● "Training center for production technology of organic fertilizer" was established in Africa for the first time
■ Significance of establishing the training center
In April 2002, wishing the recovery of Guinean agriculture, SUPA established the "training center for production technology of organic fertilizer" in the Sanawaria village of the Tanene county in the Dubreka prefecture, located at the western part of Guinea. In this center, people learn how to make the two representative Japanese traditional fertilizers, the compost and Bokashi, and how to apply them to the crops. This is the first time the training center of this kind was built in Africa.
This is the first training center in Africa.
■ Specifications of the training center in Sanawaria
The center is installed with the following facilities including some bed rooms to accept trainees from the distance.
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Bed room/lecture room (100 ㎡): 5 bed rooms (2 people per room) |
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Hut for training production technology of organic fertilizer: 2 buildings (15 ㎡ x 2 buildings) |
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Warehouse to put farming machines /implements in storage: 1 building (30 ㎡) |
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Cultivation test farm: 2,000 ㎡ |
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The training center built for the first time in Africa.
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There are 5 rooms with 2 beds.
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| The trainees learning how to make "Bokashi" fertilizer |
Women also participate trial-producing of the compost. |
III-2-2 Contents of training
Lecture of the elementary knowledge of whole organic manure (ten hours in total).
Practice of production of Bokashi and the compost (repeat 3 times)
Cultivation practice of various kinds of the crop by using the organic manure produced by the trainee themselves
Also, for the purpose of learning of French which is a Guinean official language,
a letter learning class for the trainees and the neighboring villagers is opened at any time. Female participants are increasing in this neighboring villager.
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| The teacher |
Trainees and villagers |
Trainees and villagers studying about the organic fertilizers in the "Training center for production technology of organic fertilizer" |
●Tele-food Micro Project, activity-cooperation with FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) of the United Nations
■ Circumstances of the activity cooperation with FAO
On November 1, 2002, the symposium titled "What kind of assistance is Japan able to provide towards the elimination of poverty in the world" was held in the Yomiuri hall in Tokyo, under the auspices of FAO. The secretary-general of SUPA participated as a panelist to introduce the positive results of "the organic fertilizer production technology training center" in Guinea. In December of the year, a part of the contents of the symposium was broadcasted in a series of the "Friday forum" TV show by NHK. That was the start of the activity-cooperation with FAO and SUPA.
The specific activities of the Tele-food Micro Project include introducing vegetable gardens mainly in the local elementary school built by SUPA, organizing a committee with the three parties (the villagers and the pupils, the Guinean counterpart of the FAO, and SUPA), with the aim of contributing to the promotion of the local agriculture by cultivating the crops such as rice and vegetables, together. The land for the vegetable gardens was provided by the local Madina households. Parents of the pupils have prepared the ground to create it into the vegetable gardens belonging to the school. The role of SUPA was to provide the technology of organic agriculture. In this way, in April of 2004, the joint activity with FAO has started from cultivating rice.
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Scene of the cultivation of the school vegetable gardens by the villagers, who are the parents of the pupils,
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and the vegetables cultivated together by the pupils and their parents.
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Every one in the school goes out to water the field already cultivated and sown.
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The water is provided from the well with a hose. In this vegetable garden, two units of a hand-dug well were installed for watering crops.
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Pupils of Madina elementary school take no lunch. The remains of the supper of the previous night are appropriated as the breakfast. It is one and a half meal a day, so to speak. As the harvest time for rice approaches, the food stock would decrease making the situation even worse. To find a way out for the situation, FAO promotes the "Tele-micro food project" at 1,000 elementary schools of the developing countries in the world. The final destination is to achieve the ability of increased food production.
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