An Overview Of Our Solution
Our context has limited availability of crops, due to the conditions of the terrain (thin soils, low organic matter and rugged topography) and effect of climate change on seasonal crops. These characteristics impact on quality of diet´s residents of Tocoy, an indigenous community of Mexico.
To solve these problems, we have implemented community interventions for 5 main topics (water, health, diet, education and agrodiversity). We developed homegardens based on diagnosis of agrodiversity and diet. Attaining systems of preservation for agrodiversity, nutritional education related and water harvesting in homes. Currently, we are implementing actions on a larger scale by improving the production of homegardens, conserving biodiversity and using local inputs in order to have overproduction that allows to obtain economic gains or exchange with other families.
Who is this solution impacting?
Community Type
Rural
Additional Information
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: North America
General Information
Organization type
Sem fins lucrativos
Ecosystem (select all that apply)
Forests
Population impacted
400
Challenge
Size of agricultural area
ex. 1.2 ha divided into backyards of 800 m2
Production quantity
Increased the production of vegetables to 2.5 kg / m2, which means a saving in the purchase of vegetables by families
People employed
12
Solution
Describe your solution
The solution includes three stages. First stage was carried out a participatory diagnosis of household conditions, including: dietary patterns of family, an inventory of edible plants and their characterization and perception of main problems to achieve a good production of food. At the same time was performed a diagnosis of nutritional status of children and their main nutritional deficiencies. Second stage aims at the design and implementation of evidence-based intervention programs focused on food production inside homegarden. This methodology uses a smart system called “UPA”(food producing unit) that requires a small area adapted to conditions of terrain on each house and made with local materials like bamboo or “Otate” and increasing the yield using local species, organic inputs, efficient use of water and agroecological management. All this in combination with a nutritional education program that enhance the use of homegarden products to improve micronutrients intake through teaching and showing strategies to get better use of local species and how to combine them to improve the biodisponibility of nutrients. Third stage, is the establishment of “UPA´s in demonstrative spaces strategically sited where other members of the community learn and share their experiences. The purpose of stages 2 and 3 is that in addition with the experience acquired, families may obtain economic income from the sale of overproduction or exchange them for some other products of their choice.
Implementation
Describe your implementation
Was designed and implemented a set of workshops for the production of vegetables and other edible species in homegardens of 15 families, adapted to traditional diet, promoting the use of plants that are regularly adapted to the region. Topics reviewed were about selection and preparation of land, production of their own inputs like fertilizers, biopesticides and seeds, the management of water resource, harvest and storage of products and seeds throughout time.
Working from an adaptation of the methodology of field schools where teaching classrooms are the same as family backyards.
This methodology facilitates the follow-up of the activities when conducting workshops in the 15 participating sites, where they discuss successes and proposals for improvement of the site in question, due to this there is a constant participatory evaluation of the appropriation of knowledge.
Results in the community strengthen the acceptance of work and interest in acquiring the knowledge and benefits of the implemented programs. In this sense, working in a community where other 12 neighboring communities converge, it favors the expansion of the benefits towards these communities.
The integration of different profiles and disciplines in problem solving improves their understanding. The team has a nutritionist, psychologist, agroecologist who from their area diagnose the conditions of agrodiversity, nutrition and propose the best way to transmit the solutions to the community.
It was identified few interest in the preservation of knowledge of plants of traditional use in the community, mainly by young people, so that in the workshops, information was shared on the potential uses of native species and their propagation to maintain the agrodiversity of the sites.
External connections
We have the support of the Center for Applied Research in Environment and also thanks to the interaction that has been maintained with researchers from other University Units, and has collaborated with the Faculties of Medicine, Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Engineering, Stomatology, Nursing and Psychology , In addition also has worked with the Institutes of Investigation in Desert Zones and with the Coordination of Social Sciences and Humanities.
On economic support we have resources for the implementation of the first phase thanks to funds from CONACYT
Results
What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?
It is a region of temporary and of subsistence agriculture in which, each year are dismantled forest areas to establish crops that could provide food to the family, nevertheless the yields (efficiency) in these regions are reported like the lowest of Mexico, not reaching the objective of having food the entire year. These actions increase continuously the pressure on natural resources such as soil degradation, loss of biodiversity, fragmentation of the territory and contamination by agrochemicals.To face it, we have established a work model to promote food production in the backyards, considering small spaces, reducing with it external inputs, through a combination of traditional knowledge and agroecological management of the farm.Was identified the edible plants established inside backyards (83 species), many of them native or adapted to local conditions. This aims to recognize the biodiversity of the community to promote its conservation and reduce the pressure on natural resources
Describe the context in which you are operating
Locality of Tocoy is in the municipality of San Antonio, in the state of San Luis Potosí. Is established to 240 amsl, in coordinates: Longitude (dec): -98.871111 Latitude (dec): 21.637500.
About geographic characteristics, the soil is thin with little organic matter and rugged topography. The area is used mainly for temporary agriculture of maize, sugarcane and in a lesser extent for livestock and forest resources. The population is 1061, of whom 99.7% are native speakers of Tének language. The marginalization is high and less than 25% of the adult population have a permanent job. This influences that general population has food insecurity caused by low availability of products, adverse climatic phenomena, low availability of suitable land for planting, poor crop yields, poor availability of clean water and lack of enough income to buy food. These factors impact on nutrition of population since dietary patterns show low intake of fruits, vegetables, high-value protein and micronutrient, deficiencies which impacts especially in early life stages promoting high rates of chronic undernutrition, anaemia and chronic diseases on adult life.
As an Advantage Tocoy is surrounded by 12 localities, this set of localities can be increasingly benefited by the development of this. The promotion of productive projects or the reactivation of their economic activities can be an element of attraction of the population of surrounding areas.
How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?
From the inventory of plant species in the backyard, 83 species of plants were identified, of which their ethnobotanical use was mentioned, being found that 72% of these are food. Hence the importance of lots for the production of food for self-consumption. According to the diagnosis in 44% of the backyard some agrochemical was used for pest control, however at the end of the workshops these were replaced by biopreparates made with local inputs, thus eliminating a source of contamination
Language(s)
Spanish and Tenek
Water
Almost all households in the community already have rainwater harvesting systems which allow them to have a source of clean water to water their plants even in the dry season
Food Security/Nutrition
The diversity of edible plants obtained directly from the transports has increased, and has been maintained throughout the different times of the year.
Economic/Sustainable Development
The program has already generated the first sale of surpluses by families, however the proposal seeks to generate sufficient production for self-consumption and sale, by reducing production costs by using local inputs, so prices can be maintained Competitive all year round. Working with the philosophy of agroecological management, organic participatory certification will be sought, as added value to the products and thus generate better income.
Climate
The program seeks to reduce the pressure on natural resources by taking advantage of and maximizing the availability of food in small spaces, thus reducing the clearing of areas for agriculture. In this way the natural vegetation of the region is maintained, maintaining the ecological balance and reducing the degradation of the natural resources.
Sustainability
Currently we are working on this project, we have the initial support from the academic funds by CONACYT for the development of the current diagnosis. Actually is finished the first phase of intervention and we have the implementation of 15 family gardens.
Thinking of solutions that strengthen the community capacities helps us to have a better long-term forecast, since the dependence is not reflected in the technical knowledge, which does not allow us to mobilize knowledge of the transfers to crops on a larger scale with a Multifamily mode
With examples of good practices we can think of organic certifications that allow us to add value to the surplus that can be put on sale as a product with good quality.
Return on investment
The Field Schools methodology allowed us to have a Team with experts in each area and to reduce the costs of implementing the project, which amounted to $ 60,000 mxn, which first two phases were attended in approximately one year. During this period, the community was supported in nutrition, education and food production. Families increased access to food, earned income, and improved family nutrition; In addition to being able to share the knowledge acquired with other members of the community. Therefore, it is planned the expansion in the surrounded communities using like reference the UPA´s of homegardens as a good practices.
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Replication and Scale
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
The project was implemented in this community with 15 families, with only a team of specialists (nutritionist, psychologist, agroecologist). We have obtained financial resources from … and with it we worked in homegardens of families producing fertilizers and seeds and using biopesticides in the management of their crops and teaching about the benefits to improve the biodisponibility of nutrients. The key partners to begin the work in the community was the local authorities that provided the acceptance for work nevertheless the current interest of population is the principal strength of project. Currently the main need to expand the actions is the training of more professionals about the work with this methodology, to create more teams and furnish it with the necessary materials to replicate information and that could work in other communities like this.