Eco-social resilience, by design

Because food security and environmental health go hand in hand, our goal is to build expertise in farming communities around the world about practical options for improving yields and livelihoods using ecologically regenerative approaches. permEzone is a non-profit program training and supporting family farmers in the design of sustainable food systems, and the use of mobile phone technology to share knowledge and experience.

The Pilot

The permEzone program is now underway, training and supporting farmers in Migori & Homabay counties in Kenya. This initial phase of the pilot is being delivered in collaboration with the Permaculture Research Institute, Kenya and their long-term partners Sustainable Village Resources.
Please consider becoming a regular monthly donor to help fund this pilot program.

The pilot is a multi-year, independently monitored experiment to test and document the permEzone program, in particular:
  • Working with the existing network of regional Permaculture training centers to help rural communities build their own efficient sustainable food systems.
  • Using cellphones to share knowledge and information in isolated and resource-poor communities.
In the longer term, building on the experience of running the pilot, we look forward to expanding the program and building our capacity to facilitate the much-needed transition to more sustainable farming communities and resilient local economies.
Volunteers needed, just a few minutes each week, to help test the new mobile phone platform.

The Vision

Permaculture projects around the world have shown that the negative impacts of modern agriculture on the environment can be reversed, and that degraded land can be turned into productive farms. permEzone is a new program working with existing centers in less-developed countries to equip local farmers with practical skills, and then support them in designing model farms. A mobile phone platform, using technology that can benefit the most remote and resource-poor communities, will support the farmers in accessing and sharing information.

The world’s 500 million family farmers could be a powerful force for environmental regeneration. Instead of encouraging farming methods that harm the environment and bring mostly short-term benefits, we can help bring sustainable improvements in yields and livelihoods by demonstrating that improved food security and a healthy environment go hand-in-hand.

Our program will work with permaculture centers and sponsor smallholders/family farmers to learn about permaculture design. They will then be supported in sharing sustainable farming practices within their community. We take inspiration from the success of permaculture centers like CELUCT in the Chimanimani district of Zimbabwe.

When the United Nations designated 2014 as the year of family farming, they underscored the importance of initiatives like this, aiming to empower communities of small family farmers in developing regions of the world.

Latest Update

February 12, 2018: Our Annual Report for 2017 is now available to read here.
January 22, 2018: Our January Newsletter looks back at a year of achievement in 2017, with gratitude to the many people who made this possible, and ponders the challenges that lie ahead as we start to implement the next phases of the pilot program.
December 17, 2017: Our December Newsletter is out today. We send our best wishes for the Holidays, and share the latest news from the training program in Kenya, thanks to our colleagues at Sustainable Village Resources and PRI-Kenya.
November 15, 2017: Our November Newsletter is out now, with a report from the Symposium on Climate Change and Droughts in Nairobi, and the latest update from the training program in Rongo and Asumbi.
October 16, 2017: Our October Newsletter was published today to coincide with World Food Day. We shared the wonderful news that our training program for the farmers in Rongo and Asumbi is now underway, and that we have a new co-funder for Phase 1 of our pilot program: Greg Zahn!
October 13, 2017: Today, our colleagues at Sustainable Village Resources start their training program with the farmers group in Rongo, continuing the next day with the group in Asumbi. We wish them the greatest good fortune as they embark on this voyage of discovery together!!
October 3, 2017: We are delighted to welcome Elin Lindhagen Duby to the Project Board, where she will bring her experience as a development consultant and former Director of PRI-Kenya to her new role leading the MEL Team.
September 18, 2017: Our September Newsletter is published today, with news from the team in Rongo about further progress in recruiting new farmers, and on the development of the training curriculum, and a special request to our supporters to consider becoming sustainable donors.
August 19, 2017: We are delighted to welcome Joel Simpson to the Project Board, where he will help develop the mobile phone platform to support operations, knowledge sharing and community building among farmers.
August 17, 2017: Our August Newsletter is out, with a full report from the team at Sustainable Village Resources in Rongo on their progress in recruiting farmers to join the program.
August 1, 2017: Thanks to the generous support of 23 donors, we have raised sufficient funds to meet our budget for the first two years of operating the mobile phone information platform. Thank You!!
July 17, 2017: We need your help to test out the mobile phone platform! Our latest Newsletter has more about this, along with the latest news from the team at Sustainable Village Resources as they work on their plans for the training to start in September.
June 3, 2017: Fundraising for our Mobile Phone platform starts today... we need to raise $6,000 to test and operate the platform over the three years of the pilot program. Support the campaign HERE.
June 1, 2017: A big day in the life of permEzone - today marks the start of the Pilot Program with Sustainable Village Resources (SVR) in Migori County, Kenya. Paul Omolo is PRI-Kenya's Project Manager for their Rongo Organic Coffee project with SVR, and has agreed to join the MEL Team.
May 27, 2017: We're delighted to welcome Elin L. Duby to our MEL team,
May 1, 2017: We were regretfully informed by Garden Africa that, following a complete re-think of its role as an organization, they have had to reallocate the funds that were previously offered in support of  the permEzone pilot. They will continue to offer their assistance in raising new funds, but this does leave us with a new fundraising challenge to cover the costs of our Phase 1 pilot.
February 20, 2017: Our Annual Report for 2016 is now available to read here.
January 26, 2017: An article about permEzone is published online by Permaculture Magazine North America. Read all about it in our January newsletter.
September 20, 2016: we are delighted to announce that Elin Lindhagen Duby, former Director of PRI-Kenya, has joined the permEzone Advisory Council.
August 19, 2016: permEzone is featured in the current edition of the new Permaculture Magazine North America. Check out the news section on p. 23.
August 5, 2016: The new MEL Team (Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning) is now ready to start work defining the framework that we will use to measure the impact of the pilot. The MEL Team will play a key role in gathering evidence to demonstrate the potential of the permEzone program. We're extremely fortunate to have such a strong team to carry out this crucial work.
July 9, 2016: We are delighted to announce that we now have the funds we need to launch the pilot program! UK-based non-profit Garden Africa has generously contributed matching funds of £10,000 to the Permaculture Research Institute, Kenya for the permeZone project. We’ve now raised enough between us to cover PRI-K’s entire budget for the two-year pilot with the Drylands Natural Resources Center.  We’re now actively planning for the pilot to get started!
May 25, 2016: A Call to Farms... If you've been wondering how farmers might benefit from the permEzone mobile phone platform, our latest Info-graphic illustrates the potential.
April 22, 2016: Happy Earth Day from permEzone! We're delighted to announce two new members of the Project Board: Sabre Mrkva  is working on supporter communications, and Vicki Halpern will be coordinating the team doing monitoring and evaluation for the pilot. Check out Sabre's new Info-graphic, illustrating the potential impact of the Pilot Phase 1.
March 1, 2016: the Permaculture Association (Britain) has adopted permEzone as an approved project. This opens the door for collaboration over the development of new resources for the extension of permaculture around the world, and also means that UK donors can make tax-efficient gifts to permEzone as one of the Association's international projects here.
November 5, 2015: we've launched our fundraising campaign for Phase 1 of the permEzone pilot, in collaboration with Permaculture Research Institute, Kenya and the Drylands Natural Resources Center. Click on Contribute to play your part...
September 3, 2015: we have now entered into a formal agreement with PRI-Kenya to run Phase 1 of the permEzone pilot program, with the first training due to start in early 2016 - subject to funding...