EBDA in March 2023
Justus Harm in a live talk with TEDx Et Tgammo
Justus Harm, co-executive director of the Egyptian Biodynamic Association, was invited to give a TEDx talk at The American University in New Cairo, he mainly spoke about how regenerative biodynamic farming can mitigate climate change, help farmers to have better livelihood. Therefore, he pointed out that agriculture has the potential to either be a powerful carbon sink or one of the biggest emitters. Egypt has great potential to scale up regenerative biodynamic farming methods applying Economy of Love standard criteria. Raising awareness about this hidden potential is part of our aim to support more than 40,000 farmers in the conversion process within the next two years.
EBDA’s on-boarding new agriculture engineers program
The Egyptian Biodynamic Association gladly joined its team of nine new agricultural engineers. Basically, their main role is to help the association achieve its primary and main goal, which is to support farmers across the different regions in Egypt to implement organic/biodynamic and regenerative practices. The association provided them with intensive two-week training at SEKEM farm on organic/biodynamic farming. The training was organized by the EBDA and supported by the Organic Egypt project.
Meeting with SAT!
EBDA honored to host Mr Alex from Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania (SAT) who has visited us and jointly discussed with Demeter Egypt management and how the Economy of Love can be applied on farms in Tanzania.
Golden Bee Award
Egyptian Biodynamic Association “EBDA” (Demeter Egypt) has received the Golden Bee Award from the Slovenian Government for outstanding achievements in protecting bees and other pollinators.
Workshop for stakeholders in El Wahat El-Bahariya
There was a stakeholders workshop at El Wahat El-Bahariya organized by the EBDA and introduced by Eng. Buthaina, she explained more about the Economy of Love standard and its holistic approach for sustainable agriculture development in Egypt. Moreover, there were stakeholders who didn’t know about the association and it was a great opportunity to explain more about it and about its services.
The Annual Member’s Assembly
All our farming members were invited to the annual member’s assembly to discuss the association’s future vision and goals of the association. In addition, they received a small workshop about the Economy of Love standard and its services for supporting small farmers. This meeting was introduced by Eng. Attia Sobhy and Eng. Ibrahim Saad.
A Partnership announcement
EBDA and Sekem are thrilled to announce that there is a partnership between Sekem and the National Egyptian Bank, which will help smallholder farmers transfer into organic farming and Economy of Love Standard by providing loans for agriculture carbon certificates.
Bee Friend Initiative workshop
EBDA had the opportunity to reach the managers, and teachers of the Beverly Hills school to start their awareness campaign about bees conservation (the “baladi” bee = Apis mellifera lamarckii) and how to start with the students to enhance their awareness about bees and their effect on the environment. EBDA has planned with the school to conduct a meeting with the students’ parents to give them the chance to be part of the BEE FRIEND initiative, to sponsor beehives and see their future impact on the environment.
Workshop about the added value at organic vegetables farming for regionalwert project
This workshop was facilitated by Eng Naglaa, Buthaina Elhosieny and Eng. Ahmed Hassan to support the farmers to get the idea of the project “Regionalwert” and provide them with the information for the improvement of the performance calculator (Regionalwert) to be able to calculate all the farm’s inputs, outputs, profit, sustainability and impact on the environment.
BIOTex Project progress
Demeter Egypt’s role is to support regenerative cotton production. EBDA is joining the Project Advisory Boards second meeting of BioTex Egypt, a project that supports regenerative organic cotton production along the whole value chain. The meeting was fruitful in planning for future goals and actions.
EBDA celebrated the international women’s day
The organization’s commitment to empowering women and promoting gender equality will no doubt continue to have a positive impact on the lives of women in Egypt and beyond. So, check the link and see more insights about how the EBDA women’s team expressed their work in the association: https://www.linkedin.com.
Workshop hosted by Organic Egypt Project
With the Organic Egypt project and EBDA, a two-day intensive workshop has been organized and took place in Heliopolis University for sustainable development. The new EBDA applicants will contribute in building up the marketing department of the association. As before they will receive a contract with EBDA they need to prove their skills in the professional marketing training with Bildungswerk der Bayerischen Wirtschaft (bbw-Gruppe).
A gathering to enable the opening of a service center for organic farming
To facilitate the opening of an Organic Farming Service Center with other leading associations and the private sector, EBDA and Heliopolis University organized a meeting. Companies producing and marketing organic agricultural inputs have been invited. These companies worked to deliver nutrients and organic crop protection materials to farmers in various organic farmers’ groups throughout all governorates in Egypt.
