Ecuador Projects

Nido de Vida

Project Name: Agricultural Education and Soil Enrichment

Project Description: Over the next 12 months community members will organize and create a coop-like group that will be trained on and then implement the production and application of different forms of organic fertilizers for pastureland and cattle health. Members will also make organic feed to supplement cattle diets to improve health and milk production. This project is also income generating, as extra feed can be sold to other farmers in the region.

Nido de Vida

Project Name: Aquaponics System Design: Mutual Learning Opportunity

Project Description: This project focuses on a community-university partnership between Nido de Vida and the University of Illinois’ College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences (ACES). Nido de Vida has hosted ACES student groups for the past four years, and the long-standing relationship has made this current project possible.

In a capstone course, ACES students will design and build an aquaponics system specific to Nido de Vida’s needs. The instructor of this course has led student groups to Nido de Vida for two consecutive years. This is a fantastic community-university collaboration in that students will have access to spaces and materials on campus to build a prototype specific to Nido de Vida’s location and access to materials. This collaboration will not only allow students the opportunity to create a solution with real-world impact, but it also provides Nido de Vida 1) a prototype of a specific aquaponics system 2) a manual that outlines how to build it out and 3) access to academic experts who can support the project beyond the life of the capstone course.