Vermicomposting to sequester carbon, enrich soil and improve livelihoods by Jaya Organic Yojana
 Olawale Olaniyan Jul 1, 2017 07:44  | Hi JOY Team, It is interesting to know that "JOY’s scaleable model is based on a “train-the-trainer” approach, whereby JOY personnel provide capacity-building seminars and equipment to local community stakeholders, who then train local farmers to set up their own vermiculture operations." I believe the sentences above which were extracted from your proposal will contribute toward sustainability of your project. best wishes, Olawale |
 Brennan Lake Jul 3, 2017 11:04  | Proposal contributor Dear Olawale, Thanks for your kind message, and for supporting our project! Indeed, our community capacity-building model has proven to be effective in not only scaling across multiple Indian states, but also in transferring the knowledge and skills required to produce high-quality organic fertilizer through composting at the smallholder level. Our network of farmers are committed to maintaining these practices as a primary source of livelihood, and we have also noticed an effect whereby their neighbors and other community members note this success, and therefore adopt the same practices. Best, Brennan |
 Sergio Pena Sep 6, 2017 01:15  | Hallo, very good presentation of your project. However, try to include those that would be the users of the product naming them in order to see exactly who will be part of. About the proposal, it should be possible to apply on other countries with the same characteristics of India. Why not to think about? Certainly, India itself is a continent. However, other countries in South East Asia might be interested in your product. Thanks. Best. Sergio |
 Bryan Boots Sep 7, 2017 12:06 | Awesome work! I don’t have a lot of feedback here, because I think you’ve already got things pretty well-figured out as to what you want to do, how you’ll do it, and how it will be beneficial both for the environment as well as local communities and economies. One recommendation I do have is to specify how additional investment will help JOY to scale (you mention that with additional investment, you’ll be able to scale more quickly). How much money would you need, what would it be used for, and what would it get you? If you can specify those things (as I’m sure you probably can), it will make it easier for potential funding bodies to say “yes”. Another thought I had relates to your “train the trainers” model. Again, I’m sure you’ve already thought this through, but do you have a plan for maintaining the connection, dialogue, and ongoing training with your trainers, once you’ve trained them the first time? I imagine practices and methods will continue to be perfected as more and more people become a part of your model, so it would be good to be able to disseminate this new knowledge with trainers on an ongoing basis, and also for them to be able to relay back to you problems that may be arising on the ground that your organization could help to address. Finally, to expand a little bit on one of Sergio's points (post above mine), he mentions expanding the model to other countries in Asia. I would take that further and suggest that many countries in Latin America could benefit from a similar model. Keep up the great work! Bryan |
Brennan Lake Sep 7, 2017 12:25 | Proposal contributor @Sergio: Thanks for reading through our proposal, and for your thoughtful suggestions. Regarding end-users, I will certainly add select case studies and testimonials from a sampling of the over 3,500 JOY Farmers who produced and used vermicompost through our program, to date. I agree that this program is also highly replicable in regions with sufficiently high temperatures for outdoor composting activities, and in communities with the capacity to carry out training, implementation and M&E activities. @Bryan: Thanks for your kind words, and for the additional feedback. I agree that many parts of LATAM offer prime climactic and agricultural conditions for community-based vermicomposting. I will certainly spell out more explicitly the capital requirements for scale, and ROI. Regarding your comment on our training model, we certainly do maintain close ties with our trainers and farmers, especially where we are creating market linkages for the purchase of farmers' products (i.e. surplus worms, vermicompost and value added products). I will clarify these points in the proposal.
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 Caroline Liu Nov 26, 2017 12:58 | Thank you for submitting your contest proposal. A Climate CoLab Impact Assessment Fellow who specializes in Land Use has conducted an impact assessment of your proposal which you can find under the “IMPACT” tab. Please review the documentation and model parameters. If you have any questions or suggestions, you can contact Ciniro Costa Junior at ciniro.junior.
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Brennan Lake Nov 27, 2017 11:25 | Proposal contributor @Caroline: Thank you for sharing the Impact Assessment results, they are very promising and encouraging as we scale our operations! |
