MY PERMACULTURE WORK IN AFRICA
Ghana
When I visit communities in East and West Africa particular in remote rural areas you can feel and see the day to day hardships people are facing. .Last year on one of my trips, I was working teaching permaculture design to 30 local women, in a remote area near the town of Wa in the Upper West Region of Ghana and not far from the Burkino Faso border , the southern part of the Sahel a semi arid area . The area is south of the Sahara. I was there in late March and early April, February and March are the hottest months the average daytime temperatures were above (40 C) one day at 4.30pm it was still 45C well above 115F.
The rains were due to come in May and usually the rains go through to October with average falls of between 800 to 1000mm. However from November to March there is an extremely high evaporation rate due to the heat and wind off the dessert.
Tanzania
I was in Tanzania early this year for 4 weeks in February, my second trip in two years to work for Committee Assist www.committeeassist.org at Rainbow Ridge Orphanage at Mailisita near the main town of Moshi. Very close to Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. Tanzania is a wet dry tropical climate the temperature is in the high 30s C the hottest months are from December to February the best rains come from March to May and then again in November , December and January however in recent years some years the rains don’t arrive or has been very sparse . Tanzania for more info please sees www.permaculturenews.org/author
What Action Do I Undertake
On two occasion in the recent past I was very pleased to have been invited to teach the Permaculture Design Course at Melbourne University with both Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton and also to run several hands on permaculture programs with Bill and Lisa Mollison at their farm at Sisters Creek ,Tasmania. One key point I always learnt from Bill and Geoff is always keep design simple and practical, to address the real and basic problems of the people and of a site. From my experiences a few of the main problems come under the headings of:
- Secure local food supply lines
- Water balance disturbances
- Erosion
- Degraded landscapes
“Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple.” Bill Mollison Co founder of Permaculture
So the aim of any permaculture training and education is to facilitate students to learn design so they can work together to design and implement the solutions for their concerns or problems .Its critical to recognise and respect local knowledge and skills and build on this by adding the design science of permaculture without adding your own western thinking or ego. Hunger, malnutrition and water supply are a major problem in some parts of Africa. Problems of hunger can be a result of poor agriculture practises for example monoculture farming in the wet dry tropics is not the ideal way to try and secure food supply lines. The other factors are limited access to resources such as micro financing, decent tools, open pollinated seed and reliance on rain to water the crops. If the rains fail the crops fail and when the drought sets in life can be very harsh .We need to prepare community and help them reduce these problems via local permaculture education programs to train up local teachers (the main aim of a travelling teacher).One of the main strategies is to get tree crops back into the farms and roll over to more sustainable eco-garden agriculture. Remember most subsistence farmers own from 0.5H/A to 1H/A of land. They do not have power, water or transport and limited tools they survive on what they can grow and if they’re lucky in a good season they may have surplus to sell to gain a very small amount of income.
Methodology / On the Ground Action to:
- Repair Erosion , restore degraded landscape and biomass
- Harvest water from a rain event (up to 85% of water runs off the landscape )
- Simple hand built earth works, swales, basins, diversion banks, gabions and contour banks, where needed.
- Planting guilds of annual garden , tree crops ( agro forestry) for food ,fuel ,fodder, timber , craft materials ,windbreaks’ and trees to shade the environment ,and definitely the introduction and education in planting live fences ,controlled roaming livestock are destroying the landscape . (see below)
- Livelihoods’ its critical to train locals to have community micro business
Ghana a women’s co-operative (livelihoods’)
In both Ghana and Tanzania we are teaching practical pattern application of landscape (pattern is design and design is the subject of permaculture/ BM) completing earthworks to harvest water and planting Moringa and other useful trees and plants and then value adding.
In Ghana a women’s co-operative has been set up to produce products from the raw materials of Moringa. There value adding by making soap, creams, powder, tea, selling seeds and also creams. The end result is the start of micro business and livelihoods’ for the women.
On site in Tanzania
1, Teach design = 2, practical skills (use an A frame) mark contour do earthworks to dig a swale = water harvesting = 3, ability to naturally water guilds of plants (once the rains have come) = improved health = creating livelihoods’ earth restoration and people care = Earth restoration start planting a micro ecosystem to get the system growing so it can mature.
Out in the field I usually try and coordinate projects at the start of the rains however this isn’t always practical. The reason is its bloody hard work doing earth works by hand when the ground is dry and if we have to hand water trees it’s a lot of work.
1mm of rain or hand watering per square meter (m2) of soil = 1mm of water per m2 = 1liter (L) of water.
This means if you have a guild of plant to go into a earth basin (our basin were about half a meter in diameter, on top of the swale bank, we applied 25 litters of water to two basins) and if the soil is bone dry and it’s in the high 40s C you will need to water at least twice a week until the rains arrive. .. For every earth two basins to rehydrate the soil to a depth of 25mm you will need to go and fetch and carry 25liters of water (25kilos of water) per basin or tree or plant guild and the daily evaporation rate could be as high as 15mm It’s a huge amount of work, women and children carry all there water needs for the home every day walking long distance in the heat so it’s critical to try and plant when the rains have arrived to lessen the work load.
Ideally on flat ground you want tree basins to be as large as possible to capture water from rain events or runoff water. For every earth two basins to rehydrate the soil to a depth of 25mm you will need to go and fetch and carry 25liters of water (25kilos of water) per basin or tree or plant guild and the daily evaporation rate could be as high as 15mm.
So you need to mulch really well, and you have to forage for what mulch is available. This year in Tanzania I used the strategy of, planting on the top of the swale mound in earth basin. The swales were laid out around 5 meters apart in the main maize growing area I planted the guild of:
A- 1 Planted a Moringa or Nitrogen fixing tree as small tube stock at a distance of 1 meter apart to allow for any losses.
B- Sowed a green manure crop in the basin to become living mulch and in time cut and drop mulch to reduce evaporation and add organic matter to the soil.
C- Sowed a water melon, rock melon, cucumber or pumpkin also in the basin.
The only fertiliser we had was around 10 litres of dried goat manure per basin and we mulched with old maize stalks. We also were in the process of making compost that was applied later after I left.
From all accounts
From all accounts all the trees are growing well on the swales and the maize was planted in the area between the swales, the yield was better than previous years . I left soon after this was all planted. This is just a small look at the work that needs to be done on the ground the good news is we can get trees back growing and we can restore the landscape and transition to create self reliance .This is just one way for small areas of farm land for larger areas all we need to do is remove the livestock off the land into well designed cell grazing pens with living fences and fodder cut and carry systems to feed the livestock. Then allow the underground forest to regrow from all the existing stumps on the landscape in Africa. And
See the great work of Tony Rinaudo, a Natural Resource Advisor; for World Vision worldvision.com.au/issues/…/westafrica…/UndergroundForest.aspx
And for large tracts of earth restoration see:
Holistic Management Allan Savory with Jody Butterfield
www.savoryinstitute.com/holistic–management/
A Worthwhile Tree to Plant
WE CREATE OUR OWN LIFE CONDITIONS NOW AND FOR THE FUTURE
Bill Mollison
Step right up, introducing an amazing tree, know by many alias throughout the sub tropics and tropics of the earth. Here now to help us to care for the earth and people ,a miracle plant going back to ancient times, now available for your everyday use , all the way from the foothills of the Himalayas now travelling the world widely , the one and only the ( Miracle Tree “MORINGA .)
Family: Moringaceae
Genus: Moringa
Species: M. Oleifera
Common Names are many, from Africa to Southeast Asia, names such as:
- Mothers little helper
- Malunggay
- Horseradish
- Miracle tree
- Drumstick tree
- Quickstick
Growth
The tallest Moringa trees I have seen are, 7 to 8 meters tall they normally have a canopy of 2 to 3 meters. The tree is a bit like me doesn’t like the cold or drought but trials in Africa are showing it can survive long periods in drought .It coppices very well and you can take 1 to 2 meter cuttings and plant in the ground (Quickstick) as long as the soil can be kept moist until the roots grow and take hold. Grows well in sandy soil , will grow in clay loam .We sowed seed back in June ( in pots in the glass house at home ) we now have seedlings growing in the garden now (Sept 2012) but lost a few due to the cold nights ,however a few are hanging in waiting for the warmth to arrive .
Introduction
I first came across Moringa when I lived in the Philippines for one year ‘back in 1997. I was teaching Permaculture and introducing the Permaculture concepts to NGOs. My then girlfriend, now my wife Flora introduced me to Moringa as a food source. In the Philippines’ they cut the branches and strip the leaves and use in soups as well as fodder for animals and the tree is used as a living fences around the homes and villages, very clever fresh greens all the time. For more info on what we are doing in the Philippines’ please see; Permaculture Action Asia www.permacultureph.info/
Uses of Moringa
- Food for humans (leaves , seed and roots )
- Fodder for livestock (leaves and seed)
- Seeds purify water , can extract oil from the seed
- Stem used for charcoal ,firewood
- Cosmetics soap and cream from the leaves
- The parts of the tree can be used for medicines the bark, roots, leaves, seed and flowers.
Nutritional Value
The leaf or powder will keep people healthy in the good times and bad times around 20 to 30 grams of dried powder will give a child all there required daily allowances of:
Vitamin A 272% and Vitamin C 22%.Protein 42%, Calcium 125%, Magnesium 61%, Potassium 41%, Iron 71%,
Brief Background of recent projects
Since 2004 I have been travelling to West Africa, Ghana on a regular basis, for more information please see http://permacultureghana.wordpress.com/what-is-permaculture-2/
Greg Knibbs