Forest school
THERE’S LOTS TO LEARN FROM FOREST GARDENING, KENYAN STYLE, ON THE SLOPES OF A MOUNTAIN THAT STRADDLES THE EQUATOR
Nearly 4,000 small tea farmers in Kenya are part of a scheme to plant trees on their mixed-produce plots, which mitigate climate change through the carbon absorbed in their leaves. It’s funded by Yorkshire Tea, which receives carbon credits from its tea growers and supports the tea-growing community through funding other projects. This month it celebrates planting a million trees across Kenya and Yorkshire.
The story so far
Imagine a productive patch where the growing season lasts all year and rains fall at predictable times – a distant dream for those of us growing our own in temperate, damp northern Europe. The climate, soil and weather in the foothills of Mount Kenya produce these ideal conditions and enable a particular type of camellia bush to thrive. We know its leaves better as tea.
However, the drink we love to enjoy on a sunny bench while admiring our own garden, is under threat from climate change. Some 90% of Kenya’s tea gardens are smallholdings or shambas of less than an acre, producing tea that is processed locally and sold co-operatively, along with vegetables for the pot. “We grow maize, potatoes and beans for eating, not for selling,” says farmer Kenneth Mutuma. So, climate change doesn’t just affect tea but what we and our animals eat, too.” Needless to say, there are no climate change deniers among the tea growers of Kenya. Rains have been poor for the last three years and, by May this spring, had still not fallen.
The problem is being tackled in an impressive piece of joined-up action (see
TST issue 88) involving tea-growers themselves, the co-operative tea factories they sell through, an international charity, a carbon credit certifier and one of Britain’s biggest tea brands, Yorkshire Tea. »
Tree time
Tea growers have adopted forest gardening techniques; a method of low-maintenance and sustainable food production, based on how a woodland works, with fruit and nut trees, shrubs and perennial vegetables that can be useful to humans and each other. Joshua Gichuge Miugania, his wife Emily and their three children have 1.5 acres on steep slopes in the Meru region to the east of Mount Kenya. “We’ve lived here 30 years and since we began planting trees we’ve seen the difference. The trees stop the soil washing away.” In a small ravine, where slopes are too steep for tea bushes, the trees are dotted with roughly made wooden boxes, humming with bees. “I’ve got 280 hives now,” says Joshua, “Bees are good for pollination and our honey is delicious but unrefined so we sell it locally. Now we need a middle man, a factory to process it and make it a more valuable crop.” Like most people in this area, Joshua’s main income comes from tea, picked every day, “whatever the weather – we use an umbrella when it rains.”
One of his neighbours, a kilometre or two away along the network of red earth dirt roads that thread through these rural areas, is Patrick Kimathi, an enterprising farmer who saw early on how planting trees could help his farm and also be part of tackling a global issue. He was one of the first to join TIST (International Small Group and Tree Planting Program) that helps farmers work in small groups to plant trees, such as avocado, mango and macademia nut, that can provide both an income through their crops but also generate long-term payments as part of certified carbon credits. A single mature avocado tree can produce 2,000 fruits but they grow so quickly that they produce a
“It takes just five to seven years to transform a degraded landscape into a healthy forest farm”
first harvest at just two years old.
“I like planting trees as they change the environment,” says Patrick. “I have 500 now and plant more every time I can. Now I’m trying to persuade my neighbours and friends too, as they can see the difference it has made. They protect the tea bushes.” Other permaculture techniques make the most of his three acres, like covering a compost heap with leaves and branches to stop mosquitos breeding and using it to grow potatoes and pumpkins. Most tea growers keep a few goats, cows or chickens alongside tea and other crops, but Patrick recently went a step further, using the money from his carbon credit payments to install a biogas chamber. It diverts slurry from the stalls of his four cows into an underground container where the methane generated powers their gas stove, removing the need for his wife Priscilla to forage or buy firewood. Finally, the slurry is channelled downhill to manure the crops. Animal manure makes for good yields but there’s no space for grazing pasture here in the undulating foothills, instead every verge or spare spot is planted with Napier or elephant grass, which Patrick cuts as fodder for his cows. One of the most useful trees in the forest tea gardens is grevillea, which grows fast, straight and tall, makes a good windbreak and does not need much water. In times of drought, lower branches are pulled off and dried for cattle fodder. Other trees are grown as pest repellents, for medicine, to prevent erosion and sometimes, just because they’re beautiful.
Getting together
It’s a true co-operative project – farmers sell their tea via local factories. Through the Kenyan Tea Development Agency these factories have established tree seedling nurseries to support their growers.
It takes just five to seven years to transform a degraded landscape into a healthy forest farm. Dorothy Naiture knows this as a farmer herself, who started growing seedlings, literally on her doorstep to raise the money to buy her own plot. She now works for TIST, spreading the word to farmers who need persuading. “A lot of farmers we work with now have mature »
trees so are generating real income on top of the carbon credits. Farmers in Kenya have very little money and power, but TIST gives them that. We’re collectively responsible but also part of something that is internationally important.” Simon Hotchkin, head of sustainability at Bettys & Taylors, which owns Yorkshire Tea, explains why this project matters: “The trees we are helping to plant mean more than just income; they’re school fees and books, better nutrition and health.”
Just as important are the confident leaders, often women, and co-operation that have grown out of the scheme. In a dappled clearing a ‘cluster’ meeting of the Ukuu group is taking place – a monthly coming together of nearby small groups of tea growers to receive their tree payments and share ideas. After a rousing chorus and a prayer everyone settles on rough-hewn benches and their cluster ‘servant’ Mary Gitonga, speaking the local Kimeru language, gets everyone involved in a discussion. There’s a mix of women and men, parents and grandparents and a clear pride in being part of it. These smallholders may be new to the tree planting project but they are experienced farmers and what’s done well here can be shared elsewhere.
Mary says: “Now we use raised beds and pots for seedlings. Farmers dig holes for planting before the rainy season and put manure in them before they plant, which improves the chances of the tree surviving the crucial first six months.” Ensuring the trees really exist and are growing is vital to make the carbon credits genuine and therefore valuable. Mary is a quantifier – she visits a farm and using a basic phone and GPS she records every tree planted, who owns it and its circumference. When a group, made up of several families, has planted 500 trees they can be counted. “We’re selling something you can’t see or touch, so our data must be accurate.” And there’s a nice twist to the all-too-common global story of deforestation for farming. In Kenya, tea growers are putting more forest in than taking it out.
“Trees mean more than just income; they’re school fees and books, better nutrition and health”