We Are Ready!

When George came back from the village the other week, he told Moses about farmers’ complaints. That prompted Moses to go back there the following week to see what was going on.

Moses planted some vegetables last time when he was doing the demonstration of double digging with compost so he went there first to check it out. The vegetables were doing quite well even though he only used low-quality seeds that were available there. He decided to visit some farmers in the farthest areas to get to the bottom of it. Farmers used the compost that they had built up for the last 2 or 3 months to make double dug beds as Moses taught them. The treasurer of the group made a 2-meter bed and even put in his own seeds. The results were excellent! Some farmers couldn’t afford to buy seeds but made small beds anyway.

The complaints had to do with the large amount of manure required to build the compost and beds as it’s a valuable resource for the farmers during the farming season. Knowing how skinny their animals are and how scattered they are, I imagine that the manure is even more precious to the farmers here than those in the cities. Since many of them have not planted anything in the double dug beds, they couldn’t see the pay-off of such efforts, and they started to have doubts about the techniques.

But when they saw the results in the demo area and heard the good results from other farmers, they were finally convinced that it’s a worthwhile initiative. Moses promised to bring superior-quality vegetable seeds for the farmers as we move into the next phase.

We have finally reached the critical turning point. The future seems to be a little brighter for the farmers today. And I wish I was there to see it.