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When I first learned about permaculture, I was struck by how the ideas

and techniques might be used in aid and development work. It’s this interest that brought me, with my pen and notebook, to Tanzania, to observe how the environmentally-minded development charity Plant With Purpose (PWP) works with rural farmers to help them get more from their land.

In the West, permaculturists are often motivated towards our future, when the resources run out. In the developing world, resources are already scarce for the majority of the population. In Tanzania, most people live off the land on 0.4-1.2 hectare (1-3 acre) smallholdings. These plots are getting smaller through the generations, as they are inherited and split between many children. So efficient use of the land is all the more necessary.

The people of Tanzania have much to teach us about living an efficient and low impact lifestyle that is in harmony with the land. I was struck by their lack of waste, their simplicity of life and their strong community.

But it can also be a brutal and cruel existence, without choice and without hope. “A typical rural farmer is living below the poverty line,” says Richard Mhina, the director of PWP in Tanzania. “It will be sometimes difficult to afford three meals a day, it is difficult to send their kids to school, and have a shelter to lay their head.”

The interaction between the state of the environment and poverty is glaringly obvious in this beautiful country that relies so much on smallholder farming. The areas where Tanzania’s trees have been protected and planted into a rich, springy, brown soil, contrast starkly with the hard, burnt orange soil of monoculture and other eroded areas where the trees have been cut. The latter brings infertility, and so no crops can grow, and people go hungry.

“For Tanzanians, if there is no wood, they can’t cook food,” says Albert Samson, the head of environ-mental restoration at PWP. “80% of people depend on firewood, so we need lots of trees. The fertility of the soil is vital. The majority of people depend on farming. If no soil, no crops, no life ... Water is very important so if there is no restoration of the environment, all the springs will dry. Birds will disappear, animals will die, even people will die. Agriculture and environment – it’s difficult to separate these two things. They all depend on each other.”

PWP’s strategy is to encourage farming in a way that will restore and preserve the environment while increasing yield and therefore income. They teach how to make compost, use natural pesticides, and to grow and plant a wider variety of trees. They teach that the recent uptake in artificial pesticides and fertilisers may have long term negative consequences – as well as

Farming In Tanzania

Heather Tomlinson shares how organic farming in Tanzania is creating healthy food, increasing incomes and restoring damaged ecosystems

photos ©

Boyte Creative for Plant w

ith Purpose

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being much more expensive than other more natural methods.

At Youze’s smallholding in a field in the mountains, his lush green polycultural fields, natural lemon-grass terracing and sustainable techniques make him stand out from his neighbours. “After practising organic farming, I realised my land is becoming more sustainable, so I’m buying less fertiliser and chemicals,” he told us. Before his plot had no trees, and now there are 176, including food producing trees and those for fuel.

One of the measures PWP uses to assess progress is the number of different crops that families are growing. “We work with many people who used to just do mono-culture,” says Corbyn Small, a regional representative. “We can see an increase in the number of crops after we work with them, and this helps farmers to diversify and invest in different crops that can produce perennially, without pouring all their income into one crop.” In Tanzania this was a lesson hard learned after the recent crash in the price of coffee, a former cash crop.

Keeping Money in The CoMMuniTyAlongside regenerative agriculture, people are shown how to set up micro-credit groups. Rural farmers have no access to banks, and no safe way to save. By setting up a community Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) group, the farmers are able to save money and to lend to one another when necessary.

This encourages saving but also gives people the opportunity to buy

livestock, send their children to school and build larger homes, a chance that they did not have before. It also encourages people to take part in the environmental work and to plant more trees. “People won’t care about the environment unless they have the ability to put food on the table,” says Corbyn. “Desperation trumps education every time. It’s not that people don’t know there will be an environmental impact, but it’s difficult if they have to survive for the day.”

Another way the Village Savings and Loan Associations and the envi-ronmental work interact is through

the sense of community within the microcredit groups. Before each weekly meeting, the group chants a list of values, including caring for one another and the land. The group focuses on strengthening their community – not making profit. Their micro-credit passbooks say: ‘Keep the environment because the environment is life.’

Because of the micro-credit loans, Youze has been able to send

his children to college, and hire a van to take his vegetables to market.

healing The landOn a hill in Malindi, the rock-hard burnt orange soil has been abandoned by farmers and given up for a school, because it wouldn’t grow crops. But PWP is using this as an opportunity to show how soil can be regenerated – making compost, and using it to restore the land, grow vegetables and plant trees. “Our vision is to conserve the environment, and make sure the whole area is being covered by trees to prevent excessive loss of soil fertility and make sure of the restoration of water,” says the Bwambo-Kigango school’s geography teacher, Amos Akimo.

“We want to bring it back to Eden... We want to heal the land.”

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Overseas

“We use manure to restore the soil. We want to bring it back to Eden. This land once had trees all over it. We want to heal the land.”

Rebecca is a formidable woman who has made the most of the opportunities from PWP. After joining her VSLA group in 2008, she was able to send her five children to school using the loans. On her plot there is now a range of trees: papaya, avocado, tree tomato, fuel and fodder species. She trialled the ‘double dug’ compost method for her vegetables and found that she produced nearly twice as much food as before, for her family and to boost her income. She says that being in the micro-credit group also encourages her to work, because every week she has to save something. And the interest she has earned from her savings has meant that every year she has been able to build one more wall of her new home from local soils.

Another common use for the loans is to buy livestock. The farmers then receive milk for their family, and an income from selling it. They also get lots of natural fertilizer for their crops, and if they breed then they have a future income source.

Grace has four children to support. “From organic farming, it is easier to sell produce and get more income,” she tells us. “The various agricultural methods, contouring, composting, have increased production, so increased selling. Life was difficult before, but now at last we can assemble like a human being. Before, our houses had no roofs. Life is better now than before.”

Grace’s mum, Juliana, said: “We are able to depend on ourselves, to be more self-reliant than before. It’s possible to develop culture of saving now. Before we had to consume everything. Now, we consume a little, save a little.”

This natural, gentle, systemic ap-proach manages to restore both the environment and people’s lives

Heather Tomlinson is a freelance journalist, who blogs about the simple life and spirituality at www.heathersmag.wordpress.com

Find out more about Plant With Purpose at www.plantwithpurpose.org