Sponsorship initiatives
Gamesa has selected 2 social projects that, in close collaboration with Fundación CAN and different NGOs, will be developed through 2008.
1. Biofuel process in Dominican Republic
The objective of the Project is to increase the income generation alternatives of families with scarce means of support in rural communities of the south-west of Dominican Republic, by means of biofuel production and trade. For that purpose, a semi-industrial biofuel processing plant will be implemented in Barahona.
The project will be developed in coordination with Cooperativa de Productores de Banano Orgánico Luis Pérez (COOPROBAOLUPE), association devoted to organic banana crop for export and small subsistence crops. The project aims to strengthen the cooperative and increase it number of members, although peasants from other associations might also benefit.
Seeds and necessary training for the new crop (Jatropha) will be provided. The area where the project will be developed has an arid climate, with a lot of land disuse due to unproductiveness and degradation. Nowadays they are used for extensive livestock breeding or they are abandoned. Jatropha has a exceptional capacity to adapt to arid land, promoting at the same time area’s reforestation.
An annual biofuel production of 70,000 litres is expected.
The project will be 8 months long, it will benefit 150 families and will be developed with Fundación CODESPA.
2. Spray irrigation promotion in India
This project aims to contribute to the improvement of the living conditions of rural populations in Anantapur district (India), through the installation of spray irrigation systems in order to improve and optimizate water resources use.
The place where the project is developed is an area with rain water scarcity and where the irrigation techniques used are not suitable. This causes rapid water exhaustion and a groundwater decrease. Changing traditional irrigation and agricultural methods for a micro-irrigation system is the only way to achieve a responsible water use and a sustainable agricultural development.
428 acres of land are expected to have spray irrigation systems in Nallamada area, district of Anantapur, and 183 families will benefit from the project. All favoured people belong to the most unfavourable society classes: dalits or untouchables, Scheduled Castes (SC) and Schedules Tribes (ST), as well as Other Backward Castes (OBC) or former sudras.
The project will be 12 months long and it will be developed in collaboration with Fundación Vicente Ferrer.