Zion by The Abay

1.0 Introduction
1.1 Introduction to SFEL. Course outline, references, materials and housekeeping issues.
1.2 Why learn the Permaculture concept?
1.3 Historical background to Permaculture, worldwide, relationship with African indigenous agriculture and indigenous knowledge systems (IKS)
1.4 Characteristics, ethics and principles of Permaculture.

2.0 Ecosystems Blocks
2.1 Permaculture base is ecology.
2.2 Water cycle, mineral cycle, energy flow, cycle of matter, succession and limiting factors to energy flow.

3.0 Resource Assessment
3.1 Why resource assessment
3.2 Water management and harvesting techniques, A-Frame construction and practicals.

4.0 Principles of Design
4.1 Procedures skills and techniques.
4.2 Observations, sectors, zones, deductions, maps, etc.
4.3 Taking advantage of different macro-climates in design.
4.4 Reduction of risks, energy use and selection of appropriate plant and other elements to implement on the design.
4.5 Observing different microclimates and creating various microclimates.

5.0 Soils
5.1 Traditional soil classification.
5.2 Observation of various soils and relates plant and animal life.
5.3 Types of soil erosion damage and types of soil repair.
5.4 Water in relationship to soil and soil rehabilitation.

6.0 Plants Uses in Permaculture
6.1 Nurseries propagation methods theory and practice.
6.2 Plants multiple functions in Permaculture design.
6.3 Forests and guilds as air-conditioners, food, diggers, mulches, windbreaks, etc.
6.4 Designing food forests by mimicking natural forest.

7.0 Nature Patterns
7.1 Creating highly productive designs/landscapes by integrating nature patterns e.g. spirals, linear circles, etc.

8.0 Productive Landscapes/ Designs
8.1 World climatic zones, appropriate and situational approach for the designer.
8.2 IKS of soils, water use and nutrients have always been sustainable.
8.3 Homebuilding and sitting with productive landscape, comfort, health, energy consumption in mind.
8.4 Food gardens for the city and countryside.
8.5 Keeping water and soil in productive state and developing self-sufficiency.
8.6 Orchards as chemically food forests. Protective fertilizers, firewood species in the food forests. Use of small animals in food forests; chickens, ducks, turkeys, bees, guinea fowls, guinea pigs, and pigs.
8.7 Alley cropping and integrating large animals like cattle and game.
8.8 Dry land farming techniques- principles of erosion control – strategies, bunds, minimum till, port-holing, tied ridges, tied furrows, mulch farming, mixed and intercropping, etc.
8.8 Natural forests creation for provision of firewood, oils, dyes, bark, incomes, etc
8.9 Conserving remnant forests to build up corridors and various ways of promoting their growth.

9.0 Productivity and Sustainability
9.1 Weed management to acceptable levels.
9.2 Integrated Pest Management (IPM) – insect classification, structure and life cycle. Role of predators.
9.3 Vegetable and herb gardens – mandala garden design and construction, keyhole beds, organic materials and mulches.
9.4 Aquaculture production systems- fish, plants water plants, tortoise, etc.
9.5 Designing for natural disasters – drought, fire, war, storms, floods, etc so that the landscape recovers speedily.
9.6 Waste disposal-effluent systems animal waste, manure. Recycling pruning timber and composting.
9.7 Biotechnology and its effects today including GMO information.

10.0 Self-sufficiency
10.1 Building self-sufficient communities:-country skills e.g. weaving, crafts, small scale excess food packaging and processing
10.2 Ethical investments
10.3 Access to production base, the Land for the disadvantaged members of the community and legal protection for land ownership.
10.4 Preparing management and development action plans including monitoring and evaluation for the Permaculture design.

BACKGROUND TO THE PROJECT

KONSO: LOCATION AND ADMINISTRATION

The Southern Region (SNNPRS) of Ethiopia is by far the most ethnically and culturally diverse of Ethiopia’s nine administrative regions, being home to over 56 distinct ethnic/cultural groups. The region is divided into 13 zones, which are assigned to major ethnicities and another eight “special waredas” assigned to smaller minorities and are administered directly from the capital, Awassa.

Konso Special Wareda is one of the 8 special waredas in the SNNPRS. It is situated at 5'15' N and a longitude of 37'30' E and covers an area of approximately 500 square kilometres, ranging in altitude from 500 to 2500m, with its main agricultural zone ranging from 1400 to 2000m above sea level (Engels and Goettsch 1999). The Konso highland is a basalt massive, which runs east to west across the bowl of the Great Rift Valley. Konso’s capital, Karat-Konso, is situated at 1600m altitude, located 85km south of Arba Minch, and around 590km south of Addis Ababa.

KONSO’S CULTURE

The Konso people have a unique culture, based on sedentary mixed agriculture, which distinguishes them from their neighbours in the lowlands to the east and west who are pastoralists (Engels and Goettsch 1999). The pastoralists have in the past been (and in some cases still are) prone to raid both one-another and neighbouring farming peoples (including the Konso) for cattle, which has greatly affected the Konso lifestyle. Their society is centred on walled hilltop villages, which are constructed for defence.

The people display a strong moral code and work ethic, which immediately distinguished them from much of the rest of Ethiopia. They speak an eastern Cushitic language, suggesting a link to other Cushitic speakers in Ethiopia, such as Oromo, Somali and Afar. However, their appearance is more typically African, somewhat resembling the Bantu peoples to the south of Ethiopia. Their exact origins are obscure, and their own folk-law only indicates that they came from some where to the east between 500-1000 years ago.

The Konso village is remarkable for the beauty and simplicity of its workmanship, constructed entirely of natural materials, cultivated or gathered from the surroundings. The entire village is ringed by dry-stone walls, at least a meter thick and two meters high. Stone-lined gangways run between the housing compounds and the stones have usually become polished to a shine by long years of service in the village’s transport system.

The houses are of the archetypal African form, a conical thatched roof, sitting on a circular wall built from wooden poles and wicker, plastered over with mud-hay dawb. The apex of the roof topped by a broken clay pot to keep rain from running down the central column that supports the apex.

Within the village, Houses are arranged into family compounds, each with three to five houses and grain store, which is raised off the ground on wooden poles. Animals including goats, cattle and the distinctive Konso fat-tailed sheep, are tethered under the grain-store or elsewhere in the compound and fed on hand-cut food, especially sorghum straw.

The family compounds are further organised into sub-communities, which form sections of the village. Each of which has its own “mora” or community house. The community house is a two-storey building comprising a sitting area under a large roof, with a wooden ceiling underneath. The “ground floor” of the community house is where the men gather to govern the villiage life. It is also a place for recreation and the Young females and boys may gather here to play, chat and relax during the day when they are not working. The attic of the mora serves another function. It is here where all unmarried men over the age of 12 are obliged to sleep. This traditional mode of organisation meant that the men were grouped and ready to defend the viliage in the case of attack, but although there are no longer such threats to the villiage the tradition is maintained today.

FEATURES OF KONSO’S AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM

Konso’s most distinguishing feature, however, is its mode of agriculture. The area is classified as a semi-arid ecology (“kola”), the soil is poor in quality and the terrain rugged while there is low, erratic rainfall, all of which provides a tough environment from which to yield a living. Rainfall averages 570mm (UNDP 1999) and does not exceed 800mm annually (Engels and Goettsch 1999). Most of that rain comes in the form of torrential storms which usually occur during two periods, annually; the big rains which fall between March and May (which includes over half the annual rainfall) and the small rains which usually fall between September and November. Such eratic rainfall can cause rapid erosion and loss of fertility if land is cultivated ineptly or vegetation is removed by burning or over-grazing.

Despite the tough challenge, Konso farmers manage to sustain a population of around 186,000 people within their area (UNDP 1999), which is achieved through a combination of hard work, a careful respect for the land and sophisticated farming techniques, almost completely unique in this part of Africa.

Some areas of Ethiopia were endowed with great natural, which has been almost completely squandered by careless exploitation and lack of respect for the land. Konso, however, makes the best of its humble lot. Its farming system is mixed but primarily plant based, incorporating, annual and perennial crops and trees. The culture has a healthy respect for plant life and sacred forests (which, fascinatingly, are composed mainly of succulent plants, such as cactus and Euphorbia species) are maintained in close proximity to the villages. Other areas, such as Amhara, have seen wide scale deforestation followed by massive over-grazing, so that once-fruitful landscapes are stripped bare of all but an inch-thick patches of grass beneath the hoofs of millions of cattle, and now tend to yield only poverty and famine. In Konso animals are kept penned within the villages. This practise may have begun as a security measure, but it means that grazing is tightly regulated and animals are fed on hand cut fodder, including crop residues.

The most notable feature of Konso’s system is the famous terracing, which has been constructed across large areas by centuries of communal labour upon the slopes of the rugged landscape. The terracing acts to prevent soil erosion to a great extent, and terraced are carefully crafted to balance the competing demands of maximising water infiltration into the ground, with insuring adequate drainage in times of heavy rain so that the terraces do not collapse.

The terraces are planted with sorghum, which is intercropped with a range of other species; including trees, most importantly Moringa oleifera (also called the cabbage tree) Terminalia birowni, and Cordia africana which are grown for timber; perennials, such as coffee and chat (Catha edulis) and annuals including sunflowers, pigeon pea maize, millet, chick peas, various bean species, cotton and cassava. The terraces are fertilised with wastes from the villiages including partially burned plant residues mixed with animal dung, which acts to keep the soil fertile.

Within the villages Moringa (the cabbage tree) is planted all around the family compounds and harvested regularly to form one of the staples of the konso diet. Its leaves, which are reported to be extra-ordinarily nutritious, are cooked and mixed with dumplings made from Sorghum flower to make a dish called korkoffa. The other main food item in Konso is checka which is actually sorghum beer, though it more closely resembles porrage actually. It is drunk as a broth mixed with hot water, in the mornings and at lunch-time when the people are prepring for work. It is extremely rich in carbohydrate and provides plenty of energy for the farmers, but it also insures that people are generally drunk!

FOOD INSECURITY IN KONSO

Despite Konso’s remarkable agriculture, the area is not free from problems. The UNDP’s Rapid Assessment Report: Konso Special Wereda, SNNPR (1999) states that; “since the 1950s, drought induced famines have hit Konso and the immediate area almost once every ten years.” “Konso was devastated by the droughts in 1973/74 and 1983/84”. The report states that: 58% of the total populations (107,722 people) were in need of immediate assistance in August 1999, due to a series of calamities, including 3 consecutive years of failed rains and an infestation of migratory Quelea birds (Quelea quelea) in 1998, which damaged the sorghum crop. At the time of writing, stocks of animal fodder were almost exhausted. The situation was exacerbated in 1998 by an outbreak of army-worm (Spodoptera exempta) in April/May 1999, which damaged ceriels and fodder crops. At the time of writing the article.

Indicators of the severity of the situation included malnutrition among children and severe emaciation of the elderly. Despite this, “there was no relief food stocks available at the wereda warehouses for immediate distribution. Stocks of supplementary foods for children under five, pregnant and lactating mothers were nil.”

The article went on to make several recommendations for alleviating the problem in the mid term, amongst which was to “identify the scope for further projects incorporating Employment Generation and/or Food-for-Work activities to help people find employment and rebuild their asset base.” It is obvious to anyone who observes the economics of the area that the tourism industry is the sector which provides the most scope for employment generation in Konso.

TOURISM IN KONSO

Konso is well positioned to reap economic benefits from the tourism industry, boasting, as it does, a fascinating culture and marvellous scenery. Being positioned at a junction between routes to Arba Minch, The Omo Valley and the road to Moyale (Kenya) via Yabello, it already has a large flow of tourists passing it by. Konso’s villiages have a unique style and atmosphere which makes for an amazing experience just to walk through them. Attractions in the area include the increadible highlands around Fasha village, which itself has an interesting market. Nearby to that is the bizare landscape nick named “New York”, since it resembles a city of sky-scrapers. There is also an anthropological museum in Karate and an ancient archeological site close to the town.

THE EFFECTS OF TOURISM

Tourism has a great potential to infuse wealth into the locality and generate employment in the area, drawing as it does on economic reserves, which come from abroad and are far less limited than those available locally. It is therefore apt that Konso was named as one of the six first recipient destinations for projects “aimed specifically at helping to reduce poverty, to be supported by the ST-EP Foundation. ST-EP, "Sustainable Tourism - Eliminating Poverty", an initiative of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) launched in 2002 at the Johannesburg Summit.”

However, the key issue in utilising tourism to tackle poverty and promote community development is to insure the flow of funds into the appropriate hands. The major problem with tourism industry in Konso today, as well as elsewhere in the south of Ethiopia is that the communities which display the fascinating and diverse cultures, which are the primary attractions for tourists, are not the ones which receive most of the benefit of the industry. As Phillip Briggs points out in the 2005 edition of the Bradt Guide to Ethiopia; “…the normal procedure is to pre-book a vehicle with a recognised tour operator in Addis Ababa. This will normally work out at $150-200 per day…”. During such pre-booked tours the tourists are shepherded about from tribe to tribe, as if they were bird-spotting, and are asked to pay 1Bir ($0.11) per photo to the some of the tribes they photograph.

Worse still, the local Tourism Bureau in Konso, which itself was established under the ST-EP foundation initiative, has caught operators violating the law, and taking their customers to the villages without paying the 40 Bir ($4.40) visiting permit fee (a fee which the operator should pay). This can only be attributed to the fact that they would like to take home a larger profit, when they return to Addis, or that they want more money to spend on drinking, chewing ‘chat (Catha edulis) and dancing with the ladies in the town hotels, all of which anathema to Konso’s conservative culture.

It is thus not surprising that the local people in some areas (including Konso) have developed some resentment towards the Addis based tour-operators, indeed to northerners in general, who sell their (completely distinct) culture to foreigners, as if it belonged to them, without sharing anything of the benefits. As well as this, the villagers can hardly be blamed for resenting the foreigners who wonder about their villages poking their noses into people’s lives, without giving them any form of benefit in return, but flashing about lots of high-tech equipment, which they themselves can never dream of owning. Worse still, is the propensity of certain tourists, out of some form of self-indulgent pity, to wonder around Africa handing out useless gifts like sweets or pennies to children, as if it would somehow help their situation. What it does achieve, however, is that whenever, there-after, white people arrive at a village, they are immediately mobbed with demands for “caramella” or “one Bir” by the children, which does not enhance the experience of meeting another culture.

THE AIMS OF STRAWBERRY FIELDS ECO-LODGE IN KONSO:
RESPONSIBLE TOURISM AND THE PROMOTION OF FOOD SECURITY

RESPONSIBLE TOURISM AND PROVISION OF NEW ACTIVITIES

We define responsible tourism as tourism which is managed to insure the following:

· Provide benefits (especially employment and skills) to the communities which themselves form the tourist attraction in the visited area
· To promote an atmosphere of respect, understanding and appreciation between the visitors and the local people
· To preserve and promote, rather than exploit and corrupt local culture and traditions
· To reduce the impingement of tourist activities (such as photography) onto the lives of the local people to a bare minimum

In order to affect these aims the Strawberry Fields Eco-Lodge intends to:

· Employ local staff and contract jobs to local workers, where-ever possible, and initiate training programs for locals where not.
· To work in close contact with the Local Tourism Bureau in Konso and promote the use of local guides by lodge guests
· By providing itineraries for tours and trekking in the area, which take in community based projects at different locations around the wareda
· To brief all visitors on appropriate behaviours before visiting villages, so that their behaviour will promote good will between tourists and the local community and wont ruin the experience for future visitors.
· To make it clear that there are appropriate channels through which donations can be made if people are keen to help a particular community economically, and that they should not go about showering gifts on children.
· To show multiple aspects of the local culture (food, customs, music etc.) to guests within lodge
· To facilitate constructive activities locally such as volunteering to teach in schools or to undertake anthropological or language learning locally, which will promote the formation of meaningful relationships between visitors and locals

All of the above can be achieved by good management and co-operation with local institutions. We hope thus to increase the range of activities available for tourists in the area, subsequently making Konso a more attractive place for tourists to spend their time. This will cause tourists to spend longer in Konso and increase the revenue contributed to the local economy.

PROMOTION OF FOOD SECURITY

As outlined above Konso has suffered from food insecurity in the past. The Strawberryfields Ecolodge aims to contribute to alleviating this problem in a number of ways:

Employment Creation
Enhancement of the Local Tourism Industry (as specified above)
Introduction of New Agricultural and Resource Management Methodologies
Investment in Education and the Creation of Infrastructure for Public Service Locallay

INTRODUCTION OF NEW AGRICULTURAL METHODOLOGIES TO THE AREA

Strawberry Fields will use a special methodology on-site: Permaculture Design System for sustainable human habitations within productive environments.

Permaculture is a resource management system, which aims to maximise the productive yield of domestic systems, utilising synergy between the elements of the system.

An element is any part of the house-hold or farmstead into which energy and nutrients flow, and from which they exit. (e.g. the kitchen, the toilet, the vegetable garden, the shower, the fish pond etc.)
Each element requires inputs and produces outputs.
Permaculture aims to make the outputs of all elements into inputs for other elements so that:
- Wastage is minimised.
- Reliance on external inputs is minimised.
Accordingly the output of the system will be greater than that of the combined output of its parts in isolation (synergy).

The Eco Lodge will be set within a model permaculture farm, which will demonstrate permaculture techniques to the local community and to guests of the lodge. It is planned to bring permaculturalists from around the world to the site, to work together with local farmers and foreign volunteers in developing an effective permaculture system. This will be done using the local agricultural system as a starting point and introducing new systems which have not been employed in the area till now due to lack of information and capital. It is intended to work with water harvesting and irrigation systems as well as biogas production to reduce energy consumption and ease deforestation.

Once a sufficiently effective permaculture system has been developed, it is intended to establish a Permaculture School and an NGO, both of which will provide public service to local people free of charge.

THE PERMACULTURE SCHOOL

The school will offer courses in Permaculture both to foreigners and locals, offering both theoretical and activity based training to mixed groups. Foreigners will be charge fees to cover the costs of the running of the school.

THE NGO

It is also planned to establish an NGO, which will invest revenue from the lodge’s earnings into schemes and activities which will directly benefit the local community. The NGO will work in co-operation with the Konso Development Association, and will be active in the following areas:

Permaculture and Food Security
Development of infrastructure in the area to allow more efficient resource management and utilisation, including the establishment of systems for water harvesting and biogas production in the surrounding villages.
Health Care
The Strawberry Fields’ management team is keen to see an improvement in the public health care services available in the locality. The NGO will thus contribute to improving the situation through investing in local health care services.
Volunteering Activities
As well as the above the NGO will be able to facilitate voluntary placements for volunteers from around the world to work in various fields of activity in Konso including:
- Permaculture and resource management infrastructure construction
- Health care
- Teaching

THE COMPLETED PICTURE

It is thus the final aim of the Strawberry Fields project to promote the interaction of foreigners directly with the Konso villagers in a meaningful way to allow the formation of proper relationships. We hope, one day, to include within our touring itineraries the infrastructure and systems which we have facilitated host communities in Konso to create, through direction of revenue from the tourism industry into the local economy. By this stage it should have become abundantly clear to the villagers themselves that they are benefiting directly from the tourism industry. At such a stage we hope one day, by the grace of God, be able to say that we have achieved our objectives in setting up the Strawberry Fields project in Konso.

Zion by The Abay

05 July 2009

OUR NEW WEBSITE

23 February 2009

22 February 2009

ONLINE ARTICELS ON SFEL

21 February 2009

Internship Available at Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge, Konso, Ethiopia

01 February 2009

72 HOUR PERMACULTURE COURSE CURRICULUM at SFEL

01 February 2008

Curriculum Vitae of SFEL's Resident Permaculture Trainer

24 August 2007

THE STRAWBERRYFIELDS ECO-LODGE

PDCS at SFEL:

From the Beginning

PERMACULTURE WEBSITES

Are you interested to volunteer to help out with this project?

Wheel of life

Prestor John

Ociens of Air

Abassynia Zion Land of Prestor John