Small-scale Farming Project Plan: Implementation
Status: 
Step:
2
The goal of the Small-scale Farming Project Plan task is to make a practical and well-founded plan for a school garden that provides the most essential food for the school children. The second phase in achieving our goal is to develop a school garden in the following manner:
* Recommend a list of simple, cheap, sustainable, small-scale crops to the CBSM group, as well as low-tech agricultural techniques
* Recommend methods about how the schoolchildren be involved in the gardening
* Plan and implement a school garden at the CBSM school
We are in need of Nabuur neighbours who have expertise or practical information about how we can help the children create their school garden. We need someone who is willing to go to Kimilili and talk to the children and teachers and local volunteers about their garden project.
I am willing to help with the farming project. One of the problems I see with Nabuur is the high tech thinking and all the work that demands. Please go out on the land at the school and set up a school garden as follows. No research; no studies, no nothing. Just go do it.
They do not need to buy anything from anybody for this garden except seed: for the food crops they want to grow, for the fertilizer crops. Grow spaghetti squash, popcorn, baby corn. Everybody likes spaghetti. Otherwise grow the local crops.
I have some DVDs I will mail to you if you will email to me an postal address. I want them to go to the people at the school so they can use them or to someone who will help them use them.
Ken
GARDENS/MINI-FARMS NETWORK
USA: TX, MS, FL, CA, AR; Mexico, Rep. Dominicana, Côté d’Ivoire, Nigeria,
Nicaragua, Honduras, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Haiti, England, India, Uzbekistan
Minifarms@gmail.com
Workshops in organic, 0-tillage, permanent-bed gardening, mini-farming, mini-ranching worldwide in English & Español
Proven Practices for School Gardens
These are based on the internet, US & international agriculture magazines, experiences teaching agriculture in many countries, research and farmer experiences in those countries and a demonstration garden. They are ecologically sustainable, environmentally responsible and economically viable. There is unlimited, documented proof. , These can double the yield and reduce labor by half, compared to traditional methods. There are 90,000,000 no-till hectares worldwide.
Fukaoka Farm, Japan, has been no-till [rice, small grains, vegetables] for 70 years. Dripping Springs Gardens, AR, has been no-till [vegetables, flowers] for 8 years. 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. 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.
No technique yet devised by man has been anywhere near as effective at halting soil erosion and making food production truly sustainable as no-till (Baker)
1. Restore the soil to its natural health. Contamination: inorganic pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, fertilizers, etc
2. Maintain the healthy soil [produces healthy plants which have few diseases, pests and weeds. Healthy soil produces healthy crops to have healthy students]
3. Feed the soil; not the plants
4. Maintain plant diversity [with crops and/or green manure/cover crops]
5. Increase the soil’s organic matter every year.
6. Little or no external inputs. [It is not necessary to buy anything, from anybody, for the garden. Certain things are recommended]
7. Plant all land every year [no fallow land]
8. Leave crop residue on top of soil [no burning]]
9. 0-tillage - no digging, no cultivating. [No hard physical work is necessary so children can easily garden]
10. Permanent beds [for crops]
11. Permanent paths [for walking]
12. Hand tools
13. Organic fertilizers
14. Organic disease control.
15. Organic herbicides.
16. Organic pesticides.
17. Biological pest control.
18. Attract beneficials [insects, bats, birds, toads, frogs, non-poison snakes, grasshopper mice]
19. Protect pollinators [honey bees, native bees, wasps, yellow jackets, butterflies, dirt daubers, butterflies]
20. Protect soil organisms [worms, micros]
21. Soil always covered
22. Use mulch/green manures/cover crops.
23. Feed the soil through the mulch.
24. Organic matter [Free? Take to farm when economically feasible. Use as mulch; compost surplus]
25. Compost [For surplus organic matter and/or special use. No vermicomposting as worms will be in the beds]
26. Bucket drip irrigation: [imported bucket drip kits [US$12] or using local tubing made by gardeners. [$3]
27. Seed [Open-pollinated]
28. Crop rotation.
29. Intercropping
30. Cassava–[plant & harvest; no hilling
31. Alternative crops [many under-utilized, indigenous crops have excellent potential]
32. Imitate nature. Most gardeners fight nature. ¡Nature always wins!
Ken Hargesheimer minifarms@aol.com
When Soil is Plowed
Dr. Elaine Ingham, describes an undisturbed grassland—where a wide diversity of plants grow, their roots mingling with a wide diversity of soil organisms—and how it changes when it is plowed.
A typical teaspoon of native grassland soil contains between 600 million and 800 million individual bacteria that are members of perhaps 10,000 species. Several miles of fungi are in that teaspoon of soil, as well as 10,000 individual protozoa. There are 20 to 30 beneficial nematodes from as many as 100 species. Root-feeding nematodes are quite scarce in truly healthy soils. They are present, but in numbers so low that it is rare to find them.
After only one plowing, a few species of bacteria and fungi disappear because the food they need is no longer put back in the system. But for the most part, all the suppressive organisms, all the nutrient cyclers, all the decomposers, all the soil organisms that rebuild good soil structure are still present and trying to do their jobs.
But tillage continues to deplete soil organic matter and kill fungi. The larger predators are crushed, their homes destroyed. The bacteria go through a bloom and blow off huge amounts of that savings-account organic matter. With continued tillage, the "policemen" (organisms) that compete with and inhibit disease are lost. The "architects" that build soil aggregates are lost. So are the "engineers"—the larger organisms that design and form the larger pores in soil. The predators that keep bacteria, fungi, and root-feeding organisms in check are lost. Disease suppression declines, soil structure erodes, and water infiltration decreases because mineral crusts form. Dr. Elaine Ingham, BioCycle, December 1998. (From ATTRA News, July 06)
Video Game: food-force.com [download free. 12 languages]
Websites: dirtdoctor.com, newfarm.org [English, Japanese]; invisiblegardener.com, rodaleinstitute.org, cityfarmer.org , echonet.org [English, Español], ruaf.org [[English, Español, French, Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese]; leisa.info [Bahasa Indonesia, English, French, Portuguese, Español]; tearfund.org/tilz [English, French, Portuguese, Español]; cipotato.org/urbanharvest [English, Español]; hdra.org.uk; kidsregen.org; gardenorganic.org.uk/schools_organic_network/index.php
Children gardening: ecoliteracy.org/programs/wellness_policy.html; slowfoodusa.org/education/index.html; Curriculum: Farm to Table-nehbc.org/education.html; slowfoodusa.org; sustainabletable.org/schools, earthboundfarm.com/Kids/index.aspx; kidsregen.org; kidsgardening.com; gardenorganic.org.uk/schools_organic_network/index.php; Setting up and Running a School Garden. A manual for teachers, parents and communities; Setting Up School Gardens www.fao.org/docrep/009/a0218e/0218e00.htm; edennet.org [gardens for life];
DVD Videos
“The Impact of Food on Learning and Behavior”
15 minutes video about Appleton Alternative HS.
Gardening – school, home, community: Includes: “You Do What You Eat” odemagazine.com Sept 05. How healthy food can reduce aggressive behavior, NDD [Nature-Deficit Disorder], OG article .
Ken, you are a wonder! Thank you for this information. If is all right with you I will post them on our webiste.
One of the reason we are doing the analysis is for our Dutch contingent of high school students. They will do the analyis and research. You have provided the practical advice. The children and volunteers of the CBSM school will create the garden. It's a winning team.
Once again, thank you ever so much. If, for whatever reason, you do not want this informaion published on the CBSM blog, please tell me and I'll remove the information.
best regards,
Lia
--
lilalia
hello sister wonderful people all over the world blessed through your Ideas. thank you keep up the Good work with you
hallow ken
thanks alot for this wealth of information and your willingness to share it out.I am real pleased with,you can send the DVD'S TO
COMMUNITY BREAKTHROUGH SUPPORT MISSION
PO BOX 2099-00200,CITY SQUARE
NAIROBI.
tHIS IS JUST IN ANY CASE SO FAR YOU HAVE NOT GOTTEN THE SAME.
GOD BLESS YOU REV WASIKE
HI Mr KEN
Thanks very much for the good comment, am interested with your contribution and for real there is the hope in small scale farming. currently am doing ma bachellor in horticulture sciences, hoping to graduate late in this year. Its ma request now to get help from your experiences, so that what i have from school can bare fruits in my local communities.
thanks very much
--from tanzania
jhmwikalo
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-ranching,using bucket drip irrigation, worldwide, in English & Español
Proven Practices for 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
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. There is unlimited, documented proof. There are 90,000,000 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. Free DVD available.
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. You are burning up fertilizer. Do not plow it into the soil.
6. Plant green manure/cover crops to increase the soil organic matter. Seeds are available in every country.
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 coun-tries. 15-25% of the land is in paths and that saves 15-25% of the seed, water and labor but yields will be higher.
13. Hand tools: machete, weed cutter, seeding hoe. Local blacksmith should make them.
14. Soil always covered. Never leave the soil bare.
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. Do it in the soil in the fields.
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. Bucket drip irrigation should be used during the dry season and in areas of low rainfall: Imported bucket drip kits are US$15. 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 $20 per month to the farmer [FAO study].
Ken Hargesheimer minifarms@gmail.com
When Soil is Plowed
Dr. Elaine Ingham, describes an undisturbed grassland—where a wide diversity of plants grow, their roots mingling with a wide diversity of soil organisms—and how it changes when it is plowed. [The same is true of a jungle, rainforest, forest, etc]
A typical teaspoon of native grassland soil contains between 600 million and 800 million individual bacteria that are members of perhaps 10,000 species. Several miles of fungi are in that teaspoon of soil, as well as 10,000 individual protozoa. There are 20 to 30 beneficial nematodes from as many as 100 species. Root-feeding nematodes are quite scarce in truly healthy soils. They are present, but in numbers so low that it is rare to find them.
After only one plowing, a few species of bacteria and fungi disappear because the food they need is no longer put back in the system. But for the most part, all the suppressive organisms, all the nutrient cyclers, all the decomposers, all the soil organisms that rebuild good soil structure are still present and trying to do their jobs.
But tillage continues to deplete soil organic matter and kill fungi. The larger predators are crushed, their homes destroyed. The bacteria go through a bloom and blow off huge amounts of that savings-account organic matter. With continued tillage, the "policemen" (organisms) that compete with and inhibit disease are lost. The "architects" that build soil aggregates are lost. So are the "engineers"—the larger organisms that design and form the larger pores in soil. The predators that keep bacteria, fungi, and root-feeding organisms in check are lost. Disease suppression declines, soil structure erodes, and water infiltration decreases because mineral crusts form. Dr. Elaine Ingham, BioCycle, December 1998. (From ATTRA News, July 06)
Dear Ken,
Thank you for sending this information. I'll place it on the CBSM garden website. It is both informative and hopeful.
all the best,
Lia
--
lilalia
Hallo Ken,
We acknowledge receipt of the Cd's send by you to us.We are thank full for the knowledge there in.amen rev.wasike
Lia,
Use the info anyway you wish. Thanks for making me famous.
Ken
Hello Mr.Ken
for sure you are a kindly person.And also,i will tell the people of Tanzania and anywhere in developing countries about your support.You know,as the world is becoming a single village,people like you are so much blessed because you share your experience with us.Sustainable Development particularly in Agriculture is the only thing which can help the poor.Thank you alot and i will make sure i am spreading this information in my community in the name of Ken.Stay blessed.
--
gphilmon
Dear Mr. Philimon,
We are hoping to create a good website (www.cbsmgarden.weebly.com) with all the information from Ken and others who are working on the project. Please feel free to comment on the blog (once we get it up and running!). If you wish to share you experiences with school garden projects, please do write us.
Thank you.
yours sincerely,
Lia
--
lilalia
Our Nabuur friend, Malcolm, has sent us a list of plant types we are going to plant: Swiss chard, eggplant, green peppers, cabbages or Kale, green beans or okra, tomato, marigolds, radish, spinach, garlic or spring onions.
To speed the germination process, we are going to soak a paper towel or a cloth in water. Then we will put the seeds in water for 1 hour and then onto the paper towel or cloth and wrap and keep in a warm place but make sure it stays damp. After we’ve kept the seeds wrapped overnight or for a day or two, depending upon type of plant, we will plant the seeds.
--
lilalia
Ken,
Garden preparation is complete. Rev. Wasike is just in the process of buying seeds in Nairobi and, hopefully, seeds will be planted this week. No water source readily available near new school location. Drip garden irrigation system will then be installed.
bye, lia
--
lilalia
Hi Lia
My name is Rev. Leeland Hodges. I run a rural ministries in Liberia. We just started a project for Cassava production. We are Looking for an organization to come and help us with few Agriculture Materials. I will like to ask if you know of any organizations that can be a help to our village we will be happy to received their contact.
Thanks
Bishop Leeland Hodges