Mkulima Sasa, a Syntropic Agroforestry education and demonstration centre near Lake Victoria, Kenya, has significantly expanded its impact thanks to an AUD$2000 grant from Permafund. This funding facilitated the growth of demonstration farms, enhanced training programs and the installation of a rainwater harvesting system.
Key Achievements:
Enhanced Irrigation & Demonstration Plot: A new 30-metre plot, irrigated by the harvested rainwater, now showcases the power of syntropic agroforestry. It features 60 diverse trees (soursop, avocado, orange, pomegranate, grevillea, banana, palm) arranged in two lines, with a rich understory of vegetables (kales, cowpeas, African spider plants, sweet potatoes, cassava) and ground crops (sesame, groundnuts, vetiver grass).
Empowering Local Communities: Training sessions, including practical demonstrations, were conducted for diverse groups, including people with disabilities, youth, women, and men. Participants learned the principles of Syntropic Agroforestry Management.
Seed & Seedling Distribution: Mkulima Sasa provided trainees with seedlings and seeds, fostering a culture of exchange and enabling them to establish their own syntropic systems at home.
School Outreach: A 20-metre demonstration bed, featuring 40 trees and ground crops, was established at Mirando Junior School, engaging 20 students. Staff members were also trained to act as future instructors.
Growing Interest: The project has generated considerable interest, with increasing numbers of people visiting the demonstration farms, seeking information and requesting assistance in establishing their own systems.
Observations & Future Directions:
While the adoption of syntropic agriculture is currently far less than traditional monoculture practices, Mkulima Sasa remains optimistic about its future growth.
Strengthening security through improved fencing around the demonstration sites is a priority.
Ongoing mentorship and follow-up support for trainees are helpful for ensuring the long-term success of their syntropic systems.
Permafund thanks Andronico Otieno of the Mkulima Sasa Regenerative Agriculture for providing timely and comprehensive project updates.
Your donations make projects like this possible. Contributions to Permafund over $2 are tax deductible in Australia and can be made here. Thank you for your support.
Last year Permafund funded a project in Zanzibar, Tanzania that combined a permaculture course with a mangrove restoration project. The applicants, Up with Community, demonstrated a good understanding of the ecosystem services provided by mangroves (including erosion control, flora and fauna nurseries and climate change mitigation including blue carbon). Permafund liked the integrated learning approach that combined Permaculture principles with the restoration of the natural environment.
Mangroves are particularly vulnerable to human threats including pollution, tourism, aquaculture and agriculture. Although rates of mangrove destruction have slightly declined this century their destruction will probably be complete by the end of it. Up with Community have planted 1000 mangrove seedlings in a degraded area. We are now working with them to help them succeed and see what we can learn and apply elsewhere.
Any reforestation is a fraught process that often has a high failure rate. Reasons for this include a lack of addressing the cause of deforestation (e.g. climate change, salinity levels), failure to monitor and protect seedlings and saplings (eg herbivore predation) failure to monitor and protect mature trees (e.g. from firewood collection).
We view efforts to counter this depressing scenario as particularly worthy. But we only want to support approaches that work in the applicant’s location. Six months in we’ve found that their implementation of directly planting seedlings is showing an unusually high success rate – a reported 80% compared to 20% for usual long-term survival when hand planting is used.
As is typical we’ve surveyed the research around the applicant’s domain of interest.
The effectiveness of mangrove restoration varies wildly. Costs can range from $65 to $810,000 per hectare! Approaches can be active (e.g. hand planting, dropping propagules from drones or planes) or passive, such as digging channels to maximise settling of floating propagules (mangrove seeds). Finding appropriate technologies for things like site analysis can quickly become complex. Big, well-funded organisations deploy experts – geologists, ecologists and hydrologists to name a few.
Up with Community lacks these resources, so Permafund is in dialogue with them about the applicability of current research (especially passive restoration – see MANGROVE ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION in GUIDE: LESSONS LEARNED) and the advisability of partnering with existing mangrove initiatives in Tanzania.
One such initiative Permafund already checked out is Blue Carbon Tanzania. While their website showcases an all-African staff and brightly clad locals planting seedlings, it fails to mention its ownership by the UAE-based Blue Carbon, a company that has drawn significant criticism from environmentalists. So we won’t be recommending that one. As I mentioned, reforestation is fraught!
Permafund uses permaculture principles to holistically assess and evaluate the projects we fund, usually on a one-off basis. We track projects and collect lessons learned which are shared with others and added to the body of permaculture knowledge.
In the coming months, we will report on the progress of Up with Community, whether more passive and holistic approaches have been incorporated and if the overall effort resulted in a successful outcome.
Your donations to Permafund make community projects like this possible so thank you very much for your support. Contributions to Permafund over $2 are tax deductible in Australia and can be made here.
Domestic and sexual violence against women is a global scourge in every country and in places like Kenya, support networks can be difficult to find. Agatha Amani House is an NGO and Kenya’s first women and children’s safe house for those fleeing abuse. Their mission is to empower victims to heal from their trauma and help them become self-sufficient.
Permaculture is central to Agatha Amani House achieving that aim.
They were successful in applying for a $2000 grant from Permafund to present a 6-day workshop that included as a practical exercise, the beginnings of establishing a Food Forest. 18 participants were selected including 10 women from the shelter and 8 from the community.
Early preparation included getting local permaculture experts in to assess the site and come up with a spatial design. Soil samples taken revealed a lack of nitrogen, phosphorus and zinc with a low reading of organic matter. The main topics covered in the workshop included soil preparation, water harvesting and planting guilds.
This project was completed in 2023 and a more recent report outlining the ongoing progress of the Permaculture Farm was received.
Early learnings were the need for an increase in mulch materials to combat the severe dry periods for water retention and soil build-up. Also, small animals were included in the Food Forest system with their manure increasing the volume of compost that was able to be added.
The farm is not just a source of nutritious food, it embodies a sustainable healing space that helps women and children rebuild their lives, cultivating hope alongside the crops. The farm does more than nourish bodies….it nourishes souls.
At Agatha Amani House the wish is that the farm becomes a beacon of hope that spreads through Kenya and beyond. It’s another example of permaculture flourishing where the need is great.
Your donations to Permafund assist projects such as this and emphasise our 3rd Ethic of distributing surplus resources with a financial leg up to projects already operating and run by local people.
Permafund Grant Update Report from November 2024
Permafund Grant Update Report from December 2024
PROJECT STATUS UPDATE REPORT
PROJECT NAME: PERMACULTURE FOOD FOREST WORKSHOP & FOOD FOREST ESTABLISHMENT FOR AGATHA AMANI HOUSE-ABUSED WOMEN SHELTER-KENYA.
The project continues to progress and to yield day by day. For the last 2 months, we have been receiving a lot of rain and thus our vegetables and trees that we initially planted are blossoming well. Our farm officer together with the women hosted at Agatha Amani House has been taking care of the food forest; maintaining it, adding more plants and also being in charge of harvesting the yields. The food forest has been a great source of improved nutrition; vegetables and herbs for the hosted women and their children. It has also acted as a learning hub, as we have been using it for field visits. People visit to see the food forest and also to learn about permaculture. The workshop participants have reported great success on their farms too.
Before Establishment of GardenAfter Establishment of Garden
We have been selling the surplus vegetables to the neighbours and the nearby market. We normally make food baskets with all the varieties we have in the farm or sometimes we sell as per the customer’s orders.
Through the continued assessments done on the food forest, it has been noted that our farm; soil needs a lot of watering during the dry season, more than how we have been watering there before. This was noted through the planting of some red cabbage that took way more than the 3 months to mature. We are currently working on better watering schedules and water conservation activities in the farm.
For preservation of our surplus, we made this small solar drier. Preservation of our food forest produce is one of the central problems we have been facing as we would like to save the food for the dry seasons when food is scarce. Drying these products will help solve these problems, while also making an important contribution to improving the population’s income and supply situation.
Solar Drier made by the women of AGATHA AMANI HOUSE
Among the key learnings from the workshop, we have been very intense in practising what we learnt. The project has been keen on applying the principles of permaculture in the entire design and in both food forest phase I and phase II, Climate Change; Building resilience and mitigation, Water Harvesting and conservation, Soil Fertility Building and Care of Trees and seedlings among others.
Next Steps
There is a need for another workshop, as a follow-up on the previous one together with additional topics and activities such as the construction of a dam for water harvesting, more shed nets for the dry season plus Increased crops and trees including cover crops.
We also look forward to learning more on how to use the solar dryer and how to use and package the dried vegetables and fruits. This will also involve learning on how to do value addition to most of the products that we produce at our food forest. Hence making us more sustainable at the shelter.
As a returning Aotearoa resident from 40 years in Australia, I was delighted to find the equivalent of a Permaculture convergence was due to occur within two months and 10 km of where I’ve resettled in Taranaki – North Island, west coast, big dormant volcano. What better way to meet and network with both local permies and those from the multiple climate zones of this long and narrow country?
The hui, which translates from Māori as ‘ceremonial or social gathering’, took place in the private Green School in Taranaki. About 110 permies converged on the event organised not locally, but by PiNZ – Permaculture in New Zealand. The hui coincided with the local sustainable gardens/farms/builds trail which some local permies were helping run.
Following a tour of the magnificent whale-shaped and concrete-free buildings and grounds, the hui settled into a routine of morning circle (a bit touchy-feely for some) followed by PowerPoint presentations. There were a couple of diploma presentations and also a session for those from the regions to connect and coalesce. The local National Party MP Barbara Kiruger joined our regional Taranaki group.
The permaculture and regenerative scenes are intertwined in Taranaki. The region has been a dairying powerhouse since colonisation. Of the couple of dozen people I asked most saw regenerative pasture-grazing beef and dairy as potentially highly significant for carbon drawdown and food supply. The remainder were ‘don’t know’. I met plenty of soil food-web nerds too.
I was wowed by all the presenters I saw and am looking forward to videos of those that I missed.
First was Yotam Kay, who has ADHD, two books and lots of YouTube including a TEDx Talk. With his ‘reality-checker’ wife Niva, their ¼ acre Pakaraka Farm produces 10 tons of food a year.
Then there was white-bearded Rob Guyton who with his wife Robyn has a 23-year-old food forest established from a scraggly block nobody wanted in the cold wet deep-south town of Riverston. Despite having been on NZ TV and in a Happen Film, Rob was not recognised in the wealthy seaside town of Oakura where he was challenged by local ladies as he tugged at plants on a bushwalk. Once he got chatting they were eager to show him around.
Taranaki local Kama Burwell, an ecological designer and engineer, is rapidly cladding the family cattle farm with native bush, helped by local crews such as Rapid Regen. She described the holistic process of family farm regeneration including the familial succession aspects. We both went to Inglewood High School and I reckon Kama is probably the greatest alumni.
Venerable elder and educator Robina McCurdy described social and governance considerations of intentional communities. Invisible structures did not feature so much overall at the hui but Robina’s wide-ranging talk rapidly refreshed my sociocracy knowledge.
There were about 15 Māori attendees, and the call and response and singing (waiata) in the language of all participants showed me, this white man has some catching up to do. Whetu Marama, a film about recreated canoe voyages from Hawaii to Tahiti and Rarotonga educated me on the history of Māori occupation of Aotearoa. The word Hui in Hawaiian means ‘community or extended family’.
Local band The Slacks kicked off the dancing as the alcohol-free event went into celebration mode on Saturday night. I’d say the average age of attendees for the weekend was 50 – perhaps because Facebook and websites are the predominant forms of social media with local reach? The same demographic was apparent in the garden and farm tours I attended.
Overall the national hui was a wonderful event brimming with people-care, cultural reverence and high-achieving permies. Kudos and gratitude to the PiNZ Council, legends that they are.
Thanks to the generous contributions made to Permaculture Australia’s gift fund, Kitgum Permaculture Practitioners Association was one of the 20 organisations that received a Permafund grant in 2024. Their community is in the Alango ward, Pandwong division and Kitgum district of Northern Uganda.
Project manager Patrick Paul Kidega has sent us this reportabout their Grandmother Kitchen Gardens project. “It came about in response to the urgent need to solve the food crisis affecting elderly people, mostly widows & widowers, as a result of their grandchildren not caring for them by providing basic needs since most of them stay by themselves and as such, cannot keep up to speed with their daily needs.”
“Our association conducted a needs-based assessment which highlighted the need for this project. It was also backed & supported by the local council and the Lowest Administrative Units where the elderly people stay.”
“Using permaculture principles and ethics, especially that of care for others and incorporating zoning, we designed a very simple, effective and efficient kitchen garden system that is manageable by the elderly.”
“This Project was designed to benefit 30 elderly widows, single mothers and also a widower. It has a multiplier effect since these elderly have dependents, mostly grandchildren, who have been left behind by their children either as a result of HIV AIDS-related death or divorce. According to our survey of the 30 households we found that this project will directly support 134 people, which is something to be proud of.
Objectives of the project
1. To provide instant affordable food supplies to the elderly in need.
2. To use permaculture and its principles to help answer the community’s most pressing problems such as poor food security and bad agricultural practices such as chemical-related farming.
3. To help spread permaculture to the local community through demonstrations, since it is still a new concept.
4. To help enlighten the community that we can farm anywhere and that it doesn’t require much land to farm, using the different gardening styles;
Steps taken in project implementation
A.Identification of the beneficiaries was done by the field staff of the organisation with the support of the local council leaders. This was followed by the immediate selection of the 30 successful beneficiaries based on their needs and ability to contribute to the project by offering labour such as watering, weeding and daily care to the garden which can’t be done by our organisation. Those who were a little bit strong and had grandchildren stood a better chance of selection but also we included those whose neighbours promised to help them do the work.
B. After the selection we spent 3 days training the beneficiaries. We gave them background on the project and its benefits, We trained them in simple management skills like fencing their gardens to prevent animals from eating their produce. We taught them the basic principles of permaculture and the importance of using organic materials and not chemicals, the need to water the gardens and keep them mulched.
We also taught them about the types of veggies that they would need and useful tree seedlings to select. The meeting was well attended and was much appreciated by the beneficiaries.
After the inception meeting, as an organisation completed these steps
We visited the sites to assess the sizes of their land and help us with the designs of the gardens
After the visits we drew plans of the various gardens according to the available land and also put in some creativity while being fully aware that in designing we must make sure that water is the centre point and the flow of water and maintaining water in the system is key, so we designed from pattern to design.
After coming up with the designs we set out to work and every day we made two gardens. It is important to note that we break the soil first to loosen it before the actual design begins.
CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED:
The lack of tools and training manual is still very much affecting
Inadequate species of native trees and water problems as our sources of water are far apart and we live in a dry area that receives very little and unpredictable rainfall.
Shortage of airtime and data bundles for effective communication
Means of transport for rounding up & mobilising people for activities.
Community attitudes such as stealing and also destroying the gardens at night since the elderly cannot keep watch.
Problems of labour shortage after setting up the gardens as the grandmothers can not effectively handle management given their age.
Stray animals such as cows, goats, pigs and birds like chickens, and ducks encroaching on and destroying the gardens since it was not fenced.
The funds were limited
WAYS FORWARD AND RECOMMENDATIONS: We recommend that;
We need to do more community training on permaculture so that everybody can copy and try it in their homes
Provide local means to fence the small gardens.
Development of effective work plans and budget
There is a need to carry out constant community dialogue to help improve their mindsets and learn to coexist and help the needy
Provide water cans to help water the gardens during dry and days that rain did not come.
Lobby for more funds to enable us to do more.
Administrative unit, smartphones and laptops for easy reporting
Develop training manuals for references during and after training
Conclusively the Grandmother Kitchen Gardens project is a big success and an eye-opener as many people took an interest and copied the ideas, tried them in their homes and requested for more information to be extended to them. The little grant fund was timely and so much appreciated since it enabled us to realise our objectives and goals for this project.
In this report, there are photos of some of the kitchen gardens we developed. It is amazing to see how simple ideas of permaculture can greatly impact and transform the lives of the intended recipients.
With this illustration, I hope and believe that there is value for money in any permaculture project done honestly with a people-centred approach, and do encourage us all to embrace permaculture to help solve our current problems and I, therefore, call for more funds to be directed towards permaculture since it has proven to be the most pragmatic approach to problem-solving. In permaculture there are no wrong or right answers, everything we experience is a response that requires us to fully be in union with Mother Nature as the response to our actions tells us either or what to be done or not done.
Much appreciation to the Permafund team for the trust placed in us.”
Your donations make projects like this possible. Thank you for your support. Contributions to Permafund over $2 are tax deductible in Australia and can be made here.
Summary of talk at a forum held at Lawson by BMET in October 2023
By Rosemary Morrow
As we take on more and more technology, everything from our phones, cars, sports, meetings online, and work at home, we also are teaching our children to be a new people: a people who cannot listen to the land, nor see it in trouble. We don’t know where and how to intervene to mend, support and work with the land to restore it. And yet, we are the species who could do this special, and I call. It is sacred work.
A life spent mainly inside with ‘screens’ creates a glass wall between us and the land we live on, the waters we drink and the skies that bring sunshine and rain. We lose our ability to ‘read the land’ and to work with it. When we spend our lives indoors and our ‘outside’ life is walking the dog, running or on a sports field, we lose our ecological literacy.
There was a time when most of the human population spent most of their time outside and they discussed and learned from what they saw – the clouds, the wind, the new plants, pollinators, and animals. They recognised their functions and they valued them. They sought to protect them.
We don’t value and discuss what we don’t know. We are losing our knowledge. We can’t see damage to our environment. And we certainly don’t know where and how to intervene to support and reverse the damage we are doing. We see tidy lawns we don’t see the loss of butterflies, moths, worms, or pollinators. If we are to have a habitable planet and leave it in good order for future generations – and that is surely a moral duty – we need to become ecologically literate. How do we become ecologically literate?
Go outside. Stand and stare. Ask yourself what was this place like before I was here, and who was here before I was here, and before that? What did it look like, was it forest or desert or sea? Know your evolutionary history. Then think about the recent past, the last 10,000 years or so, what was it like for most of that time? If it was a forest, what were the trees, the shrubs, the ground cover and who lived in all the ecosystems? How did they stabilise life and the climate? Learn a little about Orders of magnitude that will lead you to sustainability and what the elements of that were that kept the waters clean and running in dry times, the soils in place, and managed climate variability. What do you see now? If you don’t know join a Bushcare group, or National Parks, make it your business to know, and become literate about what was the good health of your bioregion. And take care, because as you do and its miracles and marvels are revealed to you, you will grow to love it, and also to be hurt when it is damaged. You will see it as a wonderland.
If you wish to be a partner in restoration Ask yourself what is the best place to intervene? What is the best time? What is the best technology? What will be the consequences? Will it multiply life? It’s important that your work counts.It may be that you just have to watch and pull out competitive weeds. Perhaps you need to plant pioneers or nurse plants, to protect the final vegetation. There are things to learn – how to restore rivers and creeks, and certainly how put water back into the water table. And this becomes wonderful knowledge and your conversations with others much richer and more meaningful. You will need to know about succession in restoration which occurs when land is badly degraded from fire, machines, over grazing, deforestation or just lawns. You will be elated when your work, in partnership with Nature, becomes a spiritual duty. Life, as a ‘Nature Restorer’ takes on meaning when you realise that air will be cleaner, water shaded and run longer, wind cleaned, life multiplied because of your work. It is good to stay small and work with wind, water, animals and soil. There’s so much we don’t know but so much to delight us. And there is no end to our learning as we become ecologically literate.
Here are ten ways people can reconnect with nature:
Nature Walks: Take regular walks in natural settings such as parks, forests, or along riversides to immerse yourself in the beauty of nature and to experience its calming and rejuvenating effects. Take your shoes off, walk in the grass, on the sand and over rocks.
Outdoor Activities: Engage in outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, birdwatching, or kayaking to experience the wonders of the natural world firsthand and to connect with the rhythms of nature.
Gardening: Start a garden, whether it’s a small container garden on your balcony or a larger plot in your backyard, to cultivate a deeper connection with the earth and to experience the satisfaction of growing your own food or flowers. Create a garden that mimics natural ecosystems by using permaculture design principles such as diversity, polyculture, and companion planting. This fosters biodiversity and resilience.
Mindfulness Practices: Practice mindfulness or meditation outdoors, focusing on your breath and senses while immersing yourself in the sights, sounds, and sensations of nature.
Nature Journaling: Keep a nature journal where you can record your observations, thoughts, and feelings about the natural world around you. Sketch plants, animals, and landscapes, and write about your experiences and reflections.
Nature Photography: Take up nature photography as a hobby, using your camera or smartphone to capture the beauty and diversity of the natural world. Share your photos with others to inspire appreciation for nature.
Volunteer for Conservation: Get involved in conservation efforts by volunteering for local environmental organizations or participating in community clean-up events, tree planting initiatives, or habitat restoration projects.
Outdoor Yoga or Tai Chi: Practice yoga or Tai Chi outdoors, connecting your movements with the elements and rhythms of nature. Allow the natural surroundings to enhance your practice and deepen your sense of connection with the earth.
Stargazing: Spend time stargazing on clear nights, away from city lights, to marvel at the vastness of the universe and to feel a sense of awe and wonder at the natural beauty of the cosmos.
Unplug and Disconnect: Take regular breaks from technology and screens to disconnect from the digital world and reconnect with the natural world. Spend time outdoors without distractions, allowing yourself to be fully present in nature.
By incorporating these activities into your routine, you can cultivate a deeper connection with nature, promote personal well-being, and foster a greater appreciation for the natural world.
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Calling all families who want to bring up healthy, wholesome nature kids…this is for you! A permaculture program to connect, nourish and grow together. Now you can get skilled in sustainable, DIY edible gardens and zero-waste living…with down-to-earth nature play activities. With our online curriculum, you’ll get all the resources you need to design and grow food at home and create abundance in all aspects of your life. Why play? Because its is the best way to learn, stay motivated and inspire people of all ages to participate. Permaculture is about working with nature, design, solutions to better living and lavish home-grown feasts.
We provide all the online resources you need to ‘print and play’ with ‘how to’ videos, monthly member prizes and an active online community. This is a transformational program for budding earth carers, to be the change-makers, from your garden to your plate and beyond, toward community resilience!
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