The Aga Khan Foundation has been working with the Agrarian Institute of Bilibiza at the Ocua Campus to help internally displaced people identify new sources of food and income. Micro-aviaries and poultry associations are one such project.
An innovative project implemented by the Aga Khan Foundation and HELVETAS in the country’s rural south is helping farmers to focus on the quality over the quantity of their cattle, improving the sustainability of agricultural land.
Gilgit-Baltistan forest and wildlife secretary Sumair Ahmad Syed inaugurated the Solar Lift Irrigation Block Plantation Project during a special ceremony in Jutal in Pakistan. The project is funded by the Serena Hotel and will be implemented by the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme through the Rahimabad Local Support Organisation. Serena Hotels director Dr Moinuddin said 25,000 saplings had been planted along the Karakoram Highway. He said irrigation water was ‘lifted from lower area’ through solar system after the installation of 1600 feet long pipes.
With support from the innocent foundation, the Aga Khan Foundation is implementing SPEEDRICE, a three-year project that seeks to fight hunger and enhance food security amongst vulnerable households in Madagascar by introducing the Zanatany Rice Permaculture System.
Scientists at the University of Central Asia have identified common beans – which often require sufficient irrigation to grow – that can adapt to harsh climatic conditions and provide mountainous communities a reliable source of nutrition during the lean season.
Rakesh Gupta, a 62-year-old beekeeper from Lucknow in India, travels with his beehive-boxes across the country. He migrates with them to orchards in Kashmir, the coasts of Gujarat, the high altitudes of Himachal Pradesh, to Uttarakhand and to Rajasthan. Golden Hive Foundation and Gupta are working with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture at Sunder Nursery to help keep the bees in the nursery safe and thriving. They are creating a healthy bee ecosystem with artificial hives and natural hives below the ground. Gupta highlights the need of abundant flora for bees. The foundation manages a small demonstrative apiary and creates awareness about the depleting population of bees. In October last year, Gupta held a workshop called ‘Know the Bee’ at Sunder Nursery to raise awareness on the vital role played by bees as pollinators in the ecosystem. A diverse audience attended the workshop. They ranged from people who study insect behaviour and volunteers interested in apiaries from Give Me Trees Trust to bankers, engineers, and writers.
Last month a new water supply project was inaugurated in Pashor village of Shugnan district by the GBAO Governor, representatives of the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) Tajikistan and community members. The project will improve access to safe drinking water for 92 households (552 individuals) in this rural and remote region. The implemented water supply system in Pashor village is part of a broader project, the Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation Management Project in Tajikistan (SWSMT). Under the SWSMT project, AKF Tajikistan implemented 77 water supply systems constructed in rural areas of three districts of Eastern Khatlon and seven districts of GBAO. In total, more than 42,000 people now have access to safe drinking water. The SWSMT project has seen a shift from the construction of public water supply systems outside of the household to private-metered household connections. Under this project, the implementing agencies and communities planned, designed, and constructed more sophisticated distribution networks with individual household connections.
Michael Kocher, General Manager of the Aga Khan Foundation, speaks about how responsible stewardship of the environment is central to the Network’s mission to improve the quality of life and well-being of the poorest and most vulnerable in society; and how programmes are shifting to reflect the future goal of carbon neutrality.
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Tajikistan Office jointly with the Aga Khan Foundation in Tajikistan (AKF) distributed quality agriculture inputs to the farmers in the Khatlon region in the frame of Pilot Project for Agribusiness Development in Tajikistan, funded by JICA and implemented by AKF Tajikistan. The project aims to intensify agriculture production and improve agriculture output by providing farmers sustainable access to quality agricultural inputs. Mr Muneo Takasaka, Chief Representative of the JICA Tajikistan Office, expressed his gratitude to the Government of Tajikistan and AKF for their collaboration and emphasised the importance of the agriculture sector in the economy of Tajikistan.