At Mano a Mano’s Center for Ecological Agriculture (CEA), one of the main goals is to provide training to Bolivians that improves their food security and agricultural outcomes in an environmentally-friendly way.
Learning How to Build a Biodigester
Yesterday our agronomist Camila Yavira Garcia was teaching a group of students how to build a biodigester, which is used to convert livestock manure into methane, which can then be used as fuel.
Mano a Mano agronomist Camila with a group of students at the CEA.
Students learning how to build a biodigester.
Mano a Mano’s co-founder Segundo Velasquez is currently traveling in Bolivia and visited the CEA yesterday, which is showing impressing results:
We did see the CEA biodigester operating beautifully. Big, blue and white flames burning at max capacity because we have way too much manure.
[Mano a Mano volunteer] Frank and I toured the facility and we were impressed at every turn. Even in full winter, new crops are planted and already growing.
Mano a Mano’s sample biodigester on our CEA site.
CEA Workshops this Year
The CEA has had 92 visitors so far this year – 38 in 2 workshops, and 54 visitors. In addition, students from Aldeas SOS regularly visit the CEA for learning workshops; so far there have been 5 workshops with SOS students in the following subject areas:
- Ecological production
- Integrated management of plagues/blights and sickness
- Dry bathrooms
- Protected cultivation
- Making organic fertilizer
We will be having many more visitors as the year progresses; we will also have a number of student groups from Cochabamba that travel to the CEA as a field trip, as well as many visitors traveling from elsewhere (like this group from Minnesota that participated in a Food and Farming Trip to Bolivia in March; check out pictures from their trip HERE).
Schoolkids visiting our CEA and learning about agriculture with Mano a Mano’s agronomist Camila in September 2013.
We are very excited for the growth and progress of our CEA program, which addresses a huge need for rural Bolivian farmers to improve agriculture in their communities.