Ebebe, a farmer participating in the apple growing project
British fruit drink company innocent drinks (through its innocent foundation) works with organizations in the countries where its fruit is sourced in order to create sustainable futures for impoverished rural families. IDE-UK and innocent have partnered on a project that helps small farmers in Ethiopia start to grow apples which can be sold at market to generate additional income. So far, the project has helped 226 farmers get started in the apple business; it’s a great example of IDE’s method in action. Read more about it at innocent drinks’ blog.
A New Growing Season
At the beginning of growing season 2009, we hosted a program called “Drip Kits for Donors” in which interested donors to IDE received, as a thank you gift, a version of our family nutrition kit which retails for $3-5 in the Asian countries where we work, and is designed to irrigate “kitchen gardens” of around 20 square meters in size. We had a lot of interest in the program here in Colorado and other states, but also from as far away as Mongolia where a Peace Corps volunteer wanted to test drip irrigation on tomatoes at a friend’s greenhouse in Muron, Khovsgul Aimag where she serves as a business advisor. In fact, our Mongolian Peace Corps Volunteer got the last kit we had in stock here in Denver.
It’s clear that we received so much interest in this initiative as a result of what can be fairly termed a snowball effect occurring in vegetable gardening and small-scale urban farming over the last couple seasons here in the developed world.
On a project level, this year we’re hearing from even more individuals and orgs interested in collaborations with us, whether they be small NGOs in African villages working on entrepreneurship education, foundations in Asia promoting best practices in “Bottom of the Pyramid” BOP design, or larger agricultural concerns looking to give back to the developing countries they source from by supporting more sustainable income generation models we at IDE specialize in.
From this desk, I can definitely say that awareness of, and interest in, our work and model has grown exponentially from last year. The emails and phone calls are streaming in.
So, as a small inspiration for the fast-approaching gardening season here in the US, see below for a few photos from last season showing the grassroots nature of the support for our model of development — from the mountains of Colorado to the Mongolian steppe.
IDE donors at Willow Creek Church in suburban Chicago set up an annual exhibit highlighting agricultural work in Africa.
Tim and Mary Taylor's elk proof, IDE drip-irrigated vegetable beds in the Colorado Mountains
Nick Gruber of Produce Denver packs up some harvested crops grown with IDE drip irrigation for his urban CSA.
Produce Denver's James Hale fills an IDE header bag in the front yard of a client who has given over land to their urban CSA.
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