just echoed the importance of efficient cook-stove (less than 4 dollar), imagine just a 50% efficiency increase from the open fire stove, you can save one day's trip!
Featured Photo | Photo à la unePosted: 5 October 2010 | Posté : 5 octobre 2010
Sudanese women from Kassab Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camp in Kutum, North Darfur, venture out to collect firewood. They were escorted by South African peacekeepers of the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), as the women IDPs often fear being raped by rebel fighters or criminals when they leave their homes | UN Photo: 443583
Des femmes soudanaises du camps Kassab de personnes déplacées internes à Kutum, dans le Nord du Darfour, ramassent du bois à brûler. Elles sont escortées par des casques bleus sud-africains de l'Opération hybride Union africaine-Nations Unies au Darfour (MINUAD), car les femmes déplacées internes craignent souvent d'être violées par des combattants rebels ou des criminels lorsqu'elles sortent de chez elles | UN Photo: 443583
I have been thinking about someday how much would the cost look like if these products can be produced in African and sold locally... ___ from ToughStuff press release September 2010
ToughStuff, an international social enterprise founded by English and Dutch entrepreneurs, has today been announced as a Tech Awards Laureate 2010 for its work providing clean, affordable energy to the world’s poorest people.
Toughstuff, which started trading just 15 months ago, has already sold more than 100,000 solar power kits benefitting 380,000 low-income consumers in Eastern and Southern Africa. ToughStuff’sproducts have also been distributed to people living in temporary camps in Haiti following the earthquake.
The Tech Awards Laureate 2010 coincides with the start of Toughstuff’s plans for rapid expansion into previously untapped markets in Africa and the rest of the developing world to meet the needs of the 1.46 billion people globally without access to electricity. ToughStuff, with offices in London, Kenya and Madagascar, has been chosen from hundreds of applicants in 50 countries to receive the Laureate from the Tech Museum in California.
The Tech Awards, sponsored by Applied Materials, Inc and other global organisations, is one of the world’s top humanitarian awards programs, recognising technical solutions that address critical issues facing theplanet and its people and that spark global change.
ToughStuff was established in 2008 by social entrepreneurs, Andrew Tanswell, who is English and based in London, and Adriaan Mol, a Dutch national living and working in Madagascar.
Andrew Tanswell believes ToughStuff ’s unique and commercial approach benefits very poor people in the most remote places in the developing world. “On the back of our success in Kenya and Madagascar we are now planning rapid expansion across Africa, a vast unreached market. Poverty will primarily be combated through enterprise not charity. The Tech Awards laureate is a timely endorsement of our business model.” ToughStuff is a “triple bottom line” business that achieves financial, social and environmental returns by selling solar energy solutions to the 1.46 billion people in developing countries who have no access to electricity.
ToughStuff designs and distributes robust, affordable, portable products which can weather theharsh conditions of developing countries. The products include solar panels, LED lamps and battery packs to power radios and mobile phones. These replace kerosene, candles and dry-cell batteries which are costly, polluting and damage health.
ToughStuff believes its solar products have similar growth potential in Africa as mobile phones. In Africa alone over $27 billion is spent on sources of energy such as kerosene, candles, batteries and mobile phone charging in areas where there is no electricity. Adriaan Mol, Madagascar-based Operations Director, said: “ToughStuff products cut the cost of light and power so people have more money to spend on food, education, health and enterprise. That’s why ToughStuff products are in huge demand, and appear to be following a similar growth trajectory to that of mobile phones. We have enormous numbers of potential customers.”
ToughStuff has developed innovative distribution systems to get products to remote settlements.or example, through a “Business in a Box” program Village Solar Entrepreneurs sell and hire out solar panels and chargers. The scheme has already attracted Dutch Government funding.
George Gitau, ToughStuff’s Kenya-based East African manager, said: “The success of ToughStuff in Kenya and Madagascar shows we have a winning formula which customers love. Our plans to grow our business rapidly will increase the number of people who we can help improve their lives and save money.”
Tech Awards laureates are selected by a prestigious panel of international judges organised by the Centre for Science, Technology and Society at Santa Clara University, California. Peter Friess, president of the Tech Museum, said: “The global challenges of the day have become increasingly strident, more deeply rooted. “Still there is hope. These incredibly impressive laureates have all proven to be equal to, or better than, the challenge to make the world a better place. By celebrating their accomplishments today, we are encouraging future innovators to work toward solutions to make the world healthier, safer and more sustainable.”
The Tech Awards laureate will be formally bestowed at a Gala hosted by the Tech Museum in San Jose on November 6. ToughStuff will also find out at the Gala if it is one of the five laureates whowill also receive a $50,000 cash prize. If successful, ToughStuff will use the prize money to provide emergency kits to large-scale crises including the Pakistan floods and the Haiti earthquake.
Ends Notes to Editors Contact Information www.ToughStuffonline.org Roger Hattam +44 (0) 20 72610983 +44 7768 801174 (m) Roger.hattam@ToughStuffonline.com Ros Dawson +44 (0) 1274 561241 +44 7720 882512 (m) ros@rosdawsonmedia.co.uk To receive a sample ToughStuff solar panel and LED lamp or for high resolution photographs and videos, please contact the above.
Just came across an interesting piece from the NYTimes talking about the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics, and Clarice, here you go, closed-loop agricultural system!
However，"Brett Roe, who investigated ecologically integrated production systems at the University of Queensland in Australia, cautioned that it might not be a cure-all. 'Aquaponics offers decentralized food security on a small scale, and reuse of resources,' he said. 'Every little bit helps. But in developing countries it may make better sense to culture fish in ponds and use the wastewater on land-based crops; a simple linkage of aquaculture and crop farming that has the same general effect of reusing resources and can be practiced in a larger scale of economy.'”
LONDON — In the Lowlands of Scotland, an old fire station donated to the community of Moffat for a symbolic penny has been converted into what may be the farm of the future. Forget about fields. Forget even about established norms of industrial agriculture. Using a new technology known as aquaponics, the Moffat farm, due to start production at the end of this month, will churn out fish and vegetables by the ton, in a space equivalent to a small factory.
Aquaponics — a combination of aquaculture, or fish cultivation, and hydroponics, or water-based planting — utilizes a symbiotic relationship between fish and plants. Fish waste provides nutrients for the plants, which in turn filter the water in which the fish live. Cuttings from plant are composted to create food for worms, which provide food for the fish, completing the cycle.
“Aquaponics is a method of delivering multiple crops with minimum input, through a closed-loop method of farming,” said Charlie Price, founder of Aquaponics UK, the nonprofit organization that runs the farm.
A kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of fish food, produces at least 50 kilograms of vegetables and 0.8 kilogram of fish, he said. “As the ecosystem becomes self-sustainable, the fish food comes from the worms, so the entire cycle is free.”
Mr. Price’s organization is working internationally with food production projects in India, Afghanistan and several African countries, including Uganda, Kenya and Namibia. But it also works closer to home. Its next project is a city farm shop in London at which people will be able to pick their own salads and choose fish for their supper from giant tanks.
The store, called Farm:shop, in the Borough of Hackney, was created by Something & Son, a design company, working with the local council. It hopes to make direct links between the city neighborhood and the realities of farming. A location has been secured, and the project is in the late stages of acquiring funding.
The potential for urban farming is being explored in Milwaukee, where some of the leading aquaponics entrepreneurs are based. Sweet Water Organics, an urban aquaponics company, raises perch and leafy green vegetables in an old factory that housed a mining company until the 1950s. The farm, founded by James Godsil and Josh Fraundorf in January 2009, has sold thousands of fish and produces about 70 kilograms of vegetables a week. It is expanding rapidly, and plans to produce between 360 and 450 kilograms of greens a week and to grow tens of thousands of kilograms of perch in coming years.
Mr. Godsil and Mr. Fraundorf learned the techniques largely from Will Allen, an urban farmer and winner of a MacArthur “genius” fellowship, and through trial and error.
“We believe this is the world’s first effort to turn a factory into a fish and vegetable farm, and it’s a complex proposition,” Mr. Godsil said. “We’ve experimented with 40 types of lettuce, settled on three or four, and we’re now trialing spinach.”
The farm started with a $50,000 investment but has attracted about $1 million in funds over the past 20 months and partnerships with the Milwaukee School of Engineering and informally with the University of Stirling in Scotland. It is discussing the prospect of a $30 million concept for Sweetwater villages, which would have community-scale manufacturing, restaurants and cafes with food produced from aquaponics.
The farm is receiving support from the University of Wisconsin and Sea Grants, a U.S. government program, to grow yellow perch and possibly blue gill, species indigenous to the Great Lakes but in decline. “The fish it produces are a 21st century form of protein that won’t harm planet earth,” Mr. Godsil said.
Industrial aquaponics is still in its infancy, with only five facilities of more than 0.4 hectare, or one acre, operating in the world, although interest is growing, particularly in areas with water shortages. Aquaponics use between 80 and 90 per cent less water than traditional growing methods.
In Barbados, where fresh water is scarce and 80 per cent of food is imported, according to the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, a project known as “Aquaponic island” started last year, with a goal of educating farmers about the benefits of aquaponics to make it their technology of choice in four years. The project has funding from the United Nations Development Program, the Barbadian Ministry of Agriculture, the institute and a community group, the Baird’s Village Aquaponics Association. A commercial-scale system was set up at Baird’s Village, and this year aquaponic systems are being introduced to many of the island’s schools.
In Australia, where farmers have struggled with drought for the past decade, backyard aquaponic systems have grown in popularity. Joel Malcolm, who opened the world’s first aquaponics retail store, Backyard Aquaponics, in the Australian city of Perth, sells about 300 systems a year.
“With water restrictions enforced in almost every city around the country, people just can’t have their traditional vegetable garden,” he said. “Being able to produce your own chemical-free fish and vegetables in your own backyard not only saves money but also provides enjoyment and satisfaction. Lately there have been quite a few schools installing systems here as learning tools for the kids.”
While backyard systems are in their infancy in the United States, they are growing in popularity, with estimates that there may be 800 to 1,200 aquaponics setups in American homes and yards and as many as 1,000 more in schools, according to the Aquaponics Journal.
Could this almost-waste-free food production method be the miracle solution to tackle worldwide food shortages that some expect? Brett Roe, who investigated ecologically integrated production systems at the University of Queensland in Australia, cautioned that it might not be a cure-all. “Aquaponics offers decentralized food security on a small scale, and reuse of resources,” he said. “Every little bit helps. But in developing countries it may make better sense to culture fish in ponds and use the wastewater on land-based crops; a simple linkage of aquaculture and crop farming that has the same general effect of reusing resources and can be practiced in a larger scale of economy.”
While still in its fledgling stages, Mr. Godsil said the potential of aquaponics was “breathtaking.”
“Aquaponics has inspired pragmatic utopian visions, that keep getting validated by the facts. We need solutions to what could be a Pearl Harbor moment for the species, if global warming trends continue the way Al Gore and scientists predict,” he said referring to the former U.S. vice president.
Mr. Price of Aquaponics UK said: “Given our requirements to provide significantly more energy and food in the next 20 years, aquaponics can play a vital role. It isn’t a new technology – in fact it was first documented by the Aztecs – but when adopted in our new climate it provides a highly profitable and sustainable food production system.”
The Baobab Trust project
Sustainable Agriculture
The Mtopanga Training and Demonstration Farm is a 10hec farm with a variety of vegetables and fruits organically grown. Livestock and poultry keeping including an integrated fish farming system and alternative technology makes up the demonstration farm at the same time a Training facility. With a number of components on the farm each structure is interlinked, providing and benefiting each other. Hence, ensuring it is a continuous process all on the same land. Since all these are set-up on together, we offer community and the surrounding stakeholders technical advice, trainings tours. We also welcome farmers and interested individuals to visit the farm. Hence the farm is open to all who are interested in sustainable farming. We work very closely with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.
Training: We offer trainings on organic farming, integrated fish farming, livestock and poultry keeping, bee keeping, alternative energy including biogas. Compost, tree nursery set-up and charcoal making. Our trainings are based on hands-on training for the communities and surrounding stakeholders.
Educational Tours: School groups and Institutions are taken on a tour around the farm.
Open Field Days: About twice a year, an Open-Field Day is hosted to the local Farmers, Institutions, Schools and Individuals. The Farm is set up to demonstrate various farming methods using basic affordable techniques that can be applied to their own farms. This day is coordinated with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock..
