Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

In Harare, on the way to our meeting with Wellington Chibebe, the secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), even our driver was excited for us.

“He is a good, good man. I’ve only seen him on TV, but he’s fights very hard for the people and to promote democracy!”

Since the early 1990s, ZCTU grew increasingly opposed to the government of Robert Mugabe and was the main force behind the formation of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). In fact, MDC’s leader and the current Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai held the same position with the ZCTU before Chibebe.

Chibebe is one of the most vocal-and effective-voices in civil society promoting respect for human rights and democracy. Despite being brutally beaten, tortured, and having his life threatened over the last two decades, Chibebe remains more positive than ever about the direction of his country. It was largely due to Zimbabwe’s labor movement that in the 2008 presidential election Tsvangirai defeated Mugagbe. Yet despite MDC’s victory, Mugabe, refuses to step down and the nation has a “power sharing” agreement.

When we met with Chibebe, he was cautiously optimistic about the power-sharing agreement and the future of democracy in Zimbabwe. “Our role as the labor movement is to fight for democracy and good governance, respect for people’s basic rights, and also social and  economic rights.” He says that while the MDC plays a critical role in promoting democracy, the mission of the union movement will be to hold all political parties accountable to these principles. “We just can’t afford to repeat the same mistake by treating any government or political party as angels from heaven,” he says. While he described the beginning of the power-sharing agreement as “terrible,” Chibebe felt strongly that “things are now getting better, we are able to make some positive changes happen.”

Chibebe was born 300 miles south of Harare. His upbringing herding goats and farming built both a sense of responsibility and social consciousness, he says. “Rural kids grow up different from urban ones, you start fighting for your rights at a very early age. If you aren’t aggressive, you’ll get abused.” He also described how in rural life he had no access to books or libraries, so everyone listened to their elders, learning about the importance of struggle and hearing passionate tales of resistance against the ruling government. Not even a teen when his mother passed away, Chibebe became passionately involved in political struggle for social and economic justice that has lasted his whole life.

Being at the helm of the Zimbabwe labor movement at this moment is no easy task. The country faces unemployment rates of more than 90 percent. The media is controlled by the government. Union leaders are routinely harassed and imprisoned. And the Mugabe government instituted draconian laws to thwart unions, such as arresting any meeting of more than four people. Yet the affiliates of the ZCTU, representing more than 30 unions and every sector of the economy, have remained united. “While it is very difficult at times with unemployment so high to convince people to be in unions, we are still able to recruit and grow.”

Chibebe works tirelessly to bring attention to Zimbabwe’s economic and human rights realities and to pressure the government to reform its ways.  As workers struggle to survive inflation and low paying informal employment, Chibebe has expanded the work of the ZCTU to represent all workers in both formal and informal employment.  ZCTU  fights for economic and social justice not just for his members, but for the fundamental rights of all of Zimbabwe’s workers.

In 2002, Chibebe and the ZCTU had the vision of helping informal sector workers-everyone from street vendors to musicians and artisans-form unions. The desire for social and economic change spread like wild fire when the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Associations (ZCIEA) started in 2002. Presently with more than 1.5 million paying members (out of  3.5 million members), the informal workers now have access to all the resources of the ZCTU such as their lobbyists, their research arm, and the strength and power of their affiliate unions.

Chibebe, and everyone we met with at ZCTU, speaks with great pride about the support they’ve been given by the American labor movement through the Solidarity Center, which maintains an office in the country. “Because of the Solidarity Center and the American worker, we’ve had incredible moral and material support,” Chibebe said. Some of the examples he cites are the role the Solidarity Center plays in supporting their research institute, expanding distribution of their newspaper “the Worker,” their ability to fund a lobbyist, create a paralegal program, training activists and leaders, and getting support from international governments and politicians through organizational delegations such as the visit from the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU).

Cross posted from the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

Care International’s work in Zambia has two main goals: increase the production of staple crops and improve farmers’ access to agricultural inputs, such as seeds and fertilizers. But instead of giving away bags of seed and fertilizers to farmers, Care is “creating input access through a business approach,” not a subsidy approach, according to Steve Power, Assistant Country Director for Zambia.

One way they’re doing this is by creating a network of agro-dealers who can sell inputs to their neighbors as well as educate them about how to use hybrid seeds, fertilizers, and other inputs. At the same time, “we are mindful” of the benefits of local varieties of seeds, says Harry Ngoma, Agriculture Advisor for the Consortium for Food Security, Agriculture and Nutrition, AIDS, Resiliency and Markets (C-FAARM). Care and C-FAARM are working with farmers to combine high- and low-technology practices.

Care thinks that this “business approach” will help farmers get the right inputs at the right time, unlike subsidy approaches that give farmers fertilizer for free, but often at the wrong time of year, making the nutrients unavailable to crops. And Care’s focus on training agro-dealers and giving them start-up grants allows the organization to remain invisible to farmers. Power says that Care wants to be a “catalyst to the market” and help transfer resources, without distorting the basic pricing structure.

Another component of Care’s work is improving the production of sorghum and cassava. “Zambia is as addicted to maize as we are to Starbucks coffee,” says Power. But by encouraging the growth of other crops, including sorghum, which is indigenous to Africa, Care can help farms diversify local diets as well as build resilience to price fluctuations and drought.

Care is promoting conservation farming in Zambia as well. The organization has been working in six districts since 2007, reaching 24,000 households. In addition to promoting minimum tillage practices and the use of manure and compost, Care is helping to train government extension officers about conservation farming so that eventually they’ll be responsible-instead of Care-for training farmers.

According to Power, the key to Care’s work is promoting business-like approaches to agriculture alongside more traditional ones, so farmers don’t become dependent on the organization for gifts of fertilizer or seed. These sorts of programs, according to Care, will be more effective at feeding people and increasing incomes than traditional food-aid projects that rely on long-term donor support. This is a big challenge in a country-and a region-facing the impacts of both climate change and the global economic crisis.

Stay tuned for more blogs about how farmers are linking to the private sector.

To learn more about Care’s work in Zambia, visit www.care.org/zambia.

We spent a couple of days in Durban which is the third largest city in South Africa. We arrived exhausted from Maputo, Mozambique after a 24-hour bus ride on Intercape (gotta love when they breakdown for hours in the middle of the journey and you have to jump on a replacement bus seven hours later).

Durban has a population of almost 3.5 million, and is a major domestic tourist destination, close to national parks and the historic sites of Zululand and the Drakensberg. Similar to our experience in J’burg, people kept warning us about the crime rate due to the economic crisis that resulted in very high rates of unemployment, reaching over 30% in many parts of the city.

Again we felt pretty safe, never felt threatened in any way or scared, despite staying at a hostel right in the city center, where we took advantage of all the terrific hi-speed wi-fi spots, nightlife, and affordable restuarants in walking distance.

We want to share with you the terrific site visits we had there…

We met with Richard Haigh, who probably doesn’t look like your typical African pastoralist. Unlike many Africans who grew up tending cattle, sheep, goats, and other livestock, Richard started his farm at the age of 40 after quiting his 9-5 NGO job and buying 23 acres of land outside Durban, South Africa. Today, he runs Enaleni Farm, raising Zulu sheep, which are considered endangered, and Nguni cattle, a breed indigenous to South Africa, which is very resistant to pests, as well as a variety of fruits and vegetables. Richard is cultivating GMO-free soya, as well as traditional maize varieties-“all the maize,” says Richard, “tells a story.”

Like the sheep and cattle, many maize varieties are resistant to drought, climate change, and disease making them a smart choice for farmers all over Africa. This sort of mixed-crop livestock system is increasingly becoming rare in South Africa, according to Richard, because of commercial farms that rely on monoculture crops rather than diverse agricultural systems.

But perhaps the most important thing Richard is doing at Enaleni doesn’t have to do with the different agricultural methods and practices he is using, but with the “stories” he’s telling on the farm. By showing local people the tremendous benefits of indigenous breeds of cattle and sheep and sustainably grown crops can have for the environment and for improving livelihoods, he’s putting both an ecological and economic value to something that has been neglected. “Local people don’t value what they have,” says Richard, because of extension agents who promote exotic breeds of livestock and expensive inputs.

And Richard is also helping document the diversity on his farm. He’s been sending blood samples to the South African National Research Foundation in order to help them build a DNA hoofprint of what makes up a Zulu sheep. This sort of research is important for not only conserving the sheep, but also helping local people by increasing their knowledge about the breeds they’ve been raising for generations.

We also met with Dr. Raymond Auerbach, the founder of Rainman Landcare Foundation, who nearly bursts with enthusiasm when he talks about the growth of organic agriculture practices in South Africa over the years. The Rainman Landcare Foundation (located outside Durban) is training farmers living outside of Durban on how to grow food without the use of artificial pesticides, insecticides, or fertilizers, as well as permaculture methods that efficiently use water and build up soils. The Foundation recently had to discontinue the trainings at its headquarters, which is also the home Raymond shares with his wife, Christina, because of lack of funding. Now, the Foundation works with farmers at their own farms, teaching them how to build swales to prevent erosion and runoff, use mulch to help protect soils, and make and utilize organic compost. “Compost is very much the heart of the farm,” says Auerbach, referring to how compost can eliminate the need for many expensive outside inputs, such as inorganic fertilizers.

Organic farmers in South Africa share some of the same problems as their colleagues in the United States, says Raymond. While Raymond and others fought for organic certification standards for farmers in the 1990s, the requirements are usually too expensive and cumbersome for many small, rural farmers. Certification can cost anywhere from 10,000-20,000 Rand (about $1,300- $2,600) and requires complicated paperwork, which can be difficult for semi-literate farmers. But by developing Participatory Guarantee Standards (PGS) for Organic Agriculture, which includes developing local standards and training local inspectors, while eliminating expensive certification fees for small growers, Raymond believes that poor, rural farmers can benefit from the growing demand in South Africa for organic food.

Other things we recommend while visiting Durban:

1. Have breakfast or lunch at Earthmother Organic (134 Davenport Road) where you can choose from delicious salads, sandwiches, and hot meals with very healthy organic ingredients. For vegans this might be your best option in the city, and we highly recommend anything off the menu of freshly squeezed juices. Raymond is a supplier to them as are many of the local farmers outside Durban.

2. Whether you like walking along the beach, surfing, swimming, or all of the above — Durban’s “Golden Mile” boats warm water all year round.

3. Go check out the Durban Botanical Gardens, a beautiful get-away, with free live concerts on Sunday afternoons, and a laid-back atmosphere (they let you bring in groceries to have your own picnic).  

Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

As we talked to locals in Gaborone, Botswana Capital City, people were so proud to talk about the things they love about their country.

“We are free here, our country is so peaceful, you don’t have to be afraid,” said one.

“You can criticize the government, you have free speech, free elections,” said another.

Botswana is indeed an incredible country.

Home to not only the most beautiful wildlife we’ve seen yet, including elephants, giraffes, impala, kudu, and warthogs, but also to the friendliest people. It was one of the most vibrant political democracies we’ve seen so far, a nation proud of its peace and stability.

More than diamonds, people in Botswana consider water their most precious resource. This landlocked country’s national flag is blue to symbolize water and it even named it currency pula or “rain.” Nearly everywhere you go in the country — including public toilets, sinks and showers–you see signs asking you to curb your consumption of water. These signs are tied to a massive national education and advertising campaign geared at creating constant reminders about our obligation as individuals to conserve water.

Efforts to converse water have led Botswana to become leaders in environmental conversation in the continent.

In fact we can learn a lot from Botswana on the importance of conservation and techniques to reduce our consumption of energy and resources.

Here are two simple techniques they are using:

1. All electrical outlets — from the cities to the countryside — come with an on/off switch (pictured). While this switch might sound simple, how many times have you seen these in the United States (instead of just having to unplug everything)? Most importantly — people really use them — when they are done watching TV or using an electric kettle, they turn the switch off. Televisions, alarm clocks, air conditioners, and other appliances are programmed to withstand these power shifts and they don’t have to be reset when the power is turned back on.

2. We’ve all seen plastic bags on the side of the road or in trash bins — taking lifetimes to biodegrade — and doing irrevocable damage to the environment. While a few U.S. cities are trying to implement a small fee or even ban plastic bags such as Seattle (it passed but now goes to referendum in August), San Francisco, and Washington DC, we were impressed that Botswana has already implemented a surprisingly high (by local stands) national fee of their use or purchase. As a result, people bring their own bags to the grocery or use no bag at all for their groceries. Why can’t the United States implement a national law? Check out this interesting page on plastic bags by the Worldwatch Institute.

We also visited a project helping to conserve another of Botswana’s precious resources–wildlife. The Mokolodi Wildlife Reserve teaches the community about conserving and protecting wildlife and the environment, while also educating students about permaculture. By growing indigenous vegetables, recycling water for irrigation, and using organic fertilizers-including elephant dung-the Reserve’s Education Center is demonstrating how to grow nutritious food with very little water or chemical inputs. We met with Tuelo Lekgowe and his wife, Moho Sehtomo, who are managing the permaculture garden at Mokolodi. Tuelo explained that the organically grown spinach, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, green peppers, garlic, basil, parsley, coriander and other crops raised at the garden are used to feed the school groups who come regularly to learn about not only animals, but also sustainable agriculture. Tuelo and Moho use the garden as a classroom, teaching students about composting, intercropping, water harvesting, and organic agriculture practices.

Another plus to our travels here is that everything seems affordable here compared to its more expensive neighbor, South Africa (especially since we weren’t shelling out hundreds to go to Chobe national park for a safari). The pula is roughly valued at six to one against the US dollar. To put prices in perspective: a beer costs roughly $1 USD, a taxi anywhere in the city costs $3, a nice dinner for two costs around $15, a birdwatching walking tour with a private guide for two, around $25 per hour, and the bus ride from Johannesburg to Gabarone via Intercape costs around $25. The countryside might be a little off the beaten track, but it’s well worth the trek and you can still find a nice, clean, and comfy private double room with bath, hotwater, and air-conditioning for around $30 dollars a night.

(Okay, the other FPers may kill me, but I’m promoting this (and bumping some content sub-folda, as Ed sez). Some have seen these borderjumpers diaries as unwanted spam. When they first popped up, they seemed very self-promotional…. a little too “look at me” rather than “look at this.”

So here’s a really interesting one, promoted to the top. If you’ve missed the others, click on the “borderjumpers” username/link and you should get to a page with all of them. And I’ll be very curious to read the comments… – promoted by odum)

Check out this interview featured in Eco-Chick about the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet‘s on-the-ground research in Africa by Stephanie Rogers:

If it’s true that there are sayers and there are doers, Danielle Nierenberg falls firmly into the latter camp. Danielle is currently traveling through sub-saharan Africa to highlight stories of hope and success in sustainable agriculture and blogging about it at WorldWatch.org.

A Senior Researcher at the Worldwatch Institute and co-Project Director of State of World 2011: Nourishing the Planet, Danielle is a widely cited expert in sustainable agriculture issues and the spread of factory farming. She knows better than most of us how our eating habits affect the world, and the experiences she shares on her blog will blow you away.

So of course, Danielle fits right in as an Eco Chick Heroine for the Planet! I talked to her about women in agriculture, global food issues and what we can all do to help.

SR: We were surprised to learn through your blog, Nourishing the Planet, that 80% of sub-Saharan farmers in Africa are women and that women make up the majority of farmers worldwide. What are some of the unique problems that female farmers face?

DN: Although women produce most of the food and raise most of the livestock in Africa, they rarely have access to land tenure, credit, agricultural extension services, and are under-represented in farmers groups, associations, unions. But by increasing women’s participation and representation in these groups, women and men farmers alike can work together to improve gender awareness, as well as improve their access to loans and agricultural inputs and land tenure. As a result, women are able to earn a greater income, which translates into better nutrition for their families. But womens voices often go unheard, or even ignored, and that has to change.

SR: How has your focus on sustainable agriculture influenced your own eating habits?

DN: I’ve been a vegetarian since I was a teenager, but the more I learn about the global food system, the more interested I become in knowing where my food comes from and how it was produced. I think it’s important to put a face to your food and know not only how the animals you eat were treated, but if the farmers who raised the vegetables and other foods you eat were given a fair price for their crops and if the workers who processed and packaged the food you eat had safe working conditions and were paid a fair wage.

SR: As much as we all care about global food issues and how they affect human health and the environment, sometimes we’re not sure how to help – and sometimes, the problems of people in third-world countries can seem so far away. What can we do to contribute, even if it’s just in a small way?

DN: This is a question we’re asking as part of our Nourishing the Planet project: Why should wealthy foodies in the United States and Europe care about hunger in Africa?

The foodie community in the United States and Europe are a powerful force in pushing for organically grown and local foods in hospitals and schools, more farmers markets, and better welfare of livestock and I think that some of that energy can be harnessed to promote more diversity and resilience in the food system. Right now, the world depends on just a few crops-maize, wheat, and rice-which are vulnerable not only to price fluctuations, but the impacts of climate change. Many indigenous crops-including millet, sorghum, sweet potato, and many others-however, are not only more nutritious than monoculture crops, but also more resilient to adverse weather events and disease.

By supporting-and funding-NGOs and research institutions, such as Slow Food International, Heifer International, and the World Vegetable Center, wealthy foodies can help ensure that farmers in sub-Saharan Africa help maintain agricultural biodiversity.

SR: Did you have any moments of extreme culture shock when you first got to Africa?

DN: We started this trip in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a place most Americans associate with war and hunger because of the famines of the mid 1980s and 1990s. Even today, more than 6 million people in Ethiopia are at risk for starvation so I think I had mentally prepared myself for seeing very desperate people. Instead, though, I found farmers and NGO workers full of hope for agriculture in their country. I think that’s been my greatest surprise about the continent in general – how vibrant, entrepreneurial, friendly, positive, and alive people are here. Six months and thirteen countries later, I’m now in Antananarivo, Madagascar, feeling more hopeful than ever that things are really changing.

The trip is surprising in a lot of different ways. While we’ve seen extreme poverty and environmental degradation during our trip, we’ve also been impressed by the level of knowledge about things like hunger, climate change, HIV/AIDS and other issues from the farmers we meet. The people in many of these countries know better than anyone how to solve the problems their facing, they just need attention-and support-from the international community. In Africa, maybe more than anywhere else we’ve traveled, a little funding can go a long way (if used the right way).

SR: What’s your biggest goal for the Nourishing the Planet trip?

DN: We’ve made a point during this trip to focus on stories of hope and success in agriculture. Most of what Americans hear about Africa is famine, conflict and HIV/AIDS, and we wanted to highlight the things that are going well on the continent. There’s a lot of hope out here – a lot of individuals and organizations doing terrific work – but that doesn’t necessarily translate into them receiving resources or funding.

We hope to create a roadmap for funders and the donor community and shine a big spotlight on the projects and innovations that seem to be working, so that they can be scaled up or replicated in other places. Please check out our site and sign up for our weekly newsletter – and if you know anyone or project we should visit on the continent, please email me at dnierenberg@worldwatch.org.

Thanks Danielle, and many thanks as well to Bernard Pollack for the beautiful photos!

Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

We spent a couple of amazing days in Lilongwe, Malawi – although it was cut short because we took an emergency flight back to Canada for the funeral of Bernard’s grandmother (by the time you are reading this, we are back in Africa).

We arrived after a long journey that started in Kampala, Uganda — and there’s nothing better than arriving somewhere new and having a great place to crash (at only $30 a night for a double). What makes a good hostel in Africa? If it were just the fact that it was clean and the prices fair, we would have been content with our stay at the Mufasa Lodge. Add on hot showers, friendly staff, Wifi internet, and a fun lounge bar in the back, and you have one of the best hostels we’ve been to so far.

After arriving we visited the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre, a project, supported by companies like the Body Shop, providing sanctuary space for the rescued, confiscated, orphaned and injured wild animals of Malawi. While touring their facility we met Kambuk (which means “leopard” in Chichewa), who was soundly sleeping in his 2,500 sq meter backyard of fenced green landscape. He was rescued by the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre after poachers shattered his knee in Nyika National Park (making it impossible for him to ever return to the wild.) As we toured the facility nearly every animal we saw – from baboons to alligators – had a similar Cinderella story of overcoming insurmountable odds to survive and, in most cases, return back to the wild.

The Center is one of the leading organizations in Malawi pushing lawmakers to enforce and enact legislation in support of wildlife conservation and environmental protection. They also develop local partnerships and training programs with the farmers and communities surrounding national parks. The struggle between protecting wildlife and agriculture is becoming especially evident as drought, conflict, and hunger continue to affect sub-Saharan Africa.

In Lilongwe, we also met with Stacia and Kristoff Nordin who showed us permaculture techniques at their home in Lilongwe. They use their garden to promote indigenous crops as a source of nutrition to the Malawians who are currently focused on growing corn, subsidized by the government.

Malawi may be best known for this so-called “Malawi Miracle.” Five years ago the government decided to do something controversial-provide fertilizer subsidies to farmers to grow maize. Since then maize production has tripled and Malawi has been touted as an agricultural success story. But the way they are refining that corn, says Kristof, makes it “kind of like Wonderbread,” leaving it with just two or three nutrients. Traditional varieties of corn, however, which aren’t usually so highly processed, are more nutritious and don’t require as much artificial fertilizer compared to hybrid varieties. According to Kristof, “48 percent of the country is still stunted with the miracle.”

Stacia and Kristof use their home as a way to educate their neighbors about both permaculture and indigenous vegetables. Most Malawians think of traditional foods, such as amaranth and African eggplant, as poor people foods grown by “bad” farmers. But these crops may hold the key for solving hunger, malnutrition and poverty in Malawi. Rather than focusing on just planting maize-a crop that is not native to Africa-the Kristofs advise the farmers they work with that there is “no miracle plant, just plant them all.” Maize, ironically, is least suited to this region because it’s very susceptible to pests and disease. Unfortunately, the “fixation on just one crop,” says Kristof, means that traditional varieties of foods are going extinct-crops that are already adapted to drought and heat, traits that become especially important as agriculture copes with climate change.

And indigenous crops can be an important source of income for farmers. Rather than importing things like amaranth, sorghum, spices, tamarinds and other products from India, South Africa, and other countries, the Nordins are helping farmers find ways to market seeds, as well as value added products, from local resources. These efforts not only provide income and nutrition, but fight the “stigma that anything Malawian isn’t good enough,” says Kristof. “A lot of solutions,” he says, “are literally staring us in the face.” And as I walked around seeing-and tasting- the various crops at the Nordins’ home, it’s obvious that maize is not Malawi’s only miracle.

As an aside, the toilet at Stacia and Kristoff Nordin’s house was so environmentally sustainable, you almost felt like you were doing a heroic act for the garden just by going to the bathroom. The vegetables and fruits they’re growing, thrive off human manure and the water to wash your hands comes from captured rainfall.

One other thing we ought to mention is that Malawi is surprisingly expensive, or maybe we continue to feel firsthand the decline of the value of the American dollar. We found good value for lodging, but the food (maybe because all the fields were converted to Maize) was very expensive. People are suffering here from malnutrition and hunger, and we found it hard to maintain a varied diet at a reasonable price. Good vegetarian food would have been very difficult in Lilongwe if it weren’t for the local Chinese restaurant near the hostel.

Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

Richard Haigh runs Enaleni Farm outside Durban, South Africa, raising endangered Zulu sheep, Nguni cattle (a breed indigenous to South Africa that is very resistant to pests), and a variety of fruits and vegetables. Check out this video from my conversation with Richard about his sheep, his garden, and the meaning behind the name of his farm:

Cross posted from the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

Richard Haigh doesn’t look like your typical African pastoralist. Unlike many Africans who grew up tending cattle, sheep, goats, and other livestock, Richard started his farm in 2007 at the age of 40. He quit his 9-5 job at a nongovernmental organization and bought 23 acres of land outside Durban, South Africa.

He wanted to totally change his life.

Today, he runs Enaleni Farm (enaleni means “abundance” in Zulu), raising endangered Zulu sheep, Nguni cattle (a breed indigenous to South Africa that is very resistant to pests), and a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Richard is cultivating GMO-free soya, as well as traditional maize varieties. “All the maize tells a story,” he says. Like the sheep and cattle, many maize varieties are resistant to drought, climate change, and diseases, making them a smart choice for farmers all over Africa.

This sort of mixed-crop livestock system is becoming increasingly rare in South Africa, according to Richard, because of commercial farms that rely on monoculture crops rather than on diverse agricultural systems.

Richard likes to say that his farm isn’t organic, but rather an example of how agro-ecological methods can work. He practices push-pull agriculture, which uses alternating intercropping of plants that repel pests (pushing them away from the harvest) and ones that attract pests (pulling them away from the harvest) to increase yields. He also uses animal manure and compost for fertilizer.

But perhaps the most important thing Richard is doing at Enaleni doesn’t have to do with the various agricultural methods and practices he’s using. It’s about the “stories” he’s telling on the farm. By showing local people the tremendous benefits that indigenous cattle and sheep breeds, and sustainably grown crops, can have for the environment and livelihoods, he’s putting both an ecological and economic value on something that’s been neglected. “Local people don’t value what they have,” says Richard, because extension agents have tended to promote exotic livestock and expensive inputs.

In addition, Richard asks himself “what can we do that is specific to where we live?” In other words, how can we promote local sources of agricultural diversity that are good for the land and for people?

Richard is also helping document the diversity on his farm. He’s been sending blood samples to the South African National Research Foundation to help them build a DNA “hoof print” of what makes up a Zulu sheep. This sort of research is important not only for conserving the sheep, but for helping to increase local knowledge about the breeds that people have been raising for generations.

As a result of his conservation work, Richard and Enaleni Farm have been recognized by Slow Food International, which wants to work with the farm and local communities to find ways to ensure that the Zulu sheep don’t disappear.

Richard hopes to share his knowledge about agriculture with local farmers, teaching them how to spot and prevent disease in indigenous sheep, as well as explaining agro-ecological methods of raising food.

Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.



Been scratching our heads about how to write 1,000 original, inspiring, and exciting words on one of the most written about countries in the world. Instead of trying, we want to share with you a couple of things we saw and learned while we there.

As we traveled all the way south from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to Johannesburg, South Africa, several Africans kept telling us how dangerous J’burg is. We heard the same sort of thing before visiting Nairobi, Kenya,”don’t step out at night and “don’t go anywhere without a taxi…” Yada, Yada, Yada.

But there was no question in our minds whether would visit or not. With a dozen meetings scheduled, nothing was going to stop us from going. And after two weeks weeks, despite the hype, and without compromising our experience, we didn’t encounter a single problem (we stayed in hostels and budget B&B’s), didn’t witness any car-jackings, were never robbed at gun point at an ATM, and never felt that our safety was compromised in any way. Every visitor we met while in the city had the same experience as us (uneventful, as far as crime).  

We are not saying don’t be cautious — or that crime is not a problem — but if fear is stopping anyone from experiencing this important city, or even the World Cup, our advice is stop reading this article and book that ticket.

When you arrive in Johannesburg, it’s hard not to notice how big this mega-city is– more than 10 million people and one of the 40 largest cities in the world. While it is the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa, the gap between the rich and poor is unlike anything we have seen (maybe with the exception of Kenya). We visited the slums of Germiston and Soweto, comparing the poverty to the decadence of the suburb Sandton and the East Gate Mall, the biggest mall in J’burg. How ironic that a city with so much wealth also has such extreme poverty, comparable or even worse to what we saw traveling in Madagascar, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe.

We wanted to share with you two interesting meetings/projects we visited on the ground:

We did a field visit to Johnson Matthey Catalysts in Germiston, South Africa, just outside of Johannesburg. There, nearly 600 workers pass through its doors every day to work on an assembly line making catalytic converters that are inserted in cars to reduce pollution, complying with South Africa’s auto environmental emissions standards. As we arrived, Percy Nhlapo, a trainer with the Solidarity Center, an AFL-CIO affiliated non-profit organization that assists workers around the world who are struggling to build democratic and independent trade unions, was leading a discussion with a group of workers to correct misconceptions about the HIV virus and urging participants to get tested. “HIV/AIDS affects everyone, educating workers is the first step in helping them prevent further infection, getting tested is the second,” said Percy. After the training, nearly all the workers voluntarily agreed to be tested.



At the testing area, we spoke with registered nurse Dorothy Majola. “I find this job so rewarding because it so important that people know their status, as soon as they know their status they can change their lifestyle and behavior, which it will allow them to live longer lives,” said Majola. The company, in coordination with NUMSA (the workers’ union) and the Solidarity Center, agreed to host the training, allowing workers to attend and get tested at the beginning and end of their work shifts. Through programs like these thousands of workers are voluntarily getting tested a year across the country.





The next day we met with Daniel Kamanga, the Director of Communications of Africa Harvest, and former Kenyan journalist, who says that journalism in Africa has to overcome many challenges, including a general lack of coverage on agriculture issues-let alone a deeper understanding about who is funding agricultural development in Africa. Although agriculture makes up about 98 percent of the economy in Kenya, it’s barely covered in the country’s newspapers. And there are not any agricultural editors at any of the newspapers on the entire continent. But it’s not just a question of reporters having more knowledge, according to Kamanga. It’s also a matter of compensation. African journalists are typically paid very little compared to journalists in other countries. In Burkina Faso for example, reporters receive just 160 dollars per month. As a result, many journalists see bribes as a way to supplement their income. Yet with newspaper and media consolidation, fierce competition for advertisers, and lackluster economic conditions in Africa and all over the world, it’s a trend that might only get worse.

Finally, here are four other random final thoughts about “Jozi”:

(1) Spend an entire day at the Apartheid Museum, it’s brilliantly laid out using technology and multi-media, the visits take you on a powerful journey that will forever change the way your forever look at race relations and racism. It was one of the most powerful and emotional experiences of our lives.

(2) Take a biking or walking tour of Soweto, make sure you don’t just visit Apartheid landmarks (although you should definitely also do that), but ask your tour guide to take you through several villages and slum areas (we went looking at urban gardening projects).

(3) Where we stayed for a couple of days: we splurged ($35/night double en suite) on a quaint bed and breakfast on Sunberry street, in the heart of the bohemian town of Melville. Melville is full of alternative shops, two used bookstores, loads of pubs, and even a burrito barn. What we loved most about the B&B was the large kitchen for us to cook. We did a week binge of zero restaurants, cooking two meals a day, and enjoying the free wifi, free laundry, and even some free taxi rides.

(4) Visit the SAB Beer Museum, not sure what it says about a city when its number one tourist attraction is a beer museum. I’m also not sure what it says about us that we contributed to such a statistic (and had a blast!). The tour is advertised everywhere in Johannesburg–it’s a one and a half hour guided tour organized by SAB brewing (partners with Miller-Coors in the USA) complete with a 3D adventure, an IMAX-style movie, real life machinery depicting the beer making process, and lots more. Oh, and did we mention the tasting?

We love the energy of Maputo.

It’s the good kind of energy where we never felt like people were trying to hustle us like in the tourist traps of Arusha and Zanzibar, Tanzania. We also felt safe to wander in the evenings unlike in Nairobi, Kenya or Johannesburg, South Africa where we would jump into cabs after evening meetings (or linger in the suburbs).

Maputo’s vibrant, entrepreneurial, positive, and alive. It reminded us of Kampala, Uganda where the youth are bursting with energy, from the buzzing music scene, to the street and informal economy, and small upstart businesses.  

Mozambique is not without its problems. Real poverty is everywhere, drug use rampant,  many schools are dilapidated and deteriorating, and there is lots of evidence of environmental destruction and deforestation. But Maputo is clearly on the move, transforming itself and melding some of the best parts of its rich and diverse cultures.

We arrived by an Intercape bus from J’burg on an all night ride that spent an extra five hours on the road due to a closed highway from a chemical spillage and accident. And after pulling an all-nighter we jumped right into a series of meetings for Dani’s research for Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

We checked into Base Backpackers largely because it was in walking distance to the Intercape bus station and twenty dollar a night for a private room. We’d be lying if we told you it was a perfect situation: we were in the lower basement (it wreaked of mold), had to walk two flights of stairs and across a hallway to go to the bathroom (twenty people were sharing the one working toilet), cold water showers, and internet so bad that old school AOL dial-up would have felt like luxury. With that said, the hostel was in the heart of the city and across the street from vegetarian friendly Chinese and Indian food. The hotel staff was extremely friendly, and the “guard” — a mutt resembling a bijon frise named Spudd — made for a warm, tail wagging welcome when we came home.



We spent the day visiting a workshop organized by Prolinnova, the Spanish NGO Centro de Iniciativas para la Cooperación/Batá, and the National Farmers Union of Mozambique, UNAC, about different agricultural innovations. The workshop brought farmers together from across the country to share with each other different innovations each farmer was practicing in her or his community. What I loved about the workshop was that it wasn’t some NGO preaching about what should be done, the farmers led the meeting, they drove the discussion, they presented their own findings. It was really refreshing to hear from the people who know best what is working and what needs to be scaled-up across the country. Throughout the morning, farmers presented other innovations and practices-including how to prevent diseases that affect their crops and fruit trees and how to raise farmed fish. Batá/Prolinnova/UNAC plans to identify 12-14 innovations and practices identified at the workshops for a book which will be translated into three of Mozambique’s languages, allowing these different innovations to spread throughout the country.

The next day we spent an awe-opening couple of hours with Dr. Rosa Costa at International Rural Poultry Center of the Kyeema Foundation in Mozambique. We know all too well how avian influenza, H1N1 and serious diseases can ravage livestock and rural communities. Newcastle disease, which can wipe out entire flocks of chickens and can spread from farm to farm, is especially devastating for rural farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Vaccines for Newcastle used to be hard to come by in Africa. They were imported and usually expensive, putting them out of reach of small farmers. And even when they were available, they required refrigeration, which is not common in many rural villages. Today, however, thanks to the work of the Kyeema foundation in Mozambique, villages have access not only to vaccines, but also to locally trained community vaccinators (or para-vets) who can help spot and treat Newcastle and other poultry diseases before they spread. With help from a grant from the Australian Government’s overseas aid program (AusAID), Kyeema developed a thermo-stable vaccine that doesn’t need to be refrigerated and is easier for rural farmers to administer to their birds.



Dr. Costa also talked at great length about the importance of nutrition when it comes to treating HIV/AIDS. Many retroviral and HIV/AIDS drugs don’t work if patients aren’t getting enough vitamins and nutrients in their diets or accumulating enough body fat. She noted that while many farmers are often too sick to grow crops, “chickens are easy.” Because women are often the primary caregivers for family members with HIV/AIDS, they need easy, low-cost sources of both food and income. Unlike many crops, raising free-range birds can require few outside inputs and very little maintenance from farmers. Birds can forage for insects and eat kitchen scraps, instead of expensive grains. They provide not only meat and eggs for household use and income, but also pest control and manure for fertilizer.

On our last day we visited with Madyo Couto who works under the Mozambique Ministry of Tourism to help manage the country’s Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs). These areas were initially established to help conserve and protect wildlife, but they’re now evolving to include other uses of land that aren’t specifically for conservation. Madyo explained that in addition to linking the communities that live near or in conservation areas to the private sector to build lodges and other services for tourists, they’re also helping farmers establish honey projects to generate income. In many of national parks and other conservation areas, farmers resort to poaching and hunting wildlife to earn money. He added that establishing alternative-and profitable-sources of income is vital to protecting both agriculture and biodiversity in the TFCAs.

Finally we met with Jessica Milgroom, an American graduate student working with farming communities living inside Limpopo National Park, in southern Mozambique. When the park was established in 2001, it was essentially “parked on top of 27,000 people,” says Jessica. Some 7,000 of the residents needed to be resettled to other areas, including within the park, which affected their access to food and farmland. Jessica’s job is to see what can be done to improve resettlement food security. But rather than simply recommending intensified agriculture in the park to make better use of less land, Jessica worked with the local community to collect and identify local seed varieties. One of the major problems in Mozambique, as well as other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, is the lack of seed. As a result, farmers are forced to buy low-quality seed because nothing else is available. In addition to identifying and collecting seeds, Jessica is working with a farmer’s association on seed trials, testing varieties to see what people like best.

After only five days in Maputo, we will definitely come back for another visit. Mozambique is so vast and incredible with loads of incredible projects to visit that our brief trip simply wasn’t enough time. But with meetings already scheduled in Durban, we boarded the 20 hour bus ride (had to go via J’Burg) back.