permaculture

[<antonr@webmail.co.za>]

Hi

Okay, interesting question: I live in South Africa. Now for
those of you who don't know, SA consists of two main areas.
The urban areas and surroundings, which are mostly First
World and many of the rural areas which are still firmly
Third World - IMHO due to a combination of lack of
government support and culture.

Now most of you have probably at least heard of Apartheid,
etc, etc. Now the problem is, ten years down the line, most
underpriviliged people are still where they were then and
many previously "priviliged people" are now joining them. 

My question is this: How do you educate a rural community
who believe in cattle and goat raising and a bit of primary
agriculture - mielies (Corn, I believe to most of you) to
diversify into alternate crops and not to just raise crops
for their immediate requirements, but also to improve their
lot in life. Your two largest problems are this: Ignorance
- many rural people are still illiterate, and poverty -
though a lot of them have access to at least a bit of land,
they do not have the resources to accomplish much.
Firewoood is also a requirement, since many people spend
hours every day collecting firewood and large areas have
been completely denuded of trees due to decades of
gathering.

To me permaculture is the answer, but I'm still learning
myself and I have no idea how to even approach this
problem.

Later
Anton

   


 
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