Farming God's Way - Growing Nations Conservation Agriculture


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Farming God's Way

August Basson and his wife Anita moved to the remote village of Tebellong in Southern Lesotho as AIM missionaries in 1993. After many years of pastoring the church there August felt that he wasn't making a difference and began to question whether they were in the right place. He started to realise that he couldn't get through to a congregation who came to church every Sunday hungry but had no idea what to do about it as one poor harvest followed another and the soil in the fields was visibly being washed away by erosion.

After learning about Conservation Agriculture and subsequently being introduced to Brian Oldrieve, the founder of Farming God's Way, August trialled some of their Conservation Agriculture methods in Tebellong and was amazed at the results. Initially many people thought he was crazy but the success of his crops was plain for everyone to see. August began to teach his congregation about Farming God's Way.

The work started with the congregation and local farmers in Tebellong but it wasn't long before the word spread and August and a team of trainers began teaching others over a much wider area in Lesotho.

Part of Growing Nations Discipleship through Agriculture work is to influence key people who will be able to take the Farming God's Way message further. For many years Growing Nations have been teaching the pastors of the Lesotho Evangelical Church in Lesotho about Farming God's Way to enable them in turn to teach farmers in their local areas about the benefits of Conservation Agriculture. More recently, following their move to Maphutseng, a formal training programme has been established by Growing Nations for Pastors and farmers in Lesotho. Growing Nations have also been teaching Farming God's Way internationally too, in Kenya and Chad, alongside Tim Bannister, Andrew & Sue Faber and Craig Sorely through the organisation Care of Creation Kenya.

At a time when there is great concern in the world about climate change and food security, Farming God's Way is teaching farmers how to care for their environment whilst increasing crop yields, locking carbon into soil and reducing soil erosion. It is also teaching key business skills and providing hope for the future.

Grant Dryden, August Basson, Wilhelm Els and Carl Schmidt are the stewardship team for Farming God's Way in Africa. More details about Farming God's Way can be found on their website.

Brian Oldrieve, the founder of Farming God's Way, is currently rolling out Foundations for Farming in Zimbabwe.




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