Home food gardening in the Diocese of Lesotho

HOME FOOD GARDENING TRAINING IN THE DIOCESE OF LESOTHO

Supported by the United Thank Offering Grant, the Anglican Church of Southern Africa is rolling  out Food gardening Training in the Dioceses.

The Diocese of Lesotho completed a wonderful training focussing on young people, with the goal of inspiring green entrepreneurship.

Eco- culture Project facilitated a home food gardening project in the Diocese of Lesotho. It took place at three venues: the Cathedral of St James and St Mary’s in Maseru, Hoohlo Primary School and Thaabe primary School.

Seedling production. The first day we had Mme Tebello Mosuhli, an Agriprenuer who specializes in seedling production. She  trained the trainees about soil preparation, how to plant seeds in the seedling trays, how to  take care of the seedlings until they are ready for the market and how they are sold.

Plot preparation: on the second day we had Ntate Teboho Moiloa, an agriculture expect and agripreneur. He gave us an  agricultural background, how seeds were collected and why, different soil beds and the  ancient practices of migrating seedlings to proper soil, adaptation to improving the soils  instead of moving from one place to another. We later moved to the garden to prepare plots  for crop production. 

On the third day we continued with soil preparation, and then planted the seeds, green beans, rape and spinach.  

On day four, we learnt about mushroom production in response to climate change, the positive impact it plays in mitigating climate change and its health benefits. We later prepared our Mushroom  bed and built a shelter around it to provide shade because the mushroom does not need direct  sunlight. We learnt all these from Mme Ntsoaki Sekhesa, a former lecturer and a farmer.

Day five  was food preservation and storage day. Food waste in environmental issues needs to be  abolished, so there are ways that food can be preserved which include drying of food and  bottling of foods. The practical preservation exercise that was done was bottling of carrots  which will be used at a later period, bottles used to preserve were recycled as they were used  differently from their initial purpose.

On Day six the  home gardening team attended the church service to acknowledge and show appreciation  to the church as they had been given land to grow their foods (exhibition site). The team was  asked to introduce themselves and to share the purpose of the project, which they did  beautifully, and later went and irrigated the production.

Day seven was  tree planting day, the home gardening team visited Hoohlo Primary school where  an orchard was established, the trees planted were different varieties of apples, the purpose of  the tree planting initiative was to produce apples which can also be tried and stored for future  purposes, as continuation of preservation lessons.

On day seven we continued with  the  tree planting initiative. The home gardening team went and visited Thaabe  Primary School and planted trees which had been donated by the Ministry of Environment

On the last day of the home gardening project, home gardening team engaged with Mother’s Union  Guild in establishing an orchard for the Cathedral Church of St James and St Mary’s. The  project served the same purpose, growing food, which can be consumed as fresh fruits and  can also be tried and stored for future use.

The home gardening project became a success as the lessons have been passed that food can  be grown in the back of our own homes which will reduce the amount of money spent each  day on food. The cost of living is now high, and the ability to grow one’s own food is a  lesson all of us need and its also good for the environment as the environment takes care of  us.

Thapelo Lipholo

Project Facilitator: Senate Lerotholi

We are grateful for the support of Green Anglicans and the United Thank Offering Grant

Photo credit – Eco Culture  

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