Fruits and Vegetables for Students
Ven’s story about her PermaGarden Project
The PermaGarden Project was started in my first year at Boloti Secondary Schol. The project aimed to improve the nutrition for students by 1) planting vegetables, 2) growing fruit trees like papaya, bananas, mangoes and avocados; and 3) installing a water catchment system to make water readily available and more sustainable throughout the year. Last year, my counterpart and I worked with 30 plus students to build 28 vegetable beds and to grow leafy greens like amaranth (mchicha), sukuma wiki (collard), and Chinese (like napa cabbage). At the end of the school year 2015, we were able to harvest 460 bundles of greens, providing vegetables for 46 meals last year. We purchased and planted 44 fruit tree seedlings of mangoes, avocadoes and oranges. Unfortunately, only 13 fruit trees survived into this year. We had planted in late May and there wasn’t much rain later in the year. Also built into the project proposal was a study tour to learn more about agriculture.
Last September, Mr Kileo and I took PermaGarden members to the World Vegetable Center east of Arusha. Students saw nurseries for vegetables, experimental plots of crops, seed collection and drying methods (above).
Gutters were installed on both sides of the building, enabling rainwater to be collected in 5000 liter tanks. Underground pipes send the water directly into the field, where the garden is located. A third tank collects water from the dining hall building and makes it possible to grow more vegetables at a second site. It was a multi-month endeavor, finally ready for collecting water in January this year.
School started up again in mid-January. The rains started early this year in January and the school went out to plant corn. (We learned later that it was a false start, and we didn’t get consistent rain until April). I used this opportunity to select six girls in Form One to work on planting vegetables. We took cuttings of matembele (sweet potato leaves) and planted it around this huge tree. Matembele is an easy vine to grow that spreads on the ground and requires minimal water; it is nutritious and can be available throughout the year. We also prepared vegetable beds and planted zucchini, mchicha (amaranth) and kale. We grew butternut squash in piles around the field (I had wanted pumpkin, but only found butternut seeds). I found a villager growing bell peppers, and asked to purchase seedlings from him. The bell peppers took up two beds. Unfortunately, as soon as the kale seedlings came up, they would disappear in matter of days. It was still the dry season, and I noticed a lot more insects like grasshoppers. The zucchini was a bigger plant, so most of it survived the insects.
By mid-April, after about two months, we were able to harvest matembele leaves (pictured above). Our cooks chop them up and cook them in the beans to be served with ugali, which is kind of like firm and bland mashed potatoes made from ground corn.
PermaGarden members rinse matembele, using the tap from the water tanks.
Our first harvest of zucchini came in mid-April as well. The pests attacked the zucchini squash, boring into the fruit. Our yield was severely reduced due to these insect borers, but we did manage to get about four harvests. The zucchini was chopped up and cooked with kande, a stew-like dish with hominy/corn and beans. Then, the next challenge was dealing with complaints from students who didn’t like zucchini. So then, we had to cook the zucchini on the side, but that left many students without any vegetables.
I started harvesting zucchini while it was still fairly young to get some yield before the insects got to them.
Our transplanted bell peppers did not fair well. Some pest was stunting them, and most plants did not produce many leaves or fruits. Butternut squash was also getting infested with some insect borers. I kept my fingers crossed that some squash will make it through the challenges and I avoided checking on them too much. Incessant worrying wasn’t going to prevent insects from attacking my plants. I learned that young squash leaves may be eaten, just like pumpkin leaves, so we harvested some squash greens a couple of times for school meals. In case we don’t get any butternut, I felt better that we were able to eat the leaves at least. We planted a large area in green beans too, but most seeds did not germinate. I had purchased them from a villager because I couldn’t find them anywhere; the seeds must have been too old or something. I feel very much like a farmer this year, dealing with insects and plant disease, not enough rain or too much rain, and sourcing seeds.
In March, the insect infestation had subsided and we were able to start some beds of sukuma wiki (collard), followed by Chinese (leafy cabbage) in April. We also have cilantro and scallions in the garden. After about two months, we were able to supply the school with at least one type of vegetable per day.
I initially started with a group of six girls in January. Now, I have four groups of boys and girls working with me (someone must have complained about my girls not attending assembly daily, so I had to make more groups. This actually worked out great, more members!) Three groups worked two mornings a week and one group of Muslim students help out on Sunday morning since they don’t go to church. Unfortunately, working 30 minutes in the morning during assembly time isn’t enough. We only have time to harvest vegetables and water the beds, and not really enough time to maintain or do any new plantings. As a result, I am now trying to get them to help out after school on Wednesdays or on a weekend day. Kelly and I will be moving to a new house near the school after Term One, so this will make it easier for me to work with students after school or on a weekend afternoon.
My counterpart Mr Kileo and I had plans to plant 100 banana and 100 papaya seedlings this year(technically, bananas are a plant and not a tree because they don’t have a woody stem). We worked with students to dig many holes in preparation for the fruit trees. The holes need to be about 40 cm wide and 60 cm deep because the soil is infertile. Before this endeavor, I thought planting trees was easy, just dig a hole, pop in the seedling, cover the hole around the seedling, and then water the tree. The reality is that the soil is hard and rocky; I’ve learned that using a pick-ax to break up the soil helps. Mr Kileo would get students out digging holes after school. I would try to do the same on Saturday mornings with Form One students. In March, we purchased and planted 100 papaya trees and an additional 20 avocado and 15 mango trees. We have been told that the papaya trees are a fast growing variety that will produce fruits before the year is out. The avocado and mango trees are a longer term investment that will hopefully bear fruit in about five years or so. Last year, I lovingly tended to my avocado and mango trees, watering, weeding and mulching them with students, and still, many perished. This year, I took a more pragmatic approach and did not grow too attached to them, recognizing that we will have some loss. And indeed we did! We lost some papaya trees to some grasshoppers that would just bite off the top of the seedling.
So during this time, I was busy attending to and supervising the school garden and fruit trees. Meanwhile, Mr. Kileo was responsible for helping me with the PermaGarden Project, as well as supervising the much larger school farm. The rain season had a false start this year, coming strong for about two weeks in January, then tapering off in February and March. Our school planted corn in January, but most of the corn did not germinate. In March, we postponed two days of mid-term exams to go out and sowed corn seeds again prior to the two week break. We were gambling that the rains would come during our mid-term break. It did not, and we returned to school in April only to see stunted corn plants or sparse fields. The rains finally arrived in April, so students went to shamba (farm) again. We had failed to plant corn twice, due to the unusual rain patterns this year. The third time, the school decided to plant beans instead, because it has a shorter growing season. Every time the students go out to shamba, we lose 2-3 days of school. In May, students went to shamba to weed and to apply fertilizer. I mention this as context for our challenge in establishing and maintaining a fruit orchard. Let’s not forget that the main reason for students being at school is to get an education.
Kelly wonders when Mr Kileo will turn and walk the other way when he sees me approaching him. Honestly, he is a gem, one of the few teachers at Boloti with high integrity. He juggles teaching Geography, supervising school farming and PermaGarden.
As of August 17th, we have Chinese napa cabbage, collard, Swiss chard, amaranth, sweet potato leaves, cilantro and scallions in the ground. The efforts of PermaGarden members have succeeded in providing 450 students at Boloti with vegetables in 102 meals so far this year, compared with 46 meals last year. Our students get at least one meal with vegetables per day since April. We sell the vegetables to the school and have earned Tsh230,000 (about 115USD) this year towards purchases of PermaGarden-related items. There are about 200 banana, papaya, mango and avocado trees, which will hopefully provide students with fruits starting next year. Kelly and I will be departing from our site on the first of October.
