Goducate encourages its workers and its projects to be self-supporting.
Last year, my family and three other volunteer families in Laguna, Philippines, began growing oyster mushrooms as a means of generating income to support ourselves and our community programmes. We are helped by Goducate sponsors who contribute to the capital costs of this project.
The “farms” (sheds that provide a relatively cool environment for the mushrooms) are located in two villages, one of the farms being shared by three families. The harvest gives each family about PhP4000 (USD 77) per month, which contributes substantially towards the families’ needs.
The project also enables some schoolchildren to earn some money for their school transport. These children help to put mushroom spawn and the substrate into bags. My six foster children (two in college and 4 in high school) also earn some money for their transport by helping with the harvesting.
Schoolchildren doing the “bagging”
Goducate is helping the government’s Family Development Session, a programme for the poor. We are helping with the Sustainable Livelihood section of this programme, and have been asked to introduce mushroom farming to the community.
Jonatan and wife Stephanie, in charge of music programme in the community
The conversion of solid palm-oil-mill wastes such as empty fruit bunches (EFB) and palm pressed fibers (PPF) into organic fertilizer has been a major challenge to Central Plantations Group (CPG) in Pekanbaru, Riau, Indonesia. The company had invested heavily in imported machinery to speed up the thermophilic composting process, but the high-energy cost in operating the equipment has rendered it idle.
Andrew, the managing director of CPG, learned that Goducate provides technical support to those interested in vermicomposting. His main focus is on how the palm-oil-mill residues can be fed to earthworms as an economically useful alternative to natural composting, which can take up to six months to complete due to the slow rate of decomposition.
Five months ago, Andrew and his partners purchased 1.5 tons of earthworms from some suppliers in Java and stocked them into 20 vermibeds, each measuring 10.5 sq m. To ascertain whether or not the workers were following the best practices in vermicomposting, Andrew invited us to visit the project to learn from us.
We observed that, aside from some red worms, Lumbricus rubellus was the dominant earthworm species in the vermibeds. We recommended the gradual stocking of African Night Crawlers (ANCs), known scientifically as Eudrilus eugeniae, and multiplying them into large populations, because these are considered the most efficient above-soil-surface composting earthworm in the tropics. Lumbricus is a temperate-sourced earthworm and thrives very well in highlands like those in Bandung and the Karo Highlands. Additionally, unlike ANCs, Lumbricus is an efficient composter of animal manure rather than carbon-based residues like palm-oil-mill wastes.
We also explained that the residual nutrient contents from empty fruit bunches and palm pressed fibers are of low percentages. To produce quality vermicast, we suggested the addition of animal manure from cattle, horses, goat, sheep, or native chickens. The dung from commercially-fed chicken broilers is not ideal for earthworms because it contains traces of antibiotics, which can neutralize the bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and other microbes that serve as food for earthworms. The food combination should ideally be 500 kilos of animal manure for every 3,000 kilos of empty fruit bunches and palm pressed fibers.
Some of the other recommendations we shared with Andrew was the relocation of the vermicomposting project to a bigger site and adjacent to CPG’s palm-oil mill to reduce the transportation costs of raw materials. Another piece of advice was to shift from manual to mechanized operations if the company’s long-term goal is to have a daily vermicast output 10 tons.
Finally, we also encouraged CPG to help popularize vermicomposting through seminars and training, in order to help needy Indonesian farmers help themselves.
The 20-vermibed set-upLocally fabricated mechanical sieve for separating earthworms from vermicast
Because of the economic, nutritional, and medicinal benefits of Moringa oleifera, Goducate has recently launched the GMorE initiatives in Indonesia. GMorE is an acronym for Goducate Moringa Explosion, which underscores the relevance of training and assisting needy Indonesians in the production, processing, and utilization of Moringa.
In the Philippines, Moringa is widely accepted as vegetable by all households. The recent declaration of Moringa as the country’s national vegetable and November as the national Moringa month by the Philippine Congress has highlighted further its importance to the Filipino diet.
In Indonesia, however, a not insignificant percentage of the whole population still remains unaware of the vegetable although it has been promoted by the World Health Organization for the past 20 years as low-cost health enhancer in developing countries.
As strategy to encourage Indonesians to grow Moringa, Goducate is putting up a Moringa Demonstration and Training Center in Medan, North Sumatra. It has also partnered with farming and business entities in Bandung, Jakarta, and Pekan Baru for Moringa production in areas ranging from two to five hectares. The resource endowments will be provided by the partner-groups while the technical assistance will come from the Goducate agricultural team.
Through GMorE, Goducate envisions to impact the lives of Indonesians by teaching them about Moringa and the numerous socio-economic benefits that can be derived from it.
Planting the first Moringa seedling in GMorE demonstration and training siteGMorE team in action
