Simplified Hydroponics to reduce hunger and poverty in India
Peggy Bradley1, Wilfried O. Baudoin2, C.V.Prakash3 and B.S.Prabhakar4
Abstract
According to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO),
over 200 million, or about one-fifth of India’s population, is chronically hungry. A
strategy is proposed to offer families in hunger in India to participate in a program to
establish a home garden to produce 668 calories of vegetables, or 2 kilos a day. The
cost of the garden for a family is estimated at $200 for initial setup and $150 a year
for operation. For the 200 million people in hunger, estimated to be 50 million
families, the cost for India to provide a garden to every family in need is about 20
billion dollars. Costs include the phase 1 (demonstration garden setup and training of
300 people) $US 106,000, phase 2 (demonstration gardens and training set up in 35
Indian states with training of 2000 people in each state) at $US 7,577,500, phase 3 at
(training 50 million families and establishing 50 million gardens) at 22.5 billion
dollars.
1. Executive Director, Institute of Simplified Hydroponics, USA
2.
3. Executive Director, Pet Bhuro Project, Bangalore India
4. Principal Scientist (retired), ICAR, India
Introduction
According to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO), over
200 million, or about one-fifth of India’s population, is chronically hungry. ndia has a
higher rate of malnutrition among children under the age of three (46% in year 2007)
than any other country in the world.[3][6]
One possible method to reduce hunger is to provide a family micro-garden for the
estimated 50 million families in hunger. The cost of this, if offered to every family, is
about 17.5 billion dollars. The start up costs to initiate the gardens is $200 per family and
the cost of annual operation is estimated at $150.
There are additional costs in starting and operating a national and state training centers,
and then expenses in carrying on training courses.
Background
Intensive backyard and community gardens have been helpful in ending hunger, one
family at a time. A family garden can produce a large part of the daily vegetables
required and therefore reduce the cost of food. In the past 25 years, projects have been
started in 20 countries. Of those countries, some have been extremely successful, and
others have been instructive in potentials for failure.
Cuba organoponics
For years Cuba had been dependent on trade subsidies and imports from their Soviet
allies. With the collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1989, Cuba was plunged into a
serious economic crisis known as the Special Period. By 1990, Cuba had lost 85 % of its
imports including both agricultural inputs and food. Food imports had accounted for 57
% of Cuban caloric intake (Murphy, 1999). The demise of the USSR devastated Cuba's
agriculture due to the loss of 80% of its fertilizer and pesticide imports (Warwick, 1999).
The lack of agricultural imports forced Cuba to diversify farming practices and to adopt
methods of organic agriculture. The Cuban government launched a nation wide urban
agriculture movement as an alternative source of food security. Several different types of
gardens have emerged in response to the special Period including
Hydroponics: These gardens are located in vacant lots in urban and periurban areas.
Plants are cultivated in a nutrient rich solution which passes through an inert planting
medium.
Organoponics These gardens are located in vacant lots in urban and periurban areas
where the soil is not cultivable, thus cultivation takes place in raised beds or concrete
containers. Organoponics usually uses an organic fertilizer such as worm castings,
biodigester effluent or composted materials.
The garden beds, made from anything which does not allow light to penetrate (preventing
algal growth), are often lined with waterproof black plastic. The growing media can be
made from any number of locally-available materials, including bamboo, coconut fibre
and gravel. In Senegal, for example, gardeners use a mixture of rice hulls, sand, peanut
shells and peat moss.
Because hydroponic agriculture recycles nutrients, it requires less water, and does not
leach excess fertilizers into the environment. Energy is not a constraint because no
electrical or mechanical devices are needed. And, while many urban gardeners use
commercial inorganic fertilizers, organic nutrients can be derived from garden plant
waste, composted chicken manure or bat guano.
Simplified hydroponics used to fight hunger and poverty
The most successful projects, such as Cuba and Venezuela, have received strong
government commitment. In Venezuela's oil-dominated economy, the poor are 85 per
cent urban. Urban agriculture provides a way to tackle urban poverty whilst reducing the
need for imported food.
In Mexico, Mexico ISH supports city projects in Tehuacán in two illegal slums and in a
women's prison. ISH-Mexico founder and coordinator, José Martín Atela Echevarría,
says that a large number of children abandoned by their families due to food shortages
are now benefiting from school-based ISH projects. In addition to growing techniques,
children also learn how to make infusions and extracts of onion, garlic, basil, oregano,
and other medicinal plants to sell at local markets. "Once the children learn these skills,"
says Atela Echevarria, "many are able to return home." (Treena Hein, 2007).
Simplified Hydroponics in India
The Institute of Simplified Hydroponics, USA along with Institute of Simplified
Hydroponics, India has launched the “Pet Bharo – Hydroponics for sustainability”
project, in Bangalore in January, 2009. The project aims to empower the people of
India by making available low cost, easy to learn hydroponics or soilless production that
does not call for any degree of literacy or prior farming experience. The project is to help
the people in rural and urban settlements to achieve sustainable livelihood, by
dissemination of knowledge and supplying the associated tools to grow vegetables, fruits,
ornamentals and herbs.
Already established in India, the first demonstration garden is located in a homeless
shelter in a suburb of Bangalore. The first demonstration garden is a 20m2 garden to
provide 2 kg of vegetables a day to feed homeless children. The shelter is connected to a
private elementary school, Sandra Ricketts School, and is operated by the children at the
shelter.
The Pet Bharo (Full stomach) project initiated a training program to train Master Trainers
in simplified hydroponics through the months of January and February in Bangalore.
Over 100 people were trained in this initiation phase, and about 65 received certificates
for becoming Master Trainers. The training was all performed by a team of experts from
ISH international, and Australia.
Master Trainers from The Pet Bharo project initiated a blog for the Master Trainers to
compare information and is now organizing further training sessions in Bangalore to
train more master trainers. A garden owner course will also be initiated for people who
wish to grow hydroponic food at their homes.
SH garden produces 2 kilos of vegetables a day per 20m2 space
A 20 m2 garden of simplified hydroponics should produce about 2 kilos of fresh
vegetables every day (Table 1).
Table 1. Expected daily vegetable production from a
micro-garden average range ( 2 kilos per day)
Area in Grams per
m2
Day
2
113
2
226
1
57
Vegetables
Carrot
Cucumber
Garlic
Ginger
Eggplant
Bitter
Gourd
Green
Bean
Onion
Peapod
Potato
Lady
fingers
(Okra)
Greens
Tomato
Total:
20
National Potential
Ounces
per Day
4
8
2
Calories
50
30
85
Proteins
1.2
1.6
3.63
CarboFats hydrates
0.22
12
0.3
6
0.28
18.84
1
1
57
113
2
4
46
37
1.04
0.94
0.43
0.26
10.13
9.2
1
168
6
54
6.05
0.34
10.35
2
2
1
2
226
113
113
226
8
4
4
8
70
44
47
180
4.12
1.3
3.16
4.78
0.28
0.18
0.23
0.24
16
10
9
40
1
2
2
168
226
226
6
8
8
50
58
48
3
6
2
0.34
0.46
0.74
7
12
10
2032
72
668
34.15
3.59
170.52
If every hungry family is India had a home hydroponic garden, there would be 50 million
gardens producing 100 million kilograms of food every day. The produced food would
add 668 calories to each family diet.
This would mean that of the 200 million making less than $2.00 a day, perhaps as many
as 20 million would double family income. For each person now making $2.00 a day or
less, most of the daily income is spent on food. With the hydroponic garden this need is
reduced, and they can buy the rice, beans lentils and wheat in bulk, perhaps creating a
small food supply. This increases national food security, a population more prepared for
emergencies. A reliable steady supply of fresh vegetables should improve overall health
of the population.
Family costs
A garden can be started for about $200 investment and labour of about 15 hours. It needs
a space of 20m2, but smaller gardens can also be built on rooftops, balconies, sunny
patios. As the gardens become established technology they can be designed into new
housing, and retrofitted into much of the existing housing. A garden starts to be
productive within 60 days and fully productive in 90 days. With a protective structure the
garden can also be productive in difficult climates of too much rain or cold. This structure
may cost $200 in India.
Process – Phase 1
The simplified hydroponic gardens was introduced to India through a pilot project at
Sandra Ricketts school that set up the first demonstration garden. This demonstration
garden was used to test local available substrates and containers, and a locally produced
inorganic hydroponic nutrient. This early garden still needs to be evolved to local
conditions and tested to establish local costs and daily production.
In this first stage, 65 Master Trainers have been trained at the demonstration garden.
These early efforts have been accomplished through the efforts of local businessmen and
help from local NGO and International ISH. The master trainers were trained in a three
day training course at the Sandra Ricketts school. This training course is supported by a
nine lesson course on DVD that can help the Master Trainers teach the technology to
others.
Phase 1 will be completed when 300 Master Trainers have been trained at the
demonstration garden and 35 have been identified to begin the set up of state Institutes.
The estimated cost of this phase will be about 106,000 dollars and of this amount about
35,000 has already been donated or spent on the startup phase. About 67,000 is still
needed to complete this phase.
Phase 2 - Regional Training Centers
To expand the existing training infrastructure, a regional demonstration garden is
proposed for every state in India and every territory, a total of 35 training centers. These
initial gardens will allow the technology be adapted to local conditions in each state. The
costs of setting up the regional training centers with demonstration gardens are estimated
at about $16,500.00 for the first year or a total cost of $577,500 for the initial garden
training center setup.
The states and territories of India vary in size from less than a million to over 92 million
people. Each state will have its own local products available for making gardens, its own
vegetable preferences and its own challenges with local climate variations. So each state
ISH is responsible for setting up the first demonstration garden, and going through the
challenges of adapting the technology for local conditions.
Each state ISH training center will be capable of training about 2000 Master trainers. The
center should receive $100 for training each successful Master trainer, and the cost of
training 70,000 Master trainers is 7 million dollars.
Phase 3 -Training Family Garden owners
Each Master Trainer should set up a demonstration garden to teach garden owners in the
area. While the master trainers garden course takes three intense days of training, the
garden owner course can be accomplished in a two day course. Each master trainer can
train about ten garden owners at a time, with a potential to train 725 garden owners in a
year.
In this phase, the master trainers train the 50 million families in poverty and the garden
owners actually set up and operate the gardens. The state can release funds to a family
being trained in simplified hydroponics, in the form of kits offered in the garden setup
process.
Family costs
Training $100
Garden setup $200
Garden materials $150
The total costs for all 50 million families in poverty would be about 22.5 billion dollars.
The training costs associated with this phase (500 million dollars) continue support of
the garden centers.
Expected benefits
The basic and most obvious benefit is a part time employment with direct income for 200
million people in India now in hunger and poverty. The employment amounts to a
production of calories at about 668 per day per family, or about 150 calories in additional
food for each of the 200 million now in hunger. Since the early 1950’s, government has
initiated, sustained, and tried to help the poor attain self sufficiency in food production.
Probably the most important initiative has been the supply of basic commodities,
particularly food at controlled prices, available throughout the country as poor spend
about 80 percent of their income on food.
It gives people the ability to feed themselves on a smaller piece of land, without causing
people to be forced into begging or reaching for a government handout. This change is in
building self esteem of the very poor instead of reducing the incentive and
entrepreneurial incentive of those in need.
The labor cost of the gardens is estimated to be two hours a day per 20m2 garden, or the
garden labor will be about 100 million hours per day of productive labor. This can be
labor of women or children currently unemployed or underemployed.
The increase in vegetables consumed should have a direct benefit in the need for social
welfare benefits, and it should have a direct payoff in human health costs for India.
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