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Roy with a new fruit. |
From guest blogger, the wonderful husband, Roy Thagard!
Today we woke up to a light rain. Who would have thought that it would rain in
Africa? But living in a rainforest
climate, it is likely to come! One
realization in my eyes is that on days of rainfall, are people able to work
during the day? For jobs that are
labor-intensive, I would believe many would not be able to work due to the
weather. This would also mean that if a
wage is unearned, that perhaps their families may go unfed. So while we know the rain to be life-giving,
today was a reminder of job insecurity within African countries.
With the rainfall today, our team did a tour of the CEFA
farm where we were staying. There is so
many individual projects that are taking
place, today was a day to see just a glimpse of all that is being done.
A typical day will see 2-3 flat bed trucks bring as many as
100 people to work at the farm for the day.
Everyone is dropped off at the front gate where a morning devotion is
led by either Roy D or one of the farm managers. These are shared in Sango, the local trade
language.
After the devotion, everyone disperses into their respective
jobs. Today we would see some of the
efforts to establish cover crops, the agroforestry landscape, aquaculture
ponds, and the nutrition garden.
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The perennial peanut as a cover crop in the "Garden of Eden" |
There are many purposes of a cover crop in a landscape. In a tropical climate, rainfall can quickly
deplete soil nutrients. Legume crops
produce nitrogen in the soil, which is desired for plant growth. If a cover crop can provide this valuable
nutrient, it will make other plants and trees grow substantially more
efficient. We looked at two legume cover
crops that the farm is interested in establishing—kudzu and ground peanut. Those in the southern US know kudzu for its
undesirable ability to take over a landscape because of its prolific growing
habit. But if the plant is kept in check
it builds a great soil biomass while providing a great nutrition source for the
landscape. Ground peanuts are an
unreproductive plant that also produces nitrogen. It grows closer to the ground as it spreads,
so it does not require as much management as kudzu. It does, however, seem to spread more
prolifically through its rhizomes when left unchecked.
Here are a few pictures of workers on the farm using a board
on a string to pack down the kudzu from growing and spreading onto trees in the
landscape.
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stompimg down the kudzu |
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the stomping down tool :-) |
We also went to see the nutrition garden. Here they are just beginning to establish
vegetables as the rainy season begins.
Insect feeding has been problematic, so early establishment of these
vegetable plants has been slow. The CEFA
farm has a night watchman, and his family lives here near the nutrition
garden. His children seem to be tasked
with keeping the garden growing well.
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Roy D. in the newly planted nutrition (vegetable) garden |
Beside the garden are 6 individual aquaculture ponds. These ponds have tilapia fish that are harvested
every 8-10 months and sold in the town’s market for profit. This money would go back to the farm to
sustain its work, such as purchasing additional fish.
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One of the Tilapia ponds |
For our afternoon time, we were invited to be guests for
lunch in Kenzu, a village on the Cameroon side of the border just a few miles from our
location. Today was the day that the
Ramadan fast was broken, so it was a time of celebration. Aleta told us our greeting for the day,
“Barka de sala” which means Blessings of peace. We spent time getting
to know H, a very dear Fulani friend of Aleta.
It was wonderful seeing the children dressed in new clothes made just
for the celebration of the day. Even the
men in the village would take time to come and greet their family, many
traveling from great distances for this celebration. We were honored to be invited to celebrate
such a special occasion with these new friends.
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The ladies showing their garden preparation. |
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