| Hope
for Community Agriculture
The Niagara Warehouse
of Hope's Guatemala Irrigation project is now entering its fourth phase.
This project involves working with Guatemalan villages and organizations
to create community gardens using a "sweating hose irrigation system."
This is a simple system in which water is gravity-fed from a raised barrel
into a perforated hose embedded in a prepared garden plot. The barrel
is filled once a day, from the nearest river or stream, to keep the garden
soil moist. These systems allow subsistence farmers to raise fresh produce
for their own consumption, with surplus vegetables used for sale or trade.
The first three phases of this project involved locating suitable areas
for their use, installing the systems, monitoring their use and maintenance,
and fixing problems which arose. Now that the systems are up and running,
with local interest groups and charities setting up their own systems,
our Phase IV will involve a final monitoring with recommendations to the
project leader and local users.
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