Dear Jacky, dear All,

you asked me to - provide a brief background on ETH and its links with
SANDEC, the IBS projects that you have mentioned in Africa.

How are you involved in these organizations and projects. Are any of these
on large farms ? -

ETH the Swiss Institute of Technology, Zurich is the biggest Institute on
University level in education and research in technical sciences in
Switzerland. Among others it also has departments for agronomy, for forestry
and for biology. I am teaching applied soil biology for agronomists. The
SANDEC group (Water and Sanitation in Developing Countries) is a specialised
group of EAWAG (Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and
Technology). Whereas EAWAG is an annex of ETH.

I have good contacts and information exchange with the SANDEC group (mainly
with Chris Zurbrueck and Martin Strauss), but we have no common projects.

The IBS project in Ethiopia, is a community driven project in two villages
in the Gurage region (about 200 km West of Addis, 1800 m above sea level,
with a distinct dry season Nov/Dec - June and a rainy season with high
precipitations from June to Nov). The so called BioVillage initiative
started with a successful mass trapping project of ICIPE (International
Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology) for tsetse control against
tripanosomosis of cattle. Then the people asked ICIPE for help in malaria
control (vector control). So instead of a human health project, ICIPE
decided to start a project with a holistic ecological approach. It includes
prevention measures for human and animal diseases (incl. sanitation programs
and waste management), improving the nutritional situation for humans and
animals (including nutrient recycling and soil improvement). And finally to
elevate the income situation by increasing the quantity and quality of
products so as starting new activities (for example improving honey
production, introducing silk worm cultures) etc. The project includes a
whole village mostly with small farms but with total of about 3000 heads of
bovine cattle. Besides a demonstration farm is built for a family to keep
about 40 bovine cattle to test new methods and for training and education
new technologies.

ICIPE with specialists on insect science has to look for external
specialists in Ethiopia: veterinary science and plant production (University
of Addis Ababa), waste management and nutrient recycling (myself, University
of Kassel, Germany, and for toilet systems BOKU=soil science of University
of Vienna, Austria), Economy (University of Hohenheim, Germany). The project
is managed by Dr. Juergen Greiling, specialist in tropical agriculture
(ICIPE-Ethiopia, Addis Ababa). ICIPE-Ethiopia has it?s office inside the
campus of ILRI in Addis Ababa.

To my knowledge there are no big farms in a classical sense, but it needs a
logistic and an organisation to co-ordinate the activities of the different
actors there in an open structure to enable further development and new
initiatives.

This is in short the situation of the Ethiopian project, I am involved.

My private commercial activity mainly includes engineering in bioconversion
of wastes into N-rich fertilizers and vermicomposting (in drums and in flat
beds). With these activities I am involved in some projects in Switzerland
for example in producing an N-fertiliser from feathers of chicken abattoirs
and in the treatment of slurries and waste waters from biogas plants, after
fermentation of fats and protein residues from slaughterhouses.

Today I get the information of ETH that as a teacher of ETH I have no
problem to have an address (e-mail and for conventional mail) at the ETH for
co-ordinating IBSnet Farm Working Group. So this obstacle is eliminated.
Under these circumstances I am ready to act as co-ordinator of IBSnet Farm
Working Group, if you do accept my person and my offer - but it is up to you
all to decide.

The rest to get funds from the Swiss administration, I can solve later, I
first have to find the responsible persons.

Regards   Markus Bieri