Investing in agriculture to alleviate hunger
2011 Blog Action Day on 16 October – World Food Day – is, naturally, themed around food
Food is a basic human need. Yet for many people across the world, this basic human need is not that easy to come by.
Putting food on the table is a struggle for small scale farmers and pastoralists with little income or natural resources. It seems ridiculous, doesn’t it, that the very people who grow food or rear livestock for food are those that go hungry? Why? Lack of agricultural knowledge and investment, little access to credit, little access to markets, growing competition for land and price volatility.
What is more, where the climate is changing year on year, there are no spare resources to adjust or adapt practices in order to reduce the impacts of droughts, floods and other extreme weather events.
Mothers queue for hours at Mandera District Hospital to get food
I was recently in Mandera, north western Kenya, where I came face-to-face with the terrible reality of drought, and the devastating impact it’s having on families and children.
People hadn’t eaten for days, yet when asked what they needed, not one person said they needed food. In fact, any food aid they received went to their livestock. What they needed was rain so they could grow their crops and feed their livestock.
So it was good to see Practical Action working with agricultural communities to cope with drought by helping to develop drought resistant crops, protect livestock and conserve precious water.
High up in the Andes in Peru, the temperature can drop to as low as -35 degrees centigrade and there is practically no vegetation. Practical Action works with communities to grow food that will survive these harsh conditions.
And in flood prone places like Bangladesh where it’s impossible to grow crops, Practical Action has developed a technology to allow farmers to grow food on flooded land.
We work with entire market systems, often focusing on helping poor farmers and producers to build their abilities to engage with people they do business with and get better deals for themselves and their communities.
Investing in farmers and pastoralists like this ensures not only can they put food on the table but they can also earn more money – working themselves out of poverty.
4 Comments » | Add your comment
Sometimes Toilets Only Make Things Worse
People who have read my blogs know how passionate I am about toilets. Extending proper sanitation to a population (and ensuring 100% coverage) is probably one of the most effective health interventions you can make in the developing world. “What about vaccination?” I hear some people cry, and they’d have a point, but according the World Health Organisation, diarrhoea is the number three killer in low income countries. Respiratory infections, and heart disease are numbers 1 & 2.
Anyway, I wasn’t intending to write about the relative importance of sanitation (perhaps a debate for another day). I actually wanted to say that poor sanitation is often worse than none at all. Here’s a photo of a latrine I saw in Peru, where I was recently. It had been introduced as a part of a government scheme to build latrines for poor people in rural area where sanitation coverage was low. Thousands of latrines like this one pictured had sprung up across the country-side in the course of a few weeks built by a contractor, who came in & built the standard design in all the right places. BUT, with no community engagement; no education about the importance of hygiene; and no consideration for children, the elderly, or disabled in the designs, many have now fallen into disrepair.
It’s quite likely that there has been no health benefit arising from this well-intentioned programme. Actually, this latrine (and many others like it) is possibly a health hazard!
Of course I’m not arguing against schemes that help people to gain access to a latrine, it’s just that it must be done properly. Schemes must involve the people, and take their views into account. Otherwise you may as well not bother. Indeed you could even be making matters worse!
2 Comments » | Add your commentTweeting celebs, marmalade and a motorbike?
Aunt Lucy’s Marvellous Marmalade Express is causing quite the stir on Twitter. With celebrity backers Stephen Fry, Matt Lucas and Richard Madeley already throwing their might behind the cause there’s no telling who might be next.
So what’s all the fuss about?
Imagine a motorbike. Then imagine a smaller one. Then cut it in half and stick a not terribly comfy sofa on the back. With three wheels, a throbbing heart of 125cc, steering that works faultlessly in straight lines, brakes that slow you in mph and enough room for your mum and her pet donkey.
This is the mighty steed that myself and Jonno Bourne will be using to travel from one end of Peru to the other in January 2012 as part of the Mototaxi Junket – risking life, limb and sanity across mountains, desert, jungle and all manner of mechanical and mental trials and tribulations. The distance is dependant very much on how lost we get but amounts to thousands of kilometres!
The team is named after Paddington Bear’s aunt, Lucy, who we are led to believe still resides somewhere in Peru, dangerously low on marmalade!
However, even more important than our preserve related motivations is the fact that we’re raising money for Practical Action to support all the amazing work they do in South America, as well as Africa and Asia.
For more information and to donate to the cause visit Aunt Lucy’s Hullabaloo through darkest Peru – team website
If you can spare some money for this great cause any amount would be hugely appreciated. If you’d also like to help spread the word by Tweeting about the adventure then please do and add to the over 2.5 million followers reached so far (@OllieLB if you’d like to find us there).
No Comments » | Add your commentBlog Action Day – clean, safe water for all
Whether drinking, cooking, showering, swimming or relaxing by it, I love clean water. It’s something that I have always taken for granted and so I was shocked at what I saw when I went to visit some of Practical Action’s water and sanitation projects:
Deep in the Peruvian Amazon jungle is a community in the middle of nowhere: We had to drive for about 2 hours from the nearest town across rough, muddy, mountainous terrain, take a ferry over a large river and then trek by foot for an hour down a mountain to reach it. The people who live here are literally in the middle of nowhere and they used to rely on nearby, (and by that I mean a good walk away) natural resources for their water needs.
They took me to see where they previously collected their water. It was a small, dank and dark pit with flies buzzing around it and a nasty smell. I couldn’t believe it; these people drank, wash up and bathed in this water. Thankfully our local team in Peru have worked with them to build showers and clean running water in the village using micro hydro. The community told me that they are delighted with the work Practical Action has done and I imagine it will bring huge benefits such as not having to walk so far to collect the water and cut down on water borne diseases. One man even jumped in the shower with all his clothes on and started dancing. That’s how much it means to these people.
Another very remote project I went to see was above La Paz in Bolivia. The community told us that until we helped them to create eco-toilets, via a micro hydro scheme, they had used the local river as a toilet as well as to wash and drink from. One lady said that needing the toilet at night was awful because it was pitch black, freezing cols – the temperature can reduce to below minus 20 degrees – and there are wolves and sometimes men that roam around, so it was dangerous too. A toilet outside their house with running water changed their lives.
Clean, running water is a wonderful thing, but there are millions of people around the world don’t have access to it. Practical Action is doing some fantastic work to help people gain access to water and sanitation. How can you help us do more of this?
No Comments » | Add your commentSimple Technology Changing the World – but is it cool?
Margaret GardnerBourton on Dunsmore, Warwickshire CV23 9, UK, Bourton on Dunsmore
September 17th, 2010
I was at a meeting this week where people talked about smart grids, GMOs and nano technology as ways to help the developing world and cope with our growing world population predicted to be over 9 billion people by 2050.
The purpose of the meeting was to share ideas and stimulate thinking but being pragmatic I just wanted to say we don’t need nano tech or GMOs the technology exists – its simple and sustainable – get on with it!
Flicking through our website – it’s a great source of information even though I say it myself (well done David!) – I came across these diagrams which show very simple technology that’s changing lives in the most remote and inhospitable areas of Peru.
I love people, I love listening to their stories of change and their hopes for the future but I am also a bit of a geek so I loved these diagrams too. Simple technologies really do work.
I wonder if Jeremy Clarkson would put them at the front of his Top Gear Cool Wall I certainly think that they are great! And people living with lots of ice in very cold regions of Latin America think they are great too!
http://www.practicalaction.org/support-us/community_info
Have a good weekend
Margaret
No Comments » | Add your commentThe coldest night…
Unsurprisingly, at this altitude, the climate is very variable, with temperatures reaching up to 17oC in the day and plummeting to -10oC at night.
Sunset over Lake Titicaca
This year, however, over 400 people have died in the Peruvian Andes during ‘El Friaje’ (the cold wave), which saw temperatures plummet to -23oC, far below the normal lowest temperature of -10oC.
The night I spent in this family’s house was the coldest I’ve ever experienced. Whipping out my Tesco’s Emergency Blanket, I drifted off to sleep. This didn’t last long, as I remember waking up to the sound of incessant coughing, it was the worst cough I’ve ever heard, and it was haunting to hear that sound coming from an 8 year old child. I went to the next room to see if my overstocked first aid kit could be of use, and was astonished to find that the mother was trying to sooth Stefania (the 8 year old) by the light of the fire.
Stephania
While this may sound like a normal situation for such an isolated location, and sadly it often is, the reality was that the fire was filling the room with smoke, stinging my eyes on entry, and certainly aggravating the illness and cough. Open fires are often the only means of providing warmth and light, but without proper chimneys to remove the smoke, smoke inhalation causes more deaths a year than Malaria. Access to modern energy would eliminate the need for children, particularly ill children, to be sleeping in smoke-filled rooms. I dread to think how the family coped with the unprecedented temperatures of ‘el friaje’ this year.
Half of the world’s population have no access to modern energy, and predictions show that if we continue with ‘business as usual’, that figure will be exactly the same in 20 years time. This is why Practical Action are launching a campaign called ‘Make the Call: Energy for All’, which asks people to leave a ‘missed call’ for their MP or MEP, telling them the importance of access to modern energy. Energy access impacts on every area of development, modern energy allows maternity wards to have much higher survival rates, it can provide light so that children can study after dark, or warmth to families suffering the most from extreme temperatures.
Modern energy can also provide refrigeration for lifesaving vaccines, access to the internet (which as you probably know if you’re reading this blog, provides access to a wealth of information, especially things like Practical Answers, which are vital for further escaping poverty) or even the ability to start small businesses such as sewing syndicates. Modern energy is the link which allows that much needed escape from poverty, modern energy is the catalyst out of poverty.
No Comments » | Add your commentminus 24 (and counting)
Tonight, as families in the high Andes go to sleep, temperatures will plummet, to as low as -24c.
But they can’t turn up the heating, switch on the electric blanket or boil the kettle for a hot water bottle.
Here, communities live without access to basic services. As the climate in the Andes is changing, families are genuinely having to fight for survival.
This extreme and unprecedented cold has forced the Peruvian government to declare a state of emergency in 16 Peruvian states.
And, as ever, it’s the poorest and most remote communities that are being hit hardest. In the Andes families lives depend on their alpacas, but the deaths of herds will undoubtedly plunge whole communities into a desperate situation.
Practical Action is working with families here to help them adapt: through better access to energy, water and farming techniques.
With support from the European Commission, the Innocent Foundation and other donors we know we are making a difference through simple, small-scale technologies.
But it’s going to require much bigger and bolder commitment, at international level, to help ensure that climate change can be contained and so that the proud mountain people of the high Andes have a future.
Helen Marsh
Campaigner
No Comments » | Add your commentStuart in Moyobamba, San Martin, Peru
On Tuesday 11 May I am travelling to Moyobamba to review potential approaches and methods with the team led by Javier Angulo, on the BLF funded project. They are working to resolve a series of land conflicts between the indigenous Awajun people and incoming settlers.
As well as talking about some key project issues I’ll try to give a flavour of the culture, food, production, sights and way of life in the upper rainforest belt of Peru.
Saludos (Cheers)
Stuart
No Comments » | Add your commentShower power …
When we arrived in Tingabamba in the high Andes, the sun was shining, the sky bright blue. On our journey back, just 5 hours later, the mountainside and dirt track were covered in snow.
The climate is unpredictable here, but, more often than not, it’s cold. Cold and dry in the Winter and Cold and Wet in the Summer.
Temperatures regularly reach between -10c and -20c.
It’s no wonder then, that families here don’t bathe often. In fact, it’s usual only to have 3 showers per year. Sounds shocking but, faced with the ultimate ‘cold shower’ I know I would do the same.
It’s all change now though. Thanks to solar-powered showers introduced in schools by Practical Action, local children are now having hot showers – 3 times per week!
After 2 weeks of travelling, I was almost tempted to join them!
Helen Marsh
No Comments » | Add your commentMotorcycle diaries
Today we followed in the trackmarks of Che Guevara (albeit 60 years later), crossing the High Andes of Peru by motorcycle.
It’s likely that living conditions in this region haven’t changed much since Che saw them, many decades ago.
At 4,800m above sea level, families live in harsh, desolate and unforgiving terrain.
Why? For their Alpacas.
At high altitudes, Alpacas produce more quality wool and live better lives – even if their owners don’t.
We are introducing simple technologies to help meet families’ basic needs:
- ‘Eco-san’ toilets – Locally-made, ‘dry’ latrines are perfect for families like Victoria’s. She can even use their waste as fertiliser to improve her crops.
- Solar power systems – after 50 years of living in the dark, Fransisco now has 2 lights and a radio (and no longer has to pay for, or be harmed by, Kerosene)
- Improved stoves – Benito and Linda’s new stove uses 50% less fuel (Alpaca dung) and their lungs, just like their walls are no longer coated in soot.
Great work!
Helen Marsh
1 Comment » | Add your commentCan't find what you're looking for?
Tell us who you are
Let us know which of the options below best describes you and we'll direct you to the most relevant content.
What we do
Practical Action uses technology to challenge poverty, working with poor women and men around the world.
Explore our work by Country
Explore our work by Technology
Practical Action,The Schumacher Centre,
Bourton on Dunsmore,
Rugby, CV23 9QZ, UK
Reg Charity No 247257
+44 (0)1926 634400 practicalaction@practicalaction.org.uk
© Practical Action