Food Forests to Help Rural Zimbabwe

 Helping Rural Zimbabwe out of poverty and reliance on State hand Outs { a means of control and influence}

What is a Food Forest…? A food forest, also called a forest garden, is a diverse planting of edible plants that attempts to mimic the ecosystems and patterns found in nature. Food forests are three dimensional designs, with life extending in all directions – up, down, and out.

Generally, we recognize seven layers of a forest garden – the overstory, the understory, the shrub layer, the herbaceous layer, the root layer, the ground cover layer, and the vine layer. Some also like to recognize the mycelial layer, layer eight (mushrooms). Using these layers, we can fit more plants in an area without causing failure due to competition.

Forest garden design can reduce inputs in various ways, including:

1.     Placing emphasis on trees, shrubs, perennials, and self-seeding annuals,
2.     Planting thickly and using ground covers to shade soil and suppress weeds,
3.     Utilizing nitrogen-fixing and nutrient-accumulating plants, chop-and-drop techniques, and returning wastes to the land to create healthy soil rather than applying fertilizer,
   
4.     Planting a diverse array of plants that attract beneficial insects to pollinate the fruit crops and keep pest populations from exploding and causing damage,
5.     Utilizing several ground-shaping techniques to keep rain water on the site, and
6.     Designing for placement of plants to create micro-climates and windbreaks.

10+ years and still going strong!
Over the past 10 years, Greening The Desert demonstration site and education centre, located between the villages of Al Jawfa and Al Jawasreh in the Jordan River Valley, has exemplified the imperative impact of a permaculture integrated approach in an arid climate. Incorporating organic agricultural production, water and waste management, soil amelioration, renewable energies, environmental sustainability and ecosystem diversity, it provides a unique model for self-sustainable farming. Hit play to se a slideshow timeline of how it all happened.

BAMBOO: - NEUTRAL CO2 EMISSIONS MISSION
Sustainable Technologies found a method called AFADS.  Anaerobic + Phyto-depuration + Aeration + Solar Distillation is their equation for neutral CO2 Emissions in the Food Industry tackling wastewater.

Bamboo grows four times faster than most plants as well as takes in more carbon than trees. Additionally bamboo will reduce our extreme pressure on the forest by being a substitute alternative for wood in furniture, floor panels, fiber panels, and many other products. Bamboo’s high intake of water makes it a good choice of Phyto-depuration. Consequently, wastewater treaterd using bamboo can then be taken for ferti-irrigation.

    Up to 100 ton/year/ ha of dry biomass 373 tons of CO2 fixed ha/year (1)
THE EU PROJECT BRITER-WATER
Frédéric Panfili of France’s Phytorem is the project’s scientific manager. This system is designed to use Phyto-depuration to treat greywater and blend it into the surrounding landscape.

    “From an environmental point of view, the discharge of water containing high amounts of organic matter in aquatic media can lead to excess oxygen consumption, favouring the proliferation of anoxic micro-organisms, causing bad odours and, in extreme cases, the death of fish.“- Frédéric Panfili (2)