Economy Development Program “Eat Our Own Bread” aims at recreating traditional village values, preserving existing ones and utilising created resources economically so that people living in Alsómocsolád establish liveable, sustainable, high quality living environment; grab again farming opportunities offered by environment – existing small-gardens, farm-buildings and tools, forests, fields, arable lands - by using community money (rigac=R) and local service potentials and raising them to conscious level to integrate in their everyday life sustainably.
We aim at improving quality of life, villagescape in the light of environmental-social sustainability, and shifting towards self-preservation by providing spaces to inhabitant responsibility and action.
Alsómocsolád’s a dead-end village with 324 inhabitants in Baranya county, in a district targeted by complex development based on its infrastructural, economic, labour market and educational indices.
All public utilities are available in Alsómocsolád. It has modern telecommunication, IT connections, several community spaces, tourist centre, elderly home. Health service and educational institutions are zoned.
Aging, depopulation of youth for better living are our challenges. Our village isn’t an economic destination due to low population and education indicators. Average earnings are below national average, locally offered services aren’t profitable, few chances for alternative revenues, living standard diminishes. Program “Eat Our Own Bread” was introduced for compensation (2013). It’s been used in this form since 2017.
Core-values:
20 years ago, there’re 1-2 pigs, 50-60 chickens, 4-5 mother-rabbits, their reproduction, ducks, geese, earlier cows almost at each house. Families produced animal feed, kitchen garden plants on their own on Producer Cooperative areas. This volume covered most of their needs, founded the village’s food security. By the effect of legal, economic, social and lifestyle changes after the change of the regime, this form of farming around the house almost totally disappeared. Our survey’s result (2008): out of 102 families living here at that time only 6 families raised swine, 17 held poultry, 21 cultivated garden, only 3 produced animal feed. The village’s food security was vulnerable, with regard to both locally produced food quantity and quality.
Parallel to farming decline around the house, services to each-other disappeared from everyday-life: e.g. wood-cutting, corn, fruit harvest, garden digging etc., thus practically no chance to additional revenues.
Continuously decreasing living-standard’s spectacularly traced through residential-property state.
“Eat Our Own Bread” Program elements offer opportunity to solve these problems.
Village management asked for inhabitant help, community strength to project elaboration, reconsideration in 2017, re-launching of new program under well-known name. Active project elaborators included:
Having compiled the draft program, it was accepted, fine-tuned, supplemented during public forums, small-group-discussions. Experts made necessary corrections. Program could be restarted after social planning.
Program “Eat Our Own Bread” summarised in a respective strategic document, is also involved in general strategy.
Program “Eat Our Own Bread” ensures local economy development in a complex approach, the growth of the quantity of money turning over in it, the increase of the inhabitants’ standard of living, the strengthening of the village’s retention ability, making it more attractive for those who want to settle down by increasing the inhabitants’ knowledge and material bases, creating opportunities for alternative revenues by re-localisation of traditional farming around the house comprising an organic part of rural lifestyle, supporting becoming a small-producer, introducing new residential services, and villagescape’s environment-conscious improvement.
We mostly aim at improving life quality, villagescape in the light of environmental-social sustainability, and shifting towards self-preservation, multiplying methods, results.
Program elements:
Recently, out of 100 households, 71 were involved
in apartment renovation “Getting our House in Order” program element and cumulatively 71 in the Agriculture boosting program element. 2 families became small producers (another 2 plan it), 1 family applied for business development support (4 more plan it). New services offered by them, the introduction of community money rigac, the opportunity to pay for new services by rigac shifted attention to their use, product production, shopping consciously locally from small and primary producers, in small shops.
Thanks to the planning methodology and implementation of Program “Eat Our Own Bread”, people experience they are able to innovate, improve their real-life situation, enhance their life-quality from their own strength, with consistent work and perseverance – with innovative development added by the municipality and committed expert support provided by the municipality -, and in addition, they are able to form and renew a community. They are able to take responsibility for values created by them.
Spheres of the Complex Impact of the Program:
Inner market expanding by Rigac turnover stabilised local small shop’s and pub’s demand indices. It could achieve turnover needed to survive even in regression period caused by Covid-19. Locally available products and services significantly reduced virus infection risk.
For measuring purposes, Rigac-accounting-centre documentation, applications, their evaluation documentation, contracts entered and protocols serve.
In 2017, the program’s impacts were measured by a survey. Its result proved: the program and community money strengthened inhabitants’ identity and village community in addition to economic and sustainability development.
Our biggest conclusion is: Local Economy Development Program “Eat Our Own Bread” is self-improving and it must stay like that. Its success’s generated by inhabitant activity and experience integrated in implementation.
Raising awareness has been the greatest challenge. Local product prices cannot compete with multinational companies’ depressed prices. We need to make people see broader relationships. We need to believe in it and transfer this belief that local product is:
ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability
European Secretariat
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Website: www.sustainablecities.eu