University of the Witwatersrand

Faculty of Science

Department of Geography and Environmental Studies

FOOD SECURITY IN A CHANGING CLIMATE: EXPLORING THE POTENTIALFOOD SECURITY IN A CHANGING CLIMATE: EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL

OF PERMACULTURE AS AN ADAPTIVE STRATEGY AGAINST CLIMATEOF PERMACULTURE AS AN ADAPTIVE STRATEGY AGAINST CLIMATE

VARIABILITY IN KINSHASA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC)VARIABILITY IN KINSHASA, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (DRC)

Ph.D. Research Proposal

By

M’VITA D M’BAMBI

Student No: 988850

Supervisor:

Dr. Danny Simatele

October, 2014 to March, 2015

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Table of Contents1. Introduction.......................................................................................................................................3

2.-Problem Statement...........................................................................................................................4

3. Research Questions...........................................................................................................................5

4.-Research Aims and objectives...........................................................................................................5

5.-Theoretical and literature review considerations..............................................................................6

6. Research knowledge gap and Relevance of study.............................................................................9

7.-Methodological considerations.........................................................................................................9

7.4. Data Analysis.............................................................................................................................11

7.5. Description of the study sites...............................................................................................12

7.6. -Scope and limitations of the research..................................................................................13

8. Ethical considerations......................................................................................................................14

9. Proposed dissertation outline:.........................................................................................................15

10. TIMETABLE: PROPOSED SCHEDULE...............................................................................................16

References:..........................................................................................................................................19

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1. Introduction By definition “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” (WFS, 1996) For food security goals to be successful, it must be considered within the larger framework of aspects such as climate change and, socio-economic and environmental variables. Climate change can be partly explained by the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that have been increasing from the 1850s. This accumulation of gases is directly tied to global warming. FAO (2008) explains that the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) to meet the increasing energy and food demand, coupled by deforestation has also contribute significantly to the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The long term changes in weather conditions termed climate change and climate variability will have serious impacts on the four pillars of food security: (1) food availability, (2) food accessibility, (3) food utilization and (4) food system stability. The effects of climate change are already being felt in global food markets, and are likely to be particularly significant in developing countries within which agriculture that is dependent on rainfall remains the primary source of food and income. The affected population is mainly located in Sub-Saharan Africa.

According to the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), hunger and food insecurity are among the major challenges affecting poor people. Studies commissioned by FAO (2011) show that 823 million people in developing countries are malnourished. Experts warn that with 9.6 billion people expected to inhabit the world by 2050, food security for all will become harder to achieve (FAO, (2012). Sub-Saharan Africa for example, must triple food production in order to satisfy population growth demand for food (Giyose, 2004). Therefore, it requires not only; vigorous reforms in the agricultural and economic sectors as well as taking into consideration nutrition to allow poverty reduction, but also a new vision of carrying out these measures. This new vision must be realistic and based on social-economic realities of the poor people: such as lack of money to buy imported inputs, limited spaces, lack of formal or informal agricultural training and unemployment. Based on these facts, it remains imperative that new agricultural approaches that are based on indigenous knowledge combined with the best of new technologies be introduced into the agricultural system. On the other hand approaches those are environmentally friendly and based on local free natural resources most developing countries already have in abundance must be taken into consideration. The new agricultural approach must therefore be designed according to Permaculture design principles. This research is to enhance exploring the possibilities of re-establishing constructive links, through Permaculture design, between the land and the natural process that are tied to food security. These links are leading to the promotion of a new urban ecology that can enable a synergy between people living in cities and their immediate environment in multiple ways. According to FAO, (2011), this new urban ecology seeks to establish the revolution of land use and particularly for cities in Sub-Saharan Africa, where there are still plenty of lost green spaces within the cities. Taking all this into account, when a large urban community is involved in urban cultivation or urban gardening by implementing Permaculture design approaches such as those found in Hanna Cuba, the result will be an immense contribution towards solving two major problems:

1. –feeding the growing population in the cities, and2. –controlling the environmental degradation caused by population densities and

climate variability effects.

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2.-Problem StatementSince independence in 1960, Kinshasa, the Capital city of Congo (DRC) is rapid urbanization with significant impacts on food security, living standards, lifestyles, social behaviours and health. With this in mind, the DRC’s populations face serious nutritional problems but the crisis has worsened felt in Kinshasa. According to various surveys and studies, these issues are complex and vary from one county to another within the 24 counties of Kinshasa. This unplanned urbanization affects not only young children, but extends to adult’s especially pregnant and lactating women, students, and displaced populations. The factors that correlate with food security in the DRC are: Poverty, unemployment, very low incomes and wages, lack of strong extension services in agriculture, conventional agriculture with high requirements in very expensive imported inputs (improved seeds, fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides and tractors...) as well as overall, bad governance. Bad governance ultimately, results in lack of financial support for poor populations and particularly smallholder farmers who have withhold participating in food security problem solving.There are many reasons that have been put forward suggesting how the DRC landed in this dilemma. Cited reasons typically include trade policies adverse to local production, the practices of some leaders who have been more concerned with personal enrichment as opposed to the common good and short-term profit seeking from policy-driven investments while food security remains at the periphery (Trefon, 2009).

2.1. Current status of food Security in Kinshasa:DRC/Congo is still recovering from years of war and political upheaval, and continues to face significant humanitarian challenges. About 70% of the population do not have access to adequate food, while 1 out of 4 children is malnourished (WFP, 2012). Based on the recent Integrated Food Security Phase classification carried out by the (IPC), about 6.4 million people are facing food insecurity and livelihood crises and, require food and agricultural assistance (IPC, 2012). In the dawn of climate variability, the situation may further deteriorate if urgent sustainable food security strategies are not introduced in Kinshasa, Congo (DRC) (MICS, 2010). This therefore gives a basis for the introduction of Permaculture designs combined with new technologies, at the smallholder farmers’ level in Kinshasa, as an alternative solution towards attaining sustainable agricultural production aiming to achieve food security.

2.2. Food security and climate change:Climate change is predicted to cause a 3-4 C temperature rise and an increase in severe weather events in Kinshasa (Naidu, Hounsome and Iyer, 2006). Climate change is expected to negatively affect existing levels of urban food security and these are likely to fall disproportionately on the poor (Ziervogel and Frayne, 2011). The effects of climate variability are impacting negatively on all aspects of food security and therefore opening the door to urban food security crises. Minor changes in climate will push most households in Kinshasa to food insecurity problems. People in Kinshasa are currently facing new threats beyond their experience or coping capacity. In addition to local effects, agricultural losses in Congo, DRC, will translate into macro-economic crises that will exacerbate problems of food access for the urban poor of Kinshasa. Negative impacts of climate variability will push up local food prices, seriously affecting all consumers, rich but mostly the poor. Climate induced problems will also be exacerbated by changes in consumption patterns (for example eating more insects than meat, frequenting more farmers market than

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supermarket), urbanisation and land use conversion. One of the most visible consequences of food shortages currently are the malnutrition rates in children under five in areas experiencing growth in the number of infants being born in Kinshasa where: 34 out of every 100 children weigh less than normal for their age.

According to the above information, there is a need for a paradigm shift from the current agricultural practices, in Kinshasa, to Permaculture design practices that are backed by extensive research. The absence of proper measures and alternatives strategies, in food production exposes the current way of growing food to the drastic effects of climate variability factors. Permaculture practices are new concepts currently being introduced to Kinshasa, Congo (DRC). This approach to farming poses as a potentially interesting scenario within which to investigate how smallholder farmers will adapt to climate variability factors and at the same time, how these adaptive strategies will help in the improvement of food production? The main thrust of this research is to investigate an alternative approach to increasing food security in Kinshasa by using Permaculture as an adaptive strategy against climate variability in Kinshasa, Congo (DRC).

3. Research Questions In view of the above observations, the following questions will guide the research process: 1. In what ways can Permaculture be used as a viable tool toward promoting food security

in the context of climate variability in Kinshasa, the Capital City of the Congo (DRC)?2. What institutional frameworks exist within which Permaculture can be offered as a

viable-alternative live hood source in Kinshasa?3. In what ways can Permaculture contribute to a social and economic development in

Kinshasa?4. What are the implications of the finding of this study in a wilder context and particularly

in Sub- Saharan African countries?

4.-Research Aims and objectivesThe aim of this study is to investigate the ways in which Permaculture can be used as an adaptive strategy to mitigate food insecurity arising from the impacts of climate variability in Kinshasa, Congo (DRC). In view of the above aim the objectives are as follow:

I) To analyze mechanisms that can enhance Permaculture in the areas of water, agriculture, forestry, and edible insects farming at household level.

II) To examine the effectiveness of Permaculture in promoting a new agricultural system that can be used in response to food insecurity problems at household levels in Kinshasa.

III) To understand and identify indigenous knowledge systems compatible with Permaculture in mitigating and adapting to climate change.

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5.-Theoretical and literature review considerations5.1. Introduction

Since urbanization and food security are two of the biggest environmental events of the 21st. Century, interest continues to grow towards ecosystem based approaches to addressing food security and climate change adaptation. Several studies have demonstrated the potential of ecological ways in enhancing food security issues including, agroforestry and conservation agriculture, Permaculture and eco-agriculture, low input agriculture and organic ways of growing food. In Cuba there has been significant progress made towards food security for all. In Malawi and Zimbabwe yields have significantly increased when smallholder farmers adopted Permaculture (AAKNET. 2013).

5.2. History of PermaculturePermaculture as a coherent and explicit set of design principles arose from a collaborative effort in the early 1970s between Bill Mollison, a senior lecturer in Environmental Psychology at the University of Tasmania, and his student, David Holmgren. Much of the impetus for this collaboration arose from concern with impending peak oil consumption, the increasingly evident environmental consequences of western production and consumption patterns (Holmgren, 2003). In 1976 the pair published an article about Permaculture in the Tasmanian magazine Organic Farmer and Gardener. This article generated considerable interest from the public and media and based on this Mollison and Holmgren began to tour and talk about their holistic design system based on the following 12 design principles: 1.-Observe and interact, 2. -Catch and store energy, 3. Obtain a yield, 4. Produce no waste, 5.-Apply self-regulation and accept feedback, 6. Use and value renewable resources and services, 7.-Deesign from patterns to details, 8. -Integrate rather than segregate, 9. -Use small and slow solutions, 10.-Use and value diversity, 11. -Use edges and values the marginal, 12. -Creatively use and respond to change (Holmgren, 2004: 7-18).

Four years later, in 1978, following Mollison and Holmgren’s successful touring, the seminar book Permaculture One was published. The diffusion of Permaculture has been remarkable in its speed and breadth; by the mid-1980s ten Australian Permaculture groups had grown to over 80 international organisations (Grayson & Payne, 2007). Today Permaculture has become a global movement with over 400.000 projects in place and over 1 Million people trained in the Permaculture Design Course (PDC). The introductory courses outline the principles of Permaculture, ethics, and design principles, and in a broader sense detail and demonstrates, typically through hands-on student experience, a number of organic farming techniques (Ayesh, 2005).

5.3. The Permaculture ApproachPermaculture comes from the words permanent, agriculture, and culture embedded in agriculture. Permaculture is a life style of farming and gardening that mimics nature. The farmer co-operates with nature, cares for the environment and in return the environmental cares for him. This system is based on the use of available local resources as opposed to using resources imported from elsewhere. Permaculture systems are designed by, -incorporating local resources to produce new components that will benefit all members of the ecosystem. In the Permaculture context; designing means “joining systematically the different elements and resources (water, soil, plants, insects and animals) together” (Munthali et al., 2008 pages) for a mutual benefit. Permaculture necessitates the use of

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ecological anthropology approaches because Permaculture design involves re-imagining one’s concepts of, and relationship to, nature (Katz, 1998). Work on indigenous ecological and agricultural knowledge, including symbolic systems, is particularly relevant in investigating how these knowledge systems impact on the adoption of agricultural technologies and practices as well as climate change (Shipton, 1994; Morris, 1998; Sheridan, 2002). As stated earlier, Permaculture acknowledges indigenous knowledge and traditional ways of farming.

5.4. Indigenous agriculture (IA) Indigenous agriculture (IA) also called traditional agriculture (TA) improves management of the agro-ecosystem by the application of three basic principles namely, minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and diversified crop associations and rotations, (FAO, 2010; MOAIWD, 2012). These principles of Indigenous agriculture are interrelated with those of Permaculture which include: care of the earth, care of people, sharing with others as well as setting limits to consumption and population growth (Mollison, 1979). Traditional Agriculture is often associated with reduced or zero tillage practices. The promoters of TA also employ different approaches to reach targeted farmers with education (extension) messages. A recent report by MOWAID, (2012) shows that promoters use Extension Workers (23.4%), lead Farmer approach (18.5%) and demonstration sites approach (18.5%), Farmer Field School/Farmer to Farmer approaches (16.6%) and Field days/educational visits approach (15.0%) in educating farmers. Since both traditional agriculture and Permaculture serve as strategies for sustainable agriculture, the assumption is that strategies used in traditional agriculture promotion could potentially work for Permaculture introduction in Kinshasa. Nevertheless, it is interesting to know how the promoters of Permaculture are progressing and whether their efforts have been successful. Permaculture has been recently introduced in Kinshasa, by this research but traditional agriculture was practiced by Congolese for fathers’ years before the colonial era (INERA, 2012) and in still in practice in the country side and rural areas in Congo (DRC).

This study will show how Permaculture is making inroads in farming systems in the DRC. Recommendations will be deduced on how to carry out future interventions, considering that Permaculture has been there longer than modern agriculture has, but there seems to be a stronger bias towards the promotion of modern agriculture. As stated earlier: -the government of Congo, Kinshasa is committed to using traditional knowledge and practices in the fight against climate change. Traditional activities and ceremonies often have links to environment and climate change and take into account the history of the area, attitudes, perceptions, practices and relationships of the people to the environment and climate change variability. e.g.: ancestral invocation by songs and dances has been used to depict existing environmental problems and explore possible solutions in a variety of ways (INERA, 2012).

5.5. Permaculture EthicsHolmgren (2004:1) defines Permaculture as: consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature while yielding and abundance of food, fibre and energy for provision of local needs. Holmgren elaborates on this definition by, explaining that people, their buildings and the ways in which they organise themselves are central to Permaculture. Thus, the Permaculture vision of permanent or sustainable

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agriculture has evolved to that of permanent or sustainable culture (2004:1). Similarly, since inception, 3 ethical underpinning tenets of Permaculture have been explicated:

i) Care for the Earth,ii) Care for people,iii) Faire share (Morrow, 2006: 11).

From the above, there emerges then, a set of key concepts integral to Permaculture and these are: people, nature, culture, context, permanence, and provision of needs, design, learning and equity. In essence, Permaculture is a set of design and ethical principles that extend beyond the boundaries of food production and to some degree may be considered an applied philosophy and, as such, a focal point for identity and action with an explicit definition, vision and blueprint for sustainable self-provisioning of food underpinned by ethics of equity and care for people and the planet.

5.6. Impacts of climate change on smallholders farmersA climate change impact potentially significant to smallholder farm production is loss of soil organic matter due to soil warming. Higher air temperatures are likely to speed the natural decomposition of organic matter and to increase the rates of other soil processes that affect fertility. Under drier soil conditions, root growth and decomposition of organic matter are significantly suppressed, and as soil cover diminishes, vulnerability to wind erosion increases, especially if wind intensify. In some areas, an expected increase in convective rainfall- caused by stronger gradients of temperature and pressure and more atmospheric moisture- will result in heavier rainfall, which will cause severe soil erosion (Miguel A., and Parviz K., (2008). The possible impacts of climate change on agriculture, forestry and ecosystems in Africa can be summarised as:

a) –By 2025, approximately 480 million people in Africa will be living in water-scarce or water stress areas.

b) –By 2020, in some countries, mainly in the Congo DRC, yields from rain-fed agriculture will be reduced by up to 50%. Agricultural production, including access to food, in many African countries, mainly in the Congo DRC, is projected to be severely compromised. This would further adversely affect food security and exacerbate malnutrition in Kinshasa, Congo (DRC).

The possible increases in pest and disease infestations will bring about greater use of chemical pesticides to control them, a situation that will enhance production costs and also increase environmental problems associated with agrochemical use. Of course this will not be the case with farmers who use Permaculture design approaches based on polycultures, agroforestry or other forms of diversified cropping systems that prevent insect pest build-up either because of one crop will be planted as a diversionary host, protecting other, more susceptible or more economically valuable crops from serious damage, or because crops grown simultaneously enhance the abundance of predators and parasites wish provide biological suppression of pest densities (Altieri and Nicholls, 2004).

This section of literature review demonstrates how several studies assert that Permaculture can be used as an ecosystem based approach to food security and as an adaptive strategy against climate change, (variability).

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6. Research knowledge gap and Relevance of study There is no academic research on Permaculture as an adaptive strategy against climate variability in Kinshasa, Congo (DRC). As we know: “Permaculture has been under-studied and therefore under-theorized in social sciences generally” (Veteto and Lockyer, 2008:49-54). While there are many studies on agricultural productivity, food security and the environment, but there is a gap in the research about the “dynamic tension between behaviour and the environmental conditions around us” (Yakah, J.A., 2012). As one of the first studies on the relationship of Permaculture and climate change in Kinshasa (DRC), this study will draw a direct link between food security and environmental conditions that fuel rapid climatic changes (Metzger et al., (2006). Not much is known and or documented on how farmers used to forecast weather conditions in the absence of the present technologies. Such knowledge may be found in traditional or indigenous agriculture. If tapped would be relevant to draw lessons from and used to inform practices that can help farmers understand the climate change story. This research will significantly contribute to the small body of literature on Permaculture by adding knowledge about Permaculture impact on adaptation of climate variability. Empirically, this study will contribute to existing literature through needed ethnographic documentation of the implementation of Permaculture, and its impacts on the effects of climate change on agriculture, water, fisheries and forestry. Theoretically, this project will contribute to sociological theories of Permaculture and the relationship it has with climate variability within the context of food security in Kinshasa.

7.-Methodological considerations The purpose of this section is to explain how the research will be conducted. This research is divided into sections as follows: the philosophical context, research design, interviews and focus groups discussions, smallholder farmer’s livelihood approach to food security, description of the study sites, data collection and analysis. The successive sections will stipulate the challenges and limitations that might be encountered during the study. The research will be conducted with the participation of agricultural NGOs.

7.1. Philosophical context Based on the philosophical assumption adopted, research can be classified as positive, interpretive and critical (Venkatesh et al., 2013). The meaning of interpretive approaches is that knowledge of reality is gained only through social constructions (Walsham, 2006). Those who support the interpretive approach, claim that social phenomena must be understood in the social context within which they are constructed and reproduced through their activities. In other words, the understanding of social action must include the meaning that social actors give to their deeds (performance/actions). The research strategy adopted in this study is to conduct cultivation demonstration based on Permaculture implementation. Drawing from this training initiative, smallholder farmers groups will be shown, how Permaculture actions impact on food security in Kinshasa and ultimately reduce the negative effects of farming activities on the environment. The researcher assumes that the issues of food security and climate variability in Kinshasa remain a subjective reality that needs to be investigated, discovered and constructed through Permaculture design demonstration approaches. In addition, this study will also adopt a methodological openness to various academic influences, but the focus will be on qualitative and action research. It is also called “hands on approach” or “simply learning to do by doing”. Therefore, a combination of both, quantitative and qualitative research is recommended and incorporated in the data collection and analysis.

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7.2. Research designThis research will use both sociological research methods (quantitative and qualitative) and Permaculture agricultural experimental design. Permaculture training and education will be done through 3 demonstrative cultivation systems or gardens that will be established on each county. Planting will be carried out from Permaculture design learned approaches, during 3 seasons: that means all year around as follow: B season of 2015 (From April to June 2015), C season of 2015 (from end of June to September, 2015) and A season of 2016 (from September, 2015 to January, 2016). Temperature, rainfall and humidity figures for the past 10-20 years for three (3) selected counties will be obtained from the Congo, (DRC), weather Services. Data on crops yield, tons, production and percentage area planted for the past 10-20 years will be obtained from the Minister of Agriculture, Fishery and animal production. Permission will also be sought from the three county offices to conduct interviews (research) in their different municipalities. The Counties for the survey were selected based on the following criteria:A) Food security status (Chronic, transitory, stable) of the district, based on the

categorization in a 2010 study on food security (Fewsnet, 2010).B) Geographical location by Kinshasa region, to ensure the sample was county

representative.C) Agricultural and agro-ecological zones within which the counties are located, to capture

the different farming systems in the county.

Random sampling will be used to select 30 farmers to be interviewed. To keep the experiment standardized, we will move our operators (Permaculture growing system= Permaculture garden) to be established in each county: Ndjili, Masina, and Kinkole. This might be laid out as follows: C= Control as traditional agricultural production, A,B,D, E,F, G= variables of Permaculture design practices production, climate variability factors combine with adaptive strategy, (composting, mulching, no-tilling, crops mixing, animals and insects farming).

Before the interviews start a village meeting will be conducted with all community representatives present is: chiefs, local councillors and NGO’s. The nature of the research and contents of the questionnaire will be clearly explained to all of them. Focus group discussion will also be conducted after individual interviews with farmers. Three coordinators comprised one from each county will be chosen and trained to assist in the research.

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7.3. Interviews and Focus group discussions The second central component of the climate change (variability) research will be conducted through interviews and focus groups discussions. This portion of the research will provide critical information that elaborates on, contextualize, and adds to the quantitative information. Focus groups and open ended interviews will be used to explore the respondent’s perceptions of proper rainfall patterns, healthy soils available for vegetation as well as surface water bodies, and how their perceptions are related to their food production practices and vice versa. Open ended interviews will aid in exploring personal and community understandings of climate variability, and the impact that climate change has on their own and their families’ experience of hunger and food security.

Smallholder farmer’s livelihoods approach to food securityAccording to Ellis, (2000), a working definition of livelihoods is: “… the assets (natural, physical, human, financial and social capital), the activities, and the access to these (mediated by institutions and social relations) that together determine the living gained by the individual or household”.

The smallholder farmers selected for this study will be specially chosen from the sustainable livelihoods approach (SLA) developed by DFID. The SLA provides a lens for analysing how people go about maintaining a livelihood. It helps in analysing how people combine the different assets they have access in order to pursue activities towards attaining a livelihood objective, within the food security, climate variability and Permaculture context within which they are embedded. The SLA is a multi-sectorial approach that allows taking into account the multidimensionality of factors that determine food security. It provides a way of looking at the fact that household food security is determined by household-level factors such as the household’s food production but also by macro-level factors such as inflation, devaluation, changes in world markets to cite a few. In this way, the appropriate type and best level of interventions for improving food security can be identified. Therefore, Permaculture design and participatory principles underlying the SLA mean that through its implementation at all different stakeholder’s levels, including those whose food security is being analysed, are included in the analysis. This will contributes to increasing the ownership and accuracy of findings and thereby the success of the Permaculture introduction as intervention.

7.4. Data AnalysisAs has been stated, qualitative and quantitative research technique will be used to gather the data. These insights will deepen the understanding of food security in a changing climate: exploring the potential of Permaculture as an adaptive strategy against climate variability in Kinshasa.

Quantitative dataThis section will focus on various observational techniques and instruments of data collection that will be used in each phase: (Sociological phase and climate variability observations phase and Permaculture learning and practices phase) of the research process at each selected county of Kinshasa. As Permaculture being introduce for the first time in Kinshasa, training will be mandatory. The training will start with two weeks courses on Permaculture design and ethics. Farmers will learn hands-on the art and science of

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mimicking nature, soil building, and planting a demonstration garden. Guest instructors will teach native healing and mushroom cultivation and usage, as well as insects farming. Farmers will receive a Permaculture design certificate. Each trained smallholder farmer will practice Permaculture on his or her farm and quantitative data will be collected: soil preparation, composting, planting, mulching, rain water management. Statistical instruments will be used as a tool to compute, treat and analyse data. Several statistical models of causal explanation between independent and dependent variables will also be used such as coefficient of variances.

Qualitative dataIn this process the researcher will apply content analysis which refers to analysis of the contents of an interview in order to identify the main responses given by the respondents. In this way, in-depth information will be collected through the focus group session and primary data gathered through informal and semi-structured interviews will be subjected to content analysis. The insights will clarify the understanding of food security in a changing climate thereby: Exploring the potential of Permaculture as an adaptive strategy against climate variability in Kinshasa.

7.5. Description of the study sitesKinshasa is the political capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is located between 4 ° and 5 ° south and between 15 ° and 17 ° east, is the largest city in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It covers an area of 9965 km2 (Lelo Nzuzi, 2008) and, only about 600 km2 being urbanized. The city had 500,000 inhabitants in 1960 and reached more than 6.5 million in 2008, meaning the average annual growth rate between 1960 and 2003 would therefore be about 6.80% (Nzuzi, L. 2008). Later statistics show the urban population is estimated at 12.7 (Nsokimieno, 2010). Kinshasa has grown in the plains bordering the Congo River. This is the most industrialized area and formerly the most densely inhabited, commonly called the “ville basse” (low city). After independence in 1960, the city has spread into the complex hills surrounding the city and low peaks around 600 m above sea level. Slums, mainly occupy this area. Figure1 below presents the map of Kinshasa including the three sites (Ndjili, Masina and Kinkole) where the research will be conducted.

As shown in Fig.1, the study will be focused on the three local municipalities of Kinshasa namely “Ndjili, Masina, and Kinkole”. Poverty and unemployment are taking center stage in Kinshasa thus becoming a growing concern. The state, the principal provider has abrogated its responsibilities and has denied the Congolese people the right to lead the life they are entitled to (Iyenda, 2005). This situation can be regarded as a failed state that has led the country to many environmental problems, coupled with the armed conflict as well as the constant insecurity in the Eastern part of the country. This situation has resulted in the immigration of displaced people at an alarming rate. Millions of people have been displaced from their homes to neighboring countries, and thousands of them arrived in Kinshasa to escape the war (Misilu, et al, 2010). This mobility from the Eastern part to Kinshasa leads to the city’s unstable growth and does not correspond with the socio-economic conditions. Kinshasa is already overpopulated and this rapid and ungoverned increase, is affecting the dominant form of the city. This lack of proper regulation and governance produces conditions of large-scale uncontrolled urban sprawl and affects the use of land. The growth in Kinshasa has become virtually synonymous with the city’s deterioration, which has caused the loss of open spaces, poverty, slums growth, and subsequently, deteriorated the existing food security infrastructure (Misilu, et al, 2010).

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Ndjili is one of the 24 communes of Kinshasa where interviews will be conducted. It is primarily an informal settlement and has nearly 270.000 inhabitants and a population density of 15,000 inhabitants/km2 inhabitants. More than 60 per cent of the people in Ndjili are poor, while 80 per cent are unemployed and many youth are disaffected (Katsongo, 2012). It is estimated that the majority (about 70%) of the Ndjili population is comprised of young people aged between 15 and 30 years. They are jobless and involved in livelihood activities on the streets. They face multiple challenges associated with unhealthy living conditions resulting from local environments characterized by a complex of interrelated risks. Masina is also one of the 24 communes of Kinshasa. Masina is known as a low-income class. More than 60 per cent of the people in Masina are either employed by the public sector, and/or working with the private sector. Masina is comprised of the people of the ages between 30 and 65 years old (Katsongo, 2012). Within Masina, food security is serious problem. Finally, Kinkole is the tourist hub per- urban neighborhoods of Kinshasa where most of fisherman and farmers live. It has nearly 68, 135 inhabitants with a population density of 500 inhabitants/km2. This is relatively a food secure and climate stable per-urban environment in Kinshasa. These three areas were chosen to analyze the extent to which food security can be realized in a changing climate and to explore the potential of Permaculture as an adaptive strategy against climate variability in Kinshasa according to food security levels and locations.

Questionnaires

Given the particularity and the distinctiveness of the study design, it will be very important to construct three standardized questionnaires with core questions that will be relevant to the entire population of the study. The first one; will be administered to the grassroots communities, the second one; will be directed to the Permaculture trained farmers and finally, the last one; will be for the formal and informal food security authorities. (See attached Sample questions pages: 22-23).

7.6. -Scope and limitations of the research

The following are some of the potential limitations that might encountered during the study period that will affect the research in one way or another.

a. Financial LimitationDue to the fact that I do not have financial support (scholarship), I therefore have to rely on my own limited resources to meet the cost of the entire fieldwork exercise including travel and accommodation, printing and photocopying of research instruments and other documents, payments at various offices and remuneration for my field assistants. Another limitation of this research is related to the techniques to be employed in the analysis of the data, which will not provide sophisticated statistical analysis of the household questionnaire data. This is, however, due to the nature of the research design, which is qualitative and largely quantitative.

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Figure 1: Map of Kinshasa, 2005

b. Time limitationThe study will be conducted within a year and this period will be divided into 3 cultivating seasons (A, B, and C). During this period there will be collection of necessary data and pictures that will aid in illustrating some vital information to present in this study. Comparative pictures will be required to show how study areas appear in different seasons of the year.

c. Geographical locations limitations Areas under the study of Permaculture and traditional agriculture will be located in different counties (Masina, Kisenso, and Kinkole) in Kinshasa. The Permaculture program will not be side by side with the traditional agriculture projects but at certain distance from one district to another. As a result, it will not be easy for the researchers to conduct participant observations and more ethnographic studies with the small-farmers under the traditional agriculture.

8. Ethical considerations A number of ethical issues will be addressed in the course of the research including informed consent, access and acceptance, confidentiality and anonymity. With regard to consent, Robson’s, (1993) has advised that “whenever possible, the investigator should inform all participants of the objectives of the investigation and all aspects of the research

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or intervention that might reasonably be expected to influence willingness to participate”. In the conduct of this research, the principle of informed consent will be given the required attention by explaining the purpose of the study to participants and making them aware that participation is optional and they can choose to answer or not answer any questions in the course of the interview. All participants will sign a consent form and participants information protection sheet.

9. Proposed dissertation outline:I intend to structure my thesis as a series of six papers or chapters modified from journal articles that will be published.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1: or the first paper will review existing literature on how Permaculture as an adaptive strategy against climate variability and food security will emerge at a range of scales, from the global to the local spheres, in Kinshasa. I will aim to explain the benefits of the introduction of Permaculture practices in Kinshasa socio-economic livelihood. I hope to learn from my proposed field experiments that they can be complementary benefit between population growth and food production when thought fully design.

CHAPTER 2: or the second paper will discuss the methods and field experimental used in this research before addressing; how can Permaculture design approaches applied in food production in Kinshasa’s smallholder farmers’ level, help to improve environmental decay and the treat of food insecurity as consequences of rapid urban population growth and in the context of climate change in Kinshasa, the Capital City of the Congo (DRC). Detailed data from the experimental field will be significant for evaluating Permaculture as an adaptive strategy against climate variability in Kinshasa.

CHAPTER 3: or the third paper will be focused on the institutional framework that exists within whish Permaculture system can be pursued as an alternative live hood source in Kinshasa. It is vital to understand the environmental framework favourable to further develop this research. That means: A framework with which to assess the impacts of climate change and climate variability on food and nutrition security and to review current research and projects that identify adaptation strategies will be most appropriate for food and nutrition security.

CHAPTER 4: or the fourth paper, will argue in what ways Permaculture can contribute to a social-economic livelihood and food security in Kinshasa. In addition, I hope to investigate possibility of establishing domestic insects farming, mushroom production and fish farming as new source of proteins and income at smallholder farmers’ level in Kinshasa despite gardening and agriculture food production. Historically, cities have been engines of economic growth, offering abundant opportunities for employment and access to services. But over 50 years after the independence era, the rapid urbanization in today’s Sub-Saharan Africa offers a different hard reality. The majority of urban dwellers work in the informal

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sector, once characterized by sporadic and uncertain employment and a lack of access to government services (William Garvelink, 2014).

CHAPTER 5: or the fifth paper will explain the implications of the findings of this study in a wilder context and particularly in Sub-Saharan African Countries. The Congo (DRC) being the biggest Country in Southern part of Africa, I will present the findings that reflect similarities implementations’ with other countries. Because 72 percent of Sub-Saharan Africa’s urban population lives with little to no access to basic food, government services, low employment and wages and all countries are dwindling nutrition (William, G., 2014).

CHAPTER 6: or the sixth paper will synthesize and discuss the findings presented from different papers, and finally it will conclude the discussions and provide recommendations.

APPENDIXREFERENCES

10. TIMETABLE: PROPOSED SCHEDULE

Milestones

YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3

2015 2016 2017

J A J O J A J O J A J O

F M A N F M A N F M A N

M J S D M J S D M J S D

Phase I: Project Development

Preliminary scan & literature review

Problem statement, aims, objectives and questions

Theoretical framework and literature review

Compile Study Region and Methodology

Delimitations of study, ethical considerations, structure and timeframe

of the study

Present research proposal

Submit research proposal

Phase 2: Data Collection and Analysis

Fieldwork (data collection/conduct interviews)

Extracting and compiling information from the questionnaires

Data capturing and editing

Data analysis, synthesis and interpretations

Phase 3: Writing and publishing papers

Paper 1

Paper 2

Paper 3

Paper 4

Assembling the papers and submitting the final thesis

16

Attachment 1: Questionnaire at the householder level.

See below an example of structured questionnaire at the householder level:

Objective: to obtain general information on food access and utilization and Permaculture.

14. Questions:

0. Your name, please. (Voluntarily)

1. What is your sex Please?

-Female

-Male

2. What is your household size?

-1-5

-5-10

-10-15

3. What sources of energy do you use?

-Hydro (electricity)

-Solar

-Firewood

4. How many school going children do you have?

-Primary

-Secondary

-Thirstily

-University

6. What is the source of your food?

-Your garden

-Market

-Food aid

-Gather from the bush

7. What do you do for a livelihood?

-agro pastoralist

-Trader

-Unemployed

-agriculture

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8. Is water available throughout the year?

-Yes

-No

9. How many times do you have a meal in a day?

-Once

-Twice

-Thrice

10. What is your typical meal for dinner and what are the components?

-Fufu and beans

-Fufu, Beans and Vegetables

-Fufu, Beans, Vegetables and beef, Fish, Insects (Meat)

11. What is your relationship with your neighbour?

-Good

-Bad

12. What do you think is the solution to the household food access and

utilization?

-Permaculture

-Continued food aid

-Helping farmer

13. How many dependants do you have?

-1-4

-5-10

14. How do you cook your food?

-Fufu

-Vegetables

-Meat

15. What do you do after eating for good digestion?

-Dessert

-Fruits

-Bottle water

-Rest

18

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