What is it that causes a man to do the right thing and do it consistently? For we know that it is not possible to be fruitful without being faithful to the task. To achieve something worthwhile there must have been a consistency of effort. I am directing these questions to a young man named Xolani (Mr X to his friends) because he recently accomplished something I thought was quite impressive.
From his 60m x 19m plot of land behind what used to be a sports club where he goes for church, he reaped a harvest of 11 x 50kg bags of maize(4.8 tonnes per ha). This is too much food for one man, so some of it went back to his rural home to feed people who own a lot more land than he has access to!
So of course I wanted to know how he had achieved such a feat. It’s all about faithfulness, he said. Most people want to accomplish the fastest work in the shortest time possible – and we call this efficiency. But real fruitfulness is a combination of knowing what to do, and doing it well. Most of the time this is a slow process. Knowing what to do is as important when it comes to farming as anything else – there is a common fallacy that anyone can farm. It is true that we can all dig holes and put seed in the ground. But there is so much more that most of us are simply unaware of.
I will let Mr X tell the story:
“When I first began clearing the land behind the church, the Pastor actually suspended a service so everyone could help me weed and clear a big part of the garden. This was very encouraging to me, but it also shows that when we step out to do something others think is good, it will be appreciated.
2 hours a day
“Maybe it’s important here to say that farming is not my day job, I am in fact employed, doing the usual 9-5 with everyone else. But that’s the beauty of this method – anyone can put in two hours a day around his job and achieve exactly what I did. The issue is planning, and following the steps at the right time. The key steps are not at all complicated – keep the field weed-free, measure out the field and dig the holes in time, be ready to plant by November 25.
“Our winters are dry, so it’s easy to do the preparation work then – and I spent no more than two hours a day collecting the mulch, weeding, preparing the compost, strengthening the fences and generally maintaining the field. This is very important, most people who do not reap a good harvest do not start doing anything until it starts raining – by then it’s too late.
“It’s been proved that for every day one plants late, 100kg of potential yield is lost. So if you plant in November you can achieve a potential 14t/ha, if you plan in Feb/Mar you are facing total crop failure, no matter how good the rainy season was. In fact most people can achieve at least 3tonnes per hectare simply by planting on time, even if they do not apply any of the other principles we teach.
Soil nutrients
“One of my favourite verses is Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the Lord with all your might and lean not on your own understanding.” When we see what God has given us in nature, we are truly without excuse in trusting him. When plants grow, they use up nutrients from the soil, and at the end of their cycle as they dry up they return those nutrients back to the soil. (That’s why it is important to weed, so that the weeds do not use up those precious nutrients).
“As the plants decay they become food for termites, and these too put back into the soil more nutrients, as well as other micro-organisms the live deep in the soil. By caring for nature and working with the cycle God has already given us, we find that the soil not only pays us back with good yields, but it in fact becomes better soil.
“Over a period of such caring even the water-table rises, and in fact in other parts of the world where this method has been applied, old springs that had dried up start bubbling again. This to me speaks of a generous God – we cannot exhaust his gifts if we steward them the way we are meant to. And I do not know another way to farm that leaves the soils richer for the next generation than when we found them!”
Actions follow desire
But knowing what to do is in itself only half of the story – knowledge alone has never changed anybody’s life unless it is acted on. But to act purposefully on knowledge with enough consistency to achieve results takes faith. As Mr X says, faithfulness is always the issue, and faithfulness is an inside story. It’s a heart issue – one cannot change from the outside in, only from the inside out. Actions follow desire, and desire is an internal thing. What closes the gap between the vision and the action is faith, believing that if I keep doing X I will achieve Y.
This is why, of all the activities that a farmer can undertake, winter weeding is so crucial. All the people I know who are achieving these high yields start their preparation on time. Whether we accept it or not, faith is crucial to a productive life. No one puts in all that effort to prepare in winter unless he has faith that his actions will result in a good yield. In this case, this is no different to any activity that people undertake – a businessman has to plan and invest way in advance and believe he will achieve what he hopes for.
It is for this reason that Mr X doesn’t in fact ‘train’ anyone in the sense that we understand the word. He speaks of ‘teaching by modelling’. As he explained: “In the first year when we enter an area, we don’t even teach – we do. Demonstrating is very powerful. People get curious and they ask – we answer them, and just keep going. It’s important that they see us weeding in the winter, because then they will understand what it took to achieve the crop we did.
NGO mistakes
“When everyone can see you harvest five or six tonnes from your field, those who are interested will come to you. And this is important, because then you attract those who genuinely want to do the work. A lot of NGOs’ make the mistake of offering free seed and fertiliser in the hope of attracting people and somehow motivating them to change their lives. This is starting from the wrong end altogether, the genuinely motivated will find the seed if they really want to farm.”
He said it was of concern to note that most NGO’s don’t seem to have an exit strategy. “I was talking to the CEO of Insiza rural council recently, and he tells me World Vision has been in his area for 25 years. This is worrying, it certainly cannot be development. Farmers who started working with OTC in 2009 are now helping the needy in their area, not needing food aid themselves. We know for instance that some farmers trained by World Vision, with our help, received 5kg of sugar bean seed and harvested up to 150kg. There is certainly enough there to save some seed for the following year, and not be queuing up for more seed again.”
Why work hard when it is free?
Development, as I understand it, it is an in-born, natural desire to better my circumstances. Therefore, no-one can ‘develop’ me. Development, like freedom, cannot be endowed by another. It must be earned, achieved by the one who wishes to develop.
It is in the very process of struggle and putting effort that ‘development’ happens. When we want something badly enough, we will make the effort. And it is not always true that people are on food aid because they have no choice.
Mr X asked certain villagers why they continue to receive free maize. They replied that that their soil was known to be better for sorghum than maize, but sadza from sorghum was not as nice as maize sadza, so there is no point in planting maize because it won’t do well, and they don’t really want to plant sorghum either.
And herein lies the issue – why work hard at farming when you can get free maize anyway? They could of course plant sorghum, sell it and buy whatever they need….
The story of Zimbabwe as the bread-basket turned basket case is one oft told. According to the UN we need more food aid this year. Are we a nation that has taken the easy way out and are relying on the world to feed us? And yet, if by putting in no more than two hours a day, a young man living in the city and holding down a fulltime job can produce just under five tonnes per hectare, the issue of food insecurity is certainly not one of lack of resources.
Post published in: News