Clean Energy Briquette Production in Rural Morocco

Project Report | Dec 30, 2014
Briquette production: Streamlining HAF Projects

By Jacqueline Seeley | Director of Development

Processing organic walnuts at the HA3 factory

Dear Friends,

From all of us at the High Atlas Foundation, we extend best wishes for health and all good things. As 2014 has been an amazing year for us, we wish you the same. Agriculturally, we assist communities currently in eight provinces of Morocco as they plant nurseries, secure organic certification, build cooperatives, benefit from training and create partnerships enabling processing and delivery of product to the global market. We are engaged in all aspects of the value-chain – and we can report that it works with great results; which the support from partners like yourself made this progress possible.

In 2014, HAF created the social enterprise High Atlas Agriculture and Artisanal, or HA³, to assist sales, return net profits as dividends to farmers and reinvest in development projects identified and managed by local communities (such as in health, education, water efficiency, and youth and women’s initiatives). The HAF-HA3 partnership amplifies the green economy that fuels participatory development. It is through this partnership that the clean energy briquette production will take place. Following this year’s harvest, treatment, and processing of organic certified walnuts, HAF and HA³ will complete the briquette production. Throughout the walnut processing, all hulls and husks have been secured in storage to accumulate the required quantity.

Given the improvements that HAF is undergoing, including a particular streamlining of HAF’s presence on Global Giving, this separate project will no longer be active. The activities and process will continue under the “Organic Fruit Trees and Medicinal Herb Nurseries” until a specific Organic Value Chain Project is developed.

Should you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us. For further details about the progress of HAF, please see here.

Kind regards,

Jacqueline

Links:

Read a letter from HAF's President, Dr Yossef Ben-Meir

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Sep 30, 2014
Clean Energy Briquette Production Update

By Jacqueline Seeley | Director of Development

HAF nuts will soon be in the market

As the nut harvest is coming to a peak, the HAF and HA3 teams are currently working on implementing the first ever purchase, processing and sale of organic certified walnuts and almonds. Organic certification has been secured and initial funding is available. Negotiations are underway with the Atlas farmers. Once product is obtained, it will be cleaned, packaged and shipped to the US.

HAF aims to acquire the agricultural waste from this harvest and uphold its zero waste commitment. Further updates following the harvest will be provided, once available.

Additional background information for further details:

High Atlas Agricultural and Artisanal (HA3) partners with farmers across Morocco to transform its agricultural system. Through replacing subsistence farming with a green economy—training farmers in organic agricultural methods and providing the infrastructure needed for this transition—HA3 lifts farmers out of poverty and paves the way for sustainable development.

The clean energy briquettes are a vital component to forging a green economy and embody HA3’s commitment to no waste. Converting agricultural waste such as walnut husks, fallen leaves, and sawdust, into briquettes provides rural households alternative sources for energy other than wood. Using the provinces of Al Houaz and Taroudant to implement pilot programs, HA3 teaches local farmers how to recycle materials so that they, in turn, can produce briquettes that can be used in the local communities as well as sold in both the national as well as international markets.

Additionally, the versatility in ingredients used to construct the briquettes enables the project to easily be adopted across Morocco’s differing landscapes. Here are some the project’s impacts:

1 Reduction in household pollution

2 Decrease in agricultural waste

3 Prevention and reduction of deforestation

4 Increases rural entrepreneurship

5 Diversification of income

6 Augments young girls school attendance as they are often the ones fetching wood

Thanks to your partnership HAF has been able to foster sustainable development and make notable progress towards transforming rural Morocco into a zero waste society.

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Jun 30, 2014
Creating a Green Economy one Briquette at a Time

By Ashling O'Donnell | HAF Intern

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