AllPeopleBeHappy Kickstarts Agricultural Education Project in Ecuador
Update: April 21st 2025
We are delighted to update you on what we’ve been doing over the past three months (January, February, and March) regarding our agricultural education project.
In January, we welcomed AllPeopleBeHappy participants from the University of Illinois. As a community group, we held a workshop to teach the students how to make solid and liquid microorganisms, which we’d been taught in October and have had some experience making on our own since then. Teaching others felt like a milestone in our learning. It was a meaningful experience.
We also started the process of digitally mapping out each farm in January. We worked together to walk our properties and take GPS coordinates. The coordinates we focused on recording included property boundaries, parcels of pastureland, forests, rivers, and streams. This information helps us have more precise measurements and a more realistic view of what each project member owns. Immediately, the digital maps allow us to plan how best to install our electric fences, an incredibly important element of regenerative dairy farming. In the long run, it will act as baseline data and will help us understand how our land changes over time as we implement more and more of the regenerative dairy farming methods.
In February, the organic fertilizers that we made with the University of Illinois students in January were ready to be applied. We met as a community group to distribute the almost 200 liters worth across our project members. Very excitingly, we also ordered and delivered electric fence kits for each member. Each kit was personalized depending on each farmer’s needs. The installation of the fence is an ongoing process. In February, we helped two neighbors start the process, and the digital maps have helped immensely in having a well-thought-out plan to make the process more efficient.
In March, we went on a group field trip to the La Cascada del Amor area for training with a specialist on vermi filtration systems. During the training, we learned that we can transform human feces into fertilizers with the help of worms, wood shavings, and solid microorganisms. Transporting human feces into something useful, like a fertilizer, means that we can avoid contaminating our soil and water. The visit to the area allowed us to see the worm filtration system that the community has built and better understand the process. On a similar note and later in the month, we received the fourth module of the regenerative dairy farming curriculum that focused on “Using Manure as a Natural Fertilizer”. We learned that proper grazing is an essential element for achieving optimal yields.
After receiving the training, we were excited to share our electric fence installation progress with our consultant. He was thrilled to see how we implemented what he’d taught us. It was a real moment of pride for us.
This is a summary of what we’ve accomplished over the past three months. We will continue to report on our progress. None of this would be possible without the support of AllPeopleBeHappy. We thank them for their collaboration on a project that focuses on making real changes to our community’s practices and that will support our efforts to increase local income generation while simultaneously caring for and restoring our area. Additionally, a secondary benefit of this project is that it also allows some of our neighbors the opportunity to visit new places, and despite their proximity, they’ve never had the chance to visit, like La Cascada del Amor.
With deep gratitude,
The Nido de Vida Team
Update: December 28th 2024
We are happy to report that our Agricultural Education Project is progressing with great enthusiasm and success. A lot has happened since our last blog post (which highlighted our organic fertilizer training). We harvested the fertilizer from that initial training. After applying the fertilizers to pasturelands, bananas, and cacao plants, it was unanimous across all of our community group members that our plants seemed healthier and more alive. Since then, we’ve gathered a few more times to continue to produce and harvest the fertilizers.
Top left: Adding molasses for the fertilizer.
Bottom left: It’s not all work. We also get to hang out.
Right: Everyone’s eager to take their share of organic fertilizer home.
In addition to making fertilizers, we’ve also started to work with a local regenerative dairy farmer in our region, Juan Carlos. After visiting his farm, we all had a clearer vision that if we made changes to our practices, we would see results. We certainly saw them on his farm.
After our visit and as a group, we decided to move forward with working with him as a consultant. He will guide us into implementing these techniques in our community to help increase milk production and improve cattle health; all the while remediating our soils.
Juan Carlos is currently implementing a 5 module training with us. These day-long trainings include a few hours of theory and then fieldwork. Being able to go into the field for hands-on practice is essential for both truly grasping the concepts as well as understanding how to implement them in real life.
This project is supporting us in adapting to changing markets and to the changing environment. Changing livelihoods and habits is hard and slow, but we are enthusiastic, motivated, and committed to the idea that the future requires it of us.
Stay tuned for continued updates.
October 9th 2024:
AllPeopleBeHappy builds collaborative projects and global experiences around the world. This innovative model for good means that — in addition to connecting volunteers directly to life-improving projects — we are now also able to directly support and fund them as well. As we continue to pave the way forward and pilot high-impact projects in the communities that we serve, we’re excited to report that we have started a new endeavor in Ecuador with long-time partners Nido de Vida. The new agriculture project is designed to positively impact the livelihoods and wellbeing of community members in La Bolivarense, where Nido de Vida is located.
Nido de Vida is part of the small agricultural town of La Bolivarense which is made up of 12 families. The community of La Bolivarense has primarily dairy farmed for the last 40 years and many report that the grasses are not as nutritious as they once were. This is a direct result of soil degradation caused by decades of constant monoculture and chemical applications. As the soils have been depleted of their nutrients, cows produce less milk (and community members make less money) on the same amount of land that once was enough. As dairy farming becomes more precarious, farmers are forced to clear more forest or to immigrate to city centers. The results are threefold: (1) farmers’ livelihoods in peril, (2) rural culture is lost due to migration, and (3) the forests face further destruction.
AllPeopleBeHappy and Nido de Vida seek to reverse this trend, and through healthier organic and microorganism-rich soils, grow more nutritious grasses which will lead to healthier cows. Healthier cows means more milk production. If more milk is produced, farmers can raise their cows on less land and reforestation can be more of a possibility. This also means that if farmers move away, it’ll be their choice.
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.
We believe that this project has the potential — if effective — to be replicated not only regionally in Ecuador, but to other communities in AllPeopleBeHappy’s network around the world.
We’ve already started our training phase, and completed an organic fertilizer training program.
Stay tuned for additional progress updates and if you’re interested in getting involved in-person, contact us! Contact Bibi Al-Ebrahim (bibi.alebrahim@nathans164.sg-host.com) for more information.
If you’d like to join a group traveling to Ecuador in 2025, you’re in luck. We have a 2025 Family Program in Ecuador for families with children 8 years and older. For professionals and educators looking to learn more about community engagement and global learning, our third annual Reflective Practice Retreat in Ecuador is a great opportunity!
This post was written by Bibi Al-Ebrahim.