Tzoumakers: An open source agricultural community

Cocreating solutions for agriculture

BY CHRISTINA PRIAVOLOU | JUNIOR RESEARCH FELLOW, TALLINN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY; CORE MEMBER, P2P LAB

The maker culture is often observed in cities, where events, ideas and talented designers abound. On the contrary, in less developed areas the necessity of using advanced technologies is higher, since more severe issues need to be addressed.

Take agriculture as an example. Agricultural production is a key activity in the peripheral and less developed regions of the EU. There are rural places plentiful of cultural and natural resources, where the locals rely on small-scale activities to earn a living. In such places, investments are low or scant, urging communities of farmers to look for alternative ways of using technology towards sustainable agriculture.

Instead of adapting their techniques to the logic of the established market channels, scattered communities of farmers globally work in a distributed but interconnected way to produce the machines they need. By sharing and reflecting on their common concerns and aspirations, farmers strive to reduce acquisition and maintenance costs of their machines on local level, while seeking appropriate tools to serve their everyday needs.

At the same time, the importance of linking together agricultural communities becomes evident. Technical infrastructure for development can be provided and supported through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) via existing hubs (e.g. Fab Labs). As a result, resilient communities could be created locally able to overcome barriers through open source web tools, knowledge diffusion and collaboration for mutual benefit. Further, synergies could be created between alternative agriculture (e.g. ecovillages) and business communities (e.g. micro-enterprises), while feedback loops could be facilitated among makers, designers and farmers.

Farm Hack and l’Atelier Paysan are two collaborative efforts of small-scale farmers who gathered together to produce agricultural technologies. The former began with simple meetups in the USA, where farmers discussed ideas for tools and machinery that could facilitate their production. The latter, a French-speaking cooperative, has been aspiring to develop a toolbox for agricultural practices and achieve self-sufficiency with regard to tools for organic farming. The designs of the produced technologies by both communities are available for free on their websites, enabling other farmers to replicate or adjust these solutions to their own needs. The designs are also provided in the form of printed guide-books for constructing agricultural tools and sold to support future activities of the communities.

In the same vein, the P2P Lab, a Greek research collective focused on the commons, aims to create awareness and promote such an emerging collaborative productive model in agriculture in their local context. It is based on the conjunction of open sharing of knowledge and ideas, with localised manufacturing and distributed design.

Specifically, a model codified as “Design Global - Manufacture Local” asserts that local communities can produce technologies adapted to their own needs and context, empowered by designs, methods and knowledge shared globally by similar communities. In an attempt to overcome the fragmentation of the existing diverse open source agricultural projects, the P2P Lab works towards the replication, sharing and improvement of such solutions to create new communication channels and synergies.

The P2P Lab’s relevant activities take place in a small mountainous village in North-Western Greece (Epirus region) called Kalentzi. It is situated in the village cluster of Tzoumerka, a mountainous area where the economy is largely focused on the primary sector. By linking Tzoumerka with the maker culture, a community-driven agricultural makerspace emerged named “Tzoumakers”.

The local population in Kalentzi mostly depends on small-scale activities, including arboreal cultivation, beekeeping and husbandry, while investment opportunities for farmers are rare. Given the high acquisition and maintenance costs of machinery together with the increasing focus of market channels on flatlands, Greek farmers decided to come to the fore. Starting with gatherings to brainstorm, the farmers identified common challenges. Soon the meetups were followed by tools built together. A tool for hammering fencing-poles into the ground was the first tool built to serve certain needs of the community.

It should be noted that the farmers’ engagement was evident since, after drafting some designs, they directly brought their own machines to start building a prototype. Tzoumakers is growing to a fully functional makerspace, equipped with metal- and wood-processing machinery and desktop manufacturing tools. More ideas have since been put on the table to eventually take material form and be tested on the ground.

The story of Tzoumakers has just begun. Building upon collective work, human creativity and sharing, Tzoumakers is an open space where everyone can participate. It encompasses a community of farmers, makers and enthusiasts coalesced around common needs and values, as well as a collective vision for the area. By creating innovations on demand at a local level, Tzoumakers strive to collect, document and disseminate their solutions so as to benefit others with similar issues. Therefore, their solutions are also shareable at a global level, strengthening the maker movement worldwide.

As in the case of other agricultural communities, such as L’ Atelier Paysan and Farm Hack, each solution is unique and should be adapted to other contexts. Thus, Tzoumakers do not claim to produce unified ready-made blueprints for agricultural solutions that could be replicated elsewhere. What is common, however, in all these endeavours is the process of collaboration, connection and enhancement of human capacities. Design Global - Manufacture Local summarises this process and vision for communities that are locally based and sovereign, but connected and concerned around global concerns.

*The P2P Lab and the community of Tzoumakers are supported by the project “Phygital: Catalysing innovation and entrepreneurship unlocking the potential of emerging production and business models”, implemented under the Transnational Cooperation Programme Interreg V-B “Balkan – Mediterranean 2014-2020”, co-funded by the European Union and the National Funds of the participating countries.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mEl-sNzn7yNSIwCmpaoCjbxPTuUCv9PcmktGoX8Gcx8/edit