Garden-based learning lessons put to work in Africa

Lindsay Myron cooks ugali at Magoma, Tanzania.

Less than a year ago, Lindsay Myron ?11 (Plant Sciences, Natural Resources) got her first taste of garden-based learning along with other students in HORT/IARD 3200 (Experiential Garden-Based Learning in Belize). Today, she?s putting what she learned to work as a Project Coordinator for The Magoma Project in rural Tanzania.

The project is part of the nonprofit 2Seeds Network (www.2seeds.org), which focuses on meeting community goals and teaching African farmers best practices. 2Seeds? projects grow from the concept of a ?triple bottom line? that integrates economic viability, social equity and ecological sustainability.

In Magoma, Lindsay is helping to turn the primary school into a community center to nourish, teach, and empower both youth and adults. The primary school?s farm, which was started last year, is cultivated by the students and promotes food security through practice in critical thinking and agricultural education using existing lines of communication. Profits from the farm fund a school lunch program for the students.

Pilipili hoho (green peppers) in the school garden at Magoma.

?We now have about half an acre of pilipili hoho (green pepper) seedlings that are steadily growing,? writes Lindsay. ?The students did a great job finishing up the cultivation and bed preparation in the last week of school, and we?ve transplanted (and re-transplanted) about forty beds. We anticipate that within the next week or so, after the seedlings have grown a little more, we?ll be intercropping cowpeas between rows to help cover the soil and fix nitrogen for those growing peppers!?

Lindsay has also involved the students in the twice-daily irrigations necessary to keep the peppers thriving in this hot, dry season. The students struggled with large buckets, so Lindsay burned holes in the bottoms of old plastic water bottles to create make-shift watering cans. To increase participation, students receive a colored ribbon bracelet and an additional ribbon to tie onto the bracelet for each time they help.

Students display the bracelets they receive for helping with irrigation.

?If they reach seven ribbons they receive a zawadi (gift) and move up to the next colored ribbon,? writes Lindsay. ?This week?s zawadi was a pencil and balloon, generous donations from a Brazilian couple who passed through Magoma awhile back. The students are loving the bracelets maybe even more than the zawadis and it has sparked some competition among them to see who can come the most often. The bracelets also serve as a visual reminder about the project to both the kids who wear them and their friends who admire them. It?s been working great. At least 15 to 20 kids show every time and we can finish irrigating in 20 to 30 minutes!?

Other projects include creating a colorful mural at the primary school and building a chicken coop at Kijango primary school located in a neighboring village that is also starting a school feeding program with 2Seeds Network support. ?I?ve been looking into integrated chicken farming methods, including a tilapia-azolla-poultry system. We?re looking for diversity on both economic and ecological levels.?

Because of differences in culture and the environment, Lindsay has had to adapt what she learned in Belize. For example, it hasn?t been feasible to incorporate the school farm into the students? curriculum because the Tanzanian education system is too rigid.

?However, I have taken the foundational understanding about garden-based learning and school garden programs that I learned in HORT/IARD 3200 and am using it to critically think about and develop the Magoma Project here,? writes Lindsay. ?Things like developing community buy-in, student interest, teacher involvement, and project sustainability. I cannot overstate how much the exposure and the experience I had in Belize has helped me constructively address the challenges we?re facing here.

?It?s so funny too, because I essentially stumbled into garden-based education in the last semester of my Cornell career when I, by chance, passed by the course announcement poster in the basement of Plant Science. Who knew a little piece of paper could shape so much!?

HORT/IARD 3200 is offered alternatives years, coming again spring semester 2013.

More information:

Source: http://blogs.cornell.edu/hort/2012/01/02/garden-based-learning-lessons-put-to-work-in-africa/

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