Chapter 2: the productivity of Permaculture
2.4 Contribution of Permaculture to dietary, income and basic household needs
2.4.1 Contribution to dietary households needs
國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
23
2.4 Contribution of Permaculture to dietary, income and basic household needs
To begin with this part, the survey made in the United Kingdom regarding the mix vegetables systems needs to be further studied. After getting the results of the survey, they scaled them up by doing some calculations in order to get a glimpse of what impact this production could have on a much larger scale. They observed that there are 216 millions of households in Europe. Among these households, 15% - which represents 324 000 households – possess a land where they grow their own food. Permaculture Association found out that if all these households could produce a 10 x 10 meter plot of food using their system, they could produce over a million tons of food a year. Furthermore, question was asked about how people perceived the activity of growing their own food. The answer was these households do not see it as a job, they see it as a leisure activity, an enjoyment activity and a learning activity.
Therefore, if all the households agree, potentially 75.6 million tons of food could be grown in Europe just in households. Of course, some are bigger; some have more land, some less, etc.
Nonetheless, these calculations were made so as to get a rough idea of the food production potential that could be done with the help of Permaculture techniques. And the potential turned to be quite interesting. Small amounts duplicated on a larger scale can have a big impact.
2.4.1 Contribution to dietary households needs
Implementing Permaculture in households would benefit society as a whole because it has the potential to help families individually. As many Permaculture professionals say, such as Eric Escoffier (2015), it is perhaps the time to “claim back the ownership of our production means”. It is perhaps the time to take with old rural traditions and decide to grow our own food. Not only this is doable, but also the benefits that can be taken out from this are quite considerable.
In 1997, the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) in Australia
implemented a Permaculture Pilot Project (PPP) at a kindergarten in Ain El Baida, a suburb of
‧
國立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
24
Tufileh, Jordan. The project turned to be very successful and was implemented afterwards by Ain El Baida Voluntary Society on larger scales as they loaned money to 50 poor families to implement the PPP in their own homes. The project was to grow many types of fruit trees and vegetables (olive, grape, cucumber and tomato), as well as small animals (rabbits, goats, chickens and pigeons) using a rooftop rainwater systems and greywater reuse systems to irrigate the production (in the case of the kindergarten, greywater was derived from hand washing). Following this, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) evaluated the consequences of the project. They did a survey of 15 families out of the 50 that received a loan to help them in the implementation of the project. Most families in the survey (87%) used part of the loan to use greywater coming mostly from the kitchen and the bathroom to irrigate vegetables, fruits and herbs.
Figure 5: Greywater irrigation system Note : reproduced from www.greywater.com, Lindstrom (2000)
The results of the survey showed that a Permaculture project using greywater irrigation systems could considerably help poor urban populations. Although Jordan has a human
‧
and rapidly growing population, the poor, who are increasingly moving to cities, face growing food and water insecurity. Even so, thanks to this project, the urban poor of Ain El Baida increased their access to food and water, especially in a region where water is scarce. They also improved their food and water security since they had access to more nutritious food that they could not grow before under “usual’ conditions, so they were able to diversify their production. Finally, they were able to save valuable fresh water for drinking instead of irrigating.Wills, Chinemana and Rudolph (2009) realized a similar survey in Johannesburg, South Africa. The survey is based on a project called the Siyakhana project. This project aimed to set up a plot of land of 1 hectare in Johannesburg City Parks in 2006 with the objective of growing fruits and vegetables and providing food for children attending early-childhood development centers and for the beneficiaries of non-governmental organizations providing home-based care for people living with HIV/AIDS. Again, a survey was made to measure the impact of the project on this South African population. Although the impact on health is not yet measurable, the project still improved food security in this urban area given that it increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables (the amounts of fruits and vegetables available and consumed in South Africa being quite low). The knowledge that they acquired also helped them in their choices and improved their overall health (what to eat, what not to eat, how to effectively use medicinal plants, etc.).
These two projects partly proved that diversification of food that Permaculture helps to ensure food security thanks to the diverse diet it can provide, but also thanks to the positive interactions that the different elements of a Permaculture system have, bringing up a better yield and better output quality. In addition and maybe more importantly, a Permaculture system relying on diversification helps to ensure a year-round food security since foods of the systems are harvested at different times of the year. Therefore, a shortage on food seldom appears as there is a constant food supply based on diversification. This is in total opposition with monocultures such as monocropping (wheat, corn). Indeed, they only benefit from two
‧
massive harvests a year but are unable to ensure a healthy diet. Plus, their harvest production can only last one season. Even so, Modern Agriculture has brought an excessive focus on growing just one single crop, providing their population a diet centered too much around a type of cereal. This cereal centered diet leads to undernutrition (lack of protein, fat and micronutrients). Permaculture at the contrary decreases this undernutrition with its diversification-centered diet.
A last survey realized in South Africa further demonstrates the overall increase of nutrition due to access to diverse food. In this country, as in many other developing countries, Vitamin A deficiency continues to be a major health problem, especially among pre-school children, whose intakes are low and who belong to populations that cannot afford to buy supplements.
In that context, a study was carried out in Ndunakazi, a mountainous rural village in South Africa. A home-gardening program, focusing on the production of yellow and dark-green leafy vegetables was implemented with a community-based growth-monitoring system in this village. The results are as follows:
- Establishment of 126 home gardens within the village
- Increase of yellow and dark-green leafy vegetables daily intakes among children
- Percentage of children who consumed provitamin A–rich vegetables at least once a week increased (range: 2 to 68%)
- Significant increase of serum retinol concentrations (Vitamin A) among children
Thus, a home-gardening program focusing on the production on yellow dark-green leafy vegetables significantly increased the Vitamin A intakes of pre-school children in a South African village.