Lessons learned and passed along

Deep satisfaction fills us as we drive home. Today we have seen learning taking place, eyes lighting up, new ideas taking hold. These are ideas that have the potential to change lives.

We had spent two days at Masaiti Farm Training Institute; the farm component of Kings Highway, a South African mission. Two young South Africans, Jaco and Jesaja, head the agriculture project. Masaiti does farm training and carries out research with crop rotations, varieties and farming methods. It has a large citrus tree nursery and teaches small scale farmers conservation farming. Potatoes are its newest venture. Jaco said they are always trying to keep one step ahead of the farmers they are training and the farmers are catching up fast.

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When we arrived, a field representative meeting was in progress. Masaiti has trained seven field reps. Each is responsible for a district with about 15 farmers who enrolled in the conservation farming program they call God’s Way of Farming. They meet once a month to exchange ideas, discuss problems and successes and hand in their reports. This discussion focused on leaf disease in corn. No-tillage has its own issues such as fungus development in wet trash. We were deeply impressed by this group’s knowledge, active participation, ideas and dedication to their work. When I see a group like this, I have hope for this nation. Change is happening, despite what so many say.

That afternoon we had the opportunity to see the other end of the training process. Each field rep meets weekly with his farmers, takes reports of what they have done, when and how, discusses problems and passes on any new knowledge they have learned since the last monthly meeting. The group congregated in front of the farmer’s simple brick house and half of them were women, who were not afraid to speak up. That’s a higher percentage of women than at most farm meetings in Canada.

God’s Way of Farming is a manual application of our mechanical no-till conservation system. Because maize leaves a heavy layer of trash after harvest, this is usually burnt off. Here, they are encouraged to leave the trash in the field to return fibre and nutrition to the soil. They also stress the importance of crop rotation (to Robert’s joy), displaying the difference in the research plots. The no-till method is less work in the long run than the traditional method and the yield increase is substantial when done right. They now have a group of local farmers who have been practising this concept long enough so that others are seeing the benefits and change their ways. It’s slow, but it’s working.

The afternoon of the second day of our three-day visit, our Mpongwe Co-operative members joined us. Mpongwe is 50 kilometres from Masaiti. We feel it’s important to link our farmers with organizations that already have the knowledge and experience they need.

Elijah took us through the research plots. The farm is experimenting with different methods of fertilizing including commercial fertilizer, chicken manure, ash and rotten leaves. Many farmers say they can’t afford fertilizer. Masaiti wants to show them they still have options. Everyone has ash from the charcoal they cook with, or access to chicken manure or leaf compost. Masaiti has a saying: Poverty is not what you have or not have. It is what you do with what you have.

Pastor Jessy and his crew were impressed with the work that had been done there. His conclusion: “I have been doing things wrong. Now I have to go home and change.” The three Mpongwe farmers will do that and also encourage others to do so. They are excited and plan to come to the two week training session in April. We are excited to be able to facilitate this day.