ECHO 2019

By Sara:

I recently had the opportunity to attend and speak at the ECHO conference in Arusha, Tanzania this February.  Something I especially looked forward to was hearing one of the speakers, Roland Bunch, who is the author of a development book ("Two Ears of Corn") and an agriculture book ("Restoring the Soil") which I think are pretty great.  I had missed a visit he made to Soroti some years ago, as well as previous ECHO conferences he attended, so I was excited to see a development celebrity.  His theory, which he spoke on, is that droughts in Sub-Saharan Africa are getting worse because of soil degradation which results in the soil getting hard and crusting so it doesn't allow water to infiltrate much when it rains.  He proposes the solution of adding organic matter to the soil, specifically through green manure/cover crops, to improve it and reduce the severe impacts of droughts.  He has lots of great stories of farmers around the world he has observed and learned from.

There was also an entertaining "panel discussion" (more like a debate) between Roland Bunch and another presenter who had promoted phosphorus fertilizer and inoculants (rhizobium bacteria which help legumes fix nitrogen by living on their roots) for better legume yields.  Both of them have good points, but they didn't seem to want to admit it about each other.  Just for fun, when I got home, I went to an agricultural supply store in Soroti and asked if they sold inoculants.  But they had no idea what I was talking about, even when I described what it was.  So, it appears it is not a particularly practical thing for farmers in this area of Uganda.

Brett Harrison and I gave a presentation to the whole group of conference attendees about the importance of including Bible study in agriculture development, then some of the aspects of the the inductive Bible study we use and how it has been helpful in our experience.

We talked about how we can't ignore the spiritual African worldview when we do development and just replace it with a secular worldview.  Studying Scripture should bring transformation in our lives and affect every aspect of what we do from day to day, not only on Sunday.

We like our Bible study curriculum because it focuses on studying the Bible to hear what God is saying to us.  But in the context of agriculture development, we learn general principles about agriculture from studying the Bible, rather than specific practices.  And there's an emphasis in the curriculum on obedience - putting into practice what we have learned, in obedience to God.  The whole point of studying the Bible is not just to get more knowledge, but to be changed.

Overall, the presentation went really well and I had several people speak to me afterward about how much they appreciated our talk and share the ways it will be useful to them in their work.

We had a second afternoon session which people could choose to attend.  This one was really practical - we led the group through a sample Bible study so they could experience the way it works and hopefully gain confidence in facilitating Bible studies themselves. 

Besides our two awesome presentations, there were some interesting sessions about an inexpensive ripper (an implement for minimum tillage which I'll share about more in another post) and ways to adapt it to other uses.  Like in the presentation below, they were talking about how ECHO is testing an inexpensive planter attachment.

I also enjoyed hearing an anthropologist talk about his experience investigating the results of Heifer International's projects of giving cows which people pass on to others later.  And how often do you hear an anthropologist speak at an agriculture conference?

Neil Miller, who I worked for at WHRI in Texas, was involved in a lot of good presentations, like one about learning with farmers through experimentation.  It is always fun to meet up with people I know from around East Africa at a conference like this.