Rainwater Project

The problem arises from the existing need of women family farmers not to be able to produce their own healthy food and offer it to their families, including the children who suffer the most, since their mothers go to work and leave their children without adequate food. When these children facing hunger gain reliable access to food, it transforms not only their lives, but also the lives of their families and the prospects of their communities. Child hunger programs are a proven way to improve the lives of millions of children, families and their communities. We know that access to enough nutritious food is vital for pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and children in their first 1,000 days of life. Nutritional deficiencies weaken children's immune systems and can, in combination with general malnutrition, lead to physical disabilities and limited mental development for the rest of their lives. The Implementation of the ÁGUA DE CHUVA Project, with the rational exploration of family farming cultures, promoting the sustainable rural development of Social Innovations. In all its context, the Project contemplates several Social Technologies such as: Rainwater Collection, Storage and Management, Irrigation with Solar Energy, whose social innovations will make the beneficiary families able to produce food all year round, even in the dry season and guarantee the food and nutritional security of women farmers and their families. Speaking of scale, this is a problem of a global nature, it is true that it is more pronounced in some countries and less so in others, but it is present in the four corners of the world. As for the number of people affected, I use as a reference the numbers here in our state of Maranhão, northeastern Brazil, which out of 7 million inhabitants, 7% are small family farmers, around 490,000 people or 98,000 families. The factors that contribute to the problem that most correlate with the solution are exactly the possibility of producing healthy food by women farmers on a permanent basis.

The Água de Chuva project consists of a process of capturing rainwater and solar energy to increase irrigation and thus allow women farmers to produce their healthy food throughout the year. They will receive all the equipment and materials needed to carry out the project's activities, as well as organic inputs to start the work. It aims to contribute to the improvement of the living conditions of the Women Farmers and beneficiaries to guarantee their food and nutritional security with the use of products and by-products from the production of the Água de Chuva project area, with the use of family labor and the proper guidance to be provided through the Technical Assistance services. Its impact is extremely visualized and measurable as we describe here our initial goal which is to contemplate 1,000 families of Women Farmers in a period of one year, each family working an area of 3,025 m², which corresponds to 0.3 ha, therefore, for 1,000 families we will have an area of 300 ha producing healthy food, without the use of chemical insecticides, involving an average of 5 people / family we will be directly working 5,000 people developing actions with the character of environmental preservation, production of healthy food, strengthening for actions of combating climate change. As for the productive aspect, working on a low average that each family will produce 300 kg of healthy food / month or 3.6 t / year, which sold at U$ 1,000 / t, we will have U$ 3,600 / year / family. At the end of the first year with the 1,000 beneficiary families, we will be reaching total project revenue estimated at U$ 3,600,000/year. This represents a strong impact on the 1,000 directly beneficiary families, but also on the entire surrounding community. Emphasizing the importance of what the project seeks, which is to provide permanently, products that can directly serve as food for the families of the Women Farmers involved in the action and selling only the production surplus. As well as, after the first year of implementation of the project, with the cultivation of products that constitute the basis of the food of rural women and their families, acquiring not only food security, but mainly nutritional security, providing these families of women beneficiaries with the guarantee of principle of continuity of the project, due to the acquired structure regarding the acquisition of equipment and materials, irrigation system, economy of water and energy consumption, training for enterprise management, and consequent increase in production/productivity, thus promoting the insertion of Women in the labor market, inclusion in public marketing policies, referring to the pursuit of improving the quality of life in the area covered by the Project, based on family production, fair gender relations and respect for ethnicities and diversity culture that undeniably ends up being one of the missions of the Água de Chuva Project.

Bearing in mind that women family farmers are directly linked to productive activities, and noting that the results of their work are always better, they achieve better results, they are the focus of the project, constituting the target audience. The proposal will affect them mainly in two ways:

a) Thanks to the capture of rainwater and solar energy, thus allowing the supply of irrigation that will be able to produce throughout the year, even in the dry season, a fact that becomes almost impossible during the drought that comprises 6 months of the year;
b) With the supply of equipment, materials and inputs, they will be able to develop a much more affordable production system compared to the current one, where activities are many and the results are not satisfactory.
Today, women farmers are not attended by government authorities, as income generation policies aimed at women are neglected or very few offered by governments in all their spheres of power. We believe that the Água de Chuva project will be able to remedy this deficiency in the production of healthy foods due to the considerable improvement in both the production system and the results expected by the project. Despite mentioning that as women farmers are the target audience of the proposal, we know that beside them are their husbands, partners, stepchildren and children, who are directly inserted as contemplated by the project

Em nossa organização (Instituto Tassio Rocia), todos da equipe são defensores do projeto, pois é uma política da organização, claro que sempre tem que ter o principal responsável que no caso é o Assistente Técnico da Organização. Vimos claramente que não enfrentamos dificuldade no aspecto da absorção do projeto para sua implantação e ainda mais importante, para sua manutenção. Haja vistas que entendemos ser mais importante o fator sustentabilidade do projeto e eles aprenderam uma metodologia extremamente garantida que é a destinação de um percentual da produção exclusiva para a manutenção do empreendimento (ou seja, cada unidade implantada). Quanto a inclusão de mais agentes para expansão do projeto (mais agente de mudança), na condição de extensionista rural e conhecendo bem a região que trabalhamos, dispomos dos parceiros locais nas Prefeituras e suas Secretarias de Agricultura, que já tomaram conhecimento da proposta e estão aptos a prestar esse apoio em suas respectivas comunidades para o desempenho da atividade de multiplicação da mudança, acreditem, este é um ponto muito positivo que dispomos nas comunidades onde trabalharemos o projeto. Emtão podemos assim, com muita firmeza dizer que estamos prontos para o desempenho das atividades a que o projeto venha nos importar. O que muito contribui para estarmos neste nível é extamente o fato do projeto ser uma Ideia nossa, de nossa organização, intuitiva, escrita, aprimorada, mantida, apresentada e com responsabilidade levada ao público alvo a evitar expectativas excessivas. Logo, vimos aqui com muita responsabilidade dizer que nossa equipe está pronta para o desenvolvimeto do projeto Àgua de Chuva

We work on a plausible scale of serving 1,000 families each year

We believe that participating in an event like this, involving people from all over the world, is undoubtedly a great opportunity for our organization, even though it is small in this region of Brazil, to be able not only to compete, but to bring an Idea under a theme considered elementary for the world population which is the production of healthy food with the use of social technology with the bias to combat climate change. So we actually saw it as an opening of windows for proposals like ours to begin to gain visibility and facilitate our very difficult process of attracting subsidies. The implementation of the Água de Chuva Project sends a strong message for actions to combat climate change that more than ever need to be exercised in all parts of the planet, regardless of which region it is. As for SOLVE, we know perfectly well that it is not an organization just to run after subsidies, but we know that from the point of view of IDEIAS, it can fully proceed with referrals that can serve us even if later on. In order to participate in a round like this, our understanding is that we only have to gain and nothing to lose.

The Rainwater Project becomes Innovative: Precisely because it constitutes a social technology with rainwater harvesting and use of solar energy for irrigation, allowing Women Farmers who are also Mothers to produce healthy food throughout the year and thus be able to provide your children with healthy food as an essential factor in the process of keeping them in school. Its character of innovation is also characterized by being a proposal aimed at the participation of women farmers. Its impacts will be extremely visible due to the fact that it is promoting actions to combat climate change through the process of capturing rainwater and solar energy and the consequent implementation of irrigation to concretely generate the production of healthy foods, whose impacts will be very strong. only with the women beneficiaries, but extended to the entire surrounding community. Its scale potential is very favorable, as we are saying yes, not only being lasting, but let's say of a permanent nature where it is properly implemented, considering that the idea is that each beneficiary family will no longer be without producing their healthy food where is properly implanted, if you ask us with what guarantee can we say so? We replied that as a Rural Extensionist, working with Women Farmers, we detected that the big problem for a Project of this nature to become lasting is called, the principle of its continuity, even though Women are generally more capricious in their activities, achieving good results in their projects do not absorb the culture of continuity. Here for the Água de Chuva Project, we are creating the FRC = Community Revolving Fund, where 30% of all production achieved will be sold and designated for the maintenance of each implanted area, consequently guaranteeing its sustainability. technology that is not only innovative, but also of high social reach in its entire context

The goal to reach the target public, which are women farmers, working hard to combat poverty is incessant, every opportunity we have we are looking for actions, guidelines towards improving the quality of life of the public we work with, mainly women farmers, but also the elderly, children and young people. We have not been able to watch our work grow, develop and our target audience does not raise their improvement in the quality of their living conditions. So all our actions are focused on generating jobs and income, inclusion, promoting equity and always in obedience to the SDGs / UN and strongly fighting climate actions. For the next 5 years we aim to benefit 5,000 families of women farmers with an average of 1,000 families / year. If this continues and everything goes well, over the next 5 years we will be producing around 18,000 tons of healthy foods/year, which, sold at an average of U$1,000/t, are generating an income of U$18,000,000/year. This represents a strong economic, social and climate change impact in any region of the world.

The social technology of the Agua de Chuva Project is fully measurable, we describe here our initial goal which is to contemplate 1,000 families of Women Farmers in a period of one year, each family working an area of 3,025 m², which corresponds to 0.3 ha , so that for 1,000 families we will have an area of 300 hectares producing healthy food, without the use of chemical insecticides, involving an average of 5 people / family we will be directly working 5,000 people developing actions with the character of environmental preservation, production of healthy food , strengthening for climate action. As for the productive aspect, working on a low average that each family will produce 300 kg of healthy food / month or 3.6 t / year, which sold at U$ 1,000 / t, we will have U$ 3,600 / year / family. At the end of the first year with the 1,000 beneficiary families, we will be reaching total project revenue estimated at U$ 3,600,000/year. This represents a strong impact on the 1,000 directly beneficiary families, but also on the entire surrounding community.

We seek to affirm the theory of change based on what our innovation increases in relation to the current Women's cultivation system experienced by Women farmers. The implementation of the ÁGUA DE CHUVA Project, with the rational exploration of family farming cultures, promoting the sustainable rural development of Social Innovations. In all its context, the Project contemplates several Social Technologies such as: Capture, Storage and Management of Rainwater, Irrigation using Solar Energy, whose social innovations will make the beneficiary families able to produce food all year round, even in the dry season . The problem is that women family farmers do not have the necessary conditions to consume a large part of their food with quality, starting with breakfast. The lack of quality and quantity of food causes a great deal of family disruption, leading everyone to food insecurity and social vulnerability, often allowing children and adolescents to go to school much more interested in the school lunch offered, than actually in the content to be acquired in the school environment. The Água de Chuva project aims to contribute to the improvement of the living conditions of the Women Farmers and beneficiaries to guarantee their food and nutritional security with the use of products and by-products from the production of the Água de Chuva project area, with the use of the family labor and the proper guidance to be provided through the Technical Assistance services, as well as the intervention of training in the sense of better use of the production achieved.

It is evident that the beneficiary communities face a problem considered too serious, which is the lack of water for irrigation, energy costs that increase production costs, in addition to the lack of agricultural practices such as irrigation, crop rotation and others. We are exactly solving these problems with the social technology of the Água de Chuva Project, which consists of: capturing rainwater, installing solar panels, using irrigation during the dry season, using the practice of crop rotation and conserving the soil cultivated by each beneficiary family. With all these mitigating factors, the social technology of the Rainwater Project still constitutes a technology that is not only lasting, but let's say of a permanent nature where it is duly implanted, if you ask us with what guarantee can we say so? We replied that as a Rural Extensionist, working with Women Farmers, we detected that the big problem for a Project of this nature to become lasting is called, the principle of its continuity, even though Women are generally more capricious in their activities, achieving good results in their projects do not absorb the culture of continuity. Here for the Água de Chuva Project, we are creating the FRC = Community Revolving Fund, where 30% of all production achieved will be sold and designated for the maintenance of each implanted are

The technology of the proposal is presented in an extremely competitive scenario, taking into account that in the current production system, women family farmers do not even practice irrigation, even though those who practice it already use rainwater and much less solar energy, The advantages are as diverse as:

a) Low production cost in relation to the current system, because only the energy bill for an irrigation project makes any business unfeasible;
b) The strong contribution in combating climate change actions;
c) The guarantee of food production all year round, which cannot happen today and
d) Ensuring the food and nutritional security of the project's direct beneficiary families

In a project of this nature where the target audience is women farmers and we will be promoting inclusion, gender equity, seeking to generate work and income, we have an obligation to promote community debate in order to encourage the exercise of citizenship and identify possible difficulties regarding the participation of women as leaders in activities related to those that will be carried out in the Água de Chuva project, which are extremely participatory. In these terms, we guarantee the eligibility of our innovation in terms of diversity, equity and inclusion, given that the area covered by the project is a very plural region in terms of social relations.

The Água de Chuva project consists of a process of capturing rainwater and solar energy to increase irrigation and thus allow women farmers to produce their healthy food throughout the year. They will receive all the equipment and materials needed to carry out the project's activities, as well as organic inputs to start the work. It aims to contribute to the improvement of the living conditions of the Women Farmers and beneficiaries to guarantee their food and nutritional security with the use of products and by-products from the production of the Água de Chuva project area, with the use of family labor and the proper guidance to be provided through the Technical Assistance services, as well as the intervention of training in the sense of better use of the production achieved. Making it very clear that the project aims to fully supply, on a permanent basis, products that can directly serve as food for the families of the Women Farmers involved in the action and selling only the production surplus. It is important to emphasize that after the first year of implementation of the project, with the cultivation of products that constitute the basis of the food of rural women and their families, acquiring not only food security, but mainly nutritional security, providing these families of women beneficiaries with the guarantee of principle of continuity of the project, due to the acquired structure regarding the acquisition of equipment and materials, irrigation system, economy of water and energy consumption, training for enterprise management, and consequent increase in production/productivity, thus promoting the insertion of Women in the labor market, inclusion in public marketing policies, referring to the pursuit of improving the quality of life in the area covered by the Project, based on family production, fair gender relations and respect for ethnicities and diversity culture that undeniably ends up being one of the missions of the Água de Chuva Project. It is exactly in this way that the Água de Chuva project becomes a reality and its practice, as it happens in a family environment, leads to the generation of extremely positive results, although we clearly know that for this to happen we need the involvement of the whole family.

The Água de Chuva Project will constitute a social technology that will not only last, but let's say of a permanent nature wherever it is duly implemented. Could you ask us with what guarantee can we say so? It is because as a Rural Extensionist, with many years of living with the communities, working with the Women Farmers, we detected that the great problem of a Project of this nature to become lasting is called, the principle of its continuity, even being the Women, who are generally more capricious in their activities with good results in some projects. As beneficiaries, they do not absorb the culture of continuity. However, here for the Água de Chuva Project, we are creating the FRC = Community Revolving Fund, where 30% of all production achieved will be sold and designated for the maintenance of each implanted area. Noting that the Fund will not be solidary, each beneficiary will have her own permanent and individual reserve. So this is just one of the factors that will certainly contribute to the permanent duration of the Project and consequently its sustainability

The technology of the proposal is presented in an extremely competitive scenario, taking into account that in the current production system, women family farmers do not even practice irrigation, even though those who practice it already use rainwater and much less solar energy, The advantages are as diverse as:

a) Low production cost in relation to the current system, because only the energy bill for an irrigation project makes any business unfeasible;
b) The strong contribution in combating climate change actions;
c) The guarantee of food production all year round, which cannot happen today and
d) Ensuring the food and nutritional security of the project's direct beneficiary families