Back to Basics: How something as simple as a sustainable garden can contribute to a green, circular economy
This week, the WAITRO Summit is in full swing in South Africa, where researchers, innovators, stakeholders, investors and funders will meet to discuss green-focused developments with a global impact. WAITRO, founded under the auspices of the United Nations in 1970, aims to foster innovation and sustainable development globally, with a specific focus of facilitating collaboration across borders and boundaries.
During her virtual welcome address at the summit, WAITRO President HRH Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan of Jordan spoke about the importance of collaboration to have a positive impact on our communities. “In our challenged world, the importance of partnerships cannot be overstated, and those partnerships must be real, resourceful, and multilateral,” she said. “Partnerships across borders and stretched over cultural divides are investments by all of us in all of us.”
In the spirit of global collaboration and research that can have a positive, future-driven impact on communities, I considered some of the research presented at the Summit. The research that I found particularly interesting was focused on a bio-circular-green (BSG) farming model for building sustainable and self-reliant communities, presented by Dr Rochana Tangkoonboribum, Director of the Expert Centre of Innovative Agriculture at the Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (TISTR).
According to Tangkoonboribum, bio-circular-green based agriculture is an alternative method to farming that can produce, process and create food sources for the grower to consume. “[This method] reduces expenses within the community with building groups of production that can change the inputs, produce and transform products together, create jobs, generate income, and create a sustainable and self-reliant economy.”
So, how does this research work when implemented? Through TISTR, a BSG farming model has been built at Bhavana Bodhigun Vocational College, which is located on an island off the coast of Thailand named Koh Samui. There, science and technology is used to grow plants in a greenhouse system, medicinal plant productivity is boosted, mushrooms and Selenium-fortified rice are produced economically. Ready to sell products such as salad dressing and chili paste are also manufactured. Plus, cosmetics products and packaging are created from agricultural waste which, in return, is being used to house the processed products. The entire process is, therefore, focused on bettering the community.
This BSG farming model also included developing the skills of personnel and instructors at the farming center, who are then able to transfer their knowledge and the technologies to the local community. Now that – a self-sustaining and ever-growing community – is what I like to hear! What especially inspired me about this research being implemented, is that it is pretty basic stuff, presented on a global stage.
Plants are grown in a greenhouse, products are made of the plants, the packaging for the products are made from natural waste, and the skills and knowledge learned at this farm are in turn passed down to the community. There are no complicated or fancy plans in place (or needed) to create a green and future-focused community. Sometimes, all it takes is a community keen to get their hands dirty.
