Certified 72h Permaculture Design Course, Konso, Ethiopia: Permaculture for the Rural African Environment – Oriented towards food security development for rural communities lead by Tichafa Makovere; Strawberry Fields Eco-Lodge: June 07 – 17, 2010.
Tichafa Makovere, lead trainer for the re-SCOPE (Regional Permaculture in Schools and Colleges) initiative and the Fimbadzanai Permaculture Centre in Zimbabwe, is to lead a 10 day residential PDC (English language medium) in Konso, South Ethiopia in June 2010. This PDC focuses on application of Permaculture to semi arid environments in rural Africa, of particular relevance to those wanting to apply PC in the rural developing world. Attention is given to appropriate technology, soil and water harvesting, indigenous knowledge systems and Permaculture in schools as a key focus point for the community, and a chance to influence the coming generation.
We use SFEL’s model PC site as the primary example for demonstration, as well visiting implementation sites on our Permaculture in Konso Schools Project (PKSP) for design examples.
We also look at Konso’s renowned indigenous agricultural system and incorporating IKS (Indigenous Knowledge Systems) into Permaculture Design.
We can also include day long field-trips to wet-highland Afro-montaine, wet-tropical lowland and dry agro-pastoral lowland agro-climactic zones, upon request, and can incorporate design examples from these environments into the PDC.
Konso itself is a food in-secure area in southern Ethiopia sitting in the bowl of the Great Rift Valley. It has a semi-arid (k’olla) ecology, with sorghum, maize and sunflower as major crops. The people are well known for their hard work, complex social organisation and sophisticated agriculture, which makes extensive use of stone wall terracing for soil and water conservation.
Course Cost is $650 for those registering by 01 May (with a $100 deposit) and $700 there-after (there is a 50% discount for self-financing Ethiopians). The fee includes 2 weeks accommodation with food in the lodge but excludes transport to Konso.
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”Lincolns Gettysburg address
Bill Mollison explains FDR’s Great Depression program the Civilian Conservation Corps (possibly the most popular such New Deal program) and its permaculture work swaling in dry landscapes. It is a response to a comment on the post”The unemployed should besiege the Obama administration”
As in Transition Towns, Klimaforum09 and other larger-scale permaculture projects, we need to work with governments, or more correctly make government work for us. See Klimaforum’s 10 000 Trees Strategy which will be funded by a 100 Euro/tonne Carbon Tax or watch for Transition Towns Totnes upcoming book on Working with Local Government.
Bill Mollison Father of Permaculture Shares his Wisdom on Dryland Systems, to find out more about Bill and his work please visit; www.tagari.com
The CCC performed 300 possible types of work projects within ten approved general classifications: 1) Structural Improvements: bridges, fire towers, service buildings; 2) Transportation: truck trails, minor roads, foot trails and airport landing fields; 3) Erosion Control: check dams, terracing and vegetable covering; 4) Flood Control: irrigation, drainage, dams, ditching, channel work, riprapping; 5) Forest Culture: planting trees and shrubs, timber stand improvement, seed collection, nursery work; 6) Forest Protection: fire prevention, fire presuppression, fire fighting, insect and disease control; 7) Landscape and Recreation: public camp and picnic ground development, lake and pond site clearing and development; 8 ) Range: stock driveways, elimination of predatory animals; 9) Wildlife: stream improvement, stocking fish, food and cover planting; 10) Miscellaneous: emergency work, surveys, mosquito control.[3] The typical so-called CCC enrollee was a U.S. citizen, unmarried, unemployed male, 18–20 years of age. Each enrollee volunteered, and upon passing a physical exam was required to serve a minimum six month period with the option to serve as much as two years. He lived in a work camp, received $30 a month (with a compulsory allotment $22–25 sent to a dependent) as well as food, clothing and medical care.[4]
The CCC became one of the more popular New Deal programs among the general public, providing economic relief, rehabilitation and training for a total of 3 million men. The CCC also provided a comprehensive work program that combined conservation, renewal, awareness and appreciation of the nation’s natural resources.[5] The CCC was never considered a permanent program and depended on emergency and temporary legislation for its existence.[6] On 30 June 1942 Congress voted to terminate funding for the CCC, formally ceasing active operation of the program
During the President’s brief stop at Camp Nira [S.N.P. CCC Camp #3], he was treated to a brief pageant entitled “The burial of old man depression and fear and the return of happy days.”… two C.C.C. members, one with a banner “C.C.C.” and the other with the symbol “NIRA” [National Industrial Recovery Act], marched toward a covered object labeled “fear.” As the torchbearers set fire to “fear”… The covering destroyed, [and] “Old Man Depression” was revealed in effigy. This too was fired and the President happily commented, “that’s right, burn him up.”…The bugler played “Happy Days Are Here Again” as the President…applauded.{2}
Konso is the little area in southern Ethiopia where Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge is based. It has suffered repeated food insecurity over the last 50 years.
Konso land is poor quality and the country is cut up by deep eroded gullies and canyons. Rain is unreliable, increasingly so in recent years. These harsh conditions have bred what some call ‘the toughest farmers in Africa’. Tough, they certainly are. And the Konso are very good farmers. “The major economic base is agriculture (80%) and 20% only is butchery, weaving, pottery, black smithery, petty local brewery trades, tannery and local carpentry.” (Korra Gara, 2008) The most notable feature of their renowned agricultural system is its terracing, constructed over large tracts of the rugged landscape by centuries of communal labour. The terraces reduce erosion and are carefully crafted to balance the competing demands of maximizing water infiltration, with allowing adequate drainage so that the terraces do not collapse in times of heavy rain.
Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge
Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge is a multifaceted project working in the Konso Special Woreda, which integrates an Eco Lodge, model Permaculture farm (the first in Ethiopia) and PC design training centre and consultancy facility. Our resident trainer, Mr Tichafa Makovere from Zimbabwe has practised Permaculture in southern Africa for more than 15 years and is a veteran of the SCOPE (Schools and Colleges Outreach Permaculture Program) which has been tremendously successful in training and implementing Permaculture in schools around southern Africa in the last decades. SFEL, with Tichafa’s help, now seeks to repeat these successes in southern Ethiopia. So far SFEL has given the PDC to 13 school teachers in Konso and begun implementation in 5 Konso schools, working in partnership with Save the Children Finland and other NGOs.
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Bill Mollison explains FDR’s Great Depression program the Civilian Conservation Corps (possibly the most popular such New Deal program) and its permaculture work swaling in dry landscapes. It is a response to a 
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