EBDA in February 2025

April 2, 2025

4903 Views

EBDA in February 2025

EBDA & EoL Engagement in Germany & Switzerland

This month, our team traveled to Freiburg, Germany, to present the Egyptian Biodynamic Association (EBDA) and the Economy of Love (EoL) Standard at an event organized by the Thales Academy for Applied Philosophy. The gathering included farmers, donors, and sustainability stakeholders. Our presentation sparked meaningful discussions, and we facilitated a reflection and intention-setting session to explore future collaborations. Many attendees expressed interest in visiting Egypt, supporting our initiatives, or offsetting their carbon footprint through EoL carbon credits.

Following this, we attended the Agricultural Conference at the Goetheanum in Switzerland, Titled this year “The Earth as a living Being” where our team gave a speech highlighting biodynamic agriculture in Egypt. At our booth, we engaged with participants eager to learn more about EBDA, our services, and the impact of EoL carbon credits.

As part of the conference, we conducted a series of workshops:

Economy of Love & Ecosystem Services (Feb 6) – Led by Eng. Naglaa, Buthaina, and Aya Mamdouh, this session introduced EBDA’s services and explored the four dimensions of the Economy of Love, focusing on how love manifests in each dimension.
EoL Carbon Credits & Climate Mitigation (Feb 7) –Led by Dr. Thoraya Seada and facilitated by Aya Mamdouh, this session provided an in-depth explanation of how EoL carbon credits contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation. A guest Q&A session with Mr. Helmy Abouleish allowed participants to gain insights into the practical application of EoL principles.
EBDA Services & PGS System (Feb 8) Presented by Eng. Naglaa and Buthaina, this session introduced EBDA’s support systems for farmers transitioning to biodynamic agriculture through the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS).

Throughout these engagements, the EBDA team strengthened relationships, onboarded new members, and laid the foundation for future collaborations.

Engagement at the Goetheanum Booth

Throughout the conference, we had a booth in the Goetheanum, where a significant number of interested participants approached us to learn more about EBDA, our farmers, our scaling-up strategy, and the Economy of Love standard and how it applies in Egypt. The level of interest was remarkable, with many individuals and organizations expressing their willingness to collaborate. Some were keen on partnerships, while others explored possibilities for visiting Egypt, becoming donors, or offsetting their carbon footprint using EoL carbon credits. This engagement further strengthened our network and opened doors for meaningful collaborations in the future.

EBDA Communication Team

Overview:
This month, the media team focused on producing high-quality educational content and documenting key activities related to the Economy of Love and biodynamic agriculture. Our main project involved a field visit to Sekem farm in Minya, where we captured learning videos on four essential crops.

Key Activities:

Field Visit to Sekem Farm, Minya (3-day trip)
- The team traveled to Minya to film educational videos about onion, garlic, sesame, and chamomile cultivation.
- We collaborated with experts Dr. Refid Alma (onion & garlic) and Mahmoud Sharawi (sesame & chamomile).
- Filming took place during sunrise and sunset to achieve optimal lighting conditions.
- Drone footage was captured to provide aerial perspectives of the farm.
Video Production
- A total of 8 educational videos were recorded for each crop, covering various aspects of cultivation, best practices, and sustainable farming techniques.
- Interviews with experts provided in-depth insights for farmers and agricultural stakeholders.
- Edited 4 mango learning videos and 4 mandarin learning videos.
- Created 3 reels about climate heroes.
- Produced 2 reels for amazing tips for agriculture: one about cows and the other about deer.
Event Coverage – Heliopolis University
- Covered an event at Heliopolis University about carbon credits.
- Captured 130 photos documenting key moments.
- Created 1 reel summarizing the event highlights.
Content Development & Editing
- Footage organization and post-production editing began immediately after the trip.
- Initial drafts of the videos were reviewed to ensure clarity, accuracy, and engaging visuals.
Social Media & Communication
- Behind-the-scenes photos and short clips from the filming sessions were shared to engage our audience.
- Drafting captions and teaser content to promote the final videos upon release.
Upcoming Plans
- Finalizing and publishing the educational videos.
- Developing additional media content for workshops and upcoming events.
- Enhancing visual storytelling for our stakeholders and community engagement.

Challenges & Learnings:

Managing filming schedules to align with natural lighting conditions was crucial for achieving high-quality visuals.
Coordinating with experts and ensuring smooth communication helped maintain the flow of production.
Utilizing drone footage added a new dynamic to our content, making it more engaging and informative.

Conclusion:
The media team successfully documented a crucial learning experience for farmers and stakeholders. Our work this month highlights the importance of visual education in promoting sustainable agriculture. Moving forward, we aim to refine our content strategy and expand our reach through compelling storytelling.

EBDA Events and Activities

1- Field Visit to Sekem El Wahat Farm

I traveled to Sekem El Wahat Farm for a two-day visit, accompanied by an Indian colleague “Nirmal” who is particularly interested in carbon credits. He lives in Germany and works for Climate Partners. His goal was to observe a typical organic farm and gain insights into sustainable farming practices that could contribute to carbon offset initiatives. During the visit, we explored various aspects of the farm’s operations, including its organic farming methods, biodiversity, and potential applications for carbon credits within the context of sustainable agriculture.

2-Biodiversity Survey in Sharkia Governorate

As part of my fieldwork, a survey has been conducted to assess the biodiversity differences between organic and conventional farms in Sharkia Governorate. The survey was designed using KoboToolbox, an open-source data collection platform, to streamline the process of gathering and analyzing data.

The survey consisted of 60 questions focused on two key areas: the farming practices and the biodiversity within the farms. The questions covered various aspects, including farm management, types of crops grown, soil health, and the presence of different plant and animal species. This comprehensive data collection aimed to identify and compare the biodiversity outcomes of organic versus conventional farming methods in the region

3-United Arab Emirates Gulfood exhibition and visiting Themar Al-Odoaya farm

A five-day trip to the United Arab Emirates to attend the Gulfood event on behalf of the Farmer Development Association. During the visit, Engineer Attia also had the opportunity to visit Themar Al-Odoaya Farm, a farm registered with the EBDA (Emirates Biodynamic Agriculture Association) in Abu Dhabi. This visit provided valuable insights into sustainable farming practices and the role of biodynamic agriculture in the region.

4- EBDA Summit

On February 2, 2025, SI-EoL Project and the EBDA hosted an awareness raising event for interested parties on biodynamic agriculture and carbon farming. The forum aimed to highlight successful water resource management through organic and biodynamic farming while discussing investment opportunities and the expansion of this model to combat climate change and enhance farmers’ livelihoods through carbon credits.

The forum was attended by esteemed guests, including the Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, the Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, as well as governors and representatives from New Valley, Sharqia, Beni Suef, and Fayoum. The event also attracted local and international investors, NGOs, development organizations, academics, and business stakeholders.

5- The Biodynamic Plant course at SEKEM Farm

From February 15th to 20th, Eng. Alshimaa Abdelghany from the Research and Development team at EBDA participated in training first-year students of the faculty of organic agriculture heliopolis university on the Biodynamic Plants course, alongside Ms. Angela Hoffman And the professors from HU. Participants engaged their senses to explore elements of the environment and discover new plant species. The week proved hands-on learning in a natural setting.

6- EBDA Team Capacity Building Activities

Organizational Development:

The organization’s processes have started mapping out, to see interlinking processes, identify bottlenecks and help people understand how their tasks are not individual tasks but fit into an ecosystem of interlinking processes that all serve the mission and vision of the EBDA. This will also help with identifying roles, responsibilities and clarify job descriptions. Onboarding new engineers and office staff will also be easier as it will be clearer what all the processes are and where the new person fits into the whole organization.

Leadership Course:

The four-month human-centered leadership course will finish next week with a review of everything and feedback for the whole course. In order to strengthen the organizational structure, for the current and future middle managers we have held a leadership course covering various human and technical skills. We discussed and practiced the four levels of listening (downloading, factual, empathetic and generative) through empathy walks, case clinics and workshop discussions. We looked at time management techniques and philosophies, as well as how to set goals within a larger strategy. We also learnt interpersonal skills such as setting dynamically adjustable boundaries, the art of delegation and how to deal with conflicts by seeing the growth opportunity. We closed our leadership program by discussing the usefulness of procedures and then how to establish and evaluate procedures.

As with most personal-development workshops, there was a clear development from week to week with all participants, but it is often the case that the true result of the development will only show when the information has ripened within the leaders in about half a year or more.

Public speaking course:

The team is continuing with the public speaking course. As the number of participants are also growing and slowly the confidence of the speakers is increasing as well. We have covered the basic structures of speech and presentations, storytelling in academic and professional contexts, how to use our voice to achieve different results and how to plan and edit our speeches/presentations. We will continue with body language and the use of gestures on stage and how to engage with your audience. With the participants not always being able to prepare and rehearse a speech during the week between sessions, we also learnt basic structures and methods for improvised speeches which can be used for giving impromptu speeches in meetings or at formal dinner parties. The goal is to have everybody speak at each session so we can all get comfortable speaking in an organized and structured way and learn to deal with the internal struggles.

7- IT Team achievements

– Translate the EBDA and EoL web sites ,we’ve added the arabic and german translations.

– The team has already mapped the process of how we create a carbon credit, which has helped immensely during onboarding new team members and we will publish the process map on the EoL website for customers to also have a greater understanding of the whole process.

– New ERP system:

The team is working on an ERP system with Eng. Osama Attya, which will help streamline the buying, selling and creation of carbon credits. The new IT system will be able to store the information needed to create the carbon credits, with one click be able to issue a carbon credit certificate and when a registered buyer buys a carbon credit the system will automatically retire the carbon credits and allocate money into the appropriate solidarity pools for the farmers.

Do-Pay Progress

To promote financial inclusion and empower farmers, the Egyptian Agriculture Biodynamic Association (EBDA) has teamed up with Dopay to offer visa cards to farmers. By providing farmers with easy access to financial services and encouraging economic development in rural areas, this program seeks to raise farmers’ standard of living.

EBDA and Dopay successfully collaborated to achieve co-branding, incorporating the EoL logo on the visa cards. This co-branding effort symbolizes the partnership’s commitment to supporting farmers and promoting sustainable agricultural practices.

Carbon Credit Sales

This month, we successfully sold 500 Economy of Love (EoL) Carbon Credits to Concrete, the Egyptian Textile Company, through an auction executed by Beltone on the Egyptian Stock Exchange. These carbon credits were generated by our smallholder farmers in Wahat, reflecting their commitment to sustainable agricultural practices and carbon sequestration. Thus connecting climate-conscious businesses with the efforts of our farmers, and further strengthening the role of EoL carbon credits in supporting both environmental and economic sustainability.