UC Davis Blum Center for Developing Economies

Quibdó, Chocó region, Colombia At the beginning of the project we were aware of some of the concerns and conditions we would going to face executing the aims of the postharvest workshops. However, after visiting the campesinas , we had a clearer idea of how to adjust the workshop contents to the reality of the farmers and villages. We conducted two workshops with a week of separation, each of them on a Sunday, which is the time the campesinas regularly meet. The first workshop took place on Sunday, December 4 th at the FUNBICHOCÓ Center of Excellence and ~25 people (male and female audience) attended. It consisted of a general overview of the concept of “ postharvest ”, the factors affecting the quality and shelf-life of fruit and vegetables once they are harvested, and how the farmers can use and take advantage of low-cost, affordable and accessible tools to reduce their produce losses during postharvest. We designed a poster with the title of the project in both ...

Quibdó, Chocó region, Colombia The next goal of our visit was to meet the “ campesinas ” (small-scale female farmers). In this project, the aim was to work with ~40 campesinas that were already participants of other activities organized by our strategic ally, FUNBICHOCÓ, a non-profit organization founded in 2007 by UC Davis alumni Dr. Adriana Elisa Parra. One of FUNBICHOCÓ’s principles is to promote the development of the people of Chocó through practical education, both formal and non‐formal, in all relevant areas, with a special emphasis on women. In company of Dr. Parra and our strategic partner (and Adriana’s husband) Fredrick Fox, we traveled to two villages of the Chocó region, Samurindó and Yuto, where some of the participants live. A view from the villages of Samurindó and Yuto, both crossed by tributaries of the Atrato River. We introduced ourselves and had an extensive talk about the agricultural and agronomic conditions, the crops that are produced in those vi...

Quibdó, Chocó region, Colombia Our first days in Quibdó, capitol of the Chocó region, were anything but quiet and still, and that was exactly what we were looking for: to deeply immerse ourselves   in the reality of the region, to know the needs and concerns of its citizens, and to introduce ourselves so we could have an open exchange of views and ideas. The first formal activity was a “conversatorio” (discussion group) that was announced among professors and undergraduate students of Agroforestry Engineering major of the Technological University of Chocó. The Technological University of Chocó “Diego Luis Córdoba”, located in Quibdó, was founded in 1968 and started its academic activities in 1972 (upper picture credit to David LaFevor, http://www.vanderbilt.edu/esss/resources/photos.php ) The purpose of this meeting was to introduce the project funded by the Blum Center at UC Davis “ Reducing Postharvest Food Losses for Poverty Alleviation through Sustainable Solu...

Another important component to my work in Kenya was the time I spent with the street youth at Tumaini Day Center. Their resilience, tenacity, and curiosity are traits that can be found anywhere, but the way they exhibited those qualities while simultaneously surviving through their own unique life challenges, is something I have never witnessed before. The young men were so anxious to learn everything that was presented to them. They had a ferocity to acquire education and experience-they wanted to absorb everything possible. These boys are unlike any young person I have ever encountered. During the workshop I helped present on integrated pest management, I was only able to communicate about half of the concepts in Swahili, but that did not keep them from inquiring further into aspects of the talk they did not understand. Through team efforts of the boys who understood different parts of my presentation and my own broken Swahili, we were able to piece together the majority of what ...

My daily life in Kenya was roughly split between working and activities with the array of people I lived with. If I was not working at Turbo Farm or Tumaini Day Center, planning logistics at AMPATH, or in town gathering supplies, then I was with groups of medical, dental, pharmaceutical, and psychology students or practicing surgeons and doctors. Living at the Indiana University House was an integral part of my success in Kenya. After a long day of working in the field and attempting to converse primarily in Swahili or traveling far outside of Eldoret on a makeshift road, it was this group of people that kept me level. They were crucial in making Eldoret more than just a quick summer project. This group of people enabled me to call this small town my home, no matter how short my time there was.             I also had the incredible opportunity to take several weekend trips with the students from the IU House. Although th...

             My name is Emily Kovar and I spent two of my summer months in the beautiful country of Kenya in the rising town of Eldoret. I am an International Agricultural Development major at UC Davis, so my project “Improving Nutrition Through Indigenous Vegetables” was a perfect fit for my interests. The overarching goals of this project   are increasing access to seed markets, facilitating better connections between farmers and sellers, and encouraging a culture of green vegetable consumption. Although I did not see the results of these long-term goals, I did see the fruit of my participation in the immediate targets of the project. I focused on growing the vegetables, marketing them to the community, organizing Eldoret youth for farm management workshops, and monitoring the progress of our homemade solar drier.        In the two months I spent in Eldoret, I witnessed the life cycle o...

As my last two weeks in Kenya came to a close, I not only worked to finish my assignment but also learned about how the production process at Bright Green. As part of my assignment, I needed to understand the many efforts that go into making the charcoal briquettes. This first began with site visits to charcoal vendors where Bright Green gets waste material to make their product. The charcoal vendors were located in different parts of town, so Rebecca and I used our favorite mode of transport, the matatus, to go meet them.   When we got to the site, we were met with towers of giant sacks or guneas stacked on top of each other all filled to the brim with charcoal. Scattered all over the ground beneath these sacs lay charcoal dust, the waste material which constitutes the main ingredient of Bright Green’s MOTO briquettes. We talked with the charcoal vendors who were leaning against the sacks, asking them about their delivery process and following up on past orders of charcoal du...