Project Detail

Enhancing Innovative Initiatives for Adaptation and Mitigation Through Demonstration of Self-Powered Agro-Photovoltaic Vertical Hydroponic Liquid Compost System in Communities within The Makgadikgadi Framework Management Plan

Botswana is known to be a semi-arid region; it is hot and dry most of the year with erratic, most unpredictable and regional rainfall. Global changes in climatic conditions have worsened the conditions. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change?s (IPCC) special report published on 10 October 2018, reported that the 1.5? global warming above pre- industrial levels lead to Botswana?s average temperature increase above industrial baseline by 2.2 Celsius thus 2.8 Celsius warming experience. Projections has also shown Botswana having 10 more dry days per year and expect roughly 50 more days of heatwaves. Comprehending that the different levels of warming will occur, and that these will impact negatively on susceptible sectors like agriculture, health and water therefore critical for urgent adaptation plans [5]. Furthermore, the replacement of fossil fuels by renewable energies aims mostly at meeting the global affordable energy demand while ensuring balance in sustainability of the environment, social and economic aspects. Nonetheless, it needs large areas of land at the same time food security is threatened by the impacts of climate change, growing population, lack of rainfall and infertile soils in Botswana. However, there are agro-climate smart solutions that could solve this problem.

Objectives
The project?s overall objective is to demonstrate the feasibility of a smart solution to the production of crops and energy using agro-photovoltaic self-powered vertical hydroponic system, which uses liquid compost and an application for direct orders and payments between farmers and customers.

Specific Objectives
1.Introduce climate smart agriculture as a demonstration project
2.Demonstrate low water consumption cropping
3.Build resilience in local community through knowledge and employment
4.Provide dignified and responsible employment for women, youth and marginalized communities
5.Generate renewable energy from solar
6.Provide organic foods at an affordable price
7.Provide people with fruits and vegetables throughout the year regardless of the season
8. Create an understanding of climate forecasts and information on climatic changes for identification of response actions and decision making

Expected outcomes
The outcomes expected from the intervention include but not limited to
? Production of quality crops
? Water consumption at 8% of non-soil-based cropping
? Employment to work in farms
? Gender balance more unemployed women and man working on farms
? Plants reduce temperature on these areas
? 100% environmentally friendly
? Quick accessible to Affordable fresh food
? Zero food wasted supply meets demands
? Every organic waste recycled
? Healthy 100% organic fresh food
? Decrease in food waste
? Enabled access to climate forecasts and its interpretation to address climate risks
? Creation of a common platform for climate communication which respects, reviews and combines indigenous and scientific knowledge from communities and different groups

The objectives and outcomes stated in this proposal comply with over 10 of the Global sustainable development goals being No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Good Health and Well-being, Gender Equality, Affordable and Clean Energy, Decent Work and Economic Growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, climate action, Life on land, partnership to achieve the goal, Responsible consumption and production.

Project Snapshot

Grantee:

Botswana Climate Change Network

Country:

Botswana

Area Of Work:

Climate Change Mitigation

Operational Phase:

OP6 - Y5 (Jul 19-Jun 20)

Grant Amount:

US$ 49,950.00

Co-Financing Cash:

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 3,000.00

Project Number:

BOT/SGP/OP6/Y5/CORE/CC/2020/25

Start Date:

8/2020

End Date:

1/2023

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

Project Characteristics and Results

Policy Impact

Botswana has in place national adaptation and mitigation actions to guide the country to a low GHG emission pathway, and at the same time necessitate building of resilience to climate change among the communities. The project will align itself with the country? efforts as outlined in its National Determined Commitments (NDCs). The implementation of the project will align itself with existing national climate change policy objectives and strategies, national development plans, Vision 2030 and the international climate change policy decisions. The Programme will engage closely all relevant stakeholders from the education fraternity, the Ministry of Education and Skills Development, Ministry of Agriculture, Agriculture Extension Services, civil society, local government, private sector, rural communities and other relevant agencies.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

It is expected that the training and integration into the agriculture value chain and the adoption of improved agriculture initiatives will greatly assist the community to improve their livelihoods. One of the objectives of the project is to reduce poverty among the target communities as such agro-smart techniques ,coupled with entrepreneurial training can go a long way in assisting farmers to realise significant agriculture outputs ,and consequently enhance their economic status , at the same time reducing poverty rates. The exposure to business development can help the farmers not to focus only on producing for immediate consumption but rather, to develop a business mindset that allows them to look at the bigger opportunities of producing for supply of agriculture produce. The communities will also benefit from the resale of agriculture produce.

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

One of the project objectives is to develop Gweta into an information dissemination center, where existing structures and available capacity is utilized to reach out to all communities The Project will engage the community in focused group discussions and peer to peer learning. Further to this, the project will develop IEC material that will be distributed to the wider community. The IEC material will reflect information on climate change ? its impacts, and entry points for communities to build resilience. Climate smart agriculture fliers will also be developed for distribution to the community. In our effort to ensure that no one is left out, the IEC materials will be offered in both English and Setswana. And it will be graphical as much as possible, so that members of the community who are not learned can be able to interpret the contents of the publication. The Village Kgotla is one of the most important center for public awareness. The Organization will work closely with the village Chief and the village development committee in disseminating the information to the community. The village authority will play a central role in ensuring that public awareness is sufficiently carried out. These structures will work in coordination with the school to ensure that this objective becomes a reality.

Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples

The Project identifies women and the marginalized (the san) as vulnerable group in its portfolio. Small scale women farmers are faced with competition from the usually recognized and subsidized commercial farmers. Ensuring that the small-scale farmers have appropriate access and have value viable niches is the backbone of survival of small scale farmers. Hence the assignment seeks to avail information relating to avenues that can be used to push the farmer?s products into the markets. The goal is to ensure that women farmers produce quality agriculture produce that are accepted by the market for resell by market intermediaries and consumption, facilitate signing of sustainable supply contracts by farmers with retail shops to supply agriculture produce, and adoption of better pricing models resulting in increased revenue for the farmers, increased profits and increased disposable income for the households represented. The project will support women farmers with technical services for preparing funding proposals, and support for institutional development. The technical services offered will seek to bring to the fore information that will enable the small-scale women farmers to access micro financiers, agriculture financiers, women organisation financiers and other donor/grantors. Such access to finance will ensure finance to increase productivity, and food security through selling and consumption. The project will ensure that women farmers set up internal control systems which includes basic record keeping and preparation of farm accounts, understand how to appropriately cost and budget for inputs, processes and appropriately price agricultural products to earn profits. The project will enable farmers to have knowledge about various financiers available to finance small scale business models, including understanding on the preparation of business plans and proposals that are required by the various financiers.

Capacity - Building Component

The members of staff at Botswana Climate Change Network, will take a central role in ensuring that the project is fully implemented. BCCN staff has adequate skills in community mobilization, policy interpretation and translation into action, ability to implement adaptation and mitigation actions backed by scientific know-how of specific area of focus, in this case agro smart farming techniques. In order to enhance sound implementation and added skilled value, the Organization will engage the students from BIUST Abstract class, and the University of Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The Ministry of Agriculture, and Agriculture Research Centre. The project will offer Hydroponics training to the local community working on the project and the use of Agro smart farming techniques to improve the growth of plants regardless of the unfavorable conditions. It will also involve BIUST, which will help in future researches and other demonstration projects. Training of communities in understanding climate forecasts and information on climatic changes for identification of response actions and decision making. The data will serve as basis for scrutinizing climatic probabilities and develop scenarios which will be discussed by the relevant stakeholders to gauge their implications on the livelihoods of communities and identification of contingency plans that respond adequately to the levels of risk and uncertainty. The objective of the component will be to enhance access to climate forecasts and initiate its interpretation in order to generate information that be understood and used to address climate risks , foster relations between community and local government and create a platform for sharing information, decision making and building of climate resilient livelihoods , promote the integration of climate resilient livelihoods and disaster risk management into local government planning processes, and create a common platform for climate communication which respects , reviews and combines indigenous and scientific knowledge from communities and different groups.

Inovative Financial Mechanisms

The project acknowledges the powerful message that can be relayed through video, and most importantly capturing the voices of the beneficiaries. As such, the project intends to utilise video throughout project implementation, to capture all project activities. Project beneficiaries will be engaged in dialogues, so as to create a database of knowledge on CSA, and overall climate change agenda. The collected information will be documented for data sharing and knowledge saving. It is also important to note that the production of IEC material is an important tool for knowledge management, as such material that depicts project activities that can be used for reference by communities will be developed.

Notable Community Participation

The project will engage a total of 36 Youth from target villages and in order to ensure gender balance the project will engage 18 males and 18 female youth. , The Project is enshrined within the principles of youth capacity development and youth entrepreneurship, as such, it will engage CEDA which will assist in entrepreneurship training of the youth, more specifically on integrating them into the whole agriculture value chain. Further the Project will involve Youth developers from BIUST abstract class and BUAN. People living with disabilities can work on the intervention as well as it does not need hard labor just inspection on occasional basis. The hydroponic requires skill and training this would give education to the san community and community in general for those who participate on the project.

Gender Focus

The project will ensure gender balance throughout its implementation. The roles of both men and women in the project are not specific to gender, rather both of them are given equal opportunities to directly engage in project activities. And for those who will be among the trainers, they will act as volunteer extension or support trainers. They will assist the communities, wherever possible in training other community members, where capacity for such is needed. The project will ensure that knowledge and capacity to adopt improved agriculture techniques is instilled, and that farmers have appropriate access to information that can assist to push their products into the markets.

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