Projects against climate change
An Ivorian project for West Africa: the Centre for Rural Innovation
Human Issues & Habitations
Status : Opened
| Executive summary : | The Centre for Rural Innovation aims to be the first seed for the emerging centre of excellence federating partners able to develop the potential of eco-technologies in rural conditions: - Enhance innovative activities that will support rural populations, - Ensure necessary knowledge and equipment to them, improving their day to day lives and generating new incomes, while answering to climate change, food and energy scarcity, - Contribute to the development of clean development mechanisms in West Africa, aiming to develop the economic opportunity of food production and sustainable energy in a framework respectful of food resources, arable lands and the environment, - Contribute to answers to climate change, food security, and sustainable energy, while granting rural populations the opportunity to respond to these challenges through mitigation and adaptation. The Centre would like to focus on 4 areas of actions in Côte d'Ivoire and West Africa: - Climate Change: reduce causes, promote adaptation & Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM); - Vital Resources: develop lasting solutions to food vulnerability & water scarcity; - Sustainable Energy: promote bio-energies & renewable energies, reduce energy access price; - Knowledge Society: enhance information communication technologies for development. The first programs to be undertaken in the Centre would focus on: - Jatropha Curcas, to be planted in semi arid areas for immediate carbon storage, production of non edible bio fuel, organic fertilizing, organic pesticides, and soap; - Moringa Oleifera, to be planted in semi arid areas for immediate carbon storage, nutrimental complements, oil, water purification, organic fertilizing, organic pesticides, and soap; - Biochar, a charcoal obtained from agricultural waste via pyrolysis, will offer carbon reduction when used as a combustible, and carbon sequestration when used to enhance soil productivity. Information communication technologies (ICT) for development will be used: - A web 2.0 approach will enable the editing of multimedia information in French and English, to create a network of collaborators and a funding platform dedicated to support and finance rural developers. - Space imagery and communication will enhance the preparation, management and deployment of the solutions (identification of land, use of improved agriculture, monitoring of activities...). |
| Link with climate change : | Climate change is one of the four main issues the Centre will be focusing on. |
| Planned local actions : | During Phase 1 (Validation study), three work packages have been identified, and matched with the corresponding people to conduct each of the work packages: a. Work Package One will be dedicated to validating the farm rehabilitation proposition, defining the first areas where the initial activities will be started, designing the work to be done to rehabilitate the lands for cultivation, improve energy access, water management and Internet connection. This work package will also validate the costing for equipment to be acquired for initial activities, the number of people to be recruited, the exact chronology of all the activities proposed in this document, etc. b. Work Package Two will validate the scope of work to be achieved for Jatropha, Moringa and Biochar. All the activities from farm preparation to market penetration will be covered, including the social, economic and environmental aspects, without neglecting the gender issue. The purpose will be to quantify, with experienced people, the activities for Jatropha, Moringa and Biochar, taking into consideration the need to start with up-to-date knowledge. This will require visiting centres like the Mali Folkcenter, determining the framework of collaboration, and confirming their availability and the conditions for their contribution to the initial phase of creation. c.Work Package Three will be dedicated to creating the website of the Centre, and an identity that will be coherent with rural African realities, while proposing a new vision of Africa to the worldwide collaborators with whom we would like to be connected with. A new generation of Africans, increasingly part of an international community, has been trained in international high schools and has worldwide experience: we are eager to present a new vision of our continent and the potential for its development. This work package will include the implementation of the first collaborative website, to be based on an open-source Content Management System platform utilising Joomla. The design of this website must be attractive to an international audience that would contribute to its activities, while presenting a modern vision of Africa. During Phase 2 (Preparation & promotion), the first months will be dedicated to prepare the lands and nurseries, procure the equipment necessary to ensure planting of all vegetal material. a. This phase will include the research of fifty small rural farmers that would agree to reproduce very small scale trials for Jatropha, Moringa and Biochar, the results of which will be compared with the trials performed within the Centre and will teach us about the adoption by rural farmers. Some Jatropha demonstration will also be performed in rural areas, using seeds from existing trees, to demonstrate the bioenergy potential. These small trials and demonstrations will be the first promotion activities to be undertaken, with the aim of gauging farmers' interests. In all cases, the objective will be to have a participative 'bottom-up' approach, involving all relevant players as early as possible, in order to clarify the roles and responsibilities of each party. b. A lot of attention will be given to education and awareness building, before commencing a project, especially when the benefits are not immediately obvious. It will be important to ensure that farmers have accurate information about the benefits for each activity. This is more important for Jatropha, to the extent that it will take at least three years for the plant to reach maturity and produce a harvestable yield, and at least 5 years to reach maximum economic yields. In Côte d'Ivoire, numerous farmers have been misinformed that one hectare of Jatropha will produce 25 tons the first year: their disillusionment will be significant, above all when there is nearly no equipment ready for using Jatropha oil and no market for selling the seeds. Bridging a three to five year income gap will be a concern for most farmers, especially when profit margins are low or uncertain. This will be used as an argument to promote intercropping and live fencing that will contribute to limit monoculture and prevent endangering food security. Phase 3 (Validation and diffusion) will permit to enter into the collaborative aspect of the Internet strategy. During Phase 2, the use of the Internet will be mainly dedicated to publication of the activities performed, and of documents relating to Jatropha, Moringa and Biochar in a Wikipedia form allowing collaborators to improve the quality of the publication. We believe the achievements of Phase 2 and the willingness to publish transparent information will encourage collaborators to join the efforts of the Centre. In addition, we expect to have identified rural project developers that would be able to post their project on the Centre's website, calling for peer-to-peer collaboration and/or micro-investment. The Centre will support these developers in their project development, including availability of space imagery that will permit identifying their project location. Once the collaborative platform and the micro-funding platform are in place, together with appropriate investment body support, we believe that all elements will be ready for the first trials of a rural Internet based development approach. By the end of year 2010 we hope the Centre to be able to implement all its missions, including training and demonstration. We expect the Centre's achievements to support promotion of a bio-energy policy coherent with food security; CDM projects adoptions in West Africa, and accompany West African decision makers in their contribution to UNFCCC's post-2012 climate policy. |
| Country where project takes place : | Ivory Coast |
| Name of Region of the project area : | 2.500-hectare farm in the centre of Côte d'Ivoire bordering the Sahel and the tropical climate zone. |
| Partners involved in project : | Project Leader: BeDevelopment Partners: a. FAO, UNDP, UNIDO, West African Bank for Development b. Ivorian National Bureau for technical Study and Development c. Pronatura international, Planet Action, Burkina Centre of Forestry Seeds |
| Context and objectives of the project : | The Centre aims to be an open place for collaboration benefiting the rural population. Its office will be located in Grand Bassam within the national platform of information communication technologies and biotechnologies. Its activities will be focused on climate change, vital resources, sustainable energy and ICT for development. Its aim is to propose knowledge that is necessary in contributing to socioeconomic analysis, business visioning & development, and policy development. The Centre will be a place for research & development, which will co-design and conduct pilot projects including their commercial validation. The Centre will then act as a business development support to rural populations by developing commercial activities. We, as the Centre's promoters, expect to assemble and promote the necessary knowledge, metrics and equipment for rural innovation, and a complete project development solution for rural stakeholders. Knowledge and technologies developed must be accessible to rural populations; the business models proposed must be attainable and sustainable. We hope to deliver proven tools for rural development that could initiate new income generating activities (agriculture, rural energy supply, etc.), while creating an added value cycle within rural communities. The introduction of new activities will require identifying rural players to be involved, and promoting their economic organization while taking into consideration the prevalent economic framework. We have identified a 2.500-hectare farm in the centre of Côte d'Ivoire that could be the principal research and demonstration site. Bombed during the war, it will require rehabilitation. The geographical localization is perfect: it borders the Sahel and the tropical climate zone. Access to water is provided by two nearby rivers that allow potential future work on fisheries and embankments. We have already implemented a small-scale antenna in Tiébélé - Burkina Faso, close to a rainfall barrage; which due to its severe conditions validates the benefits of the research, while demonstrating our willingness to contribute to building regional capacity. |
| Starting date of the project : | 10/21/2008 |
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