Before Hope Sakuma's farmer field school starts a proper the Makelekos All-Stars prepare four precision vegetable beds in one quarter of a rice paddy - our IVS is seasonal, so over the coming year we want to show farmers how they can boost yield and nutirition from just an acre with two growing seasons of nerica rice and two of vegetables, learning how to incorporate azolla, ducks and fish to create a unique biosystem that cuts subsistence farmers input costs, boosts yield while storing vast amounts of planet-warming CO2 and nitrogen. Farmers will also learn how to save and dry seed so the first harvest of each crop provides seed for the next.
Measured and marked out by themselves, under the expert supervision of esteemed engineer and project coordinator Amabest, the Makelekos boys beds are all ready to demonstrate to farmers their first learning objective and show how their neatly squared vegetable beds should look! The exercise also gives Amabest a base-line to measure productivity of farmer field school trainees and what our farmers can aim for in a day, once trained.
Our first farmer field school team with men from Makelekos, Masine and Komneh trialling the sturdy hoes hand-crafted by Kamasorie putting in their first appearance and make short work turning Hope Sakumas first rice paddy into fine precision vegetable beds exceeding expectations by successfully matching the specifications of the prepared beds on their very first day!
Meanwhile, our Makelekos-Masine-Komneh combo continue their second day in farmer field school turning a second rice paddy into more precision vegetable plots ready for the Ladies to return tomorrow and turn the biochar and freshly turned soil into a fine tilth.
FARMER FIELD SCHOOL CONTINUES
The Ladies carry some biochar to incorporate into the first vegetable beds to give Hope Sakuma's veg strong healthy roots, improve soil structure and increase our soil's ability to store planet-warming CO2.
NICE JOB LADIES!
The first week of farmer field school wraps up sees Ladies from Makelekos, Robomp and RoGbin - head ladies posing in front of the hut - combine to turn the clods of rich Sanda soil in the precision beds into a fine tilth, ready for seed, utilizing Hope Sakuma's new small hoes as Project Coordinator Amabest explains how working the biochar into the soil will give the Ladies's vegetables healthy roots and enhance the soils ability to store carbon for hundreds and thousands of years
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