Kilimanjaro, TZ – LKN family’s garden success – Apr 23 2014

The LKN family started their garden in January 2014. The household is made up of two grandparents looking after their son and three grandchildren. The family has worked hard to maintain a good crop rotation to ensure continual harvesting.

LKN family adding compost to their new garden.

Good crop rotation and relay planting require enormous discipline. It is tempting to plant lots of the most profitable crops all at once and get money as soon as possible in a large chunk. However, crop rotation and relay planting are critical to maintaining soil health, ensuring there is always food available in the home, and maximizing productivity in the long run. The LKN family has carefully followed the advice of Lishe Bora and is seeing the benefits. They have only had their garden for four months, but since they began harvesting from it they have not had a time where there was no food.

Mama LKN pruning her carrots.

The family is also following best practices in pest deterrence. The family regularly applies natural pesticides, intercrops vegetables, and plants insect repellent plants inside the garden. They have also been vigilant in watching for red ants – a major pest in the community. Red ants dig underground and attack the roots of young vegetables. Keeping them away requires proactively applying ashes to the base of the plants.

Early successes have given the family a lot of enthusiasm about their garden. After a couple of months they pulled up one side of their fence and expanded the area inside the net so they could add another couple of beds to the garden. They also built a nursery so they can grow their own seedlings and will quickly be independent of Lishe Bora’s assistance.

The LKN garden before expansion.

The LKN family garden after expansion (nursery bottom right of picture).

The family has both sold and eaten their vegetables. So far, they have decided to eat the vegetables more often than selling them because they are so excited and proud of growing so many different things on their own. However, the family is happy that they will have this potential income source for when expenses like school and medical fees come up.

The father of the LKN family says they never used to eat vegetables. He had stomach problems from the vegetables at the market because many farmers in the area use chemical pesticides to grow vegetables. He was afraid to serve vegetables to his family because he didn’t want them to get sick later on in life. However, after trying some vegetables from the Lishe Bora pilot garden, he decided growing organic vegetables would be a safer way to provide nutrients. Now, the family serves vegetables with their meals 3-4 times per week.

The family eats about 15,000 TZS (USD $9.38) of vegetables per month and sells about 3,000 TZS (USD $1.88) per month. They are hoping increase this by implementing a new crop rotation that Lishe Bora is recommending to families.