Sustainable Agriculture

The keystone of Village Self Reliance is Sustainable Agriculture. Though there are many steps to building a village, the primary concern is to produce food, as hunger supersedes all other issues. However, we want to grow food in a way that is sustainable for the long term. To this end, we practice completely organic farming and rotational planting.

The Ruzizi Project is fortunate to have some of the most fertile soil in the world, but poor farming practices could erode the land until it looked like the barren expanses seen in other parts of Africa. To maintain healthy land, there must be sufficient amounts of carbon and nitrogen in the soil. Plants extract carbon and nitrogen when they grow, which in turn become carbohydrates and proteins for people and animals. The carbon and nitrogen must be replaced in the soil, and there are a few ways of doing it. One way involves commercial fertilizer, and one way involves sustainable farming practices.

Commercial fertilizer has many problems. For one, it can cause environmental contamination in the form of nitrates. If we were to use chemical fertilizer, the heavy rains coming off Lake Tanganyika would wash it into lakes and streams that provide drinking water. Though nitrogen is healthy for humans to eat in plant form, when nitrogen combines with oxygen in water it becomes a toxic chemical known as nitrate.

Another problem of commercial fertilizer is soil degradation. The use of chemical fertilizer eventually causes soil to lose its spongy humus content, becoming sandy and dry.

The third drawback of chemical fertilizers is that they are not economically sustainable. They must be purchased from large agribusiness corporations far from Africa, which means they must be imported, directly contradicting the principles of Village Self Reliance we are establishing.

There is a growing body of evidence condemning the economic structures supported by commercial fertilizer corporations. To obtain chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides, and chemically tolerant hybrid seeds, farmers must often take out massive loans. These farmers are often driven into unmanageable debt, as shown by the PBS documentary, "The Dying Fields." This portrayed the thousands of farmers of India who have been driven to commit suicide by drinking the chemical pesticides they indebted themselves to obtain.

Finally, commercial fertilizers are dependent on petroleum for nearly every stage of their production and transportation. This causes environmental problems, and is not economically sustainable in the long term.

Due to these drawbacks, Working Villages practices Sustainable Agriculture, using both traditional and cutting-edge organic farming techniques. One tried-and-true method of improving soil quality is rotational planting, which involves alternating different crops due to their agricultural properties. For example, legumes such as peanuts and beans are special in their ability to capture nitrogen from the atmosphere and put it in the ground. Corn, on the other hand, takes a lot of nitrogen from the soil without replacing it. In rotational planting, a corn crop would always be followed by a legume crop to ensure soil health. In the picture to the right, there is a "volunteer" corn plant from the previous crop which popped up in the middle of a field of peanuts. This type of agriculture can take more planning, but the rewards to the soil are well worth it.

Composting is another well-known method of improving soil fertility. Composting (shown below) uses microorganisms to process natural waste in a way that enriches the soil. Unfortunately, composting is not common in Africa, as the traditional method of processing waste is to burn it. Composting takes more work, but the rewards to the soil and the nutritional quality of the food are more than worth it. We hope that composting practice will spread throughout the Ruzizi Valley as people see the flourishing crops it can produce.

Some of the other organic farming practices we employ are mulching, raised beds, and flexible irrigation techniques. We also use green design and layout to maximize our natural resources. These practices have resulted in a superabundance of high-quality food.

For more information on sustainable farming practices, check out these resources:
Introduction to Permaculture by Bill Mollison
Permaculture: A Designer's Manual by Bill Mollison
An Agricultural Testament by Sir Albert Howard
The Soil and Health by Sir Albert Howard
Soil and Civilization by Edward Hyams
Topsoil and Civilization by Vernon Carter and Tom Dale
The Soul of Soil by Joe Smillie and Grace Gershuny
Hands-On Agronomy by Neal Kinsey and Charles Waters
Rodale's Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening
The New Organic Grower by Eliot Coleman