GrowLocale. Foodsheds for food security

Food insecurity, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, is a global problem. In the Philippines, 4.2 million Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger in three months under community quarantine while farmers trash tons of spoiled vegetables because of none entry in towns and cities during the lockdown.

A key solution to food insecurity, especially at the time of limited mobility, is to increase the number of food production centers per locality. Smallholder farmers with perennial high-value crops allocate a portion of land for food production through a foodshed farming system—a compact, protective, regenerative, and diversified production system that adopts green farming technologies.

When the produce of the foodshed farms are combined, it meets the demand for food supply in both rural and urban areas at par with what industrial farming can provide. Indeed, there is strength in numbers, and scaling up is possible with robust chapters in place under one federation.

To address the food insecurity problem, we want to sustain the food systems in the Philippines by increasing food production in every local community.

As of May 2020, the hunger rate in the Philippines reached 16.7 per cent, which is equivalent to 4.2 million families. This figure is twice higher than the last survey in December 2019, which was at 8.8 per cent. Globally, there are more than 820 million chronically food-insecure people and 135 million at crisis levels or worse.

The disruption in access and sufficiency of food supply caused by community quarantine restrictions have worsened the situation. Our food systems are failing, and the COVID-19 pandemic is making things worse unless immediate actions are taken, according to the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

Monocropping practices depleted soil nutrients over time. For crops to grow, farmers use synthetic fertilizers, which are usually by-products of petroleum. Beneficial soil microbes that help store and sequester carbon dioxide die in the process, along with chemical pesticides that contaminate soil and water and kill beneficial insects and a host of other organisms. Some pests and weeds have developed resistance to the chemicals every cropping cycle creating superbugs and superweeds.

GrowLocale, a foodshed farming system, is a practical, highly replicable and scalable solution in achieving food security. It is localized farming using natural techniques and tested farming technologies in a compact space of at least 25 square meters. It is a controlled environment that minimizes pest infestation and weeds to grow, thereby optimizing the yield. It allows soil microbes to thrive, which enriches soil nutrients. Healthy soil means healthy plants. It is modular, which means from growing vegetables, it expands to raising livestock depending on the available space and environment but is still under a controlled area.

Foodshed promotes a circular economy because it closes the loop in food production since waste is recycled by composting and repurposing containers as pots. The natural farming techniques enable symbiotic interaction between plants and other sources of food like poultry farm and hog raising, thus promoting diversification in food production. The structure also allows practical green technology solutions like rainwater harvesting, drip, and capillary as irrigation systems—all in a relatively limited space and controlled condition.

GrowLocale stemmed from the implementation of the landscape approach in managing natural capital of smallholder farmers in Negros Occidental, Philippines. They are sugarcane farmers, established during the 18th-century sugar plantation boom.

With agrarian reform redistributing the lands to individual farmers, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) introduced block farming, an inclusive  pproach for smallholder farms to be part of the supply chain with a profit-sharing arrangement.

GrowLocale started as backyard gardening. It was a solution identified by the farmers with assistance from projects aimed at conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. As sugarcane production takes one cropping cycle a year, farmers borrow money to make ends meet if they do not have enough profit or savings from the previous harvest season. While on trainings in farm management, they decided to walk-the-talk and allocated a portion of the sugarcane lands to conservation and food production, particularly vegetable gardening using natural farming practices, the foodshed took form. In three years, there were 23 farmers’ organizations in the pilot of 8 foodsheds, one per municipality that benefited 2,950 small sugarcane farmers covering more than 700 hectares of farms. Foodshed produce offered low-carbon, nutritious, and affordable food all year round for their families.

To address the food insecurity problem in the Philippines, we want to sustain the food systems by increasing food production in every local community. By creating foodshed networks per locality, we are assured of affordable, abundant, fresh and naturally grown produce anytime and address farm-to-market issues on cost of labor, storage and distribution. Smallholder farmers will minimize borrowing money to make ends meet nor wait for their crops to be converted to cash since the foodshed produce provides food and income for the household. The foodshed networks with robust farmers’ organizations hold great promise in achieving sustainable consumption and production.

GrowLocale is about foodshed farming systems and foodshed networks. The more foodshed established and sustained per locality, the more we democratize agriculture, the better chances we have at feeding more than a hundred million Filipinos and globally, the more than 820 million chronically food-insecure people.

The known competitor is the unsustainable farming practices on large-scale farming that require extensive farm input and vast resource base converting forested areas into agricultural lands and make huge profits among elite stakeholders. Then the monocropping method that uses synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides to grow crops. These chemicals deplete soil nutrients and encourage topsoil erosion and eventually poison our water and wildlife.

Another competitor is unfair trading practices where the farm goods are bought below breakeven prices only to be sold by middlemen at a higher price in the market. By establishing robust chapters of farmers organizations that take care of the farmer's income as well as providing competitive prices out in the market, we arrive at a triple-H solution of Happy earth, Happy farmers, and Happy consumers.

GrowLocale is innovative because it provides an alternative to conventional methods of farming and trading practices. It is cost-efficient, highly replicable and fully scalable. Organizations in other countries have this farming technology applied. What sets GrowLocale apart is being able to sustain operations, and the farmers behind the success are continuously discovering ways to improve farming techniques since 2016 with the help of local experts in natural farming systems. GrowLocale is not unique, but it works!

The foodshed farming system includes building a structure in a minimum of 60 square meters of land area with 25 square meter floor space. The materials used are locally available like bamboo, screen or mesh, chicken wires etc. The foundation is similar to building a hut with some prefabricated parts. It is modular depending on the kind of expansion that the farmer desires. In one foodshed, the farmer needs to prepare at least 60 containers for fruiting vegetables like eggplant, okra, tomato, cucumber, etc. and 20 trays for lettuce. For poultry, the farmer needs to prepare 100 broiler chickens. Unfortunately, for now,  foodsheds with raised garden beds, use polyethylene plastics for mulching to ensure moisture retention and weed control. However, the plastics are reused several times and disposed of properly. Hopefully, a biodegradable alternative will be locally available.

The soil is enriched with compost from the collected animal manure and composted available waste material through vermicomposting. Containers use potting soil, while for seed germination, a potting mix like cocopeat is applied.

The foodshed uses water conservation techniques such as rainwater collection, capillary drip irrigation system and Kratky method of hydroponic farming. It uses natural farming systems in production such as the concoction of natural fertilizers from fermented plants, fish and vermicompost. It follows minimal tillage since most of the crops are grown in containerized systems.   

Since foodshed technology is easy to understand and easy to do, it is not a surprise that small farms, especially in the United States, already use the technology. For example, ‘The Foodshed Alliance works to strengthen the northern New Jersey “foodshed,” working particularly in Sussex, Warren, Morris, Passaic, Bergen, Essex and Hudson counties.’ Guests and participants at the Environmental Learning Center at the North Cascades Institute in Washington State are served meals from the foodshed partner farms and ranch. What is common in the two examples is that the foodshed farm is dedicated to producing organic foods and raising livestock with natural farming techniques. 

For GrowLocale, the modification would be the efficient use of compact space since farm use is primarily for sugarcane production and the use of efficient green technologies like rainwater harvesting, drip and capillary irrigation systems. Smallholder farms also allocate local conservation areas where natural barriers are in place to prevent soil erosion.

Local actions for a global call, the goal of GrowLocale foodshed, is for the Philippines to achieve a sustainable food system amidst the threats of climate change and the pandemic that plagued almost every nation in the world.

By localizing food production, we empower smallholder farmers to supply food to consumers and allow consumers to have access to affordable, low-carbon and nutritious food.

By building the capacity of farmers’ organization for fair trade practices between food growers and consumers and adding value to the supply chains, we can create a sustainable business model.

By allowing foodshed networks to grow in numbers, we increase the supply of food with a low impact on the environment.

By perfecting the technologies used in the foodsheds, we allow efficient ways to increase yields in a small space and controlled environment.

Among the key activities are continuous baseline data gathering, capacity development training and technology to farmers, organizational capacity development for farmers’ organization, construction of community-managed foodsheds, and financial literacy and establishment of group savings and loan association. 

As mentioned by Dr. Alaa Murabit, United Nations High-level Commissioner and Speaker of Solve at MIT 2019, One of the biggest challenges when it does come to tech and the deployment of tech innovation and ideas around the world is that oftentimes, they are important. Where they are not necessarily in the service of the local community and so, if the people who are most impacted by the solution are not the first people at the table, then the solution is more or less irrelevant.

The current number of people served in 8 foodsheds with one foodshed per municipality is 2,950 small sugarcane farmers covering more than 700 hectares of farms. We have worked with 23 farmer’s organization in 3 years.

In 12 months, with four more foodsheds established, we will be able to directly serve an additional 1,500 farmers or more and 600 households.

In the next five years, with the assumption of an additional 20 foodshed established and with additional solution support, we project to serve 7,500 farmers and 3,000 households.

The impact goal is food security achieved through sustainable food systems in the time of extreme weather events and the national healthcare crisis. With a growing network of foodsheds in Negros Occidental, expansion to major cities in the Philippines using the same model will be done. The expansion will involve local governments to adopt the model for a wider reach in towns and municipalities and partner with social enterprises to augment the farming practices in the foodshed model. Continuing product research to enhance yield and more efficient farm-to-market processes. If the capacity of farmers’ organization is increased, then scaling-up like establishing social enterprises in different areas to increase stakeholder beneficiaries is possible.

In urban and peri-urban setup, using the same principles and technologies in foodshed farms, GrowLocale hopes to expand from the rural farmlands to available spaces in individual homes in the urban and peri-urban communities activating the inner farmer in all of us. The operative words are ‘efficiency’ in the use of space to maximize yield and ‘willingness' especially at the time when there is limited mobility. We need to grow our food and turn the surplus into additional income. Again possible with a well-institutionalized farm-to-market system, which GrowLocale’s next phase solution.

As the Philippines is slowly easing out the community quarantine measures nationwide, and yet a vaccine against COVID-19 is still not available, we anticipate an increase in infection rate, which might lessen face to face interaction talking to different stakeholders in Negros Occidental.

Limitations, especially to farmers located farther from internet coverage, is the internet connection itself as well as the use of technology like mobile devices for virtual meetings if they do not have mobile phones.

For the expansion of the foodshed networks in urban and peri-urban areas, where a high concentration of consumers are located, the limitation in space would be a challenge but worth finding a solution.

Limited mobility will still be in effect after the quarantine period, and this barrier would create opportunities for app-based delivery of goods which is already happening.

Over the next year, and in the next five years, we still see food security as a relevant topic and would be needing funding support to build more foodsheds. Financing for expansion would either come from grants, loans from banks or quasi-banks, and crowdfunding sources.

Social distancing and washing of hands regularly are still the best way not to get infected with the COVID-19 virus. Thanks to the healthy produce of the farm, boosting one’s immune system is not a problem.

Meetings can be done through a conference call feature of mobile devices where one mobile device calls several numbers in the absence of internet coverage for virtual meetings.

Another mode of communication is through radio programs to communicate to communities the different training activities. However, it may need several creative imagination or visualization since it is auditory by nature.

For expansions in cities, taking the farm to the city may sound challenging, but imagine earning a living in the comforts of your home and not having problems where to get food. Though space is an issue, it can be compensated by efficiency in the use of space.

Limited mobility might also mean a good thing for those who are not front liners. By staying and working from home, farmers have more time to monitor the foodsheds.

Cashless payment transactions for purchases of farm input and materials for building the foodshed might be another option instead of paying cash, but this is still for acceptance, especially in a rural setup.

Essentially, the team lead will be one of the project administrators. Still, for the implementation of the solution, it will be supervised by a conservation director and under whom a project manager and two field coordinators will be part of the team. Our partner organization’s technical expertise will be contracted to complement the project team staff.

The team behind GrowLocale has a diverse background, and expertise includes project development and project management, specifically on the management of natural capital, payments for environmental services, social preparation, local government engagement, and community work.

The team is part of a global as well as a national based organization with various conservation projects on local sites across the Philippines. The organization has been doing conservation work for more than 25 years.

The partner organization is locally based as well, with 25  years of working and supporting sugarcane farmers and farmers of other crops in Negros Occidental out of poverty through capacity-building and financial literacy.

GrowLocale is partnering with MUAD Negros. Established in 1990, it is a federation of farming groups, NGOs, and community-based organizations promoting sustainable farming. Initially formed to help support sugarcane farmers left in poverty during the sugarcane market shift. The federation since then has grown to support farmers growing crops other than sugarcane.

Among MUAD’s commitment is to provide support on product development, from growing, processing to marketing and sales. The organization also coaches financial literacy to community groups which act as small banks in their locality for farmers to access capital.

Together with MUAD Negros, GrowLocale will work on establishing more foodshed networks and strengthen existing ones in Negros Occidental. With the expansion in other parts of the Philippines, MUAD will share the valuable experience and expertise in building foodshed farms in areas surrounding Metro Manila and other key cities in the country.

Agro-enterprises are local agriculture-based business enterprises. The agro-enterprise model that the foodshed is implementing involves providing:

1. sustainable production technology intervention;
2. market linkage and value chain intervention; and
3. financial inclusion - mobilizing local financial resources through community-managed savings to facilitate access to capital for the smallholder farmers.

A foodshed on the average earns a net income of 8,000 Pesos per 2-month cycle. Following production planning, crops and poultry production follows a schedule to ensure uninterrupted supply.

Solve may be able to help in developing the technology for farm-to-market access through the development of a model system of connecting the producers to the consumers while generating data on these processes to determine further improvements of the system of delivery for example.

Solve may also be able to modernize or infuse artificial intelligence to farm monitoring and link information like weather, ideal soil conditions to cloud storage and generate information to help farmers in making better decisions.

We welcome partnerships to further our cause of making food accessible for anyone. Partnerships that allow mutual growth are ideal and the exchange of learning and experiences help each of us to be better and solving one of the biggest problems in the world today which is food insecurity and feeding the ever growing human population.

We would like to partner with an organization that advances app-based technology to help in the distribution of the agricultural products. As much as possible, we do not want to reinvent the wheel since there are existing app-based out there. Any reputable organization or start-up tech company that is willing to help develop the app-based technology would be welcome.

The initiative we have now is already proof that there is business potential if the foodshed farms are replicated in areas near urban and peri-urban communities with a strong farmers' organization. We welcome mentorship and exchange of learning and on how to make bankable activities that do not hurt the planet in the process and enhance our way of life especially our smallholder farmers.