Over the next four months or so, I will be conducting a collaborative project with Agricultural Innovations aimed at integrating a contour-cultivation method of water harvesting with an aquaculture and/or CEA (controlled environment agriculture) facility.  The goal is to direct water away from its normal path of flow (down the steepest land gradient, into streams and eventually to the ocean) to planted areas and storage facilities where it can be used for agricultural purposes.  This will both reduce erosion and greatly increase the water available for productive purposes.  The design will be based partly on the work of P.A. and Ken Yeomans.

I’ll be using a site in Bolivia as a sort of “prototype” design to determine what is possible and how to apply this kind of design to a plot of degraded land.  In the process, I hope to develop a “toolkit” for other farms and agricultural extension agents to use this method. This toolkit, along with information about the project will be a subproject of “Project Permaculture.”  Check Project Permaculture for updates over the next few months.