Dry Farming

“For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my spirit upon your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring.” (Isaiah 44:3) 

A student shows me some plots next to an irrigation basin.

In a small way I’m seeing this in pools of water and the fruits of hard work in a thirsty land. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, one of the encouraging signs at the Bible schools is the effort to do “dry season farming.” This necessitates having a supply of water and a way to irrigate fields, which one of the Bible schools has been blessed with by the work of a former missionary there. But the school needed to get the solar pump and well back in working order after a few years of disrepair. Now that things are repaired, they also have to do the work of preparing the space and planting. Due to the low power solar system and the limitation of well water, they can’t irrigate a large space. But they can do decent sized garden plots for all the students and staff. 

After one of my classes I got a tour of the newly planted area and got to see some students and staff working. The best yield in the first few weeks has been lettuce in the shade, but tomatoes are coming, leafy spinach-like veggies for putting in sauce, and kasava which is a root vegetable with edible leaves as well. Some have planted banana plants as well with the hope they’ll spread. The irrigation system is basically to pump up water with solar power, fill four big cement basins that are spread through the gardens, and then manually take the water from the closest basin to your garden plot with buckets. Some of the gardens have already come up empty due to bad seed or weak soil, but we pray for a good yield in the coming weeks. These vegetables can be a great food supplement to the families who don’t have much else at this time of year and some can be sold for much needed cash.

An instructor waters his lettuce in one of the few shady spots.

-- El Padre