TheZimbabwean | 14 July 2011
NEWS ON THURSDAY
9
4 tons per ha – from land
dry enough to smelt iron
Foundations for farming in practise – seeing the impossible
Pastor Chinyange and his wife preparing their field
BY NA NCUBE
MASVINGO
T
he soil on which Pastor
Leephat
Chinyange
farms is beautiful soil –
red clay, hard – in fact hard
enough to smelt iron and
to make the beautiful clay
pots one sees for sale along
the sides of the MasvingoBeitbridge road. Its beautiful
soil indeed, but not for farming – in fact the area is traditionally considered ranching land, common wisdom
holds that very little will
grow there. Being region 5,
it is Zimbabwe’s driest area,
receiving very little rainfall
annually.
‘The work of
a man who
believes in
the God of the
impossible’
But this past season in this
vast and dry land, there was
a beautiful patch of lush
green maize, standing defiantly against both common
wisdom and the elements.
This was the work of a man
who believes in the God of
the impossible. And what
was achieved is hard to comprehend – Pastor Chinyange
has farmed here before, and
from this very patch he has
failed to get even one bucket
of maize in past seasons. In
fact two years ago he even
hired a tractor hoping mechanisation would improve his
yield. But he got nothing.
This year he got 300 buckets (about 50 bags) from his
tiny piece of land.
So how did all this happen? In 2009 he heard
about
Foundations
for
Farming through a meeting
of Evangelical Fellowship
for Zimbabwe farmers. He
is an office bearer for the
organisation in his province.
But it was too late in the
season to apply what he
heard. So in 2010 he started early. At the time, the
ground was so hard the hoe
was bouncing off as he dug
the well-spaced holes where
the seed would go in. He is
laughing as he tells me this,
as if to say only a mad man
would do this!
But by faith all things are
possible, and dig he did,
lining up the holes with
precision. High standards
matter here. The principles
of Foundations for Farming
include:
do things on time, to the
highest standard you can,
minimise wastage, and do it
all with joy, for the joy of the
Lord is our strength.
Next he put in the mulch
– the area being so dry, it
took considerable effort and
cost to obtain the mulch,
but herein lies the secret.
The rain was late – rainfall
in Zimbabwe should start
around late October/early
November, but that year
rain fell for the first time on
December 5. He planted on
December 7, and the crop
that grew was a lush, beautiful healthy green crop with
on average four cobs per
stalk. This was phenomenal
– no-one in the neighbourhood had seen anything
quite like this in so dry an
area, people were asking
him if he watered his maize
by night!
Following the rainfall on
December 5, the rains disappeared for pretty much
the rest of that season. Like
any farmer who has scanned
the heavens for rains, each
week he would calculate
that if the rains came now,
I would have maybe three of
the four cobs per stalk, then
two, then even the one still
standing was starting to look
doubtful.
‘He gave part
of his bumper
crop to the
local remand
prison’
And still there was no
rain. What was happening
though was that the dew that
comes in the early hours was
retained by the mulch, and
this was sufficient to keep
the crop growing (remember
before the times of Noah it
never used to rain – maybe
this is how God watered the
earth?)
The long and the short
of it is that from land dry
enough to smelt iron, this
man of God obtained yields
of four tons per hectare. The
country average in areas
with good rain is less than
1t/ha, and in fact his own
neighbours got absolutely
nothing, and many will need
food aid again this year. If
the rains had come on time,
and more than just that one
time, he would probably
have got between 6-8t/ha.
He donated part of his
bumper crop to the local
remand prison.
This is another principle
of the programme – giving. Give and it will come
back to you, a good mea-
Pastor Chinyanga and those who practise Foundations for Farming believe the biblical promise:
Isaiah 35:6 - For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.
sure pressed down shaken
together and running over
will be poured in your lap.
For with the measure you
use, it will be measured to
you. - Luke 6:38
Pastor
Chinyange
explained that mulching is
giving food to the soil so
that it gives back – we can’t
just take away from the
soil year after year and still
expect a good yield. God
ordained that the soil will be
fed organic matter, hence the
importance of mulch. This
is not to say it is not possible
to feed it other things like
artificial fertiliser, but while
this too is food, it’s a bit like
the difference between eating organic food and living
on McDonalds!
Giving to receive - not as
sometimes preached in the
prosperity gospel, but as
taught by a God who gave
his son is the fundamental
key to reversing the cycle of
poverty. This is only possible
through a changed heart following true repentance and
an acknowledgement that a
true and saving faith in God
shows itself in actions of
faithfulness. It is active faith
that makes Chinyange and
thousands of others around
Zimbabwe apply the principles of ‘farming God’s way’
to a ground dry enough to
make clay pots. And it is
the mercy of God that his
effort brings forth an oasis
of green in a sea of scorched
brown earth.
Foundations for Farming founder, Brian Oldrieve will
be in Leeds on the 27th of August 2011, if you are UK
based, you are most welcome to come and hear him
speak about this programme. Please get in touch on
info@theglobalnative.org.uk
Mulch is any organic material that will cover the ground – fallen leaves, grass, old maize stalks etc.
Mulch does several things – it stops the erosion and washing away of soil that would happen if there
was no cover (it has been proved that without this 90% of rainwater runs off, and with mulch only 6%
runs off, with 94% retained). Mulch prevents evaporation of precious moisture, and it provides food
for the organisms in the soil that in turn provide nutrients for plants. By covering the ground, it also
limits the growth of weeds.