Eight Months into our Farming Journey 31st October 2013

Our first crops...

It’s amazing to think that it was only 8 months ago, in March 2013, when we planted out first small test plots to find out if Farming God’s Way can actually increase crop yields for small farmers in Uganda. The need for more food in the country is urgent, due to a shortage of land (the population has doubled since 1990), and the method of farming, which reduces the fertility of the soil, and means that they cannot tolerate seasons of little (or too much) rain.

In our first crop, on land at Mirembe, we planted a traditionally farmed maize crop, digging the land as the local farmers do. In the Farming God’s Way plot, there was no digging (it stops water run-off), and we planted maize and beans and then covered it with ‘God’s blanket’ – old vegetation which holds in the moisture and limits weed growth.  And prayed ...

So, what was the result? Clearly the FGW crop was better than the traditional crop, perhaps 3 times! And this was in our first year, when the soil fertility was still low – there is much better to come.