“The design prior to the cultivation of the land is key in permaculture”
- The Birika Permakultura project was created in 2014 on a occupied plot in Leioa. The project was launched by Jurgi Uriarte Idiazabal and two other members of the association. “We were thrown out of that plot because then they had to make a parking lot and, after a pause, I continued just with the project,” Uriarte explained. Since 2016 he has been immersed in the project, carrying out design tasks for the creation of systems based on permaculture.
Permaculture combines many techniques, according to Uriarte. “Permaculture is not limited to the technique of orchard, it is more than that, it affects many elements: the access routes to water and energy, the reduction of plastic, the reduction of spending… it is a way of living”. This requires design and planning, and it is in this area that Birika members are responsible for advising and supporting people who want to set up the garden or other production systems. “Just as computer simulations are carried out before creating a car in the factory, it is essential to make plans, measurements and studies before starting to work on the ground.”
Uriarte also offers training and workshops in the production of vegetables and eggs in three and a half hectares of land in the Biscayan municipality of Mungia. “This production model goes beyond the ecological, which marks the microbiology of the earth. The use of Bacillus thurigiensis against pests is well seen, it is eco-friendly, but it is not selective, because it also kills microbiology,” he explained. He has also used it to kill tomato worms, but he says that the worms are the sign that the plant is semi-diseased. Use the spectrometer to measure the 'health' of plants: “It is a kind of telescope that consists of putting three or four drops of tomato and, looking at the sun, measures the elements dissolved in that tomato: sugars, minerals...” The more elements, the plant is more protected from the aggressors.
Acuapony and video-creation
Birika permaculture also works with acuapony systems. Not to confuse, acuapony is not hydroponics. “In aquapony systems, fish are introduced into the water, which feeds the plant and, at the same time, the plant purifies the water, closing the cycle. You have live proteins and plants in the same system,” he explains. Uriarte explained that this is a very efficient food production system, widely used both in Indonesia and in other countries in the area.
And in Birika they have also had time to combine all the activities mentioned above with video-creation. On your Youtube channel you have hundreds of videos related to permaculture, horticulture, acuaponia and many other topics related to agriculture. “This is a way of disseminating the techniques, a channel in which the nine-year work has been collected, within anyone’s reach,” he concluded.
