Starving in the Land of Plently

Malawi has over 600 indigenous foods rich with nutrients that can be harvested throughout the year. In fact, Hunger Season should be the most fruitful time of year in Malawi. However, nsima is the staple food here and most people focus their efforts on growing maize, which was originally imported from America, to be pounded into Millie Meal for nsima. It was introduced in the 1800’s and local farmers preferred the plant because it is a hardy and maize has its own cover protecting it from pests. Malawians have eaten nsima throughout history and years ago it was made of millet, which actually has more calories per acre than maize, survives fires and does not require fertilizer. In modern Malawi, white nsima is preferred, as white bread is in America. Unfortunately, the finer, whiter second grind (ufa woyela) is preferred to the more nutritious first grind (mgaiwa) for making nisma.

My new passion is learning about permaculture(a theory of ecological design which seeks to develop sustainable human settlements and agricultural systems, by attempting to model them on natural ecosystems). The idea behind Permaculture is to let nature grow the way it wants. If you clear a plot of land and let the soil sit without planting anything it will still begin to grow because nature wants to always go back to its original state. Therefore gardens should not take too much work to continuously produce. Unlike maize which can only be harvested once a year and requires hard labour to till the land, plant and harvest every year which causes moisture and nutrients to escape resulting in a need to water and buy fertilizer.

These are all the foods produced throughout the year on Never Ending Food Farm's 2 acre plot, just outside Lilongwe. http://www.neverendingfood.org/

This is Kristof from Never Ending Food Farm with is maize towering over him. He has inter planted other plant varieties and his maize is twice as tall as the surrounding farmer’s fields and he is yielding more produce per acre.

 

Permaculture also promotes smart design such as using stacking techniques and garden keyholes.

Okay! I am going home to play in my garden now.