By: Josephine Ssemakula
On February 26-27, 2021, Ugandans cooperatives Francis, Peter, Lawrence and Josephine hosted and facilitated an agriculture conference for local farmers. It was the first in a series of agriculture conferences to be conducted throughout the year. The team on the ground was supported long-distance by Kenyan cooperatives Reuben and Simon, as well as the agriculture committee stateside, led by Geoff Hartnell. Josephine, who helped run the conference and taught seminars, shares an update below.
Recently I was part of the team that put on a farmers conference at our facility located here in Uganda, East Africa. It was a two-day event that was packed with a lot of information to be shared with our farmers whom we have now cultivated friendship with based on the activity that we all love to do. We had about 25 participants in attendance, and while we organized quite a good bit of information to share, part of our goals was to share with them our experiences. A curriculum that has been organized by our Faithwell Garden team, headed by Geoff Hartnell, Francis, Reuben and Simon, among others, was our source for the great information that the farmers received with exceeding joy. The curriculum is designed to meet the daily challenges that farmers face, and also offer some possible solutions that can be implemented.
Our major theme was soil health. We covered so many topics, including soil composition and maintaining its health, photosynthesis and water, ways to feed the soil, important mineral salts to a plant, crop covering, soil composition and maintaining of its health. Human health was another aspect that was also handled during the conference since farmers need to have great concern for what food they eat and how it should be prepared, as well as knowing the nutritional benefits of that food. The following are the areas that we tackled to that effect: nutritional benefits of beetroot and amaranth, how to have an affordable balanced diet, issues related to consuming artificial sugars versus natural sugars. natural food colors and their importance, and oral health. A key statement was ‘soil health is human health,’ which propelled a long discussion and participants gained a lot of knowledge.
The participants appreciated the hospitality they experienced during the two days. They felt equipped on things they didn't know and refreshed on things they had learned at previous seminars (like double-digging and compost-making). They practiced making juice from fruits and vegetables without adding artificial sugars, something they had never experienced because they thought juices always had to have sugar added to them to be tasty. Learning the importance of natural food colors was such an eye-opener because they used to just eat food and not bear in mind the importance of the colors. Learning about affordable ways of taking care of the soil especially with using compost was something the farmers really appreciated and wanted to keep practicing. Over time they have been seeing their soils losing fertility and thought that artificial fertilizers were the way out. They have realized that chemicals have caused so much harm to the soils and to human health. Chemicals also have had a great economic impact on farmers as they have to keep buying them, as opposed to initiatives like that of making compost.
As a team we identified the ever-growing need to keep educating and sharing experiences with farmers because the agricultural trends are changing each day and diversion from affordable and sustainable farming practices is at a high speed. They are very much yearning to continue this education throughout the year, and to have greater opportunities to practice and grow their farms healthily.
Comments