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From: Tsegai Emmanuel (emmanuelt40@gmail.com)
Date: Tue Oct 05 2010 - 21:04:36 EDT
Published on Tuesday, October 5, 2010 by YES! Magazine
In Kenya, Farmers Grow Their Own Way
Thousands of grassroots, African-led efforts are building locally rooted
alternatives to the chemical agriculture promoted by the Gates Foundation
and Monsanto.
by Heather Day, Travis English
We had just been visiting farmers cultivating land in the lush, steep hills
north of the town of Thika in central Kenya. Samuel Nderitu, our guide and
host, had one more project he wanted us to see: the Tumaini Women’s Group.
They were meeting to found their community's first seed bank.
[image: [Saving seeds gives the women's group local control of their food
supply. (Photo by Heather Day) ]]Saving seeds gives the women's group local
control of their food supply. (Photo by Heather Day)
We were now in an area that has suffered from six years of drought and has a
high concentration of people living with HIV/AIDS, both compounding the
area’s struggles with hunger.
Samuel left the highway and drove down a flat, dusty road. In the distance
we could see a cluster of trees. As we got closer we could hear music, and
then more than twenty elderly, colorfully dressed women emerged from the
shade, singing and dancing to a song they had composed just for our visit.
They led us to a tree where they asked us to sit while they told us their
story.
Like most of the farmers in this area, the Tumaini women explained, they had
followed the advice of outsiders (mostly large-scale foreign NGOs) who told
them that yields would increase if they purchased special seeds rather than
saving their own and applied chemicals to their crops. But the women soon
learned the long-term consequences of these methods. When the rains stopped,
crops didn't produce well and debts mounted. Stripped from years of chemical
use, the soil couldn’t *retain what little moisture was
left*<http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/water-solutions/food-in-dry-times>
[1], nor was there enough water to dissolve the chemicals. Yields declined
and farmers could no longer afford the inputs—chemical fertilizers,
genetically engineered seeds, pesticides—that they believed were necessary
to cultivate their land. Farmers became poorer and hungrier.
Now, with the help of Samuel and his wife, Peris, the women of the Tumaini
group are rejecting the methods they had been taught and learning both new
and traditional ways of farming—replacing methods that depend on chemicals
or expensive seeds with practices rooted in ecological management and local
knowledge. In doing so, they are also rejecting the latest scheme by the
Global North to cure Africa of hunger and poverty, the so-called “New Green
Revolution in Africa."
The New Green Revolution: Too Much Like the Old One
In 2006 the Bill and Melinda Gates and Rockefeller Foundations launched the
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), which is based in Nairobi,
Kenya. Their aim is to alleviate poverty and hunger in Africa by increasing
food production. Much like *the original green
revolution*<http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/whose-water/turning-scarcity-into-abundance>
[2], which still plagues farmers throughout India and Latin America, their
mission is to increase production by increasing the amount of chemical
fertilizers, herbicides, and chemical dependent high-yield seed varieties
farmers use. They are also aggressively pushing genetically modified seeds
and the involvement of agribusiness giants such as
*Monsanto*<http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/a-month-without-monsanto>
[3]—currently being investigated by the Department of Justice for
monopolistic practices in the United States seed market.
Many civil society groups in Kenya are outraged by AGRA’s plans and wonder
why they have not been involved in deciding what is best for Africans.
Josphat Ngonyo, director of the Africa Network for Animal Welfare and member
of the Kenya Biodiversity Coalition, states, “AGRA didn’t involve the people
in Africa. This was an idea pushed onto Africa that does not work. If
Africans aren’t included, it’s clearly not about us.” Ngonyo, along with
many other organizers and farmers, often asks a basic question that the
foundation has yet to answer: Why do you want to spread the very same
farming methods that have made our farmers poor and hungry?
Many farmers’ biggest worry, however, is losing control of their seeds.
AGRA’s grantees are teaming up with Monsanto and other seed companies to
distribute free, patented seeds to farmers and discourage farmers from
saving seed. As Ngonyo explains, “Now we’re having seeds from Monsanto, the
*biotech seeds that are
patented*<http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/food-for-everyone/3360>
[4]. You cannot replant. You cannot harvest and store them before
replanting. You’re totally dependent on Monsanto.”
Another Way: Food Security through Food Sovereignty
But the new green revolution ignores groups like the Tumaini Women’s Group:
the thousands of grassroots, African-led efforts that, like AGRA's programs,
are designed to boost production and generate income, but which—unlike
AGRA—use methods that nourish the soil, cool the planet, build community,
and empower farmers. As members of the Seattle-based campaign *AGRA
Watch*<http://www.seattleglobaljustice.org/agra-watch/>
[5], we came to Kenya to see some of this work firsthand.
Again and again, the farmers we met discussed the importance of controlling
their own food sources—what the international peasant movement *La Via
Campesina* <http://viacampesina.org/en/> [6] calls “food sovereignty."
Food sovereignty, as defined in the "Declaration of Nyéléni," a document
produced by a gathering of farmers in Mali in 2007, is the “right of peoples
to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically
sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and
agriculture systems.” Food sovereignty requires the *democratization of our
food system*<http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/food-for-everyone/everybody-eats-how-a-community-food-system-works>
[7], with people, not corporations, in control.
Florence is the leader of the Tumaini Women’s Group and the hostess of the
seed-saving workshop we had come to witness. At 72 years of age, she has
transitioned away from chemical farming and transformed her land into a
demonstration farm where others come to learn. She took us on a tour and
proudly showed off her robust maize crop, one of over 30 crops she was
growing.
Florence explained that the Tumaini women’s group consists of 23 widows,
ranging from 72 to 102 years old, who collectively care for 73 orphans. The
women lost their husbands and many of their children to the AIDS epidemic
and are now responsible for the younger generation of grandchildren. She
explained the importance of teaching the children how to grow their own food
using sustainable, locally controlled methods: “We are getting old, and as
the orphans grow up, we want them to sustain themselves, so we are teaching
them how they can be self-sustaining through agriculture and other
business.”
It was Florence who asked Samuel Nderuti, our guide, to teach her and the
other members of the Tumaini group about another approach to agriculture.
Samuel and his wife, Peris, are the directors and founders of Grow
BioIntensive Agricultural Centre of Kenya, or
*GBIACK*<http://gbiack.blogspot.com/>
[8]. Both are graduates of the *Manor House Agricultural
Centre*<http://www.mhacbiointensive.org/>
[9] in Kitale, Kenya, which, unlike many agricultural schools, teaches
students ecological farming methods and gives them tools to organize whole
communities to become self-sufficient and food secure. A key component of
this approach is its emphasis on self-reliance: Farmers are taught how to
grow sufficient food for themselves and their families using locally
available, affordable resources, while also generating income to send their
children to school and pay for other necessities.
Refugees from Kenya's recent political violence, Peris and Samuel chose to
relocate to Thika, where they felt their work could have the most impact in
addressing the area's difficult living conditions. GBIACK focuses on working
with the most vulnerable populations: widows, orphans, and those who are
poor, HIV positive, or living with AIDS. Their beautiful training center
includes a demonstration farm, community library, seed bank, and classroom.
In addition to training farmers in agroecological farming methods, they
teach animal husbandry, beekeeping, and water conservation. They also
started a program for girls to learn tailoring, allowing them to earn the
income necessary to attend school. All of this is on a shoestring budget.
During the height of the drought, the GBIACK farm was one of very few in the
area still able to produce food, proof to many that their methods are more
resilient than those that rely on chemicals and “improved” seeds. Samuel
explains, “To assist my poor brothers and sisters who are languishing in
poverty due to lack of knowledge, I teach them how to fish, so that they may
continue fishing the rest of their lives. I believe that *if I share the
knowledge that I
have*<http://www.yesmagazine.org/happiness/diy-education-how-to-start-a-freeskool>
[10], many people will be able to feed themselves using the biointensive
techniques.”
GBIACK’s primary aim is to provide training in the communities surrounding
Thika. Most often, farmers reach out to them after seeing the results of
their trainings in neighbors’ fields. To broaden the impact of trainings,
Peris and Samuel choose to work with farmers—like Florence—who take
leadership within their communities and teach others how to farm without
chemicals. In this way, they have been able to train thousands of farmers in
just a couple of years of operation.
"We didn’t know that farming can be done without spending so much money,"
one farmer from the Lifwa Women's Group in Bikeke, Kenya wrote in a letter
to *Kilili Self-Help* <http://www.kililiselfhelp.org/letters.htm> [11], a
U.S. group that helps raise funds for GBIACK. "We have always thought that
without money we cannot do farming. We have found out that we can make our
own fertilizers and also grow our own seeds."
Self-reliance Starts With Seeds
The largest non-governmental seed bank in the U.S. collects and stores
thousands of heirloom seeds for the benefit of future generations.
Both groups believe that saving seed is a key part of
self-sufficiency. “*Community
seed banks* <http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/seed-savers-exchange>
[12]are important as a source of healthy and vigorous seed to replace
degenerated or lost seed, to serve as a collection point of different types
of seeds from the community and beyond, and to supply farmers with quality
seed of new varieties,” Peris told us.
In contrast, Samuel laments, “The technologies that are promoted by the
Gates Foundation in Africa are not farmer-friendly or environmentally
friendly. Some of them have not been tested fully to determine their effects
on the environment and consumers. More research is required before they are
released to the farmers or for commercial production.”
Farmers *all over the
world*<http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/beverly-bell-in-haiti/haitian-farmers-refuse-monsanto-hybrid-seeds>
[13], the majority of whom are women, are insisting on their right to food
sovereignty, and placing seed at the center of that fight. As Do’a Zaied,
Palestinian agronomist and food sovereignty activist affiliated with La Via
Campesina, stated, “To have your independent voice and your independent
thinking, you have to have food sovereignty, and that starts with control
over your own seeds.”
Florence also emphasized the importance of diversifying, growing a variety
of crops appropriate to the region and their culture. “Because of foreign
crops that have come, farmers have neglected the indigenous crops. GBIACK
has taught us* the importance of the indigenous
crops*<http://www.yesmagazine.org/blogs/beverly-bell-in-haiti/a-future-for-agriculture-a-future-for-haiti>
[14]—millet, cassava, and sorghum—which is good food and it helps to
maintain food security,” she said. GBIACK also helps farmers living with
HIV/AIDS learn to grow crops that boost their immune systems, such as
amaranth.
The day we sat under the trees with the Tumaini women, many of their seeds
had just finished drying, and they were testing the viability of each saved
crop. The women placed samples of each of their seeds onto a damp paper
towel inside a petri dish. The following week they would return to see what
percentage of each seed variety germinated, which would tell them whether
they could use that seed for planting. Each woman in the group had saved
seed from a different crop, supplying the seed bank with a wide variety.
Their collective effort resulted in a diverse, resilient collection of
seeds, to which each woman had free access, taking them one step closer to
food sovereignty.
*Heather Day and Travis English wrote this article for YES!
Magazine<http://www.yesmagazine.org/>
[15], a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas
with practical actions. Heather is co-founder and director of Community
Alliance for Global Justice<http://www.seattleglobaljustice.org/agra-watch/>
[5]. Travis English is a student in the Masters of Urban Planning program at
the University of Washington and is co-chair of AGRA Watch. *
*Want to learn more? Visit Kilili Self
Help<http://www.kililiselfhelp.org/donate.htm>
[16] to learn more about training programs, biointensive farming methods, or
make a donation (specify that your donation is for GBIACK).*