Dirt, Plastic Bags and Food Security

Our everyday view - the desert-like dry-season with its sands and perfectly blue sky.

April 4, 2008

Home gardening promotion is one of my village projects for food security. The top one complaint about why children are not getting enough food is that the villagers simply don’t have money to buy nutritious foods. Apart from the normal ugali (stiff maize porridge) and a bit of relish (usually some local vegetables) on the side, most villagers could not afford foods such as beans and peanuts that are rich in protein and iron to improve their diets. Meat is another luxury that people may possibly have only once a week or even once a month. Some families I know have not tasted meat for a year.

My own demonstration garden, my little piece of heaven where I have toiled and hoed for hours on end, and watered, pruned, and built shades for is one of my favorite projects. There are many challenges with my garden. The first is the weather. The extremely dry weather of Usolanga has made growing certain vegetables impossible. After experimenting, I have found peanuts and beans the most strong-surviving types. I was also told that sweet potato would do good in this weather. One of our staff has been growing sweet potato successfully in his own little garden. In order to conserve water, I use grey water which is water recycled from washing hands and dishes, from cooking and from washing clothes. I have fertilized the soil constantly with compost from food remains and manure from animals. This process also prevents grey water from corroding the soil on long-term usage. My garden have also been destroyed 3 times, twice by donkeys and once by cows (that’s a whole other story). Now, I have fenced the garden well, so there should be no more invasions.

Plastic bags is a major pollutant everywhere in Tanzania and even in the village. You could see plastic bags flying around, or stuck on trees, or on the ground as garbage. After some reasearch online, from a source called “Desertification” (www.desertification.wordpress.com), I have found that plastic bags are great containers to grow plants in. It is moveable and could protect water from evaporation. It is basically putting soil in plastic bags and poking holes on the bottom to let water pass. After trying this method in my house for two weeks, it has proven to work exceptionally well. I have grown chinese kale and beet so far. Even carrots have sprouted. I only needed to water every 2 days.

I have taught home garden methods in the primary school in the standard 5 and 6 classes. Everyday, I would mention to the teachers that we should set up a school garden to supplement the students’ diets. Right now, the students all get uji (a watery ugali porridge) in the morning. This program only goes on until there will be no money to buy maize flour. The teachers are keen and told me to come back one Friday afternoon to plant a garden with the students.

After an afternoon of home visits, I made my way to the school at the designated time with my seeds and plastic bags. By the time I got there, the 4 teachers have already assigned students to cut thorn bushes and fenced off an area for the garden. All the students were there and they were just waiting for instructions from me. I said we needed soil and within minutes, 50 students went to get soil from outside the area. Together, we mixed the soil with already fertilized soil (with manure). Then, we needed plastic bags to contain the soil. The day before, the teachers have already announced for students to bring plastic bags. Quickly, another 50 students ran to the office to get the bags. We filled up the bags with soil and started to seed. All the students were either working or looking. Then, I said we needed water, and instantly one teacher commanded for water to be brought. It was all ready, and then another 10 girls got 10 buckets of water. I advised that we label what we have planted. The headmaster was excited and got out bamboo sticks and name cards, writing down the date of planting and the vegetable name. All the teachers were very keen and involved. I was encouraged by their efforts. Then, another two teachers and a group of students dug up a mound so we can directly seed peanuts and a variety of beans.

That day, we planted almost all the seeds I had. The teachers wanted to try everything from tomato to Chinese kale to peanuts and broad beans. It was a bright sunny day, with all the students busying here and there, the teachers smiling and getting their hands dirty in the soil (they get to show off their farmer skills). It was a special day. For me, this means hope. Hope for the future and the food security problem in the village. The teachers and I even talked about growing maize in the rainy season that is coming up in December. We could make our own uji without asking for money to buy maize flour. When the peanuts and beans are mature, we will mill them and add them to the uji as a source of protein and energy.

My next project is to distribute seeds through the school as students can plant their own plastic bag gardens at home. The parents are now busy with their own farms and since every household is linked with at least a child at school, we thought it is best to distribute seeds through the school.