Farming God's Way
TESTIMONY AND REPORT OF MY TRAINING “FARMING GOD’S WAY” AT KIJABE, KENYA HELD AT MOFFAT BIBLE COLLEGE DATES: 29th Nov. – 1st Dec. 2011
The training was a great success bearing in mind the needs it was addressing in enhancing food security in rural Africa, an issue that has remained a challenge for so long a time.
After attending the Farming God’s Way training at Kijabe, Kenya facilitated by Grant Dryden, the propagator of the idea together with others, I feel convinced that this a method that if put to proper use can bring about tremendous results and help enhance food security in Africa. For a long time, Africa has lagged behind and been in dire need of essential items, top on the agenda being food. The production of food has continued to dwindle every farming year causing severe hunger. This year for example, the government of Kenya has warned that maize production will drop by over 1 million bags, an indication that all is not well. The produce from last season was not adequate hence the hunger that was witnessed in the country this year, causing the nation to come up with the “Kenyans for Kenyans” campaign in order to raise food for the starving people in the country.
Next year may be worse due to the reduced harvests that we are witnessing.
What has caused the decline in food production over years? The situation as it seems is getting from bad to worse. A remedy must be found.
During the training that I attended, Grant Dryden addressed these issues in a perfect way, setting a tempo that needs to be followed in order to reverse the unfortunate trend being witnessed.
Most farms in Kenya are no longer as productive as they used to be due to continual cultivation using conventional methods.
When I heard about FARMING GOD’S WAY, I desired to see what this was all about. At the training, I found that it is a way of farming that addresses all these issues by ensuring that the land is replenished of its nutrients, there is proper crop cover for better yields as well as reduced costs due to not farming the conventional way but “farming God’s way.”
Reality of the Crisis
Considering Africa's vast natural resources, it remains a mystery for most as to why the continent is stuck in poverty. Africa with 30.3 million km² is larger than the combination of China (9.6 million km²), the USA (9.4 million km²), Western Europe (4.9 million km²), India (3.2 million km²) and Argentina (2.8 million km²), three Scandinavian countries and the British Isles put together.
However the gross domestic product (GDP PPP 2008 estimate) of Africa is US$ 3 trillion compared to world GDP at US$ 65 trillion i.e. Africa produces a mere 5% of the worlds GDP. This clearly displays that Africa has vast untapped potential.
Worldwide, there is a desperation regarding food security due to a number of factors including the population explosion, agricultural undersupply, governmental negligence, wars, rising oil prices which have led to the biofuel industry flourishing at the expense of food supply and high agricultural input costs.
All of these factors, amongst others, have led to a greatly diminished supply of agricultural commodities.
These shortages have predominantly been met by the importation of grains, amounting to over 25 million tons annually, through aid organizations such as the World Food program (WFP) and other non governmental organizations, which in turn receive donations from donor countries such as the United States of America 4,000,000 tons, European Union 1,500,000 tons China 577,000 tons, Canada 275,000 tons (figures 2005).
In the years 1975-2003 the average grain yields changed:
Most African countries have by contrast had a steady decline in yield, with averages amongst the poor subsistence farmers averaging a meager 350 kg/ha.
With the current rate of population expansion and the steady decline in agricultural production per capita, grain imports will have to increase to 50 million tons by 2010 to avoid further disaster.
On a macro scale these figures seem rather like monopoly money, unrealistic and intangible, yet when we see the figures and the amount of aid streaming in, one can’t help wondering - “is it making a difference?.” The poor are getting poorer and poorer and there seems to be no light at the end of this dark tunnel of hopelessness. The statistics show that one in three Africans are undernourished and Africa is the only continent where the number of hungry people, are increasing annually.
The problem created by the food shortages is that basic food prices increase with demand, often putting the poorest people in a situation where they are unable to buy the basic staples they need to survive.
However, the upside of higher prices is that those who are growing at subsistence level have a window of opportunity to grow more than their basic needs, to sell, capitalize on good pricing and make a profit.
Farming God’s Way
Farming God’s way is an amazing Godly solution to the food security and poverty crisis for the rural poor. It was designed before man was on the face of the earth, when God put His laws in place to govern His creation and their inter-relations with one another. God is the master farmer and He has been farming this way since the beginning. God graciously revealed His truths on how He looks after creation to a wonderful team of Godly men to bring the full package to realization and still we are learning from Him.
Farming God’s Way has a proven track record of success since 1984, where Brian Oldreive first pioneered these practices on Hinton estate in Zimbabwe on a large scale commercial farm, eventually cropping 3,500 hectares. Since these small beginnings Farming God's Way has spread into many countries, being used by churches, missionaries and NGOs in order to create the critical mass of effectiveness needed to roll out Farming God’s Way across the continent.
Farming God’s Way is not just a technology but a well balanced biblical, management and technological solution for the agricultural domain, to equip the poor to come out of poverty, with what God has put in their hands and to reveal the fullness of His promised abundant life.
The Word of God says “My people perish because of a lack of knowledge”. We must acknowledge the importance of teaching the poor faithfulness in the agricultural domain before the rest of the continent’s potential can be revealed.
It is for this reason that we need to try as much as possible and come up with ideas that will address the problems in Africa. Farming God’s way is such one way.
After this training, I am going to train other people in my community so that together we can put it into practice for enhanced food security.
Kingdom Agriculture
The amazing thing about Farming God's Way is that it is a practical, holistic method to deal with God’s true fast in an agricultural community. It allows for the full message of the gospel to be preached, not with words alone, but in life application.
It is often quoted that the church in Africa is a mile wide, but a mere inch deep. The mile wide element refers to the vast numbers of salvations and the inch deep element refers to the limited life application. This analogy clearly depicts that the gospel of salvation has been preached versus the gospel of the Kingdom.
Matthew 24:14 "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
We have been commissioned to preach and usher in the Kingdom of God and to make “true” disciples by teaching them to observe all that He commanded us to do.
The gospel of salvation is only the starting point – receiving the incorruptible seed. If the seed does not germinate and grow, it will remain a seed. This is why the gospel of salvation has had no fulfillment of the promised abundant life. It is still only a seed. Imagine what a blessed continent Africa would be if the gospel of the Kingdom was taught and implemented.
Matthew 11:29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me.”
Simply taking the yoke upon you does nothing to get your land prepared for increase. We still have to learn His ways and become transformed by the renewing of our minds. In the same way simply accepting Jesus Christ as Savior, allows the privilege of eternal life but the promise of His abundance is still only a promise. Once we meet His conditions, by walking in His ways, He releases the promise of His blessing to us.
The Kingdom of God is like leaven in the dough, which works its way through the whole lump. (Matthew 13:33). Jesus wants the Kingdom of God to be revealed in the whole lump of our lives. The Kingdom of God is not a Sunday portion. It’s everyday life at church, at home, at work, with our spouses, family and friends and most relevantly in our farming.
The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed which although tiny, grows to become the largest tree in the garden. Jesus wants Himself to influence every part of the garden of your life.
The Kingdom of God is like a person who when he found treasure in a field went and sold all that he had in order to buy the field. Jesus wants to see our wholehearted commitment to give up everything that we see as valuable, so that we can buy the field with His invaluable treasure in it. This treasure the world cannot compare to and will satisfy our desire, even in a sun scorched land.
The Kingdom of God needs to become a part of every societal domain including agriculture, education, primary health care, business, government, arts, science, media and ministry.
STARTING POINT
From my training, I feel there is no time to waste. I am looking forward to starting Farming God’s Way straight away in order to help lessen the effects of adverse hunger among our people. The challenging factor at the moment is land. Due to the many subdivisions that have been undertaken by people most families barely have land for cultivation.
We need to get land and the best way at the moment is by hiring as it is too expensive to buy. An acre of land for buying costs an average of Kenya shillings 600,000 while hiring the same piece for a year of farming costs an average of 7,000 shillings. Should you be redeeming it from a person who has already hired so that you cultivate instead of him then you pay an extra 3,000 shillings. So if we need 1 acre of land for cultivation in 2012, we need 10,000 shillings for hire of the land, 2,500 for seeds and 10,000 for fertilizer (with continued working on the same piece and with additions of God’s blanket, i.e. mulch, the land will continue becoming fertile and hence less use of fertilizers then). We will also need to buy mulch, especially during the first year, and then collect our own in subsequent years.
Labor costs and other miscellaneous costs will be undertaken by the community and families.
Through this way, we can be assured of harvesting an average of 40 bags of 90 kilograms each on a 1 acre piece of land after investing an average of 30,000 shillings. This maize can be sold for 100,000 shillings. This is in comparison to the average of 40,000 shillings that is being invested in an acre of land and the harvest is around 20 bags, valued at 50,000 shillings. What a big difference!
Should we be able to start this early, then it can act as our demonstration plot and learning for the entire community, so that people can reproduce the same on their pieces of land. This will go a long way in ensuring there is food security and increased incomes for the households in the community.
I want to take this opportunity to thank ICC for sponsoring me to attend this training that has been an eye opener and a pad for taking off for better life. I belief this training shall go a long way to make life better in my community.
Rev. Simon Wakhungu
House of Hope Outreach Community
Kenya.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author
and do not necessarily represent those of ICC International.
The Editor
