UMCOR trains farmers to expand food supply
June Kim of UMCOR visits children in
Jeduako, Ghana, where villagers have been trained in crop and pest
management. UMNS photos courtesy of June Kim.
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By Linda Bloom*
July 15, 2008
United Methodist missionary Mozart
Adevu (right) receives honey from beekeepers at the Ganta mission
station in Liberia.
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When June Kim recently visited Ghana
as an executive with the United Methodist Committee on Relief, she
asked people there if they were aware of a worldwide food crisis.
They were not, but acknowledged to Kim that the price of a cup of
rice had doubled in the past year. Prices for fuel, materials and labor
also had risen.
UMCOR is addressing the food crisis in Ghana and other parts of Africa through its Sustainable Agriculture and Development Program. When Kim visited Ghana and Liberia in late May and June, what she saw "reinforced the fact that we’re using the right approach."
The key to success, according to Kim, is focusing directly on farmers
and the community as a whole rather than relying on institutions. The
UMCOR program uses an asset-based approach to community development and
trains participants to think about combining available resources.
"UMCOR’s strategy is investing in people’s knowledge," she said.
"Part of our training program is to build local capacity of leadership
among the farmers."
In 2006, for example, UMCOR brought farmers from five countries to Ghana for training in order to build technical teams that could serve as resources in their own communities and countries.
Besides Liberia and Ghana, the program operates in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Sierra Leone.
Subsistence farmers
In Liberia,
the program started in 2001 but was interrupted until 2004 by the
continuing civil war. Many participants are subsistence farmers whose
families have been farming for generations. "They are harder to convince
about trying different things, but once they catch on, it’s like
wildfire," Kim said.
Most training is conducted at a farmer’s field or a field the farmer
has chosen. "We’ve given them training in appropriate technology that
minimizes dependence on high-cost, petroleum-based fertilizers," Kim
said.
Moringa seedlings grow at a community farm in Barnesville, Liberia.
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The farmers in the program learn to make natural fertilizers, using the
leaves of the neem tree. "It takes a bit more manual labor, but the cost
benefit is advantageous to the farmer," she added. The trainer stays
with the farmers for an entire season as they try various fertilizing
methods and evaluate which method produces the best yield.
The Sustainable Agriculture and Development Program in Ghana,
which dates from about 2005, includes a focus on the Moringa tree,
which "provides the basic nutrients an individual would need at a very
low cost," she added.
The edible leaves and pods of the Moringa have twice the calcium of
milk and four times the Vitamin A of carrots. In addition to being a
nutritional supplement, parts of the tree can be used for a variety of
products, including animal feed, medicine, and fertilizer.
"The Methodist Church of Ghana has gotten behind the Moringa," Kim
said. "With the church leadership behind it, Moringa is sold and seen
everywhere."
She gives credit to Mozart Adevu, a missionary with the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries who serves as UMCOR’s Africa
regional coordinator for the agriculture and development program. He is
chairman of the Moringa Association of Ghana, formed in early 2007,
which focuses both on education about the benefits of the plant and
practical issues, such as certification by Ghana’s Food and Drugs Board.
Adevu also has been instrumental in the
program’s overall training of farmers, which relies on the strategy that
those who are trained will return to their communities and train
others. "The results of our efforts in mission towards reduction of
poverty in Africa could be likened to the biblical parable of five
loaves and two fishes used to feed the thousands––a true reflection of
God’s presence in restoring hope to the hungry," Adevu wrote in a
November 2006 newsletter.
Beekeeping provides income
Beekeeping is another aspect of sustainable
agriculture used by UMCOR, both in Ghana and Liberia. In addition to
serving as a source for food, honey can be used as a salve and for cough
and asthma relief. Beeswax can be used for batik textiles, which are
then sold at market, and propolis, the glue that bees collect from
particular tree buds, can be used for furniture construction.
The beekeeping project at Ganta mission station in Liberia has resulted in the sale of honey at $15 a gallon. "That additional $15 U.S. is a huge boost to their household income," Kim said.
The average hive yields two to three gallons. Since the project
started, about 1,200 gallons of honey have been harvested, raising more
than $40,000.
Since the Sustainable Agriculture and Development Program is open to
everyone, the building of community has extended far beyond the
denomination, according to Kim. "In Sierra Leone,
our training brought Muslims and Christians together for the first
time," she said. "They were able to build trust in each other."
Kim would like to expand the program to more countries in Africa, as well as to Latin America and Asia.
"We’ve always been under the radar," she said, but added that as a
response to the food crisis, "there’s something we can do immediately."
Donations to support UMCOR’s Sustainable Agriculture and Development
Program can be made to UMCOR Advance No. 982188. Checks can be dropped
in church offering plates or mailed directly to UMCOR, P.O. Box 9068, New York, NY 10087.
Write the Advance number and name on the memo line of the check. Credit
card donations can be made by calling (800) 554-8583 or online at www.givetomission.org.
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
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Resources
UMCOR
Church World Service
Stop Hunger Now
Society of St. Andrew
Bread for the World
U.N.: Food crisis |