Recirculation of Local Organic Waste in Urban and Rural Agriculture - The Impact on Soil Functions in Guinea/Westafrica
Abstract
Guinea as one of the least developed countries in the world has a high percentage of malnourished people (more than 34%). As the capital Conakry shows all indicators of an uncontrolled fast growing city, food production in the urban area gains increasing importance for the supply of the city. Guinea strongly depends on imported food and 68% of the food producers are affected by poverty due to inefficient and unstructured agricultural production. The agriculture of Guinea consists mainly of small family businesses with low productivity. Fertilizers are in most cases not affordable. The main objective of this project is the recirculation of organic wastes from urban areas into the agricultural production systems after composting. The aim is the improvement of "food security" of the local markets and an improvement of the income structure of representative groups of food producers within rural and urban sector. The practical application of compost shall be demonstrated within two target groups and on two characteristic soil types: The first target group is the women-cooperative Ministry Of Agriculture in Conakry. This group manages an area of 3 hectares in Sonfonia, within the city range (alluvial soils, mangroves region). The second target group is an agricultural production community in Kouria; a village at a distance of 60 km from Conakry (ferralitic soils). A co-operation between the National Soil Research and Advisory centre “SENASOL” in Conakry, Guinea and the BOKU-University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria will give the following outputs: - Stimulation to build up a compost division at SENASOL/ Conakry - Construction and operation of a small scale composting plant in the urban area of Conakry - Logistics of organic waste management - Set up of demonstration fields and test plots in Conakry and Coyah for training courses and research purposes - Extension of the soil data base for Guinea - Handbook for composting under tropical conditions - Extension of the soil profile collection at the BOKU-University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna (mangroves soils and ferralitic soils) and at SENASOL in Conakry for education purposes - Scientific publications on the topic of organic matter in tropical soils In the proposed project, the major tasks of SENASOL are the augmentation and interactive administration of all soil-referred data and in addition, the consultation of the farmers and agricultural organisations. SENASOL will carry out the training and consulting of the women-cooperative and the collection and composting of organic waste from a vegetable market and the application of the natural fertiliser to mangrove soils and the training and consulting of an agricultural production community in Coyah for the application of the compost to ferralitic soils within the rural area of Coyah (radius of action 10 km). A fertilisation concept will be developed based on locally available organic fertilisers. The direct contact from SENASOL to the representative target groups and the transfer of knowledge and the application of the results on the practical agriculture are of crucial importance. The project builds up on experiences and results of previous projects of the Austrian Academy of the Sciences and the Austrian Exchange Service (OEAD). The tasks of the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria are: - Technical and scientific support concerning the collection of market waste, composting process and the application of composts - Accompanying analysis of the compost material and quality control - Knowledge transfer
keywords DEV-FORUM Partner Project
Publikationen
LPCC-Guinée: Recirculation of Local Organic Waste in Urban and Rural Agriculture - the Impact on Soil Functions in Guinea / West Africa
Autoren: Linzner R., Binner E., Mentler A., Smidt E., Salhofer S.P., Soumah M. Jahr: 2007
Forschungsbericht (extern. Auftraggeber)
Decentralised Composting of Market Waste and Recirculation in Peri-urban Agriculture - A Case Study in Guinea (West Africa)
Autoren: Linzner R., Binner E., Mentler A., Smidt E., Soumah M. Jahr: 2007
Conference & Workshop proceedings, paper, abstract
Project staff
Stefan Petrus Salhofer
Ao.Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.nat.techn. Stefan Petrus Salhofer
stefan.salhofer@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-81342
Project Leader
14.04.2005 - 31.10.2006
Axel Mentler
Dipl.-Ing. Dr.nat.techn. Axel Mentler
axel.mentler@boku.ac.at
Project Staff
14.04.2005 - 31.10.2006
BOKU partners
External partners
Ministry of Agriculture, Water and forests, Institute of Agricultural Research in Guinea, National Service of Soils
Dr. Momo Soumah
partner