Utete, TZ – Volunteer group moves kindergarten vegetable garden to more sustainable area – 29 Jun 2022

KCM’s manager Dickson has volunteered his land, and families have volunteered time and energy to assist moving the kindergarten garden from the game reserve area to a fenced area that is safer for sustainable vegetable production. The garden is important because it supplies vegetables for the children’s daily breakfast and needy groups in the village.

The garden has been moved because wild animals like antelopes and monkeys sometimes damage the vegetables, and the incidence of crocodiles killing people by the nearby river is increasing. The old garden land was originally owned by the local village authority, but is now a National Reserve containing the alkaline hot spring lake that hosts aquatic creatures. KCM was allowed to organically farm in the area because they were environmentally friendly activities and for the school and disadvantaged people feeding programs.

Dickson’s land offers a safe gardening location free from wild animals, alkaline water and seasonal floods. Its fertile soil is more productive than the sandy soil by the alkaline lake. Also, irrigating with mains water will cost less than paying for fuel and maintainance of a petrol water pump.

The volunteer families are planning to produce sufficient vegetables in the new area, and add marigold flowers and lemon grass to repel insects, and moringa and banana trees to eat with the vegetables.