Chay's report

Earlier this month, keen members (ie: myself) of EcoSIG, spent a week at ARI in Tochigi prefecture. ARI is a training organization that selects leaders from rural areas throughout Asia and Africa, flies them to Japan, and trains them in organic farming and community leadership. The students (called 'participants', to emphasize a shared, 'hands on' approach of learning) then go home to apply what they have learned. Lessons and everyday management are carried out in English, giving the place a very non-Japanese feel to it.

It was great talking to people from various countries, but because I was there during the participants' summer break when many of them leave the institute for holidays or work experience, I ended up having more to do with the many Japanese volunteers that help to keep the place running. I did take a class with participants making jam and other goodies, which was really interesting, but the rest of the time, outdoor work had to be done, just a bit harder than the tape recorder job back at school.

There's a lot of corn around ARI; the institute grows it, and so do neighboring farmers. It was one of these farms that my section would drive to, cut the plants, and load into a truck. We'd then drive back to campus, put the plants through a shredder, and store it in drums for winter cow feed (and then back for another round). An awful lot of time, sweat, and petrol is used to feed a few animals. While the participants I spoke with are very happy with the methods of organic farming they are learning, its a shame that they are are apparently not taught about the inefficiencies involved with animal husbandry. Organics aside, land with vegetables grown on it can produce a hell of a lot more calories than land with livestock on it, and in the participants' over-populated countries such as India and Bangladesh or African countries with high population growth, this is surely an issue. As a source of protein, ARI might want to try teaching how to make Japanese nutrious foods such as natto and tofu, rather than tomato jam.

The above issue aside, ARI does act as a model of self sufficiency and much of its land is used for growing various vegetables. Pig effluent in one area (with a concrete floor, not the most natural environment I'm afraid) is used to generate bio-gas, which is used in the kitchen, while its waste water is used as fertilizer for crops. There is also a pig pen with a sawdust floor, where due to bacteria in the sawdust mix, the animals' waste quickly decomposes. Other waste water, after purification treatment, is used in fish ponds. That water in turn is used to irrigate taro and rice fields. Rice fields also have aigamo, which is a flightless duck that converts weeds into nutrients (ie: it eats up the baddies and craps out the goodies).

ARI was a good break from the desk job, but I would have liked to have had more time to learn about organics. For volunteering at ARI, I don't recommend August, as it's rather hot and there are perhaps too many volunteers to be managed effectively. They also run English work camps if you want to take your students abroad without leaving Japan. For more info, visit their web-site at http://ari-edu.org.

Acknowledgments

Contributed by Chay Cotter, Aug 2005