EBDA in May 2022
EBDA organized an intensive workshop!
EBDA organized a two day workshop about Biodynamic Preparations on the SEKEM farm. It had 25 participants that were interested in biodynamic agriculture and have the passion to learn more and increase their knowledge. This workshop had people from different backgrounds that were students, Engineers, Professors. This workshop was lectured by Dr. Saber El-hendawy, Ms. Angela Hofmann and Eng. Tayseer Sakr. The first day was an introduction to the meaning of biodynamic preparations and which kinds of plants are used in those preparations by Dr. Saber. In addition, those kinds of plants were inspected in the field and needed to be harvested by the group. Dr. Saber explained what is the difference between all those kinds of plants and what they are used for. Eventually, this session ended by showing the participants the process of drying the plants properly.
Afterwards the second session was starting with Ms. Angela in the preparations house as well as Ms. Angela explained; who made those preparations from the beginning and talked with the participants about Rudolf Steiner and his scientific discoveries about biodynamic agriculture, Ms. Angela continued by giving them information about which ingredients should be used or added to make those preparations and the participants knew from their experiences how the preparations are extracted from the soil after burying them for a specific period of time and the interesting thing was that this workshop gave them the opportunity to work and practice by themselves. The trainees also had the opportunity to see the farm through this workshop, do the preparations; for example (the horn manure 500), (the quartz preparation 501) and they witnessed the extractions and the burying of the preparations. At the end of the session in the preparations house they saw the store of those biodynamic preparations and how these preparations are stored and what is the right form to store them until they are used when needed and on the other hand, how peatmoss and the shape of wooden storage boxes are used.
The second day of this workshop was continuing in the preparation house to learn more about the CCP preparation and its ingredients and how to prepare it. With Ms. Angela and the workers there, the participants saw and made with each other this CCP and buried it into holes that were made specially for this preparation with specific combinations and measurements in the ground. Therefore, they were able to ask questions and get more information in the open field to learn more about this. Then, they proceeded to have a tour in the husbandry field of production to see the animals there and how they’re being fed, what the farmers feed them and in which quantity. Also saw the manure there and the procedures that were done to transfer all of it for composting. Otherwise, they head to Libra building for an open discussion to know if there is anyone from the attendees who has questions, know their requirements for the next workshop and what they would like to see and learn more. Eventually, the workshop ended by celebrating with the participants and lecturers for finishing those two days’ workshop and giving them their certificates. At the end of the day all returned back to the preparation house to bury the rest of the preparations and after this they all took a picture to be a good memory for their hard work.
Desalt Project has started its summer season
The preparations of the 2022 summer season of the desalt project for farming has started. They applied compost to provide the soil and feed it to reduce the effect of high salinity. This trial was in the field at sekem farm. As the soil in the field is suffering from high salinity levels. They saw the white salt crystals in the soil with compost, drip irrigation, raised beds, mulching and strong varieties; the desalt team tried to maintain good yields in these harsh conditions. With sekem group and EBDA the desalt consortium of nectaerra, the salt doctors and delphy international and is funded by the Netherlands through Netherlands Enterprise Agency RVO.
Young Dutch Diplomats visited Desalt Project
There was a group of young Dutch diplomats as part of their visit to Egypt. It was a visit at sekem farm and Talis Bosma a project manager in Delphy international project in Egypt and a project manager assistant in the EBDA office; he gave them a short brief about desalt project as (Egyptian-Dutch saline agriculture and water management learning and technology) focuses on optimizing cultivation by conditions. Mr. Rafik Costandi afterwards took them also for a tour around sekem.
World Economic Forum
Helmy Abouleish presented Sekem’s innovations in social and environmental transformation in Davos, Switzerland in the World Economic Forum. He talked about the Economy of love project and its standard and its inclusion of a new part within it is carbon credit certificates to conserve the environment and reduce carbon emissions from the air and how the EBDA supports the farmers to get certified with the EoL Carbon credit standard. He also mentioned sekem’s vision for making the Egyptian farmers convert to Organic and how the EBDA team is working hard for making this happen. Helmy also met Layla Iskander, the minister of state for environment affairs in Egypt.
Golden Bee Award in Slovenya
EBDA was nominated for the Slovenian Bee Award 2022. EBDA was selected as one of the three finalists for this award. We were honored to take part in the celebration. Our representative there in Slovenia Ms. Maja Kolar attended the ceremony to represent us there and received the reward.
The main purpose for EBDA according to this project is to be able to provide our farmers with this new innovative service. We need to collect the remaining beehives from beekeepers and other farms that have some hives left. After conducting a situation analysis about the bees in Egypt, EBDA located around 100 beehives of the –Apis Mellifera Lamarckii– in different locations in Egypt. EBDA is planning to purchase the 100 hives and increase them up to 450 by August 2021. By then the cells will be ready to be transported to our farmers during the pollination period. That was EBDA’s vision; and that’s why we had been nominated for this award.
Social Initiatives Forum in Heliopolis University
SIF is back again in HU. This time the forum was under the slogan “Agriculture fills the hunger industry, provides needs but education grows and makes home” so it was a forum about Organic Agriculture between Education and Application. The forum welcome address was by Mr. Helmy Abouleish as he explained sustainable development goals and Sekem’s vision and mission for organic agriculture. EBDA took part in this forum
as well as Mr. Justus Harm, the deputy executive director of the EBDA, explained in a press meeting what is the EBDA and what is it for also how the EBDA team supports the egyptian farmers in each governorate. Mr. Justus continued by giving an insight about Economy of Love standards and its new carbon credits standards for counting carbon sequestration and decreasing carbon emissions for the sake of the environment. On the other hand, this forum discussed several other important topics such as Implementing Regulation of the Law of Organic Agriculture in Egypt, Organic agriculture between education and the labor market, Egypt’s Organic Product Markets and the Role of Inspection Agencies, Carbon Credits and Participatory Guarantee System “PGS” standards.
Demeter Egypt’s youtube channel is receiving a great interaction on social media. We released new videos about organic agriculture methods, conditions, biological control and what is an accurate and scientific definition of organic agriculture. And videos for how to make compost and tea compost, compost production and the benefits of compost. Bio-fertilizers and determination of fertility rates. Organic agriculture compounds and Biodynamic agriculture.
EBDA joined forces with IDAM & Jesuit
The Egyption Biodynamic Association EBDA joined forces with IDAM association and Jesuit association and the three associations met together in Minia governorate to promote the transition of the conventional farmers to organic and biodynamic in Minia and Aswan. A new agreement will be signed between Demeter Egypt and Jesuit. Therefore, Jesuit works in 20 of the 44 villages of Nasr El Noba. Each village has a farmer association that rents a lot of agricultural lands which can be used for any purpose especially for organic farming since they are collective areas. Extension services are required and farmer associations to be in charge of the organization and communication is very important.
We celebrated Bee and biodiversity day
Spreading awareness by posting a post via our association’s social media that reflects the importance of proper and healthy beekeeping on World Bee Day 20th May. Another post also had been published for raising awareness about the importance of conservation for biodiversity to maintain the natural balance of the environment on the World Day of Biodiversity 22th May.
