Sotavento Foundatión AGROSUPO

Colombia, an agricultural country that is running out of peasants, due to the precariousness of the countryside that forces them to move to the city out of necessity. unemployment in our country exceeds 10% and poverty covers more than 27 million Latinos. The Sotavento Foundation has designed and led socio-environmental initiatives focused on the eradication of poverty in Colombia. AGROSUPO is a project that promotes the bioeconomy as a transforming axis of the living conditions of rural communities and is based on the construction of agrotechnology for the production of food, with an adequate management for the soils and the use of residual biomass, promoting the efficiency in the use of materials, water and energy. It also evaluates the recovery capacity of the systems and the circular use of the materials to obtain energy from the decomposition of the bacteria. It can be replicated at different scales.

The social order of the expanding cities of developing countries is supported by evident inequality, both economic and environmental; in Latin America, for example, the urban peripheries are territories characterized by the lack of policies that include the socioeconomic activities of their inhabitants to the rest of the city, depriving these marginal populations of their capacity to be an integral part of a society; which translates into poverty. According to figures from FAO, rural poverty in Latin America includes the existence of 57 million poor people in the rural area, of whom 27 million are in extreme poverty, which leads to a socio-environmental imbalance that affects the quality of life and the social development of the communities, generating zones of vulnerability and degradation of the natural environment.

In Colombia, this social and exclusionary scenario is lived in the village of Montañuelas, a marginal sector where farmers are displaced from their lands because of conflict and war by territories, in this place we build bio-gardens in small spaces for the production of food with proper management of soils and mitigation of the negative impact generated by climate change.

In Colombia, the panorama of social and exclusionary poverty is lived in the corregimiento of El Sailito Vereda Montañuelas, a marginal sector belonging to the periphery of the municipality of Santiago de Cali, where the socio-environmental interactions are the result of an invasion of people who are conditioned to the characteristics of the field, but they depend on the economic dynamics of the city to solve their subsistence from informal commerce; that is, without access to health systems or social protection, thus increasing unemployment and crime figures.

The prevalence of undernourishment of the inhabitants of the path Montañuelas is a reality that is shown in the health problems associated with hunger and the risk of contracting diseases. The lack of a food and productive system that is inclusive of the economic activity of the city prevents the development of knowledge and techniques to cultivate the land of said community, that is, its potential as agro producers that provides economic sustenance and meets the necessary caloric requirements for good nutrition 

The AGROSUPO model is based on the construction of bio-gardens and connected bio-digesters in the food production cycle.

Agrosupo is a project that promotes the bioeconomy as a transforming axis of the situation of poverty that rural and peri urban communities live through joint actions between the organization and the community.

the settlement was located and a participative diagnosis was made with the families where socioeconomic conditions, land use and knowledge in BPA of the community were indicated, together with the families, the construction of a biodigester and vegetable gardens was started. sustenance and commercialization in response to basic needs and the strengthening of the community. The cultivation pattern, the hydrological and nutritional requirements of the same and their capacity of yield in the environmental conditions of the sector were established.

In this way, the collection and distribution of the crops, integrates the family into the production system, while the use of residual biomass becomes a source of supply and economic savings to meet the basic needs of families. Guaranteeing the control, quality and safety of food products.

The obtaining of biomass transformed into energy is used for 2 hours of TV, the blender, the refrigerator and the battery charge of the cell phone

The success of the project will be given by: positive indicators of change in eating habits by appropriate nutritional routines and prevention in diseases associated with hunger; the saving of the monthly expenses in food supply and energy of the families; the area of land destined for production and environmental sustainability; the number of people certified in the educational process. And finally the motivation and participation of people.

the incorporation of the use of residual biomass of agricultural crops to obtain energy contributes an innovation component to the process of ancestral agriculture, on the other hand it also generates significant contributions to the value chain, the feeding of the hydroponic seedlings.

it is based on the installation of models of hydroponic seedbeds that allow an adequate nutrition of the seed and is transported to the land to plant the eras, as well as two biodigesters are installed, one to transform the human organic waste and the second to transform the waste Vegetables and shrubs generated in the village. in this way energy is generated through the combustion that feeds the home and maintains the hydroponic system, which in turn generates vegetables of commercial value

When the levels of life are below the poverty line, the results of life, the misery and the last death, these are the basic elements of the diagnosis of poverty at the World level and it is called extreme poverty, according to to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). But, when poverty does not affect the person biologically, but also the way to integrate into a society, it is called moderate poverty. According to these terms, hunger, malnutrition and misery, the result of moderate poverty, the lack of opportunities for people to social and economic activity, degenerates into extreme poverty, thus being a vicious circle.
Currently, in the city of Cali, there is a high percentage of extreme poverty, according to statistical data from DANE. It is the third most important city in the Colombian territory with a population of 2.4 million inhabitants and a poverty rate of 21.9%, a problem that is evident in the periphery of the city, highlighting the areas of population settlement near the rural area, due to its majority in forced displacement to the cause of the armed conflict facing the country.

currently 15 families benefit, in a year we hope to benefit 150 and to five years we hope to benefit 1000 families

The behavior of Latin American cities has similar productive and population concentration dynamics, with a characteristic tendency to appropriation of spaces. The AGROSUPO project proposes to be a self-sustaining model with practical pedagogical guidelines, flexible and participatory, applicable in different peri-urban landscapes, in need of a productive and food system that appropriates socially and environmentally sustainable soil.
This project goes beyond the creation of gardens in family spaces of a specifically trained population, because it considers among its objectives, to reproduce the model to other places in similar conditions of precariousness, through satisfactory results economically and socially demonstrable. That is to say that the application of this model in the village of Montañuelas is a precursor of a strategy that can be implemented in peri-urban contexts of different regions and countries with inadequacies in the economic system of the cities, to comprehensively include the capacities and potential human to the production of goods and services of society.
To ensure the success of the project in non-tropical or subtropical regions, and in areas with adverse environmental conditions, it is necessary that the community and professionals of these places identify the factors of threat to the crops, and manage plans to reduce their vulnerability. , prioritizing an environmentally permissible collection of water for irrigation.

The AGROSUPO project has an agricultural productive approach that is sensitive to economic activities and adversities of a climatic nature, requiring more rational and effective risk management instruments.

From an environmental point of view: The increase in the cultivation of community gardens can have negative environmental consequences due to the intensification of exploitation. Considering the climatic and geological threats that represent a latent risk in the planning, execution and culmination of the project; even relational changes among the members of the community, because the management of the garden is, in itself, a special attraction for some of its members, in particular, the one awakened by the income generated in a possible sale of the products.

And, from an economic and technical point of view: Family gardens are highly dependent on inputs external to exploitation, such as seeds, running the risk of failing if farmers do not have the technical skills to collect their own seeds or if external suppliers are scarce . On the other hand, Alto Los Mangos path, given that it is located in hillside areas, can represent a risk if the necessary measures are not taken in the execution of techniques focused on the topography of the sector.

To mitigate the negative environmental consequences, it is intended to generate greater participation of the community in both public and private spaces, in order to establish and allocate budgets, for this purpose with the professionals of the foundation's team and the area. Generate those spaces and provide the relevant training. Parallel to this alternative, other activities derived from agriculture can be generated, in which families have other alternatives, such as, for example, the elaboration of handicrafts with the same agricultural inputs as the community of the genres or the needs that do not require of greater consumption of water and energy. Regarding economic and technical barriers, external inputs can be generated from the same crop, through technical training for the treatment of seeds to agricultural families, taking into account the characteristics of the place where they are grown. carries out the project.

NOT APPLY

THE TEAM IS COMPOSED OF 15 PEOPLE, 10 of them are full-time and 5 are part-time.

The foundation has an interdisciplinary team with experience in environmental management, among the team there are agricultural engineers, social workers, economist lawyers and political scientist, each one contributes from his profession so that the project coordinates in the best way.

At the time we received a notice from the University of Mishigan, which seeks to strengthen the project. Because the project is with the rural community, we only have the team of professionals supporting.

CLIENTS ARE LOCAL RESTAURANTS AND ORGANIC MARKETS WHO PURCHASE VALUE VEGETABLES

THE BENEFICIARIES ARE THE POPULATION OF FARMERS WHO USE THE ENERGY OBTAINED FROM THEIR PROCESS TO REDUCE COSTS IN THEIR FAMILY ECONOMY, AS WELL AS TO RECEIVE BENEFITS FOR THEIR AGRICULTURAL WORK

EMPLOYMENT MODEL AND THE MARKET INTERMEDIARY MODEL ARE CURRENTLY USED FIGURES TO GENERATE SUSTAINABILITY TO THE PROJECT.
ON THE OTHER HAND, SUBSIDIES THAT LET THE PROJECT GROWTH WILL BE SEARCHED.

WE HOPE TO FIND THE SUPPORT FOR GROWTH OF THE VALUE PROPOSAL

NO APPLY

1. AFRICAN AGRICULTURAL BANK
2. ROCKEFELLERT FOUNDATION
3. UNIVERSITIES

WE WOULD LIKE TO APPLY TO THE AWARD SECTION TO HIGHLIGHT THE WORK OF THE COLOMBIAN PEASANTS, THE PRIZE WOULD BE USED IN SCALING THE PROPOSAL TO EXPAND THE REACH

WE WOULD LIKE TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THE AWARD AND TO VISIBILIZE THE ACTIONS OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE RURAL AREA TO IMPROVE THEIR SITUATION OF POVERTY, WITH THE PRIZE THE PEASANTS WOULD HAVE ACCESS TO EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGICAL RESOURCES

WE WILL USE THE PRIZE IN THE LINKAGE AND TRAINING OF MORE PEASANT WOMEN

WE WILL USE THE PRIZE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN APPLICATION THAT ALLOWS US TO REGISTER THE TIMES OF GERMINATION OF THE HYDROPONIC SEEDS, WE WILL ALSO MEASURE THE AMOUNT OF BIOFUELS BECOMING ENERGY