Asociación Campesina del Valledel río Cimitarra Red Agroecológica Nacional (ACVC-RAN)

Barrancabermeja, Colombia

An Overview Of Our Solution

The Project “implementation of technological packages for the sustainable and environmental development of the Peasant Reserve Zone of Cimitarra’s river Valley (ZRC-VRC for the initials in Spanish)” is oriented to minimize the environmental impact through the application of proper technologies with the environment, encompassing the construction of one biodigestor that generates the combustion of methanic gas through pig’s manure; a biofactory that makes possible to do biofertilizer and organic compost; and a biofilter that treats and allows to recycle the grey waters of the communitarian farms, all of it with the transversal axis of capacitation that search for the strengthening of the environmental consciousness of the peasants of the productive committees near to the communitarian farms (Puerto Matilde, La Cristalina y Alto San Juan).

Who is this solution impacting?

Community Type

Rural

Organization type

Sin fines de lucro/No Gubernamental

Ecosystem (select all that apply)

Forests

Population impacted

90 directly, 29000 indirectly

Size of agricultural area

The total of hectares is 300 divided in 140ha in Puerto Matilde; 1000ha in La Cristalina y 60 ha in Alto San Juan.

Production quantity

5.000 kg of organic compost monthly and 2.000 lt of prepares in biofertilizer quarterly basis.

People employed

In total, there are 24 employed people, they are divides in one coordinator, three capacitators and twenty people for the construction.

Describe your solution

The implementation of the biofilter, biofactory and biodigestor structures as a technological package in the three communitarian farms of the Peasant Reserve Zone and the training on the thematic aspects of operation and implementation of the technological package in environmental and agroecological approach of the surrounding communities have promoted the Following impacts: - In reference to the implementation of the technological package, the use of agrochemicals has been reduced due to the installation of the biofactory and to the treatment of farm inputs such as manure, among other elements, closing agroecological production cycles and ensuring Sustainable harvests; The consumption of gas pipettes has been reduced, obtaining a positive impact on the environment since there is a reduction of gas emissions to the atmosphere through the biodigester; And gray water has been treated for reuse in irrigation of crops, consolidating the management of farms, respecting the agricultural frontier and promoting the conservation of biodiversity. - From the training and workshops, the management of appropriate technologies by the community and the knowledge has been consolidated through sustainable and replicable structures on the farms of the communitarian surrounding the communal farms. At the same time, the community organization has been strengthened since the training delegates are part of the Environmental Committees of the neighboring Community Action Boards

Describe your implementation

The activities were as follows: - Formulation of the needs of the farms being in La Cristalina (Remedios, Antioquia) the biofilter, the biodigestor and the biofactory; In Puerto Matilde (Cantagallo, Bolívar) the biofilter; And in Alto San Juan (San Pablo, Bolívar) the biofilter, the biodigester and the biofactor. - Study of the location of each of the solutions on the community farms of the ZRC-VRC. - 2 trainings with the delegates of the Environmental Committees of the surrounding communities on environmental themes and appropriate technologies. - Implementation of the biofilter, biodigestor and biofactory in the farms with delegates of the communities through workers of the own communities. - 3 workshops for the use of the technological package with the delegates of the Environmental Committees of the communities surrounding the community farms on the operation and products of the solutions applied. - Accompaniment to the delegates of the training for the implementation of the technological package in the farms of their communities. The monitoring of the solution and the monitoring mechanism has been ensured by: the strong social tissue in the farms of the surrounding communities; The accompaniment to the delegates of the workshops as monitoring and the materials of easy acquisition and manipulation. Favorable conditions have been diagnosed through the provision of community farms, environmental awareness of communities, easy access to materials for implementation, consolidated social fabric through community organizations and favorable weather conditions. The key factors coincide with the positive impacts. The diagnosed obstacles have been identified in the possibility of errors in water mixing with animal biomass that would cause non-combustion in the biodigester, non-application a good maintenance to the technological package or foresight failures in the raw materials and inputs that have been overcome through a good management and maintenance plan

External connections

The members of the committees of each of the communitarian farms of the ZRC-VRC in La Cristalina, Puerto Matilde and Alto San Juan and the delegates of the environmental committees of the surrounding villages are the main actors involved in the solution of the technological package, since they have been the beneficiaries and protagonists of the replicas of the solution on their farms. In this way, the key players in the solution are the beneficiaries of the solution, who have received the training and have replicated the technological package. At the same time, communitarian farms have alliances and partners that facilitate agroecological practices and encourage the commitment of conservation of biodiversity acquired by communities. The “Fundación Obra Social La Caixa” is the main funder of the Ecobúfalo Campesino project, which is carried out in the community farm of Puerto Matilde and has as main objective the breeding and rearing of buffalo cattle through silvopastoral systems and from an agroecological and integral approach of the farm and the commercialization of meat and dairy products with added value for the strengthening of the peasant economy.

What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?

One of the biggest problematics in the ZRC-VRC is the lack of acces to public services and basic sanity infraestructure that allows the sustainable development of the community’s productive projects. In the present, the 93% of the habitants don’t have sewerage; the 98% don’t have access to gas; and 80% uses agrochemicals in their farms, those problematics generate a negative impact over the environment, this is why, with the application of a technological package in the three communitarian farms, and using the apropiate technologies this problematic is being reduced: The biodigestor generates the combustion of methanic gas through pig’s manure; the biofactory makes possible to do biofertilizer and organic compost; and the biofilter treats and allows to recycle the grey waters of the communitarian farms, and through capacitation the project has been strengthen environmental consciousness, this last axis of work has been aprincipal success factor for the maintenance & replicability

Describe the context in which you are operating

The context where the project takes place is in the frame of precarious social conditions of the region, due the abandon in which the rural zones are immersed in Colombia. The analizis of the Socioeconomical, Enviromental and participative surveys (ESAP for the initials in spanish), aplied in the context of the diagnosis for the actualization of the present susteinable development plan of the Peasant Reserve Zone, showed that the principal ocupations for the sustain of the families in the ZRC are the agriculture (23,32%), the wood explotation (6,44%), and the mining (3,86%). Similarly, the existence of public services in the ZRC is quite low, this leads to the 40% of the population have any kind of access to water, but the lack of sewerage reaches almost 93% so the conditions are, for themselves, an environmental problem that generates a detriment in the quality of peasants’s lifes. In the educational part, 68.92% of the population does not have any level of schooling, and only 8,55% gets to end highschool

How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?

Through the implementation of the technological package from appropriate technologies has been impacted positively in the local environment due to the reduction of water use by treating the gray water with the biofilter consisting of a grease trap and decontamination through the use of marshy plants that has allowed the reutilization for the irrigation of the crops of the farms. At the same time, the use of agrochemicals and pesticides for crops has been eliminated thanks to the biofactory, which generates a positive impact since contaminating practices are no longer present. Finally, the use of a biodigestor, which runs on animal biomass, allows to discontinued the use of fossil fuels and reduces the emission of methane into the atmosphere.

Language(s)

Spanish

Water

Through the implementation of the biofilter, the treatment of gray water is a reallity, allowing its reuse, which reduces the consumption of the water resource and encourages the agroecological approach when the treated water is used for the irrigation of the crops of the same farms.

Food Security/Nutrition

With the implementation of the biofactory and the biodigestor the alimentary security and sovereignty of the communities has been increased by increasing the quality of the crops of the farms through the use of biofertilizers and the need to raise pigs to obtain the biomass required for the biodigester, so that an input is generated in the farms that has guaranteed alimentary security.

Economic/Sustainable Development

Through the construction of the technological package, the sustainable and economic development of the communities has been guaranteed, as it promotes the use of resources in a committed way and consolidates the agricultural and livestock economic activities of the farms. There’s value added for being organic crops and help in the consolidation of a good management in agroecological practices.

Climate

The implementation of the solution has not had negative impacts on the climate and the environment since it promotes the non-use of agrochemicals, stops the use of fossil fuel for the work in the farm and reduces the emission of methane in the atmosphere. It also promotes a better management of hidric resource

Sustainability

The implementation of technological structures on communitarian farms has depended on subsidies in a context in which environmental concern is a priority issue both in the public agenda and in the ZRC-VRC Sustainable Development Plan which has been a guarantee for the implementation of the solution. However, the investment has been amortized quickly, and therefore sustainable, due to the lack of need for maintenance that implies economic resources and the exit of products as an economic activity based on the biofertilizers and organic fertilizers that result from the implementation of the biofactory In this way, once the technological package has been implemented, no more economic resources have been required for its sustainability,

Return on investment

The cost of implementing the technological package in the three communitarian farms was $ 15,000, counting the component of construction of structures and training. The initiative has had a positive impact on peasant communities surrounding communitarian farms, promoting an agroecological approach, reusing resources, closing production cycles on farms, training to guarantee the autonomy of peasant communities by learning to mitigate negative impacts in the environment and consolidating the conservation of biodiversity in the region. In this way, the results and impacts of the initiative are indicators of the rapid amortization of the resources invested, since the methodology of replication based on the accompaniment of trained people,

How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?

The replication methodology has consisted of the: Use of easily accessible materials. Training and formative process, which has promoted replicability in the communities surrounding the communitarian farms. Accompaniment to the delegates of the Environmental Committees by the trainers and the coordinator of the project has ensured a good socialization to the communities of the topics treated and the implementation of the technological package in the farms of the interested ones in the different locations. Products and positive impacts on the social, environmental and economic level due to the sale of the products of the biofactory, while promoting the safety and alimentary sovereignty of the communities and the region. Formative materials used in the workshops and the training have been a guarantee of replication together with the accompaniment to the graduates. In this way, the solution has proven to be easily replicable on the farms of the trained people and communities.

Overview