By Joyce Chimbi
Smallholder farmers are the backbone of food systems everywhere. But increasingly confronted by multiple, complex challenges including the triple threat facing humanity today – climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution, these farmers can barely put food on the table.
To educate them on best practices in natural farming anchored on agroecology, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) took participants in a Zoom meeting through a virtual tour of Bio Gardening Innovations (BIOGI) in Vihiga, Western Kenya. The technology’s use is a cost-effective way to promote knowledge-sharing principles across Africa and beyond.
The tour starts with an introduction on the importance of agroecology farming hosted by Charles Tumuhe, – a Healthy Soil Healthy Food project officer at AFSA, before the meeting pans into the Agroecology Centre of Excellence – a local nongovernmental organization, for the BIOGI virtual tour.
The Zoom meeting participants are farmers from the continent and even as far as Uruguay eager to access insights into sustainable farming using agroecology principles that are safe, accessible and affordable to produce a bumper harvest all year round. BIOGI is a healthy soil, healthy food centre, and one of 15 such centres across Africa.
“We use visuals to train farmers on how to optimize farm production using natural inputs. Our land sizes are small but through elements of agroecology, we teach farmers to integrate many different aspects including diverse crops, livestock and fisheries in harmony with nature. It is important to also leave room for nature to express itself,” says Ferdinand Wafula, BIOGI’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Wafula says BIOGI prioritizes the health and fertility of soil through the use of ecological farming practices. Training farmers on creating and utilizing bio inputs and bio protectors to enhance soil quality, ensuring sustainable and productive farming systems.
Virtually, farmers were transported onto the farm for a blow-by-blow account of how the entire landscape of a farm, including buildings can be used to develop an ecosystem that feeds into each other and to the benefit of the farmer. For instance, the buildings facilitate water harvesting and the livestock feed the farm, the farm feeds the livestock and they all feed the farmers.
Tumuhe stresses that BIOGI advances “ecological and natural farming principles aimed at transforming food systems with a special focus on smallholder farmers, helping them to transform and improve livelihoods through sustainable practices.”
Further stating that the organization educates farmers on how to set up a farm that is both environmentally friendly and economically viable by using natural farming to develop robust and resilient food systems for the benefit of people and the planet.
As such, BIOGI showcased how agroecology principles preserve, conserve and protect biodiversity, and how biodiversity in turn intersects with agriculture to produce healthy soils and foods, and a bumper harvest. Particularly highlighting how the use of diverse indigenous seeds, natural fertilizers or biofertilizers, integrated livestock management such as chicken and goats, and water harvesting techniques intersect to produce healthy soil, and bountiful healthy food all year round.
“We strive to be inclusive, to build community engagement and promote eco-friendly farming practices by educating farmers, particularly women, about sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices for food sovereignty. Our farming techniques promote biodiversity, traditional knowledge, and community-based seed saving,” he said.
The tour showcased diverse agroecological techniques, including integrated pest management using birds and insects, water harvesting, and the use of natural fertilizers. Further highlighting how integrating livestock into the farming systems facilitates the use of their manure and urine as natural fertilizers as well as the production of biofertilizers for healthy soil, and in turn, healthy foods.
“We demonstrate how you can design a whole garden using permaculture principles, even in a very small area. We showcase the traditional Africa, where we have come from and the knowledge gathered and, preserved over centuries in farming and food production. The creation and application of biofertilizers using beneficial microorganisms found in nature, improving soil health and plant growth helps farmers to produce their inputs from material found on the farm and this is highly cost-effective,” Wafula observed.
Throughout the virtual tour, there was a great emphasis on seed saving and biodiversity, and a focus on the crucial role of women as seed custodians and the importance of maintaining diverse, indigenous seed varieties for food security and resilience. Bio gardening is also about community engagement and is invested in training and empowering local farmers through practical demonstrations and knowledge sharing, to boost sustainable agricultural practices.
The size of the land poses no limitations. Step by step, BIOGI showcased how a 5m x 50m permaculture farm utilizes rainwater harvesting and integrated systems. The farm features diverse crops such as cassava, taro, and pineapple, as well as aquaponics with ducks and tilapia, a food forest, and a black soldier fly system for composting and animal feed.
Wafula says the BIOGI Agroecology Centre of Excellence leverages “natural methods, using vermicompost tea as fertilizer and natural pest control through crop diversification and companion planting. The system focuses on zero-chemical farming and continuous harvesting. There is great emphasis on diverse crop production and the farm boasts a wide variety of crops grown using sustainable, integrated methods.”
Further demonstrating how farmers can leverage on rainwater harvesting and how all rainwater can be collected and reused throughout the farm, minimizing water waste. Sustainable farming techniques showcased included the Closed-loop System, where, the farm utilizes a closed-loop system, recycling waste products such as black soldier fly frass as fertilizer and animal feed.
Other best practices include natural pest control methods whereby, pest control is achieved naturally through crop diversification and companion planting, minimizing reliance on chemicals. A testament to how efficient integration of farming techniques can be achieved; the virtual tour showcases a half-acre garden with a 365-day crop cover and tree diversity system implemented in 2021.
The tour highlighted the creation and use of “Bokashi,” a compost-like mixture of manure, ash, dry matter, and soil, enriched with microorganisms to improve soil health. The process of making and using Bokashi is explained, along with the symbiotic relationship between microorganisms and plants in agroecological farming.
The tour also shows demonstration plots illustrating different soil fertility applications and the long-term health benefits of agroecological practices. Bokashi Compost Production entails the creation and application of Bokashi, a hot compost mixture teeming with beneficial microorganisms. As such, solid bio-stimulants are essentially alternatives to sugar in Bokashi, using readily available materials like bean flour and molasses.
“Our educative tours include a small demonstration plot – a quarter-acre – used for agroecological experimentation. We use demonstration to test various biofertilizers such as compost, bokashi and solid bio-stimulants against a control group to compare results in crop yield and growth,” Wafula expounds.
Stressing that the focus is on practical application and observation, emphasizing the integration of diverse crops such as maize, beans, sorghum, groundnuts and millet, and the benefits of biodiversity. The experiment demonstrates small-scale intensification and highlights the symbiotic relationship between crops and microbes. Harvests are discussed, showing the positive impact of biofertilizers.
The demonstration farm is also about showcasing symbiotic relationships, emphasizing the crucial interaction between soil microorganisms and plants for nutrient uptake and plant health. Overall, the BIOGI virtual tour highlights include an all-year-round crop cover and tree diversity reflecting a diverse, integrated system combining fruit trees, bananas, and various vegetables. Proving that there are numerous long-term health benefits of consuming food grown using agroecological methods.
