As this project addresses Climate Change and it addresses a globally important topic and reducing the change of climate in this way and the Global impact was also addressed in the awareness raising component of the training programs. The digitally made boards that describe the project at each location also help promote public awareness.
It is influenced by the policy of UNFCCC ( Unoited Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Replication of project activities
It was mentioned that other bakery owners and brick manufacturers are eager to replicate this method.
Project sustainability
The bakery owners and the brick manufacturers are happy withy the benefits ? more economic; better product; less wastage- of the new technology and many have plans to expand their business. In the long term this method can be popularized for more bakeries in the district using the current beneficiaries and their successes as examples for emulating. The free availability in most places of paddy husks is a positive aspect of this project and addresses two problems forest conservation and piling up and stagnation.
The brick makers have also gained in that they have more bricks that are sellable as an end product making it more profitable. They are happy to adopt the new land use methods that will increase the life span of the land making the benefits visibly and the land owners happier where land has been leased out
Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods
The livelihood of brick making was impacting on the land that they used to cut soils to manufacture brick- circular pits which filled up as water holes in the rainy season and made the land unstable and prone to caving in. The new land use method is more sustainable ? strips which are filled to ground level. Transformation - using less firewood as fuel in the brick making and sometimes only paddy husk for baking has also added to the sustainability of their livelihood.
Planning non gef grant
The local government authorities especially the Technical Development Board of the Amapara district is involved and would help scale up the project
Capacity - Building Component
The training programs contributed much to the capacity building of the selected beneficiaries. The quicker, better looking product of the bakeries and the reduced cost of the alternate fuel ?paddy husk (most times free) make their enterprise worth expanding. The brick makers too are now able to produce bricks that are not burnt and reduce the wastage.
Notable Community Participation
There was community participation which is notable in the assessing of the methods after the field trip if they were suitable to be adapted. Also after the transformation to the alternate fuel and the changed ovens and brick kilns the assessment of their performance was participatory. The building of the new kilns was also participatory.
Planning gef grant
They are ready to as there are more trained participants who initially took part in the project trainings who have observed the advantages and are hoping for assistance. This is an important project for this whole district and its impact would be more if it covered the 2 industries entirely.
Gender Focus
Training has been for both men and women in the 2 industries. We met two very impressive women owners of a bakery and a brick kiln. The woman being a mother of two who had lost her husband was very happy with the new technology. She was assisted by men including her second husband. The brick kiln owner said that she found that men of this village were lazy to work under her but had found able assistants form her home village where she said people were more inclined to work hard. They were good leaders and felt they had overcome life?s obstacles. In the brick industry the women were never owners but were participating in the manufacture.
Project Results
? Transforming bakeries from using firewood to using paddy husks has stopped the impact on the forest by project beneficiaries, completely.
? There is a 40% reduction in the use of firewood by project beneficiaries involved in brick making.
? The new technology reduces the impact on the land in the brick making industry by 30% owing to better land use methods. The earlier practice of cutting circular pits of soil and leaving them as holes on the land has changed to cutting rectangular strips which are about 3.5 ft wide and never more than 5 ft deep ( depth is determined by soil texture). A 1 ft gap has to be left between any two strips and once the soil is removed they are filled with ash and leaf litter to the surface level. The instability of the land that caves in with too many pits and the unsanitary conditions such as breeding of mosquitoes with the onset of rains is avoided by this method.
? Bakery owners save around Rs.25, 000/- of monthly expenditure on firewood when taken as an average. They obtain paddy husks free or at Rs.5/- a bag totaling to Rs.100/- as cost while 3 bicycles of firewood are needed per baking program costing Rs.750/-.
? 40% increase in the efficiency of brick production. Less time taken in the new Kilns ? 10 hours less in Padiyatalawa ? Kehelulla where there is total firewood usage owing to lack of access to paddy husks. This results in reducing the firewood usage by 2/3rds which is very important as these bakers collect firewood from the forest reserve- protected area.
? Better bricks and less wastage by burning- the outer lining of bricks too can be used owing to the new slanting walls that facilitate even heat distribution.
? Ash made form paddy husks is packed and sold as fetrtilser. It is removed when black and mixed with water before it whitens and becomes the dust like substance that is easily blown by strong winds creating environmental hazards.
? The bread is nicer looking - more presentable as the top does not burn when using paddy husks. The baking time is less in the new ovens.
? The attention needed is more as the time taken at the oven is greater as someone has to be there filling paddy husks though firewood can be arranged and the bakers can get on with some other work. However the environmental benefits and the over all benefits in quality and profits overweigh this factor.
? Another challenge and drawback is the fluctuation of electricity in some sites eg. Gonalgala. Yet, they too preferred the profitability factor as paddy husk was freely available there. The bakers state that the new method brings them an additional income of Rs.10,000/-
