Farming God's Way Review

By Sara:

Over the years, I have had a lot of interactions with Farming God's Way (FGW).  This is a form of conservation agriculture developed in Zimbabwe in the 1980s.

Conservation agriculture has three main principles:
1) Reduce soil disturbance through minimum or no-tillage
2) Keep the soil covered
3) Mix and rotate crops

There are other aspects, but those are the main ones we need to consider now.  Farming God's Way fits into this classification by promoting: 1) no-tillage, 2) mulching, and 3) crop rotation.

In 2014, I participated in a Farming God's Way training in Kenya.  I have also visited places around Uganda where the method is taught, including our region of Teso as well as Kabale in southwestern Uganda.  I've also talked to many missionaries who are trying to teach Farming God's Way or are interested in it.

Preparing planting basins at FGW in Kenya:

Farming God's Way is a very structured approach to farming.  This makes it extremely easy for anyone to try, whether they know anything about agriculture or not.  For example, it gives exact measurements for spacing between rows of crops, size of planting holes, and depth at which to plant seeds.  It makes it a very easy method for anyone to reproduce, no matter how little or much they know about agriculture.  However, this very specificity is also a problem since it doesn't give options for people to adapt it to different conditions.  

In my region of Teso, many people still have pretty large gardens - several acres - and often prepare the garden by ploughing with oxen.  According to Farming God's Way, you need to dig planting basins with a hoe and should not plough because that disturbs the soil too much.  It is true that in conservation agriculture it is important for farmers to reduce soil disturbance.  However, telling people to stop ploughing and start digging their large garden with a hand hoe is a huge change and seems to most farmers like moving in the wrong direction.  Additionally, in Farming God's Way, you keep the soil covered with mulch.  First of all, it is extremely difficult to deeply mulch a several acre garden.  Secondly, in Teso, termites usually have eaten all the mulch a couple days or weeks after you put it down, making it seem like a bunch of work for nothing.  

Personally, I would prefer to offer Farming God's Way as one option in the category of Conservation Agriculture.  In Teso, you can still do conservation agriculture through minimal tillage - by using an ox-drawn ripper instead of a plough, and keeping the soil covered - by intercropping with cover crops.  The cover crops can also be chopped down and used as mulch which was grown right in the place where it is needed.

Farming God's Way is a method amazingly suited to other regions, though.  When I visited Kabale, in southwestern Uganda, some years ago, I saw people who had great success with Farming God's Way.  They have very small pieces of land - often less than 1/2 an acre - which have been seriously degraded.  Because the land is small, it is easy (and normal) to dig by hand and also possible to cover the whole thing with mulch.  The cooler temperature and higher elevation there makes termites less of a problem.  And since it has been so degraded, even small changes like digging planting basins (and putting manure/fertilizer in each basin) and mulching have a big impact on crop yield.  

In Kabale - tiny non-FGW potatoes from one plant (top photo) verses a greater quantity of bigger potatoes from one FGW plant (bottom photo):

There are some great biblical teachings that go along with Farming God's Way, such as an emphasis on tithing and encouraging farmers that they can tithe from their harvest, instead of thinking that they must have cash in order to tithe.  It also is helpful in reminding farmers to make good use of the times and seasons God has created by planting at the right time and weeding at appropriate times.  I love how FGW emphasizes God's role as a farmer who planted the first garden in Eden and who sets an example to us as farmers.  No one needs to be ashamed of having the high calling of working as a farmer, following God's example.  

On the other hand, however, there are some biblical applications which I believe are not good interpretations of the Bible.  One example comes from Leviticus 19:19 "Keep my decrees. Do not mate different kinds of animals.  Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed.  Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material."  Based on this verse, FGW tells farmers it is wrong to grow two types of crops together in a garden (intercropping).  But why is this verse in the law?  What kind of law is it?  A moral law which holds true to all people in all times?  Or a civil law specific to the nation of Israel which was fulfilled in Jesus, the perfect Israelite, but no longer followed by people who are citizens of other nations?  Or a ceremonial law meant to keep the Jews clean and different from people of other religions - fulfilled in Jesus, but no longer practiced by Christians who have been made clean once and for all by Jesus' sacrifice on the cross?

In discussion with a FGW teacher, he told me that it is bad because you will get less yield if you do this.  It is true that if you grow, say beans and maize in the same field, you won't get as many beans as if it was just beans.  And you won't get as much maize as if it was just maize.  But you will get more total volume of harvest.

The name "Farming God's Way" also makes me uncomfortable - I have met a farmer who asked, "if this is farming God's way, then are all other ways of farming "farming Satan's way"?  Even when we think we have the best method of doing something, it seems a bit presumptuous to call it "God's way" unless it is explicitly in the Bible. 

In conclusion, I think that Farming God's Way can be a good and useful way to do conservation agriculture - in some places.  But it is important to closely observe the farming context and traditional ways of agriculture before assuming that one method can fit all places.  There are always improvements we can make to how we farm, but the improvements will be different depending on where we begin and what our climate and setting is.

Liberia Farmer Visits

 By Sara:

While Anthony and Jonny taught HWHIA in Liberia last year, I had the exciting opportunity to come along with them and then go around visiting various groups of farmers both to learn and to teach, plus spending time with some old friends.

First of all, there are some fascinating similarities and differences between Uganda and Liberia.  Liberia is a little farther north of the Equator, but more or less directly east of Uganda, on the other side of the African continent.  Since it is on the ocean, there were lots of coconut trees (and fresh coconuts being sold by the side of the road as street food), not something you usually see in Uganda.  But otherwise, lots of similar vegetation and crops which I recognized, like cassava, sweet potatoes, taro, plantains, rice, and the same species of "local"greens.

Cassava and bananas:

 

 

Rice and taro:

 

 

 Coconuts:

I enjoyed learning from the farmers I visited and also got to share with them from my work in Uganda.  I taught several groups The Earth is the Lord's Bible studies and then we compared farming in Uganda with farming in Liberia.  Depending on the interest of the groups, I then taught on topics like caring for the soil, the benefits of eating moringa (and how to cook it), and integrated pest management.

I got to visit with a group of people from the Christian Reformed Church of Liberia who loved The Earth is the Lord's Bible studies.  They were amazingly quick in understanding how to do the Bible studies and made excellent SMART action plans.  Some of them plan to use the Bible study method for Sunday school or for doing Bible studies with their children. 

They appreciated learning how to eat moringa leaves - moringa grows there, but most people don't know it can be eaten as food.  There is also leucaena and mucuna, both of which are useful for feeding animals, something most of the farmers did not know.

The population density in Liberia is lower than in Uganda, so many small farmers have 100-200 acres!  Which might sound small to an American farmer, but would be unbelievably huge for a family farm in Uganda.

Liberian farmers were shocked that most Ugandans don't eat sweet potato leaves or cassava leaves, which, according to them, are SO GOOD!  And they felt bad for Ugandans who only eat rice for special occasions, rather than every day like Liberians do, since it is their staple food.  Liberia also has a lot of palm oil trees (they grow naturally in many areas), so everyone cooks with palm oil.  They thought Ugandans are really missing out on tasty food by not having fresh palm oil for cooking.  Here are some sweet potato leaves on their way to a market:

After I visited one of the groups of farmers hosted by Joseph, his wife Musulyn taught me how to cook cassava leaves.  I agree with everyone that they are very tasty.  Though we used way fewer hot peppers than Musulyn usually cooks with, for my sake.  I was thankful because it was plenty spicy for me the way we cooked it together!

Joseph took me to visit an amazing farmer, named Ma Sue, almost near the border to Sierra Leone.  I have to say, I thought there were bad roads in Uganda, but they don't really compare with the roads in Liberia.  And I didn't experience the worst ones...  

Ma Sue is an amazing lady.  She grew up as a Muslim, but converted to Christianity.  She had 10 children, but all of them died, so she decided to dedicate her life to caring for orphans.  She has over 300 acres of family land, more than she can even farm, but there was lots of rice, palm oil trees, plantain, sweet potatoes, cassava, cocoa, vegetables, and fruits.  All of that food she grows is used to feed the orphans and needy children she cares for. 

During the rainy season, everything is (even more) flooded, so there are these walkways through the fields for people to get around on:

Ma Sue is the lady next to me in the blue blouse:

It rains WAY more in Liberia than in Soroti.  They told us it was the dry season there, yet it rained every day we were in the country...more rain than we get per day during the rainy season in Soroti.  This does create a challenge where it is difficult to dry and store crops for later, but it doesn't matter too much for them in terms of food security since people can grow things most of the time, even during the dry season.  In fact, some people said it is easier to grow food in the dry season since rain can be too much for many crops to handle in lowland areas. 

Not only did I get to visit with farmers, though, I also got to visit a school started by Boimah, someone Anthony and went to Calvin Seminary with 15 years ago!  It was great to reunite with him and see the good things he and his wife have been doing since he graduated.  They started this private Christian school which is affordable to pretty much everyone in the community.  Even though they can't pay the teachers much, the teachers are dedicated and appreciate that they are always paid on time.

 On Sunday, we also were able to go to his church and hear him preach.
 

Finally, we reunited with our friend Job, who was an intern at the World Hunger Relief farm in Waco, TX with me in 2013.   

Job is a biology teacher, but also teaches his students about agriculture.  He is passionate about encouraging youth to appreciate farming as the most honorable profession, so he is in the process of starting an organization to train young people on farming.  He is about to retire from teaching, so that is what he plans to do during retirement.  

Here's a good memory with Job at his first experience of American football back in 2013: