permaculture advocate in Zimbabwe - too little/too much rain

The core principles we managed to extract are, Self-sufficiency, People care, Accountability, Reinvestment and Health consciousness.

AIMING FOR SELF SUFFICIENCY: - There is no doubt that this works in stabilising the economy, alleviating poverty or minimising the impact of hunger. The period just before 1980 proved that an earnest effort put in using available resources and reinvesting profits, to provide for the daily necessities, works. But it has to be coupled with other principles in order to create sustainability, for instance, in the late 70s, growth of the economy was affected by war and sanctions, because the principle of people care had not been given much consideration. The other contributing factor to the reduced rate of economic growth was beyond anyone’s control, a ‘global recession’.
LACK OF FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY:-
This is made clear by a continuously growing high budget deficit since after independence. It does not matter whether the intention is a good one or a bad one, as long as more is being taken than is coming in, the end is always a deficit.  For example redistributive objectives were a great move, but they could have looked at a bite sizeable and realistic approach until they could afford to finance a bigger aim. Then a more self-centred act was the failure to adjust expenditure because of fear of political unpopularity. All the other things which occurred and further crippled the economy, are more of effects of the desperate environment caused by over spending, against minimum production, and a motive which drove away attention from productive activities. This led to actions that were not, well thought of or fully assessed and some ideas would be partially implemented and again lack of people care increased as the decades progressed and this brought back sanctions. Decline in input availability, collapse in savings and investment, high production costs…etc., are some of the products of this environment.
HEALTH
We need to put some conscious effort in aiming for a healthy lifestyle, in the food we eat, how we keep our environment…etc. We need to strive for more than just feeling our stomachs. The HIV/AIDS pandemic reduced the human capital and left a considerable number of dependence and this negatively impacted productivity. This is one example of how health has a great impact on sustainability.

We constantly witness similar decisions at a micro level, as at the national level. We barely make well informed assessments of critical things, from basic things to small business start-ups and income generating projects, and they almost always flop or never grow into long term businesses (in any field). Examples:  A need to fit into a certain lifestyle at all cost, has seen a boom in the building of big houses and buying of cars, and no attention is paid to what the pocket can truly afford. We are also sometimes expected to care for extended family without consideration of whether it is sustainable or not. These are just but a few examples of how we are all at fault both at macro and micro levels in the ability to account and balance our expenditure vs. our income be it, it is for a good cause or a selfish gain.
As for self-sufficiency and health, currently, having a lot of money and “looking successful” takes precedence.
The greatest thing about the above is all these things are very achievable though at different degrees maybe depending on exposure, coupled with economic and social status.

We now have the virus in our country and today the prices have started rising and basic commodities are starting to run out as borders around us are closing, all of the effort from the past years is paying off now. We might have other issues to deal with but we have enough food from the plot, for a couple months.

Panic buying of food and supplies has been a real issue where I live, and we don't even have much of a problem with coronavirus here yet. So being able to grow some of your own food will put you into a better position than your neighbors, as long as you can control theft.

But if there is a staple you are short on, you may wish to buy some now before it becomes impossible to find or the price becomes unaffordable. Where I live, rice is a staple which I don't happen to grow. I don't use much rice myself, but most people here do and they rely upon it. Right now the stores have no rice and have not for a couple of weeks now. A couple of weeks ago I was lucky to be at a store that was unpacking a shipmemt of brown rice in 5 pound bags. I bought a bag for my farm wwoofer......there was a limit of one bag per customer. The few minutes I was in that store, I saw all the rice get purchased. There was none left. I'm sure not everyone buying that rice really needed it, but they are panicked and afraid that they will run out. As a result, there is none left for people who really need it. This same sort of thing is happening with toilet paper, paper towels, disinfectants.

I am lucky because I grow or trade for much of our own food. Most of my trading system has collapsed because, again, people are hoarding food. But I grow enough to last us many weeks, if not months. My wwoofer has foraging and hunting skills, so he will do ok too even if food is scarce in the stores.

I am seeing firsthand the benefits of producing food for oneself!

Rufaro Makamure wrote:We now have the virus in our country and today the prices have started rising and basic commodities are starting to run out as borders around us are closing, all of the effort from the past years is paying off now. We might have other issues to deal with but we have enough food from the plot, for a couple months.

It's good to see that you're covered on at least the basics. I'm hoping that after the dust has settled again your community will see the literal fruits of your labour and also adapt their way of life.

Su Ba wrote:Panic buying of food and supplies has been a real issue where I live, and we don't even have much of a problem with coronavirus here yet. So being able to grow some of your own food will put you into a better position than your neighbors, as long as you can control theft.

But if there is a staple you are short on, you may wish to buy some now before it becomes impossible to find or the price becomes unaffordable. Where I live, rice is a staple which I don't happen to grow. I don't use much rice myself, but most people here do and they rely upon it. Right now the stores have no rice and have not for a couple of weeks now. A couple of weeks ago I was lucky to be at a store that was unpacking a shipmemt of brown rice in 5 pound bags. I bought a bag for my farm wwoofer......there was a limit of one bag per customer. The few minutes I was in that store, I saw all the rice get purchased. There was none left. I'm sure not everyone buying that rice really needed it, but they are panicked and afraid that they will run out. As a result, there is none left for people who really need it. This same sort of thing is happening with toilet paper, paper towels, disinfectants.

I am lucky because I grow or trade for much of our own food. Most of my trading system has collapsed because, again, people are hoarding food. But I grow enough to last us many weeks, if not months. My wwoofer has foraging and hunting skills, so he will do ok too even if food is scarce in the stores.

I am seeing firsthand the benefits of producing food for oneself!

Without the general channels that you're selling to, are you now more into processing the production on location so you can sell it afterwards?
I'm in a comparable situation right now, also on an island that depends on tourism and on those same flights a lot of fresh shipments are also coming in. I'm happy that after the border with Venezuela closed a few years ago there was at least some realisation that there needed to be more local production so some old market gardens got a boost. At least the shelf stable and frozen staples can still come in via container ships, so even though the menu will be limited nobody should get hungry.

[quote=Johan ... I'm in a comparable situation right now, also on an island that depends on tourism and on those same flights a lot of fresh shipments are also coming in. I'm happy that after the border with Venezuela closed a few years ago there was at least some realisation that there needed to be more local production so some old market gardens got a boost. At least the shelf stable and frozen staples can still come in via container ships, so even though the menu will be limited nobody should get hungry.

Hi Johan, this is off-topic ... but I am curious. I can only find you are from the Netherlands, but here you tell about being on an Island and the border with Venezuela. Is it Aruba or Curaçao? I know some of the permaculture people at Curaçao (for some time I had the idea of moving there too), that's why I ask you.

Inge Leonora-den Ouden wrote:[quote=Johan ... I'm in a comparable situation right now, also on an island that depends on tourism and on those same flights a lot of fresh shipments are also coming in. I'm happy that after the border with Venezuela closed a few years ago there was at least some realisation that there needed to be more local production so some old market gardens got a boost. At least the shelf stable and frozen staples can still come in via container ships, so even though the menu will be limited nobody should get hungry.

Hi Johan, this is off-topic ... but I am curious. I can only find you are from the Netherlands, but here you tell about being on an Island and the border with Venezuela. Is it Aruba or Curaçao? I know some of the permaculture people at Curaçao (for some time I had the idea of moving there too), that's why I ask you. I'm currently on Curaçao indeed! Although temporary so I'm not starting too much other than several fruits and veggies in pots in the garden. I visited a few plots out of interest and give keep my coffeegrinds separate for one of them because the ground could use a bit of PH tuning, but for the rest I'm not too involved. Although what I did saw brings me hope, with the right design people are producing ridiculous amounts of produce.

    Sorry if this is misplaced advice, I don't have the endurance to read through the whole thread. Here's my two cents: using the three sisters (maize, beans, and squash) is more sustainable and diverse than maize by itself, and added to these can be: amaranth between rows of corn, it helps to shade the ground, its good for eating or chicken feed, it makes great chop 'n drop mulch, peas as a secondary nitrogen fixer, sunflowers to attract squash pollinators and improve maize yields, and daikon radishes, to repel squash pests (they do this when they flower) and improve the soil by "injecting" organic matter.
    I'm super impressed with your achievements. keep up the good work, and God bless you!

We have increased the amount of feed we put in chomolia beds. We have been using Russian comfrey, cow dung, goat manure together with compost we got from the kitchen compost.

The suckers we are planting are giving us less problems. We have also managed to grow beans on a small portion of the field and they are also growing well.

Rufaro, it is so good hearing from you again! I have thought about you frequently and have been hoping that you and your family were well.

Producing food appears to be quite challenging where you are. It sounds like you are having some success. Keep up the good work!!!

Thank you, we are all okay.

Yes, currently we seem to be getting a number of things right. It seems all the elements to grow food are available and the gap is in understanding how each component can benefit us.

We have been getting shallots, tomatoes, chomolia, spinach and beetroot from the kitchen garden. In some parts of the garden beetroots had stunted growth but for most plants, this was solved when we put in the compost. We have a number of beds we have successfully grown different plants together, and as a result, when we harvest one vegetable a bed does not go completely bare, but each bed always has something growing. It also reduces our waiting time before we can get a mature plant from our garden, for example, we had tomatoes in two beds and we are now harvesting the last fruits from the tomato plant, already the beds have carrots, onions and some pepper growing in them. One other benefit we might be getting from mixed planting is on pest control, there is a bed which had shallots, beetroots and cabbage, which seems to have been badly attacked by a pest I do not know yet, after we removed most of the shallots from it (the pest ate cabbage and beetroot leaves). A bed just adjacent to it has spinach, beetroots and some carrots, but it was not attacked as much and we are suspecting that spinanch leaves could have played a role, they seem to have been chewed on a little bit and were left without much damage, which could have saved the beetroot leaves close by .  

Your garden looks really good. It's very challenging to grow in your environment, and it looks like you are doing a great job!

Rufaro Makamure wrote:One other benefit we might be getting from mixed planting is on pest control, there is a bed which had shallots, beetroots and cabbage, which seems to have been badly attacked by a pest I do not know yet, after we removed most of the shallots from it (the pest ate cabbage and beetroot leaves).  

Question. Have you considered using crushed eggshells as a deterrent? Since you don't know what is doing the damage, you may want to try it with a few plants. For some pests it works. Note that it also attracts birds in some cases, so take that into consideration.

We found a mount of black very rich looking soil/ manure, heaped by the road side, and it could have never come at the right time. We have been intensely feeding all our vegetable beds and I can proudly say things seem to have gotten back to when we started growing things on this land.    

Wow. Somebody discarded that?!

Great find!