Development in Gardening: Reap Life!

As the global population rises and arable land disappears, it becomes increasingly vital that Africa boosts its food production. Many solutions call for a “Green Revolution” in Africa, similar to the agricultural transformation of the 1960s and 1970s that took hold in Asia and Latin America. A similar movement in Africa would require a serious overhaul in development policy, resource management and infrastructure. It might also employ unsustainable farming practices, such as crop monocultures and the use of petroleum-based fertilizers and genetically modified seeds. There is another school of thought that sees Africa’s potential in a different light: teaching sustainable practices to small-scale farmers. This is the approach of Development in Gardening, also know by its acronym, DIG.

Development in Gardening was founded in 2006 by two former Peace Corps volunteers to improve the lives of those affected by HIV/AIDS. DIG provides the supplies and technical know-how to create customized urban micro-gardens at HIV clinics, hospitals, orphanages, and patients’ homes. They work primarily in Africa, but they also have two project sites in Latin America. They contribute to five of the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals and seek to address the connections between HIV/AIDS, poverty, hunger and malnutrition. It is essential that HIV/AIDS patients receive proper nutrition as antiretroviral therapy is much less effective for those who are malnourished.

DIG collaborates with organizations already working in the community, which reduces start-up time and duplicative work. The organization emphasizes sustainability by training people to train each other, incorporating found materials and objects into their garden designs, water conservation and creating seed banks. The hope is that those who learn gardening techniques from the organization will bring those skills back to their neighborhoods and create their own plots and communal gardens with what they have available to them.

Perhaps the greatest gift of DIG is not what they teach but the social and psychological benefits experienced by the patients. The gardens provide a calm, meditative and positive environment; they strengthen community ties and reduce the social isolation that many HIV/AIDS patients experience. Participants have the opportunity to learn a skill-set, pass along their knowledge and improve their overall self-worth. Most of their participants are women with few life skills and their work with DIG helps them to become self-sufficient and sustaining. DIG empowers HIV/AIDS patients in the poorest regions of the world to improve their lives and the lives of those around them. This is best summed up by one of their participants: “I don’t want people to give us things – that’s not what it’s about. We want to do things for ourselves.”


Sarah Koch, co-founder of Development In Gardening, talks about the organization’s work in Africa and the importance of women:



Sarah Koch, 2008 YouthActionNet Fellow, talks about DIG
Laura Bush praising DIG
Segment about DIG on WBEZ 91.5

See how DIG has changed the lives of these women:
Florence's Story
Robina's Story
Learn more about the nutritional requirements of those living with HIV/AIDS

Photos courtesy of Development In Gardening

Re-sowing Palestine

The status quo for farmers in the West Bank, as outlined in last week’s posting, was unsustainable for various reasons. Change was required and a Palestinian NGO, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UWAC), teamed up with the European Commission, the Government of Belgium and Oxfam Belgium to address the situation.

In efforts to make agriculture more sustainable in the West Bank, 2009 UWAC opened the first seed bank in the West Bank town of Hebron to produce seeds that are indigenous to the area. These local seeds have been developed over long periods of time by farmers in the area and are therefore adapted to the local climate (ie. dry) and therefore do not require irrigation but are able to grow with minimum soil moisture. Even with climate change and further reductions in rain fall, these seeds would still be able to grow.

While crop yields might be slightly lower in comparison to modern seeds, the fact that farmers do not need to purchase water, which is costly, outweighs the side effects of having slimmer harvests. Not having to rely on irrigation, which is taking its toll on the water table and the reservoirs, makes this farming practice also more sustainable for the region in general. The soil too benefits as irrigation often leads to increased salinity levels and degradation, especially when pesticides and other chemicals are used.

Another advantage is that these local seeds are not licensed, unlike seeds from commercial producers, but are ‘open source’ and are produced and distributed by a non-profit organization. While the organization retains a fee to operate the seed bank and pay for other associated costs, the seeds are still cheaper than the commercially produced seeds sold by conventional suppliers. This allows for lower production costs which in turn makes the produce more affordable to consumers and reduces the cost base for the farmers. Thus the local seed bank also contributes to reducing poverty in the area, as well as addresses the Millennium Development Goals in more than one way, ie environmental sustainability and poverty reduction.

Photo Credit: Ma'an News Agency

Sustainable Agriculture in the West Bank

One of the cross-cutting issues within the international development discourse is sustainability. Although various definitions exist, most authors agree that sustainable development 'is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs’ and that we need to see the world as a system where space and time are connected. In other words, it is essential to realize that our activities of today do not pose a threat for future generations.

Sustainable agriculture is a sub-category within sustainable development and stipulates that food is safe for consumers and animals, methods are environmentally friendly, animals are respected, farmers receive fair wages and are able to live in proper living conditions. The concept of sustainable agriculture also shares the system perspective with the broader definition of sustainability. In order to achieve these goals and characteristics, it is essential that everyone responsible in the process is involved in this system, including consumers, workers, farmers, researchers, policymakers and retailers.

Farmers in the West Bank (occupied Palestinian territory) are all too familiar with the concept of sustainable agriculture, or rather, with non-sustainable agriculture.

It is the nature of the region’s climate that water is extremely scarce and due to climate change, has become even scarcer in recent years. Many Palestinian farmers live in areas with water deficiency, scarce capital and limited growth of legumes and vegetables. One major concern is that the seed market is dominated by Israeli companies, often subsidiaries or contractors of US-based corporations, which sell commercially produced and licensed seeds (often genetically modified).

This is problematic for many Palestinian farmers:

1. Farmers often cannot afford these licensed seeds, which need to be re-purchased every year, becoming reliant on handouts or forcing them to migrate elsewhere
2. The licensed seeds were designed for irrigated fields, a farming practice common in Israel and other parts of the Middle East, however Palestinian famers in water deficient areas usually lack the capital to buy water for irrigation. Paying for water also reduces the profit margin significantly. Equally important, irrigation further depletes already scarce water resources, which is evident from the low levels of the water table and the shrinking size of reservoirs.

At the same time, unemployment rates and poverty levels in the area are high which in turn increases food insecurity, compromising current and future human resources.

Photo Credit from: http://www.revolve-magazine.com/2011/03/13/water-demand/