Senior Malawian Sisters Attend
Agricultural Workshop

On June 14-17 Sisters Mary Elizabeth, Martha, Monica, and Maria Nema attended a three-day workshop on sustainable, high-yield agricultural techniques at York College in York, Pennsylvania. Geraldine and Minor Terry, who had recommended the program, drove up from Nashville, Tennessee, to attend with them.

The workshop was led by John Jeavons, an internationally recognized leader in the area of non-mechanized farming techniques which produce high yield food crops in a way that maintains soil fertility without petrochemical fertilizers. A leader in the field for over thirty years, Jeavons oversees research and education projects in the US, Mexico, Kenya, Russia and India. His materials have been translated into Spanish, German, French, Hindi, Russian, Arabic and Kiswahili.

Biointensive farming techniques emphasize:

• Deep soil preparation which aerates the soil and encourages moisture retention without “waterlogging”
• Composting of all plants not used for food with an emphasis on growing at least 60% of the food calories in “carbon crops” — usually stalky grain crops — which provide the long term food for the microbial lie in the compost and soil
• Production of 30% of the crop in high calorie, space-saving root crops like potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets and turnips
• Inter-spacing plants in wide beds (as opposed to row planting) to create a bed mini-climate which reduces moisture loss and erosion
• Companion planting of synergistic plants for best crop growth
• Use of open-pollinated rather than hybrid seeds
• Developing a whole system in the garden which works together for optimal sustainable fertility.

In their application to the workshop, the Malawian sisters wrote, “When we were at home we had some knowledge from high school level about farming. Now we would like to learn more about farming. This will be helpful to our country since we are facing a terrible drought and floods. 70% of people in Malawi are starving to death because in some areas there is too much rain that damaged all the crops and in some areas there is no rain at all which caused the crops to die. Many people are trying to teach farmers new methods of how to conserve soil from erosion... We also hope to teach some of the things we learn when we return home.”

The Sisters’ tuition was largely donated by John and Cynthia Jeavons, and we are grateful to them, to all the Ecology Action Support team behind them, and to Geraldine and Minor who were our support team, for this marvelous opportunity to learn about biointensive farming!