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A classroom in the Garden of Eden

2018-04-25

Deforestation harms people and the environment. With nurseries, farmers can earn money and do good. You just have to know how to do it

Ich bin ein Alternativtext — Irene Kibon, leader of the BMZ Integrated Climate and Resource Protection Project for World Vision Kenya and Lukio Andhamo © Steffen Kugler/World Vision

Rafael Odwaro and his wife Sophia only have to walk a few steps out of their house and they are standing in the middle of their Garden of Eden. Red, purple and yellow flowers bloom alongside herbs, spinach and wild vegetables. Aloe vera grows between protective hedges and climbing herbs, as do banana plants and mango and orange trees. Butterflies fly around, as if they could hardly decide where to snack first. Small, silver fish are circling in a pond. The garden is adjoined to a shady square with compost heaps and a cowshed enclosure. Deciduous trees hide the view of a greenhouse, another enclosure for dairy goats and the lower-lying fields, where sweet potatoes, groundnuts and chickpeas, as well as fodder crops for the animals, grow under papaya trees.

As understandable as it would be, the Odwaro couple and their seven children are not simply enjoying the fruits of the "Garden of Eden" (which refers to the divine creation) themselves. The family invites local farmers and welcomes the curious: including university students, government officials and researchers. The Odwaros have also built a small house in the middle of their garden, which serves as a museum for plants and as a meeting place. A few months ago, a classroom was built under trees. People young and old should learn everything about the environment and sustainable value creation from nature. The project is called "GENLINK".

Three issues link the Odwaro small farming family to a project started in 2014 by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) on integrated climate and protection and resources conservation, which has been carried out by the organisation World Vision with support from the county government of Homabay and other partners until this spring.

Firstly, they want to show how sustainable organic farming can, on a relatively small farm, be economically successful and how, despite the climate change in East Africa, a family can feed themselves healthily all year round. Secondly, they want to restore degraded landscapes and conserve biodiversity. Thirdly, they want people to win people for the reforestation of the forests in order to improve the climate and soil fertility. It is especially important to Odwaro to rediscover and integrate native trees for agriculture. "Farming God's Way" is his Christian-inspired motto, shown by a sign in his garden.

(c) Steffen Kugler/World Vision — Farmer Lukio Andhamo in Ogando Village

Before his oasis came into existence, the Kenyan´s farm still looked like the majority of farms on the Lake Victoria: cornfields, a few cows, goats and chickens. Odwaro could hardly feed his family with this alone. His interest in trees awoke at a training session in agroforestry which was offered to him and other farmers by World Vision. "My wife, my children and I decided at the round-table to try a nursery", he says. They built fences out of branches around their house and hung grow-sacks with tree seedlings on them so that the animals would not eat the seedlings. "Our first 3,000 seedlings were grown with waster water from the kitchen because we did not have a well, and yet I was able to sell these seedlings well", says Odwaro, smiling.

After a drought threw him back during the year, he sold a cow, bought material and dug the first rain collection tank with his sons. World Vision employees watched his efforts and then advised him every step of the way on how he could take further measures: He organised his farm, created irrigation ditches, planted trees, and learned how to grow vegetables. The key component remained the nursery however. "The project has enabled me to set up a modern, larger nursery where I can now grow 30,000 seedlings at the same time", says Odwaro proudly. His fruit trees are particularly highly sought after, because "fruit is a luxury in this area, and many families cannot afford to buy it regularly for their children". Through the BMZ project, he has provided several schools with seedlings for orchards, including the neighbouring elementary school, and initiated natural regeneration plots in schools. He is now working there as a mentor for environmental education. At the same time, more and more people in the region became interested in native deciduous trees, because the education campaigns on the benefits of agroforestry were effective.

Half of the Homabay district, the home of the Odwaro family, was covered by forest a few decades ago. Today there are only small isolated pockets, the rest of the landscape is covered with thorny bushes and fields. Areas like the Lambwe Valley are increasingly suffering from drought. Scientists like Dennis Otieno from Oginga Odinga University around Kisumu say it's because of the deforestation. Growing settlements and agricultural sectors need timber, but also the need for firewood and charcoal is growing. In addition, unchecked grazing cattle feed on renewable plants.

Given that the land is largely privately owned and that the reforestation of forests is expensive, the government's plans are for the farmers to get involved. A law requires them to reserve at least ten percent of their land for trees. But how do you get the farmers to change their previous behaviour?

Unterricht im Grünen

Die Eden Street im Garten der Farm von Raphael Odwaro im Ort Nyaera Village in Kenia. © Steffen Kugler/World Vision

Der Landwirt Lukio Andhamo zusammen mit seinen Kindern im selbst angelegten Maisfeld. © Steffen Kugler/World Vision

Der Landwirt Raphael Odwaro arbeitet auf seiner Farm im Ort Nyaera Village in Zentral-Kenia. © Steffen Kugler/World Vision

Landwirt Raphael Odwaro unterrichtet Kinder auf seiner Farm im Nyabera Village, Kenia. © Steffen Kugler/World Vision

Auch der Sohn des Landwirts Raphael Odwaro unterstützt den Unterricht der Kinder. © Steffen Kugler/World Vision

Das Hinweisschild zum Obstbaum-Museum auf der Farm von des Landwirts Raphael Odwaro. © Steffen Kugler/World Vision

Landwirt Raphael Odwaro in seinem Obstbaum-Museum auf seiner Farm. © Steffen Kugler/World Vision

You receive a very dry, rational response from 41-year-old Lucio Andhamo from the Ogando village, even if you could hardly imagine a happier farmer. He tells us first of all about his motivation: He wanted something different to his parents, who worked hard all their lives and still did not succeed. "As a boy, I was often hungry, even though my father had received a large piece of land from the state, because the fields only gave low yields and little was cultivated except corn and millet." Although the young Andhamo was supposedly going to search for a well-paid job in the city after finishing school, he returned to agriculture. Soon enough, he couldn’t let go of the idea of founding a nursery. From the project’s training alone, he managed to gain the necessary knowledge about trees, growing them and about their fruits. "Previously, I only had eucalyptus and selling firewood in mind", he says.

When they let the beauty of nature work on them in this blooming garden, we reach their hearts, and then their thinking changes too

In just four years, Lucio Andhamo fundamentally changed his farm. Today it is a prime example of how biodiversity, high productivity and low water consumption can be combined. The ongoing consultation and cooperation in a group of like-minded farmers was key to his success. "My monthly earnings are about ten times higher than my previous income", says Andhamo. To gain capital for further projects, he and his group founded a small community bank at the suggestion of World Vision. "With the revenue, we can not only pay for the education of our children, but also support 35 children from very poor families and have provided a school with 600 seedlings." These successes would have aroused the interest of other farmers of course.

However, both Lucio Andhamo and Rafael Odwaro offered something else: just by protecting and pruning wild trees and shrubs, without much financial investment, you can recover fertile land. Soil is kept underneath these trees and in the rainy season it collects water. Under the name FMNR (Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration), World Vision successfully shares this approach with many African countries, and the governments of several districts in Kenya are now supporting FMNR as a reforestation method in their development plans. As part of the BMZ project, 2711 farming families in Homabay have been trained in FMNR. Together, they renatured more than 600 hectares of land, although initially only 300 hectares were sought. Some of the farmers already combine the cultivation of small forests with beekeeping and thus also obtain honey. Andhamo is also planning to do this.

The resulting network, among which are farmers, foresters and nurseries, whose contact with specialist organisations is overseen by the project, have expanded their vision, adds Rafael Odwaro. What’s more, because of this, he can now be a mentor to the people around him. "The biggest problem that we have here is an attitude problem", he exclaims. Despite this, he invites adults and children to his garden. "When they let the beauty of nature work on them in this blooming garden, we reach their hearts, and then their thinking changes too."

The Odwaro couple have been inspired to carry out their visions always alongside children. "They are the best ambassadors for the families, and that's why you can change things quickly and sustainably with them and their schools", says Rafael Odwaro. The BMZ project has developed a manual on environmental education in schools, but above all, practical experience has been promoted. This is also the case in the Odwaros’ environmental classroom. In this way, the students from the villages below the currently bare hills come to the Odwaros, picking up seedlings and planting them, they try freshly harvested papaya and grind bark into healing powder on grinding stones under the instruction of a knowledgeable, old woman. A volunteer teacher wants to inspire the children´s imagination and asks them if they have ever dreamed of climbing a tree or swimming in a stream. On the school grounds, which are currently dry and overgrown with thorny acacias, an orchard was recently created.

The Odwaros’ eldest son, who now attends university, assists with the teaching during the holidays. Meanwhile, he leads a group of students to a small park, pointing to a zebra made of wood, old clothes and plastic waste. "With your talents, you can manage to make such beautiful animals at the park in your school also, or at home, right?" Several children show their affirmation to the thought-provoking question with a nod. The next Garden of Eden is born. At least in their minds.

On Raphael Odwaro´s website you can find more information about GENLINK: https://genlink.wordpress.com

On the work of World Vision on www.worldvision.de

Kenya

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Vertically growing plants, magnetic cotton. Hairy leftovers fertilizing fields, tractors running on algae? These six innovations could lead agriculture’s next Green Revolution!

Diversity Is the Fundamental Principle to Use

An Interview with Shakuntala Thilsted

A conversation with aquatic researcher Shakuntala Thilsted on the long-neglected nutrition benefits of aquatic diets and the empowering qualities of a sustainable aqua-food systems transformation.

Food security is more than production volumes and high yields

A Contribution by Adrian Muller, Catherine Pfeifer and Jürn Sanders (FiBL)

Taking Biodiversity Focus Areas under production or abandoning lower yielding, more extensive production systems is the wrong approach to mastering the looming global food crisis, say the authors of the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL).

“Corona exposes the weaknesses of our nutritional systems"

Interview with Arif Husain (WFP)

The United Nations plan a Food Systems Summit - and now the Corona-Virus is dictating the agenda. The Chief Economist of the UN World Food Programme takes stock of the current situation: a conversation with Jan Rübel about pandemics, about the chromosomes of development - and about the conflicts that inhibit them.

"Agriculture can become a job engine"

Interview with Reiner Klingholz

How can agriculture modernise Africa? And does the road to the cities really lead out of poverty? Dr. Reiner Klingholz from the Berlin Institute for Population and Development in conversation with Jan Rübel .

Africa's rapid economic transformation

A report by T. S. Jayne, A. Adelaja and R. Mkandawire

Thirty years ago, Africa was synonymous with war, famine and poverty. That narrative is clearly outdated. African living standards are rising remarkably fast. Our authors are convinced that improving education and entrepreneurship will ensure irreversible progress in the region even as it confronts COVID-19.

An opportunity for the continent

A contribution by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Africa’s population is young and ready to take its destiny into its own hands. Agriculture offers amazing opportunities in this regard. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation wants to support the next generation in this way.

Do we have to dare a new food system?

A contribution by Dr. Felix zu Löwenstein (BÖLW)

Lack of seasonal workers and virus explosion in slaughterhouses, rising vegetable prices, climate crisis – all this demonstrates: Our food system is highly productive and (at least for the rich inhabitants of planet earth) guarantees an unprecedented rich and steady food supply - but it is not resilient.

The Life of Their Dreams - What Children Want

Interview with Gnininkaboka Dabiré and Innocent Somé

Later on you want to become a farmer yourself, or would you prefer to take up another profession? Two young people from Burkina-Faso talked to representatives of the Dreyer Foundation about their parents' farms, the profession of farmer and their own plans for the future.

"Soy can be made into more than just flour"

A report by Johanna Steinkühler (GIZ)

The soybean is a natural crop that can be used to make a lot of food. So, Tata Bi started a small processing business first on her own, then with a few other women, which provides the women with an additional source of income year-round besides selling the soybeans.

How the self-help approach empowers smallholder women

A report by INEF and Kindernothilfe

Supporting groups of smallholding women substantially contributes to strengthen rural operations economically. The organisation and associated group activities can help to reduce extreme poverty and improve the food situation.

School Feeding: A unique platform to address gender inequalities

A contribution by Carmen Burbano de Lara (WFP)

Besides the well known impacts of Covid19 lockdowns for the adult population, the associated school closures led to 90 percent of the world’s children with no access to schools. However, school meals are in often the only daily meal for children. Without access to this safety net, issues like hunger, poverty and malnutrition are exacerbated for hundreds of millions of children.

It all comes down to the young population

A contribution by Jan Rübel

What happens when young people leave the rural areas? How can the region achieve what is referred to as the demographic bonus – and how can it reap the benefits of the demographic dividend? A look at demography shows the following: What is most important is promoting women’s rights and education.

An investment in Africa's future

A contritbution by Essa Chanie Mussa (University of Gondar)

Rural youth need viable livelihood opportunities to escape out of poverty and realize their aspirations. How could they be helped to fully unleash their potential? This is an aloud call that needs novel strategies among governments, policy makers, and international development partners and donors.

The communicator

A contribution by Jan Rübel

What do electrical engineering, telecommunications and agriculture have in common? They arouse the passion of Strive Masiyiwa: Thirty years ago, he started an electrical installation company with $75, later riding the telecommunications wave as a pioneer. Today he is committed to transforming African agriculture.

Spiritual mortar for the young generation

A contribution by Jan Rübel

Fred Swaniker is working building a new era of leaders. And what about agriculture? ‘It needs to be more sexy!’

Small cup, big impact

A Contribution by UFULU and GIZ

A menstrual health pilot in Rural Malawi empowers rural women in Agribusiness through hygiene products and helps to improve working conditions in rural areas.

Scaling up Food Security

An Artikel by Jan Rübel

How can we reach more people with successful approaches to food security? In Berlin, an international conference organized by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationaler Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) addressed this issue.

When sustainability becomes part of the curriculum

A contribution by Jan Rübel

During the trade Grüne Woche, school classes visited the BMZ (German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development), Brot für die Welt and Misereor. Each class spends one hour at their stand to learn about the global challenges posed by food systems. A review by Jan Rübel.

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A classroom in the Garden of Eden

Unterricht im Grünen

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