Conservation Agriculture Near Anyara

I had the fun opportunity to do a conservation agriculture training in a village church near Anyara, with one of our many friends named Emmanuel.  We spent one day talking about the theory - why it is helpful to try not to disturb the soil much, to keep soil covered, and to rotate crops.  Then, we spent another day preparing some demonstration gardens right next to the church where people will get to observe them.

We practiced using our hands to make measuring sticks and then marked out the spacing for planting on a rope.

Since it is the dry season, it was very dusty when we cleared the garden space.

Normally, we would leave a tree stump in a big garden, but we wanted to be able to compare the control plot with the conservation agriculture plot (without extra variables), so some guys took out a tree stump that was in the middle of one of the plots.  Emmanuel is the second from the left in the white shirt.

We took a group photo and plan to take another one later, when things start growing.  We can't plant until the rains start (probably in March), but everything is prepared and ready for planting.

Another cool thing about this training is that one of the participants is an organic farmer who had some materials about organic pesticides that he shared with the group.

He went out and found some of the indigenous plants that you can use and showed them to everyone as he explained the process of making pesticides with them.