CAP-OP5: Supporting Evidence

Community Supported Agriculture : a socioeconomic model of agriculture and food distribution where consumers subscribe to the harvest of a certain farm or group of farms using a monthly payment system. Subscribers will receive either a weekly or bi-weekly box of produce such as in-season fruits and vegetables and can expand to dried goods, eggs, milk, meat, etc. Producers commit to high quality produce, often using organic or biodynamic farming methods. 

Why CSA model

• Connects the producer and consumers directly within the food system
• Allows the producer and consumer to share the risks of farming system.
• Create demand for organic products
• Reducing risks related to marketing and income fluctuation

The Cynefin framework is a conceptual tool that can be used to support decision making and problem-solving in dynamic and challenging situations. It recognises the causal differences that exist between different types of systems, and is also a sense-making model, not a categorisation model. 
The 3 basic types of systems involved in Cynefin are; ordered, complex and chaotic. Ordered systems are divided into 2; simple and complicated. There are 5 domains in total; Simple, Complicated, Complex, Chaotic and Disorder. 

Resources

https://hbr.org/2007/11/a-leaders-framework-for-decision-making

http://www.everydaykanban.com/2013/09/29/understanding-the-cynefin-framework/

https://www.infoq.com/articles/cynefin-introduction

http://cognitive-edge.com/blog/the-logical-thinking-process-and-the-cynefin-model/

Regenerative Approaches to damaged dryland orchard systems  (Soils and Water)

Gaia U International 

Report shared with UNDP-Syria management 

As part of Livelihoods and Early Recovery team’s work for developing a specialized team focused on agriculture-related livelihoods (including Mr. Ali Kayyali and Nadia Attar), and at the aim of strengthening the team’s capacities around sustainable agriculture, an online training course related to sustainable agriculture was designed and offered by the US-based Gaia university. 

About Gaia University

Gaia University  www.gaiauniversity.org is a global learning institution, based in California, USA, offering accredited degree programs and online training courses focused on global and local sustainability. Gaia university supports Transformative Action Learning through the use of online learning modules as well as self-designed and directed local projects.

Eco-Social Design training

The university developed “Eco-social Design Certificate Programme”, an online training programme designed to hit the twin goal of ecological regeneration and social justice through pro-active design processes.

Training Programme elements include:

• Regenerative livelihoods
• Growing resilient communities
• Project and design thinking

 Based on personal contacts with the university administration, they offered to make this course available to the team after adapting it specially to meet certain training needs within the current local context. 

Additional topics, mainly technical, were added to cover issues related to developing sustainable agricultural systems including: designing for water retention in a broad landscape, water and soil issues under climate change challenges, soil biology vs soil chemistry, designing for the client’s needs.  

Proceedings:

The training took place during November- December 2017 over 5 training sessions 90 minutes each.

Topics included:

• Orientation on local context in Syria to define priorities of intervention
• Key line design method for designing farm and orchard layouts
• Soil biology Vs soil chemistry: organic ways for enhancing soil fertility
• Rain water harvesting at farm level using small earth dams
• Virtual site visit to a small farm where rainwater harvesting was applied

Training material included: presentations, educational videos, resources on related examples around the world, e-books with indicative imagers, and topographic site maps and photo gallery for the virtual tour.

Assessment:

The training provided an innovative approach to sustainable agriculture that’s based on field and practical experiences collected from various locations with similar conditions.  The techniques featured in this short training enjoy the following advantages:

• Can be applied at low cost: through the passive approach for rainwater harvesting at farm level, and organic solutions for improving soil fertility and plant health
• Lead to more efficiency of water management through improving plant health and root system leading to increased water absorption from soil
• Appropriate for small holdings which is the dominant land ownership level in currently targeted areas.
• Can be translated into income-generating activities and emergency employment schemes including: establishment of earth dams, production and marketing of soluble organic fertilizers.

Recommendations:

• Piloting the rain water harvesting and soil improvement techniques in test fields with support from the university
• Continue the training to cover additional relevant techniques
• Use the second training cycle, if approved, to add sustainable development dimensions (social and economic) to the above technical elements.