Greens in April, in Mongolia...?

Photo: Raddishes have been harvested since early April in the GERES' Passive solar greenhouse R&D site in Ulaanbaatar.

From GERES' Community of Practice website, by Anne Randall:

 

The '“Food Security and Innovative Farming Approaches for Mongolia” Project (2010-2013, funded by the European Union) is led by a consortium of two French NGOs: Secours Catholique and GERES, who are working closely to support Mongolian NGO Caritas Mongolia.

 

The objective is to develop more efficient and diversified ways to grow vegetables at household level, in order to reduce the food insecurity which affects the most vulnerable families (1,000 families in Ulaanbaatar and in Gobi-Altai province).

 

Activities are intended to develop, implement and diffuse passive solar greenhouses (180 family and community greenhouses and 75 nurseries), improved techniques of soil and water management and bioclimatic cellars. GERES is bringing its technical expertise to the local partner during the first research and development phase on these 3 techniques. 

 

In Autumn 2010, a Research and Display Center was built in the middle of the peri-urban “yurt areas” [['ger districts' - TGB Editorial]] of Ulaanbaatar. The Research carried out in the center aims at testing:

1. The thermal performance of different designs of passive solar greenhouses.
2. Potential optimizations for solar greenhouses (ex: hotbeds for early seedlings, thermal storage in water tanks).
3. Improved soil and water management practices (ex: rainwater harvesting, windbreaks).

Photo: Ulaanbaatar peri-urban Research & Development site for passive solar greenhouse design.

 

At the same time, GERES has developed a new low-cost passive solar greenhouse design for peri-urban areas of Ulaanbaatar (see picture). The greenhouse size is relatively small (8,8 m*4,4m) compared to “usual rural solar greenhouses” diffused in Asia. The constraints (in terms of suitable space available) are high: the standard size of the plot is small (700m2), with a large amount of available area often already occupied by other structures.  Each plot is fenced with a 2 meters wood barrier and the orientation of the plot may not be suitable. 

 

The size has thus been adapted to fit the families’ site constraints while insuring a sufficient vegetable production meeting their needs.

 

Passive Solar Greenhouses represent a new technology in Mongolia and have aroused a big interest from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and Governmental Agencies, since the project's beginning. This shows promise for this resource’s development in the country.

 

In this early spring 2011, greenhouses began their first full growing season. Thermal and agronomic performances tested since last autumn are revealing first results that meet our expectations. 

 

Research greenhouses can be used from late February to early December (we have to keep in mind that atmospheric pollution in Ulaanbaatar reduces winter solar radiations).

Photo: April 27, 2011.  Inside the Ulaanbaatar research greenhouse.

 

Family greenhouses can be used from mid-March for direct hardy vegetables seedling (radish, lettuce, turnip, spinach) and beginning of April for sensitive vegetables/fruits transplantation (tomatoes, cucumber, sweet pepper). At this date, greenhouses generally used in Ulaanbaatar (tunnel-type greenhouse) are frozen and usually start to be used from mid-May. Spring is a critical period regarding food security; thanks to these greenhouses, Ulaanbaatar families will be able to consume fresh and nutritive vegetables starting from April. 

Thermal performance inside Ulaanbaatar greenhouse from Mar 17 - 20, 2011. 

 

Some thermal data: At mid-March, during cold nights (minimum -20°C), the research greenhouse allows to gain 20°C and the family greenhouse allows to increase the temperature by 15°C. 

 

Prospects: Thermal results will allow us to compare the different designs performances and suggest relevant optimizations. The main objective for 2011 as regards to agronomic experimentations is to suggest a new schedule for farmers, which will be adapted to this longer cultivation season, in order to make a better use of the opportunity offered by the passive solar greenhouses.

 

Photo: Anne Randall inspects this season's early crops.

____________________________________________

For more information about the “Food Security and Innovative Farming Approaches for Mongolia” Project, contact:

 

 

Anne RANDALL

Agronomist/Technical Adviser Mongolia - Country Representative

 

GERES - Group for the Environment, Renewable Energy and Solidarity

Sukhbaatar District, 6th khoroo,

University street 11/1, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

P.O.Box-1353, Ulaanbaatar-13 Mongolia

Tel: (976)98105052

Mobile: (976)98080928

a.randall@geres.eu - www.geres.eu

 

 

Mongolian Permaculture: What's next? (Day 22)

Theme song of the day: 'Just Breathe' by Eddie Vedder.  His lyrics just couldn't say this any better.

Photo: graduating class of Dec 2009 PDC at SCPI

It's been about 15 months since I stumbled across permaculture at Rick and Naomi Coleman's Permaculture Design Course at the Southern Cross Permaculture Institute in Leongatha (Victoria, Australia).

I had run out of money, moved back home with my parents in Melbourne, and, in search of what was next for me in the adventure that is my life, I had applied for a position studying Landscape Architecture at RMIT University in Melbourne.  There was no way of knowing on day one of my PDC that in just over a year, I would have been to Mongolia twice, covering an area from the Gobi Desert in the south to Zavkhan province in the northwest, to the Kazakh stronghold of Bayan Ulgii in the far west; and working on projects making a positive contribution to Mongolian communities all along the way... life is strange, and unpredictable, and beautiful.
 

Photo: Bek 'The Mongolian Maniac' wrestles with Dave 'The Ghost' Gibb at Wilson's Prom during our PDC rest day.

The new humble Monoglian friend I made on that course turned out to be the Food Security Director of an international NGO, and the small pact we made over the campfire one evening (to visit each other's homelands) is growing into an international collaboration of knowledge & resources that could help vastly different cultures connect, and learn from each other.

It's Bek's turn to visit my homeland since I am 2-0 in the visit tally right now, but first he has his work cut out for him with establishing a strong foundational year for the SEAL Project, and the other permaculture-based projects he is implementing throughout Mongolia (permaculture has been integrated into all of ADRA-Mongolia's Food Security initiatives).

600 integrated root cellars, and 600 passive solar greenhouses equipped with 600 drip-irrigation systems will be built for carefully selected beneficiaries throughout Bayan Ulgii province in the next year, as part of a 4-year plan to strengthen local food security and stimulate the local economy (with microenterprises and Self-Help microfinance groups) by seeding the community with these permaculture demonstration sites and future permaculture teachers.

Photo: 'Bolhadt', Project beneficiary living in Sagsay soum.  He is married, has 2 young children, has an existing root cellar installed under his house, is already farming his own worms, and has some experience growing potatoes and turnips.

Beneficiaries are screened not for their level of needs (this would be applicable to an 'aid' or 'relief' effort), but rather for their character, motivation, and potential to become future community leaders once equipped with the tools, knowledge, and opportunity to create positive, regenerative change in their own lives.  Checks and balances (such as monitoring gender-ratios and potential conflicts-of-interest) are designed into the selection process to maximize the project's potential for success.

Like all projects and organizations, the quality of results created is entirely dependent upon the quality and character of the people driving it, and based on my experience of the eleven ADRA staff devoted to this project, and the leadership & vision of Bek, Doc, and Michelle Abel (Programs Director) from ADRA-Mongolia's head offices in UB, integrity levels are high and the project is off to a very good start. 

One heartfelt conversation I had with project staff in the closing days of the course revolved around my personal experience of how many friends came forward to support me emotionally, practically, and even financially while I watched the small fortune I made during my twenties be taken away; when the money was gone, all that was left was the people I had touched - and I was humbled to find out how many that is, and how rich I truly am.

The SEAL Project staff have a similar opportunity, in that the work they are being paid to do over the next four years will touch many lives and forge many relationships that would be challenging to create outside of this context; if project staff focus on taking care of their people the best way they know how, than each one of them will be richer than they can imagine by the time the project ends - and we are talking about true wealth: the wealth of rich and supportive relationships, not the transient & deceptive wealth of money.

Photo: Bastama School Gardens project.

Dr. Beket's Bastama School Gardens project has the potential to impact an additional 500 students and families, while Guliya's large-scale fruit & vegetable production plot could also impact countless more.  In this way, we plant the seeds of permaculture design with 13 students, and watch it grow to help over 1,100 families move towards a sustainable & regenerative future.

As for me?  Well, I couldn't have done any of this work if not for the foundation laid by the many permaculturists who have gone before me, especially the work done by Rick Coleman and Kat Lavers during the 2010 Mongolian Permaculture project; had it not been for that experience and learning curve, I would not have a strong enough baseline of knowledge & experience to be effective here, and in fact it would have been irresponsible to send me in lieu of a more experienced instructor.

Photo: Rick and Kat, Mongolian Permaculture 2010

I was able to be effective in Mongolian conditions, and adapt the lessons I learned last year to Mongol-Kazakh culture, only because of the time, money and effort dedicated towards skilling up, and learning from others who were so willing to share with & teach me.  Now I have a stronger baseline to operate from when working in Sustainable Aid and Overseas Development, but there are knowledge & experience gaps (especially in creating and cultivating my own productive & functional crop systems) that I need to fill.

Bill Mollison said it best in the Global Gardener series:

'Once you've set up your home, so that you can leave it for 2 or 3 months and it just gets better, so that you are free to travel, then you can go and teach other people.' 

- Bill Mollison -

So that's what is next for me:  return to Hawaii, marry the woman I love, put some roots down, and start growing some veggies. 

Come visit if you are in the area.

Photo: Wind & Light ride in Hawaii.

Photo: HOME.

 

Chickens in Bayan Ulgii (Day 14)

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[Excerpt from SEAL 2011 Permaculture Design Training Report, by Matthew Lynch]

Mongolian chickens are very cold hardy breed that lay one egg every 1-2 days from March until October.  There are successful breeders currently raising chickens in Ulgii City; ADRA staff brought us to one family hasha during our pre-course resource inventory to meet with a breeder and view her system.

Photo: Heavily insulated chicken house design with warm-weather chicken run attached to entryway.

A small, well-designed and  fully insulated (including the floor) earthen shelter is sufficient to keep the chickens warm throughout the winter without active heating.  The site we visited had a small earthen chicken house (approximately 2 x 1 x 1 meters) nestled in a corner between the outer hasha wall and an earthen block storage shed, with a south-facing aspect.  A small caged chicken house of similar dimensions was built over the entryway for use in warmer months. 

The compact size and strong insulation (layers of felt insulation were also installed over the floor) of the winter shelter helps to conserve the chickens' precious body heat, which was sufficient to heat the chicken house throughout the winter.  Household food scraps and grain bought from the local market provide their feed, and they are let out during the day to forage and scratch in the hasha courtyard.  The children bring the chickens water from the house, and the shelter is cleaned out once every couple of weeks.

 Photo: The Rooster watches over his hens.

Photo: The flock huddles together against the cold.

Photo: The owner demonstrates how she calls the chickens to feed.

This flock of 10-12 chickens has been thriving for the last 10 years in this design, laying 5-10 eggs per day from March - October, providing eggs, meat, and baby chickens when need, as well as an additional family income of 300MNT per egg (360,000 - 720,000MNT annually)(i).  A strong demand for fresh eggs exists, and this family is easily able to sell all their surplus eggs to the neighbours. 

Successfully introducing chickens into a permaculture system for Ulgii City will have multiple benefits: increasing food security, boosting nutrition, building soil fertility, and creating additional income sources from microenterprises based upon chicken products (eggs, meat, baby chickens, perhaps even baking).

The existing design, while effective, could be modified to become more productive, functional, and resilient by integrating the chickens into a permacultural food production system. 

For example, a passive solar greenhouse would make an excellent winter run for the chickens, keeping the birds out of the wind and in the warmth of the sun during the day, while providing fertility and preparing the soils for a jump-start on the short Mongolian growing season.  Locating the heavily insulated winter shelter next to the greenhouse (so that it can be entered from the courtyard or from the greenhouse) could make it easier to clean; a larger door could be installed on the greenhouse side of the shelter (since it opens into a warm still-air chamber), and the dropping simply swept out into the greenhouse to be used as fertilizer.

Fruit trees such as seabuckthorn and blackcurrant could be grown along the hasha walls, to take advantage of the chicken manure during warmer months when the birds can be let out of the greenhouse.  Grasses and 'weeds' such as fat hen and plantain, could be cultivated and encouraged within the hasha walls and fed to the chickens to boost the quality of the eggs (layers who are fed greens will produce eggs with healthy, bright yellow yolks).

Photo: These chickens' hasha courtyard is bare.

Photo: Outer entrance.

Photo: Inner entrance.

Photo: Family watchdog doubles as chickens' bodyguard.

Photo: Chicken's bodyguard warns us off.

____________________

(i) 1,500 MNT per month would be considered a strong salary in Bayan Ulgii.

Student Designs, take 1 (Day 11)

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This preliminary design task is a review mechanism for the instructors to check in with students, and monitor their understanding of key concepts we have been teaching for the last 5 days (and how effective we have been as teachers). 

In this case, the strongest group was assigned the client with the least resources, and the weakest group was assigned the client with the most resources, so that we could most accurately gague individuals' progress (Design Task 1 (Day 10) for client profiles).  Adjustments can be made mid-course to teaching methodologies, content, and team groupings (matching stronger students with weaker students to facilitate mutual learning) as needed.

Photos: Student designs for small-scale intensive farming systems in the family compound. 

Highlights from designs presented today:

• Summer shower attached to a greenhouse to direct greywater for plant irrigation.
• Intensive animal shelter design w/ backup heating stove that can be used to heat 2 animal shelters, plus winter coldframes / greenhouse on extreme cold days.
• Root cellar located under goatshed for security, insulation, and biological heating (from the animals' body heat & hot compost piles made from their manure.
• Stones from root cellar excavation re-used on-site to create attractive and functional pathways throughout family compound.
• Greenhouse attached to house, and plumbed with hot water from the house to provide heat for potential year-round vegetable production.
• Water system (well) backed up with multiple tanks centrally located to distribute water via drip-irrigation systems to every growbed.
• Multifunctional concrete summer ger-pad / winter ice-skating rink surrounded by beautiful (and beneficial-insect-attracting) flowerbeds (my personal favourite).

Well done to all students for demonstrating such a quick uptake, understanding, and integration of the many principles, concepts, and ideas your instructors have thrown at you for the last nine days!

Ulaanbaatar departure

Ice crystals dance & shimmer in swirling eddies through the dry, achingly cold air.

The dirty sweet smell of burnt coal dust freezes to the inside of your nose, while the sun blazes through the filmy haze which coats Ulaanbaaar at the end of the Mongolian winter.  Minus 13C days are a far cry from the dusty-hot 30C days of only 7 months ago - it is one thing to talk about the harsh colds of the steppe, quite another to experience it - and the locals tell me it is warming up to Spring!

photo: view from the 'Happyness Hotel' (Voyager Hotel)

The smokey hotel room from which I peer out into the cold feels like home, and I can still vividly remember how luxurious it felt to come back to last year, compared to the spartan (but cozy) ger accommodations in Tosontsengel and the Gobi.  Even the Monty-Pythonesque breakfast shenanigans are comfortingly homely; I don't bother to order because I will be brought whatever the cook feels like making, usually a fried egg, a couple pieces of fried baloney-like sausage, and a salad (garnish) of cucumber or tomato, or both if i'm lucky.

I am waiting for my hosts to pick me up in our brand-new-used 4WD, which has spent the morning being registered, insured, and having new tires swapped in, before we begin the long trek west to Bayan Ulgii; funding was only cleared yesterday for the procurement of our vehicle.  [Special note of thanks here to the Canadian Food Grains Bank, who has generously provided the majority of funding for the Bayan Ulgii SEAL project].  Our support team is determined, have already proven to be resourceful, and are all itching to get started.

photo: friable, unfrozen topsoil full of organic matter

Discovered a minor miracle yesterday, which still astounds me: despite the pervading subzero freeze, the patches of soil underneath the conifer saplings growing in front of ADRA's offices are friable, unfrozen, and full of organic matter.  And here I was, scratching my head about how we were going to find enough un-frozen soil to build a demonstration compost heap during the course - this discovery bodes well and suggests that we should be able to find the resources in Bayan Ulgii to build one, despite the harsh conditions.  Time will tell.

photo: passive solar greenhouse growing vegetables year-round in Ladakh
photo credit: solargreenhouse.org

Another minor miracle yesterday: the Technical Coordinator of the NGO Groupe Energies Renouvelables Environnement et Solidarités (GERES) caught wind of our blog, and invited us to visit their Passive Solar Greenhouse Research & Development Site on the outer districts of Ulaanbaatar (thank you Anne!).  They are working in partnership with the group Caritas France, and are developing passive solar greenhouse designs adapted for the extreme Mongolian conditions, with a target of building 180 greenhouses in the next 2 years. 

Our team is excited about exchanging ideas & resources with this project, because extending the short growing season with solar-passively heated greenhouses will greatly support food security initiatives throughout Mongolia ...and the possibility of growing crops year-round - without having to burn more precious fuel to keep the greenhouse warm enough - could be a game-changing advancement. 

Stay tuned.

Passive solar greenhouse design: Bayan Ulgii v1.0

via slideshare.net

Slideshow designed to use as basis for session on passive solar greenhouse design.

Hand-drawn images are based on student designs from Mongolian Permaculture Project 2010.

Other images selected from Ladakh to show passive solar greenhouse design successfully operating year-round to minus-25C. Students will apply design principles to explore & discuss what can be improved in these designs in order to adapt to harsher Mongolian conditions.

Glass and plastic bottles are available as waste products that are thrown away in the soum; examples of greenhouse, coldframes and cloches made from repurposed waste plastic bottles are shown.

Finally, images of existing greenhouses in Bayan Ulgii are shown, to be used as a class design exercise exploring 'What is working / What isn't working / How can the design be improved?'

Final version will be translated into Russian language, as most residents of Bayan Ulgii are literate in Kazakh, Russian, and Mongolian languages.

Click here to view presentation on Slideshare.