You could get started with a demonstration bed first.

These demonstration beds can be created in several areas so that the entire population of 100,000 people can visit the nearest demonstration bed.

Let the farmers see the ground. They will understand it better when they touch and feel the soil and see the plants actually growing in the demonstration beds.

This is a direct approach - and does not need money.

Vijai

Hi Vijai,

Yes i have this in mind but think it is important that even as you demonstrate something, people must have an idea of what you are doing. This is when they we be keen to follow and support the idea. Besides we are aiming at getting some farmers eager to test new ideas as demos.
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Stanley Okurut

Stanley,

There are different kinds of farmers.

The large farmers in any region are reasonably well educated and will first discuss on paper and through various media. You are not going to address this category of farmers through your presentations.

Your target population are the small and marginal farmers who may not be literate, and who are struggling below self-sustenance levels. The approach to this category is only through demonstrating the issues 100% 'on the ground'.

In case funds are in abundance, you can create plenty of PR elements to boost your efforts. But when funds are scarce, you need to focus on the bare essentials.

The direct approach, as mentioned in my previous post above, is to create demonstration beds at various locations, such that the entire population of 100,000 people can see and feel the earth, the soil, the plants growing 'on the ground', and not on a white 4'x6' screen projected though a computer.

You can of course endeavour to educate these farmers through computers and data projectors in case you feel comfortable with the funds. But in case funds are scarce, the effort can take off through 'demonstration beds' on the ground.

Vijai

Hi Vijai,

I strongly agree with you for the need to demonstrate as way of getting farmers to learn. In our case we get farmers themselves to do this. I would not rate farmers in our area as illiterate. They have shown before their ability to try out new things once they have been given information. I must get you to know that we have interacted with this farmers before. Our food security program covers 10 parishes. And in each of these parishes there is a parish project committee responsible for overseeing activities in their parish. This is the level at which we do sensitisation and demonstration. We want to generate interest and get some farmers to try out this technology themselves as we have done before with other technologies. We had to introduce new varieties of cassava stems for planting and we had to sensitise and get some farmers try them out and as sure as anything it succeeded. We find this approach cheap as it adds no costs to organisation because farmers themselves bear all the costs of the demonstration. Our role only is to pass information and technical guidance to this farmers. It has worked previously and i m sure it will work and involve many farmers within short time and at the end great benefits will little input. We mentain our role as improving access to inforamation and technology.

Thanks

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Stanley Okurut

Below is how to do it. Start even is you partly fail the first time. I will mail to you my free dvd on request.

GARDENS/MINI-FARMS NETWORK
Wrokshops: USA - TX, MS, FL, CA, AR, NM; Mexico, Rep. Dominicana, Côté d’Ivoire,
Nigeria, Nicaragua, Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Haiti, England, India, Uzbekistan
minifarms@gmail.com
Workshops in organic, no-till, permanent bed gardening, mini-farming and mini-livestock farming,
using bucket drip irrigation, worldwide, in English & Español

Organic, No-till Farming

The solution to world hunger is teaching the farmers to farm profitably and sell locally. There is a grassroots movement, around the world, for families and groups to produce their own food due to cost, flavor and chemical contamination. "There's this belief that in order to stop poverty, we have to find ways to get people to stop being farmers. What we need to do is find ways to stop them from being poor farmers." Amy Smith, MIT

The following will do that! These are based on the internet, US & international agriculture magazines, experiences teaching agriculture in many countries, research data and farmer experiences in those countries and a demonstration garden. They are ecologically sustainable, environmentally responsible, socially just and economically viable.

Organic, no-till gardening/farming [hand tools only] in permanent beds doubles or triples yields, reduces labor by 50% or more, reduces inputs/expenses to nearly 0 [need seed for new crops and green manure/cover crops], increases fertility, stops soil erosion [no rain water runoff], eliminates most weed, disease and insect problems and greatly increases profits. Use bucket drip irrigation [made by gardener/farmer] to produce during the dry season and in areas of low rainfall.

These practices stopped the migration of farm families to the cities. [Honduras]. There is unlimited, documented proof. There are 100,000,000 no-till hectares worldwide.

Fukaoka Farm, Japan, has been no-till [rice, small grains, vegetables] for 70 years. At the time of my visits, an Indian farmer has been no-till [vegetables] for 5 years, a Malawi farmer has been no-till [vegetables] on permanent beds for 25 years and a Honduras farmer has been no-till [vegetables & fruit] on permanent beds on the contour (73° slope] for 8 years. Ruth Stout [USA] had a no-till garden for 30 years and 7,000 people visited her garden. I will volunteer my time to teach workshops if all expenses are covered.

No technique yet devised by man has been anywhere near as effective at halting soil erosion and making food production truly sustainable as 0-tillage (Baker)

1. Restore the soil to its natural health. Contamination: inorganic pesticides, insecticides & fertilizers
2. Maintain the healthy soil. Healthy soil produces healthy crops with highest yields and prevents most disease, pest, weed and erosion problems.
3. Increase the soil’s organic matter every year.
4. Little or no external inputs [It is not necessary to buy anything, from anybody.]
5. Leave crop residue on top of soil. No burning and never make biochar. You are burning up fertilizer. Do not plow it into the soil; leave on top of the soil.
6. Plant green manure/cover crops to increase the soil organic matter. No alley cropping; hedgerows.
7. Plant the new crop in the crop residue by opening up a row or a place for the seed.
8. Plant every field every year [no fallow land]
9. 0-tillage: no plowing, no digging, no cultivating. No hard physical labor required so children and the elderly can farm easily. After two or three years the yields can double while reducing the labor by half compared to traditional farming. Farmers farm ten acres alone using hand tools only [Honduras]
10. Tree crops: fruit, nuts, coffee [shade-grown], etc. Use perennial cover crops
11. Permanent paths [walking]
12. Permanent beds. They were used 2000 BC in Guatemala, Mexico and many other countries. 15-25% of the land is in paths and that saves 15-25% of the seed, water and labor but yields will be higher. [No terracing, alley cropping, etc]
13. Hand tools: machete, weed cutter, seeding hoe. Local blacksmith should make them.
14. Soil always covered.
15. No compost making. Use the organic matter for mulch. If there is an excess, pile it up and use later.
16. Vermiculture: Not necessary; too much labor. Worms will be in the beds.
17. SRI - system of rice intensification. Double yields, reduces water requirements by 50% and reduces labor.
18. SRI for other crops: sugar cane, finger millet, cotton, wheat, mustard.
19. http://rodaleinstitute.org/20101005_birke-baehr-food-fighter-and-future-...
20. Bucket drip irrigation should be used during the dry season and in areas of low rainfall: Imported bucket drip kits are US$20-$25 in most countries. A bucket drip line can be made locally from poly tubing [US$3, Nicaragua]. One will irrigate a row of crops 33 meters long using only 20 liters of water per day. A dripline can be moved to irrigate several rows per day. Water can be from a stream, pond or well. A drip kit returns US$20 per month to the farmer [FAO study].

Ken Hargesheimer minifarms@gmail.com

Dear Ken,

Thank you for all the DVD’s you sent me. Thank you for all the info. I am applying it in my own vegetable patch. It is working. Got half a pocket of potatoes off a square metre. So would imagine about 10 pounds per square yard. This off previously dead low, carbon soil. Sure next crop will be better. Got yams coming up on same spot already. Want to plant herbs and spices. I will send photos.

Your advise is so simple. People do not believe me when I tell them. I am so excited about growing things now. This coming from a commercial plum farmer. May you be blessed this holy season a thousand times more than you blessed me with you help.Jeremy Karsen, middagkrans@mwebbiz.co.za

Thu, 2009/10/01
Hi Lia,
We have already started several gardens in Jinkfuin community and the people working on them have benefitted from the DVDS we received from Ken. We watched the DVDs and got so many lessons and there women and men already running gardens, good ones! Kimilili
Project room: Kyomya, Uganda
We have been working on improving farming techniques for almost a year. Unfortunately, the farmers are planting small plots of land that only feed their family. There is no other choice but to try new techniques to improve the output of their plot. Ken Hargesheimer suggested the "no till" farming techniques as well as the "drip system". Both have proven effective at increasing production by at least 5 fold. The time is now for Kyomya to become a model agricultural village. [nabuur.com]

Thanks Ken for this information. We are going to use this information. For the DVDs to be sent to us, our mail address is:

Stanley Okurut
C/O
Creative Research and Evaluation Centre
P.O. Box 21175 , Kampala , Uganda
Physical location: THETA building, Plot 724, Mawanda Rd. , Kamwokya
Direct phone: 256-414-534975

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Stanley Okurut

They should arrive 3-4 weeks.

Thanks Krn

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Stanley Okurut