Stories & blogs - Post
07
AprWith sub–Saharan Africa seeing record droughts and floods and with as much as 30% of the country’s land degraded by intensive monoculture farming and pesticide use, many smallholder farmers and their families are trapped in a cycle of poverty.
We’ve developed a training programme that has already equipped 16,000 subsistence farmers with the latest regenerative agricultural techniques so they can better withstand the twin impact of unpredictable rains and degraded soil.
A new way of farming
For Benedetta Kaveki this meant changing the way she and her neighbours had farmed for generations.
She began by constructing terraces to reduce the soil erosion during the rains, planting the water hungry maize at the bottom and beans at the top.
Instead of relying on just these two crops Benedetta broke with tradition to plant sorghum, cow peas, pigeon peas and green grams, which would better withstand periods of drought, and low growing crops such as sweet potato to reduce surface water loss.
The resulting year-round harvest now provides Benedetta with more opportunities to sell her produce while also helping to trap carbon, enriching the soil and improving plant, animal and insect biodiversity.
Everything on the farm has a purpose
Everything on Benedetta’s farm now has a purpose – new paw paw trees provide shade for the animals, excess crops are used to feed the animals which, in turn, provide the manure for the crops. She even makes her own pesticide using tobacco leaves, pepper and garlic.
Benedetta’s farm is transformed. The improved soil has led to increased yields, and, by using circular economy techniques like making fertilizer from parts of the crop that can’t be used, she’s reduced her dependence on costly commercial products.
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