Reflections on Farming God's Way

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Kijabe, Kenya for a Creation Care and Farming God's Way training with some of the agricultural staff from World Renew's partner organizations in Uganda.  There were five of us who drove there (it was a very long drive) and we arrived to lovely cool weather...at least in my opinion.  I appreciated the change after the heat of Soroti; Kijabe is near the top of the rift valley and the temperature was probably between 55 and 65 F the whole time we were there.  Some of my Ugandan colleagues suffered from the "cold" though!  Anyway, it was a beautiful place.

I could see Mount Longonot from the place where we stayed.  Anthony and I hiked up there when we visited Kenya in July.

Back to the training... I was hoping for more hands-on farming during the training, but we ended up in a classroom for most of the time.  Nevertheless, the material on creation care was great.  It was the same kinds of topics that I have been teaching on during the time we were at Pentecostal Bible College in Mbale and during visits to churches this year.  I appreciated the emphasis on a biblical basis for why we as Christians should care about the creation that God has given us responsibility for.  We talked about how each person has an impact on the environment through their actions.  And there was a lot of discussion on deforestation (which is a big issue since most people use either firewood or charcoal for cooking) and the importance of planting trees, especially native trees.  They also calculated the cost per month for using firewood, charcoal, or LPG (gas) for cooking for a family of four.  And I was surprised to find out that using gas is actually the least expensive.  And it does not cause respiratory issues.  The challenge is that you have to pay a lot of money to get the gas initially and then it lasts for a long time, whereas with charcoal and firewood, you can buy a little bit at a time.  People are used to frequently spending a little bit of money to buy something small instead of putting down a lot of money to buy in bulk.

Then, the other half of the training was on Farming God's Way (FGW).  Maybe some of you have heard of this before.  It is a technique for farming that starts with a proper understanding of the value of farming and farmers in God's sight (who was the first farmer?  God - Genesis 2:8) and a dedication to serving Him with everything.

FGW emphasizes timely land preparation where you get your field ready before the rains start so you can plant immediately and take advantage of the full rainy season.  It also emphasizes not ploughing, keeping the soil covered with mulch, and using proper spacing for the plants in the field.

In the little time we were outside of the classroom, they did a demonstration that showed how covering the soil with mulch helps to prevent soil erosion during rains.  Below, you can see it raining on the bare, ploughed soil.  See what the water running off the "field" into the pop bottle looks like.

And then the water running off the soil that was prepared exactly the same way, except covered with mulch.

We practiced making a rope with the spacing for maize marked out on it with the metal pop bottle caps.

And then using two of those ropes to mark out a rectangular field.

Then, we practiced setting up a field for planting.  The way you do it is to clear the land completely of weeds, then dig holes at the spacing for the plant you want to grow.  You put compost in the hole and then mulch the whole field.  The day after it starts raining, you plant your seeds.  Then, ideally in future growing seasons, you should never have to clear the land again.

Here are some of their demonstration plots where they compare the same crops, some grown conventionally and others grown using FGW.  In the picture below, you can see conventional potatoes in the front and then the FGW potatoes on the back left.

And here are onions, FGW in the front and conventional in the back.

Overall, I think that FGW is a very good way to do farming.  It is an important example of conservation agriculture.  I love how it seeks to honor God and value farmers and farming.  It is also great for reducing erosion and adding organic matter to the soil in the form of compost/manure and mulch.  It is also helpful in encouraging farmers to plan ahead and be prepared when the rains actually come.

But, just so you have a more nuanced understanding of FGW, I do have some concerns about the way it is promoted and some of the aspects of it.  I understand that it is good to talk about how we want to farm in a way that is pleasing to God.  And I do think that farming in a way that cares for creation is certainly pleasing to God.  But it makes me rather uncomfortable to call any one way of farming "Farming God's Way."  Is there really only one way that God wants people to farm in all climates and all contexts?  It makes the title of "Farming God's Way" seem a little presumptuous.  There is also an emphasis on monoculture in FGW, based on a verse in Leviticus, which I believe is taken out of context.  It seems strange to me that many of the aspects of FGW come from observations of nature (God does not plough the ground and allows plant material to cover the ground instead of leaving the soil bare), yet monoculture is promoted.  When I look at creation, I see God allowing many different kinds of plants to grow and thrive together.  I would not be too quick to insist that monoculture is better than intercropping before spending time carefully comparing them.  So I think that it would be helpful to do some research comparing intercropping and FGW.

One other example of something that was strange to me was the emphasis on using inputs like inorganic fertilizer and agricultural lime.  The training materials state that manure and compost are better than inorganic fertilizer and say that when you do FGW, you should not use inorganic fertilizers for more than four years - after four years, you should transition to compost or manure.  The materials also say that you can use wood ash instead of agricultural lime as a soil amendment.  I am a little bit confused about why they would promote inputs that farmers need to buy when many farmers are already keeping animals (who produce manure) and cooking with firewood (therefore creating wood ash every time they eat a meal).  It seems like it would make more sense to first promote what is free and easily available to the farmers, unless they are already using inorganic fertilizers on their fields and so would not have any extra expense from using them.  I would also suspect that if a person uses inorganic fertilizers for four years and gets used to them, that it would be difficult to stop.

Nevertheless, like I said before, FGW is a great way for farmers to improve their soils and their fields in a way that honors God.  I am thankful that I had the opportunity to attend this training and I look forward to trying FGW out with farmers here in Uganda.