Care of Creation Kenya

Connecting Broetje Employees and Partners to the Fruits of their Labor...One Fruit at a Time.

We recently visited Care of Creation in Kenya where we learned about "Farming God's Way." In the midst of horrible drought and famine, farmers who are using this simple approach are growing healthy crops and finding themselves able to feed their families without dependence on foreign aid

Care of Creation Kenya

Operating since 2003, Care of Creation Kenya (CCK) has worked to address environmental degradation, and the hunger and poverty it causes, by discipling and mobilizing the Church to glorify God in caring for creation.

Their work focuses on three central actions: developing a tree-planting culture in Kenya; harvesting rainwater; and equipping farmers to protect and improve the productivity of their lands through a biblically-based approach to conservation agriculture. Based on the central premise that God is the First Farmer, CCK seeks to build agricultural systems modeled after the beauty and divesity that we see in the Garden of Eden.

Craig Sorley, founding director of CCK, grew up in East Africa and witnessed first-hand the destruction of forests along the Rift Valley. He operates a training facility and demonstration farm here to teach "Farming God's Way" -a methodology now used and taught in developing countries around the world, including South Africa, Zimbabwe and Brazil.
Farming God's Way promotes low-tillage agriculture combined with heavy mulching to nurture the soil and preserve moisture. Plows, fertilizers and pesticides are replaced with piles of mulched corn stalks, weeds, and other materials to create a heavy blanket around the plants.

In the picture on the left below is a plot of onions farmed "God's Way." On the right is the conventional approach. In a country struggling for adequate food and water supplies, the way seems clear.



We visited a farmer to see the impact of such teachings. Simon lives in one of the IDP camps near Kijabe. After the post-election violence forced him and his family to flee their home in 2008, Simon settled in this camp and was given a small plot of land to farm. He recently harvested maize, using Farming God's Way methodology. Comparing his 290 maize plants to his neighbors 290 maize plants, Simon produced a yield that was 5.9 times higher. Truly micraculous! He is now growing beans the same way, using the left over corn stalks as mulch.

Although the methods are simple, most farmers use conventional techniques of heaving plowing and pesticides to clear the land because that is what they know. As forests are further depleted, families are forced to burn corn stalks and cow dung for cooking fuel, further depriving the soil of nutrients. The resulting loss of moisture and soil depletion decimates productivity. In times of drought, like Kenya has experienced for the last three years, families go hungry and become dependent on food relief.

To instill a new way of thinking into the minds of Kenyans, Craig has learned to start early. In addition to training farmers, he is working with 6 of the 13 primary schools in the district, distributing tree seedlings and preaching the importance of caring for God's creation in all its diversity.
We delivered a new batch of seedlings to Old Kijabe Primary School. Each day these students hand water the baby trees next to their school. By so doing, a new seed is planted in the hearts and minds of these children. As they care for the trees, they learn to value creation in all its diversity.

While we mourn the loss of Wangari Maathai this week in Kenya, we are hopeful that her legacy will live on in these children.

For more about these programs, visit Care of Creation Kenya.