal. There are good reasons for keeping water supply and irrigation separate from electricity generation because hydroelectric power is not just inadvisable, it's also quite unnecessary in Kenya. Touting the project as being a solution to water shortages doesn't explain why such a large amount of money is being spent on it. We are not told what the Chinese government is getting in return. Oil and other natural resources, probably.
Hydroelectric dams have been built in developing countries for many decades. This may have seemed like a good idea a long time ago, although it is more likely to have appealed to the Western engineering companies and others who reaped substantial profits from the building of these installations. But the multiple disadvantages of hydroelectric power are now widely recognized, disadvantages including inefficiency, expense and irreversible environmental damage.
For the moment, I'll leave aside the (albeit important) question of who is profiting from the production of emergency power over such a long period of time, which makes it seem less of an emergency and more like plain stupidity. But the cost increases for electricity, said to be about 60% over the past six months, are being passed on to hard pressed consumers. This is particularly galling in a country where only a minority of households have an electricity supply.
Already, well over half of Kenya's power is, ostensibly, generated by hydroelectric installations. This suggests a surprising overdependence in a country that has several viable alternatives. But there are now plans to build a new dam in Coastal Province (where most of the country's hydroelectric power is produced) to provide domestic water supplies, irrigation and electricity. Tens of millions of dollars will be spent on something that is unlikely to work very well and will have serious adverse impacts. The money is coming from the Chinese government and, while water infrastructure is badly needed, another huge dam hardly seems like the best approach given the history of such projects in developing countries.
Kenya could produce enough electricity for all its citizens using sustainable and relatively cheap sources, such as wind, solar and geothermal. There are good reasons for keeping water supply and irrigation separate from electricity generation because hydroelectric power is not just inadvisable, it's also quite unnecessary in Kenya. Touting the project as being a solution to water shortages doesn't explain why such a large amount of money is being spent on it. We are not told what the Chinese government is getting in return. Oil and other natural resources, probably.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Empty Pockets Revisited
It's nice to be able to try out some of the things I've been looking for, thinking about and researching for a long time. Not my ideas, by the way, just ideas that sound like good income generation activities and ways of saving money. Generally, they are cheap or free sustainable activities that are easy to get involved in, even for those who have few practical skills, such as myself. I'm harking back to a posting entitled 'Empty Pocket Finances', which I wrote nearly a year ago.
The sort of projects I am thinking of have not changed that much. At present we are trying out solar cookers and cooking baskets but we would like to look into reusable, home-made sanitary towels, briquettes made from organic waste, solar fruit and vegetable driers and, I'm sure, many other techniques. Anything that people can fit into their day to day life with the minimum bother and the maximum benefit.
In addition to persuading people to use solar cookers, cooking baskets, home-made sanitary towels and other things, we would like to get people to make these cookers, baskets and towels themselves. Perhaps they'll even go on to teach other people and convert them to the virtues of sustainability and self-reliance. Then it will be up to them to sell the ideas on to others. So, in addition to saving people money, some people should be able to go on to make money. Admittedly, just a little money, but some of our clients are making almost nothing right now.
So much for the theory, anyhow. But we visited a Ministry of Agriculture office that has been involved in developing appropriate technology for several decades, apparently. One of the people we talked to had little good news to impart. He said he had long been trying to persuade people to do things that would be of benefit to them, with very little success. On the other hand, his colleague seemed to be of the opinion that people find change hard but that that's no reason not to continue to develop good ideas and try to disseminate them.
We also visited Egerton University to see a parabolic style solar cooker being constructed using an umbrella, much like the one I made recently, only bigger. I want to try a bigger one now to see if they can do some things that the Cookit can't do. I'm pretty sure they can but I am worried about safety aspects as people here are not exactly safety conscious. For instance, parabolic reflectors can quickly damage your sight. And if they heat things up to high temperatures, they are potentially dangerous when it comes to spillages, especially when children are involved.
But maybe this won't be a problem. When we were at Egerton, we were able to make some design suggestions that should make the parabolic cooker a lot safer. As for the difficulty of getting people to adopt new things, we hope that living close to our clients will mean we can check up on and badger them regularly. And if they tell us they are short of money or that they need something, we can ask them why they haven't adopted the wonderful techniques that various people around the world have made available, free of charge.
The sort of projects I am thinking of have not changed that much. At present we are trying out solar cookers and cooking baskets but we would like to look into reusable, home-made sanitary towels, briquettes made from organic waste, solar fruit and vegetable driers and, I'm sure, many other techniques. Anything that people can fit into their day to day life with the minimum bother and the maximum benefit.
In addition to persuading people to use solar cookers, cooking baskets, home-made sanitary towels and other things, we would like to get people to make these cookers, baskets and towels themselves. Perhaps they'll even go on to teach other people and convert them to the virtues of sustainability and self-reliance. Then it will be up to them to sell the ideas on to others. So, in addition to saving people money, some people should be able to go on to make money. Admittedly, just a little money, but some of our clients are making almost nothing right now.
So much for the theory, anyhow. But we visited a Ministry of Agriculture office that has been involved in developing appropriate technology for several decades, apparently. One of the people we talked to had little good news to impart. He said he had long been trying to persuade people to do things that would be of benefit to them, with very little success. On the other hand, his colleague seemed to be of the opinion that people find change hard but that that's no reason not to continue to develop good ideas and try to disseminate them.
We also visited Egerton University to see a parabolic style solar cooker being constructed using an umbrella, much like the one I made recently, only bigger. I want to try a bigger one now to see if they can do some things that the Cookit can't do. I'm pretty sure they can but I am worried about safety aspects as people here are not exactly safety conscious. For instance, parabolic reflectors can quickly damage your sight. And if they heat things up to high temperatures, they are potentially dangerous when it comes to spillages, especially when children are involved.
But maybe this won't be a problem. When we were at Egerton, we were able to make some design suggestions that should make the parabolic cooker a lot safer. As for the difficulty of getting people to adopt new things, we hope that living close to our clients will mean we can check up on and badger them regularly. And if they tell us they are short of money or that they need something, we can ask them why they haven't adopted the wonderful techniques that various people around the world have made available, free of charge.
Friday, October 2, 2009
Nairobi Trade Fair and Solar Gadgets
A colleague and I went to the Nairobi Trade Fair yesterday. Many of the exhibits were the standard agricultural and small industrial production, crops, animals, goods such as rope and honey and the like. There were impressive fields of sunflowers, bananas and cabbage and well fattened cows, ostriches and sheep. And there was agricultural machinery aplenty for ploughing, preparing, irrigating, reaping and threshing.
But much of what I saw looked like it was aimed at rich or relatively rich farmers. The majority of farmers in Kenya are subsistence farmers with small amounts of land. They often aim to provide their household with some food and perhaps some surplus to sell. But they would not be able to afford the high grade machinery that was on offer. Even the machinery that was specifically aimed at 'small' farmers was very expensive. We were told that it was cost effective to grow an acre of jatropha for its oil seed crop, used for biofuels. But the machinery to press the oil would put most farmers off. And no farmer with only one acre would give it over to a cash crop.
Of course, farmers would be well advised to steer clear of biofuels anyhow. Their price are predicated on large scale production, which is, by definition, beyond the reach of small farmers. And producing energy products for Western countries is unlikely to make anyone in Kenya very rich, unless they are very rich already.
But farmers have been hoodwinked many times in the past to produce cash crops, such as sugar, tea, sisal and coffee. Small farmers have the most to lose when they find that it is not as productive as they were told. Some are giving up on these cash crops to find an alternative or even to grow food crops that they can use and sell the surplus of. But sadly, much of the best land in Kenya is already given over to inedible cash crops which only the wealthiest of farmers and dealers make money out of.
Millions face starvation because of lack of food, millions are malnourished because of the lack of variety in their diet. The current drought doesn't help but the gradual loss of land to inedible cash crops or large scale factory farming that is of little benefit and much detriment to the majority continues to push even more to the brink of starvation.
There seemed to be little evidence at the Nairobi Trade Fair that the Ministry of Agriculture and other large and official bodies there were reaching out to small farmers, producers and artisans. In fact, the 250 shilling entry fee and nearly 500 shilling travel costs just from Nakuru would keep most small farmers away, when many of them are lucky to get 150 shillings a day for their work.
There were exceptions. There were solar driers that allow people to save wasting much of their produce that they are unable to sell. There were solar cookers, something very close to my heart. The cookers are very affordable and can even be home made. Anyhow can make them. The driers are not so affordable but again, people can work out how to make them for themselves. There were cooking baskets which can be used to reduce use of solid fuels (and also made at home). And there were even improved cookers that claim to use less fuel or use various kinds of fuel.
But even some of the low cost exhibits forget just how little money people have. One of the improved cookers was ten times the cost of an ordinary 'jiko' or charcoal burning cooker. It's great to see innovative designs but until the inventors and developers of these products find out how to really reduce the cost to one that people just can't refuse, their work will lie on shelves.
Going back to solar cookers, I have tried to use a parabolic cooker, made by lining an umbrella with tinfoil. The focal point gets very hot and it should be possible to cook with it. But, alas, there has only been intermittent sun today so I just have to wait. But this design is only a prototype. Umbrellas and tinfoil are not very durable and they are not produced locally. In the long run, I'd like to be able to construct such a design using local materials, especially recycled materials.
Well, as always, I'll post my progress here as soon as I make further progress.
But much of what I saw looked like it was aimed at rich or relatively rich farmers. The majority of farmers in Kenya are subsistence farmers with small amounts of land. They often aim to provide their household with some food and perhaps some surplus to sell. But they would not be able to afford the high grade machinery that was on offer. Even the machinery that was specifically aimed at 'small' farmers was very expensive. We were told that it was cost effective to grow an acre of jatropha for its oil seed crop, used for biofuels. But the machinery to press the oil would put most farmers off. And no farmer with only one acre would give it over to a cash crop.
Of course, farmers would be well advised to steer clear of biofuels anyhow. Their price are predicated on large scale production, which is, by definition, beyond the reach of small farmers. And producing energy products for Western countries is unlikely to make anyone in Kenya very rich, unless they are very rich already.
But farmers have been hoodwinked many times in the past to produce cash crops, such as sugar, tea, sisal and coffee. Small farmers have the most to lose when they find that it is not as productive as they were told. Some are giving up on these cash crops to find an alternative or even to grow food crops that they can use and sell the surplus of. But sadly, much of the best land in Kenya is already given over to inedible cash crops which only the wealthiest of farmers and dealers make money out of.
Millions face starvation because of lack of food, millions are malnourished because of the lack of variety in their diet. The current drought doesn't help but the gradual loss of land to inedible cash crops or large scale factory farming that is of little benefit and much detriment to the majority continues to push even more to the brink of starvation.
There seemed to be little evidence at the Nairobi Trade Fair that the Ministry of Agriculture and other large and official bodies there were reaching out to small farmers, producers and artisans. In fact, the 250 shilling entry fee and nearly 500 shilling travel costs just from Nakuru would keep most small farmers away, when many of them are lucky to get 150 shillings a day for their work.
There were exceptions. There were solar driers that allow people to save wasting much of their produce that they are unable to sell. There were solar cookers, something very close to my heart. The cookers are very affordable and can even be home made. Anyhow can make them. The driers are not so affordable but again, people can work out how to make them for themselves. There were cooking baskets which can be used to reduce use of solid fuels (and also made at home). And there were even improved cookers that claim to use less fuel or use various kinds of fuel.
But even some of the low cost exhibits forget just how little money people have. One of the improved cookers was ten times the cost of an ordinary 'jiko' or charcoal burning cooker. It's great to see innovative designs but until the inventors and developers of these products find out how to really reduce the cost to one that people just can't refuse, their work will lie on shelves.
Going back to solar cookers, I have tried to use a parabolic cooker, made by lining an umbrella with tinfoil. The focal point gets very hot and it should be possible to cook with it. But, alas, there has only been intermittent sun today so I just have to wait. But this design is only a prototype. Umbrellas and tinfoil are not very durable and they are not produced locally. In the long run, I'd like to be able to construct such a design using local materials, especially recycled materials.
Well, as always, I'll post my progress here as soon as I make further progress.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Does Everyone at the World Bank Share the Same Brain Cell?
The World Bank certainly knows how to give mixed messages. The overfed, overpaid over there now admit the dangers of climate change, especially for developing countries, and they are urging industrialised countries to reduce carbon emissions. This took many years of arguing against the climate change denialists, who dominated industry and finance, so this was no mean feat.
But the World Bank is also financing massive coal fired electricity plants in developing countries that will pump out greenhouse gases for decades. In a country like Kenya, where they don't produce coal in large quantities, this will also mean an unwanted increase in dependence on imported energy.
Dearest World Bank people, we never expected genius to emanate from among you, but nor did we expect such total idiocy. Right now, foreign governments are gagging to get their hands on Kenyan land so they can grow crops for biofuels, even though one quarter or more Kenyans face food shortages and the country is experiencing prolonged drought. This will also increase the countries carbon emissions. And there are plenty of other things happening here that are inimical to emission reduction.
Perhaps the people at the World Bank have heard of solar energy? To this piece of knowledge, perhaps they could add the fact that Kenya and other African countries get a lot of sun? Or maybe I'm overloading your thought faculties a bit? Well, there's also something here called geothermal energy, which also emits little or no carbon. There's also wind energy, which I'm sure even World Bank people would have some understanding of.
So why, with these abundant sources of renewable, not polluting energy, does the World Bank choose a non-renewable, polluting source of energy that will cripple poor countries with debt and swell their balance of payments deficit?
Would it be an exaggeration to suggest that the people at the World Bank have completely lost it and shouldn't be trusted with a piggy bank, let alone the billions they propose wasting on increasing the potential catastrophes brought about by climate change?
But the World Bank is also financing massive coal fired electricity plants in developing countries that will pump out greenhouse gases for decades. In a country like Kenya, where they don't produce coal in large quantities, this will also mean an unwanted increase in dependence on imported energy.
Dearest World Bank people, we never expected genius to emanate from among you, but nor did we expect such total idiocy. Right now, foreign governments are gagging to get their hands on Kenyan land so they can grow crops for biofuels, even though one quarter or more Kenyans face food shortages and the country is experiencing prolonged drought. This will also increase the countries carbon emissions. And there are plenty of other things happening here that are inimical to emission reduction.
Perhaps the people at the World Bank have heard of solar energy? To this piece of knowledge, perhaps they could add the fact that Kenya and other African countries get a lot of sun? Or maybe I'm overloading your thought faculties a bit? Well, there's also something here called geothermal energy, which also emits little or no carbon. There's also wind energy, which I'm sure even World Bank people would have some understanding of.
So why, with these abundant sources of renewable, not polluting energy, does the World Bank choose a non-renewable, polluting source of energy that will cripple poor countries with debt and swell their balance of payments deficit?
Would it be an exaggeration to suggest that the people at the World Bank have completely lost it and shouldn't be trusted with a piggy bank, let alone the billions they propose wasting on increasing the potential catastrophes brought about by climate change?
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