Ngara, TZ – SODAT finds necessary material to increase garden productivity – 15 June 2019

Using the dried coffee bean husk, SODAT successfully created a necessary input by burning these, similarly to the standard rice husks.

When making compost, it’s important to have manure, green material, brown material, water, and pure carbon. How do you create pure carbon? By burning dry brown material with as little flame or oxygen as possible. This carbonizes the material and creates a useful home for good bacteria in compost and holds moisture in garden beds. Normally, the husks of rice are used, however, in Ngara, it is impossible to find these at a sustainable price. What is available are the husks from dried out coffee beans!

SODAT experimented with this and successfully produced the charcoal which will add to the volume and potency of their compost. In addition to the benefit of providing a house for good bacteria, charcoal holds moisture which is absolutely necessary for gardens without a reliable source of water.

Unlike rice husks, Coffee is only available in large quantities one time out of the year. This limits SODATs access to it meaning they have to purchase it all at one time and manage their inventory properly. Additionally, buying the quantity needed also creates a storage problem.

SODAT will continue looking for other viable options as they move forward creating compost and maintaining their school gardens along with the students.