Kopernik in Action

Author: Kopernik

Wednesday, January 25, 2012 - 03:05

By Fita Arief, Kopernik Fellow

Last week, we welcomed Derek Ngai from d.light to conduct training in Oecusse. We also managed to have a field trip together to Suni Ufe and Molo, two of the off-grid villages in Oecusse. I felt nervous after having been informed by FEEO staff that we will be crossing two flooded rivers. Thankfully, the sun was shining during the trip and no flood occurred.

Derek Ngai of d.light conducting training in Oecusse

We started our trip on 10 AM. The team consisted of Derek, myself, Merita (FEEO director), Tobias (FEEO acting director), and other FEEO staff. We took motorbikes to Lifau river because the car that was supposed to take us didn’t show up. So our motorbikes stopped on one side of the river, leaving us to cross the river. On the other side a few of FEEO's staff were nervously waiting for us and intensely watching every step we made. After we successfully crossed, they then transported us to a truck. Thirty minutes later we crossed another river, which this time seemed quite dry. The rice fields that I had seen along the way indicated that planting season had just begun.

An hour on the bumpy road brought us to the first village, Suni Ufe. People had been informed in advance that we would come, so as soon as we arrived, a crowd began to form. Coconut were prepared for us for the welcoming drinks. Merita then introduced us to the group and explained the purpose of our trip. I walked around and took some pictures of the d.light that were charging in front of their houses.

d.light charging in front of Suni Ufe home

People are delightful with d.light. I heard people say encouraging words about how d.light are impacting their lives:

"We don’t need to buy kerosene anymore, and we can save money to pay children’s school fees."

One of our youngest d.light beneficiaries in Oecusse

“I save $20 per month!” another woman added.

On the way back we stopped by Molo village to get lunch. Apparently the FEEO staff already arranged to prepare lunch there for us. There were people--men, women and their children--who gathered around waiting for us.

After lunch, we had an opportunity to talk with people. Once again I heard the same responses about d.light.

There was an old lady who said that she has never bought kerosene since she purchased the d.light and that she has been using her d.light for almost a year now and has not changed the battery.

“I don’t need to buy kerosene and save the money to buy food and soap.”

d.light beneficiaries in Molo village of Oecusse, Timor-Leste

We headed back at around 4:30 PM accompanied by a beautiful sunset. It was a wonderful trip.

Tags: FEEO, From the field, Fundasaun Esperansa Enklave Oecussee, oecusse, Timor-leste

Villagers on Atauro Island, Timor-Leste Snapped Up d.light Solar Lanterns

Author: Kopernik

Wednesday, January 18, 2012 - 02:36

By: Rob Weiss

Kopernik Fellow

Greetings from Atauro, a beautiful island facing Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste. A wet 3 hour ferry ride, or in our case, a slim fishing boat takes your from Dili to Vila, the main landing point at Atauro. You're greeted with views of a winding Pacific coast, palm trees, and lush hills and mountains with narrow stone paths leading upwards. Some of the greatest views in the world are found here at sunup and sundown. But what's special about Atauro is the people. That laid-back atmosphere typical of islands everywhere is reflected in the friendly smiles from fellow adults and greetings of "bondia!" from children playing along the street.

Map of Atauro Island and Timor-Leste

Several villages along the coast and in the mountains, totalling about 8000 persons, comprise Atauro, primarily a fishing community. There are small shops & kiosks, schools, one bumpy main road, and smaller dirt paths leading into the mountains that rise and twist out into the light clouds covering Atauro. For my Kopernik fellowship, I am embedded with the NGO Roman Luan, a 5-person outfit that conducts educational, environment, and eco-tourism related programming. Among many other projects, Roman Luan has built several small primary schools, a library, and an ecotourism resort called Tua Koin (temporarily stalled amid thorny land ownership issues). Not long ago, they also conducted a distribution of d.light solar lanterns, delivered in partnership with Kopernik, which is what I am here to help assess.

Scenery of a village on Atauro Island

My first impression of the Roman Luan staff is extremely favorable: in contrast to some places I've been in the developing world, the staff here work a seriousness of purpose and speed befitting their vital role in the community. Most of them were born on Atauro, with the exception of the newest member, a cheery Australian volunteer who has been vital link in helping me adjust to the new culture. So far, it's the perfect office job - we work in a sparse but brightly painted and breezy concrete building right by the beach - but I'm looking forward to getting (even further) into the field.

One of Roman Luan staff working on d.light solar lantern project

I've learned from Roman Luan that the d.light S250 lanterns they sold, which utilize a detachable solar panel and can also charge common cell phones, were snapped up by villagers, who use them for a variety of nighttime activities. Just what the people of Atauro use the lanterns for, how satisfied they are with them, is what I'm here to investigate. Since starting work earlier this week, I've drawn up an assessment based on the great work of past Kopernik fellows, and the Roman Luan staff is helping me go out to the villages and translate. We begin our first set of interviews tomorrow. I can't wait!

Tags: Atauro Island, d.light, Solar, Timor-leste

Wonder Woman

Author: Kopernik

Wednesday, January 11, 2012 - 06:44

By Cindy Nawilis, Kopernik Project Officer

Thanks to Kopernik, I have been able to return to Lombok frequently to monitor the project we have there. These trips have given me the opportunity to meet and get to know better some incredible women, some of whom I would like to introduce to our blog readers on a series of posts I will be doing for the next month. Their stories deserve to be heard.

It’s not only in hustling and bustling metropolitan settings that one encounters the type of women who can do it all. In the quiet, remote village of Batu Kumbung in West Lombok, Indonesia, Ibu Rukinah also belongs to that special type of women (ibu in Bahasa Indonesia means mother, or in this case, Mrs.).

Ibu Rukinah

Ibu Rukinah has been an active member of Pekka in West Nusa Tenggara for 8 years. Before she joined Pekka, she worked in the fields picking fruits such as rambutan, mangostine, and others during harvest seasons. Now she has a small-plot farm where the same fruits are grown and employs other people to do the labor-intensive job. She additionally runs a food kiosk in a high school cafeteria with 2 other women. She has 2 adult sons who now live away from home.

To add to her long list of accomplishments, her Pekka sales team of three women (herself included) has also sold 70 stoves in less than 3 months through Kopernik’s Agents of Technology, Agents of Change program. They earned about USD 40 total in commission. She’s even convinced her food kiosk partners to purchase a Nazava water filter to use for the iced drinks sold to high school students.

Ibu Rukinah at her canteen stall

Ibu Rukinah at her food kiosk, where a Nazava Bening 1 water filter (right) is now used.

Additionally, she has switched from the traditional brick-and-stone stove to the biomass stove at home, stating that the latter is very cost-effective. She no longer has to purchase or look for kerosene in other villages, as it is becoming increasingly scarce in Lombok. The stove also saves her time because she can leave the stove to cook food while she does other chores, whereas she previously would have to sit in front of the stove, inhaling all the thick smoke produced by the traditional stove, only to keep adding wood to prevent the fire from going out.

Although initially she did not like the additional chore of cutting wood to smaller pieces for using the biomass stove, she said it has gotten easier over time. She now cuts wood only once a week because a little wood goes a long way when cooking with the biomass stove.

Ibu Rukinah chopping wood

Before joining Kopernik’s program with Pekka, she didn’t know that she had the ability to speak in front of groups of people and the talent to sell products to her neighbors. But others immediately picked up on this natural gift of hers, especially during the technology agent training when she gave a terrific sales pitch in front of 40+ people in the room!

Ibu Rukinah is just one of the many wonder women in Indonesia I have met while working in this project. In my next post, you will meet many more of them!

Tags: From the field, Indonesia, PEKKA, technology agents, women's empowerment

Drip is the New Dry

Author: Kopernik

Sunday, January 8, 2012 - 03:32

By Annie O'Brien, Kopernik Fellow

Thanks to such a strong start in December, I am happy to report that we have completed 54 registrations, 48 installations and 49 baseline surveys for the Kechla Village Drip Irrigation Project. Much of our progress is thanks to a surge in registrations in Hariyamunda - 12!

Building the tank stand in Hariyamunda

Connecting the ball valve to the tank nipple

Mid-installation in Hariyamunda

Working in Hariyamunda was a unique experience given the number of helpers we had. About 15 children of Driptech system owners eagerly took turns running the drip tape between markers to cut into laterals (which they did in record time, too!). They also were happy to demonstrate how the drip tape packaging materials make perfect frisbees, bangles, wheels and wings, or show how the tank stands double as forts.

Suman (AMSS) with his new assistants in Hariyamunda

Making drip laterals in record time

Perfect catch!

Hariyamunda helpers enjoying a well-deserved break

Hariyamunda helpers enjoying a well-dserved break

We returned to Narjiput and Girlaguda, to work with new registrants, though we also mastered the art of the sunrise installation.

Warming up in the early morning fog in Girlaguda

I have regularly recounted the advantages of drip irrigation – reduced weeds, increased crop yields, efficient use of water sources – in this blog and in conversations with interested customers. And it’s time for the farmers to reap these benefits for themselves. Farmers reported in the baseline surveys that they would start planting with the drip irrigations systems between end December and early February. That means we are only weeks away from launching the first drip irrigation season in Kechla.

Though this is my last post as a Kopernik Fellow, I will be sure to update the blog with the results from the inaugural drip season. The post-harvest surveys will allow us to understand the impact of the drip irrigation technology on the crops along with the farmers’ experiences using it. We are confident one drip season is all it will take to convince farmers of the efficacy of this technology. Such a revolution in dry season farming practices will prove that in Kechla, drip certainly is the new dry.

Tags: From the field, Kechla village drip irrigation project

Back in the Saddle Again

Author: Kopernik

Monday, January 2, 2012 - 03:07

By Annie O'Brien, Kopernik Fellow

Welcome back to Kechla! After a month’s hiatus, the AMSS team and I have hit the ground running in Kechla for the second phase of the drip irrigation project. We got off to a great start last week with 21 registrations. Adding that to the 30 registrations we secured in October, we are only 15 registrations away from our project total of 66. The most recent registrations largely come from two new villages, Hariyamunda and Khemiri, with the remaining registrations from villages in which we have already worked.

While we are continuing to make progress on the installations, we have also started conducting the baseline surveys with all registrants. The survey is aimed at understanding each farmer’s experience with dry season farming, his apprehensions about using/maintaining the system, and his motivations for purchasing. I was particularly interested in learning about the last point in an attempt to understand each farmer’s connection with the technology.

Many of the farmers surveyed thus far indicated that they decided to purchase a system to make it easier to harvest in the dry season when water sources are scarce – one of the system’s main selling points. That’s what drove Padu, a farmer in Hingeiput, to purchase—last year, he lost his entire cabbage crop in the dry season because of lack of water.

But there was another common motivating factor that I found surprising: quite a few farmers based their decision to purchase a Driptech system because someone else in their village already bought one.

At first I had trouble understanding this justification. Though farmers are paying a subsidized rate of Rs 1,000, that amount can be up to a tenth of their yearly reported income. How could such an expense be justified merely because a friend also made it? In assuming that farmers would be driven to purchase purely based on the Driptech system’s celebrated benefits, I failed to recognize what this purchase fundamentally is: a risk.

The level of perceived risk varies among registrants, with some being more risk averse than others. Some farmers’ expectations for and belief in the product may easily outweigh the risk of the financial investment, while others may not be completely sold on the idea, though still intrigued.

Conducting baseline surveys

Some of the farmers whom we surveyed - very grateful for their input!

We must be cognizant of this risk factor in our work so that we make it as calculated a risk as possible for our registrants, building their confidence in their investment. We need to ensure that farmers clearly understand the benefits of the system and inputs required to achieve them. Farmers must know how to maximize system efficacy with proper maintenance. Thanks to our extensive training, those elements have been the focal point of this project.

Farmers will start to use their systems as soon as their fields have recovered from the monsoon harvest (between end December 2011 – early February 2012). They will then only have to wait about 3 more months for their first drip harvest. At harvest time, they will see how their drip irrigation systems make their dry season harvesting efforts go further in the form of increased crop yields. Hopefully, the fruits of their labor will be enough to prove that this investment was certainly worth the risk.

Tags: From the field, Kechla village drip irrigation project

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