Sustainable Agriculture School 2023, Arua Uganda

An observer once said about the training.  "This is more than helping people grow food successfully, this is about impacting families for generations."

Collaborating with Youth With A Mission, Uganda, Living Seeds Initiative created the Sustainable Agriculture School to equip people to engage in the complex issues of world hunger and poverty and bring hope and answers. 

Participants, primarily African nationals, gain applicable answers to food security issues, farming skills in sustainable, regenerative food production methods, and an understanding of a biblical approach to agriculture and life development. 

Students live, work, and study together in an intense 22 week course which uses a participatory approach combining classroom theory, group processing, and hands on learning techniques. The course addresses the integrated physical, social and spiritual dynamics of hunger, poverty, and resource stewardship through a biblical grid.

The foundational topics in the school include God’s view for life and agriculture, God’s view of hunger, food and poverty, God’s view of relationships, including His and our relationship with creation, soil/plant relationships, and numerous food growing techniques incorporating these ideas of relationships. Integrated into this is discussion on life issues, some related to the topic, some not.

Added onto this foundation we delve into topics of regenerative agricultural science and technologies, agroforestry, bee keeping, natural medicine, water issues, post harvest management, leadership development, integrating livestock, human nutrition, business development including each student developing a business plan for when they leave the course.

Life discussions that impact poverty and hunger are encouraged. Discussions and questions arise often during a teaching that reveal the common animistic world views and superstitions that have kept them bound. Do roosters lay eggs? Are cats actually demonic people? Do worms turn into snakes? If you break traditions of your ancestors, is your land cursed? If the soil is dead and worn out, must you sell and find new land? Understanding a biblical view brings hope and answers. The discussions are different each school and depending on the tribal heritage represented, can be civil or quite loud and passionate. Dynamics can get interesting. The experiences and transformations of former students, now staff, are key as the participants walk through these tribal world views.

Students grow their own gardens using methods that often are extremely new and challenging to their mindset. They also have a large demonstration plot area that they work together as a team to cultivate as they would in a small farm setting. Former students serve on staff to coach and help process the new farming approach. This practical time is invaluable to their growth and the change we see in their mindset over the 22 weeks is truly amazing. Their awe and excitement of seeing the yield increase of their crops is extremely rewarding.

In this live-learn environment, students also participate weekly in small teams where they collaborate with a local community to teach what they are learning. Weekly debriefs and processing of their village visits further equip participants with confidence in farming, community development and leadership principles and prove extremely valuable as they return home with the new ideas and methods.

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