permEzone's goal is to promote the development of sustainable food systems by training farmers in permaculture techniques and empowering these farmers to help each other using mobile phone technology.
The permEzone program starts with these basic observations:
The permEzone program starts with these basic observations:
- Farming lies at the heart of many of the world's most pressing social and environmental problems.
- Biodiverse farm systems designed using agro-ecological approaches offer sustainable improvements in yields and resilience.
- Development initiatives bring the most sustainable benefits when they grow out of the local community.
- We can work with the existing network of regional permaculture training centers to help rural communities build their own efficient, sustainable and ecologically regenerative food systems.
- Cellphones are an effective tool to share information in isolated rural areas and can be a great asset in reaching resource-poor communities.
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WHY HELP?
This 3-year pilot is our chance to turn theory into practice. Selected training centers in East Africa, already working with local farming communities, will contribute their experience of training and support that is adapted to the needs of local conditions and cultures.
An independent team of academics and development professionals will monitor, evaluate and report on the program's impact. Feedback from the trainers, the farmers and their support workers will inform the continuous development of the program, and the creation of a knowledge-base and support-base for a subsequent roll-out of the service world-wide.
We hope to run the pilot in four separate phases, with each one hosted at a different training center. The first phase has a potential impact that more than justifies its cost:
José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, described family farmers as the guardians of the world’s agro-biodiversity and of a large part of the natural resources – soils, water, forests, fish stocks – that will be needed by future generations for their survival. In fact, they embody the paradigm of sustainable agricultural development that we need to produce food and preserve the environment.
Learn more about the Pilot Program HERE.
An independent team of academics and development professionals will monitor, evaluate and report on the program's impact. Feedback from the trainers, the farmers and their support workers will inform the continuous development of the program, and the creation of a knowledge-base and support-base for a subsequent roll-out of the service world-wide.
We hope to run the pilot in four separate phases, with each one hosted at a different training center. The first phase has a potential impact that more than justifies its cost:
- 20 farmers representing 100 farmers initially, will receive a permaculture design training, based on a curriculum that they have helped to create, over a 12-month period. They will be supported in creating 20 model farms, and sharing their knowledge and experience with other farmers in their community.
- 400 farmers will receive training by extension and peer-to peer education over a 2-year period, and will help to trial a mobile phone platform to support extension work.
- 2000 household dependents will benefit from improved food security and cooperative practices that help build more resilient local economies.
José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, described family farmers as the guardians of the world’s agro-biodiversity and of a large part of the natural resources – soils, water, forests, fish stocks – that will be needed by future generations for their survival. In fact, they embody the paradigm of sustainable agricultural development that we need to produce food and preserve the environment.
Learn more about the Pilot Program HERE.
PRI-Kenya
The Permaculture Research Institute, Kenya is the regional coordinator for the pilot program in East Africa. They will manage each phase of the pilot, liaising with the training centers, and creating a learning environment that is adapted to local conditions and cultures.
Their approach of spreading the training program out over a full year, so that a seasonally-appropriate curriculum can be interspersed with practical experimentation, fits perfectly with the permEzone approach of creating long-term support systems to maintain the momentum of change after the training is over.
Learn more about PRI-Kenya HERE.
Their approach of spreading the training program out over a full year, so that a seasonally-appropriate curriculum can be interspersed with practical experimentation, fits perfectly with the permEzone approach of creating long-term support systems to maintain the momentum of change after the training is over.
Learn more about PRI-Kenya HERE.
