The house and garden
This plan is a layout for a home stand that is a part of a self sufficient food security farming system for rural areas in Southern Africa. It produces some cereals, a vegetable crop, some wood for cooking, fruit and nuts and poultry. It makes sense for people who are friends or relatives to specialize in different home products and exchange them with each other. In other words, there is no way that any one family could do all the things in this manual at once on their home stand. The ideal arrangement is that one family does some things and swaps produce with another family doing something else and so on.
It is typical for rural areas in this region to be divided into different functional parts. One is the village or residential area. The house and yard area is usually called the ‘home stand’ and can be up to a quarter of a hectare (50 metres long by 50 metres wide) or even bigger. This plan assumes it is a quarter of a hectare.
The other two areas connected to the village are cropping fields and community grazing (and woodland). It is typical for families to have an average of about a hectare of cropping land. The community grazing land is often as big as the total area of all the cropping fields and may be even bigger. These other areas are essential to construct a fully self sufficient food secure rural lifestyle. This manual just considers the home stand. When there are local names here they are mostly Tsonga, which is the language where I learned them.
The house
I have drawn the house at a pretty typical size for rural areas. It is 9.4 metres by 5 metres with an extra two metres projecting at the front. Some people’s houses are smaller than this. The patio wings are to collect rain and to provide a comfortable outdoor space. The roof surface of the house and patio area is 124 square metres. With 630 mm of rainfall per annum, this would be enough to fill a tank of about 15 thousand litres and provide an average supply of water throughout the year of 150 litres per day. Probably the easiest thing to do is to make a smaller tank for washing and cooking use (about 5,000 litres) and run the rest of the water through a pipe into a pond of 10,000 litres, lined with black plastic or cement (see below). This would provide a reasonable amount of water for gardening as well as domestic use. The domestic uses of water that are typical of rich country living are absent in this context. There are no flush toilets. Washing is by hand; bathing is carried out with sponges and plastic basins.
The pergola is on the north side where large windows allow the sun to come into the house in winter. However, grape vines on the pergola shade these windows in summer, keeping the house cool. The pergola is constructed of eucalypt poles and rafters with fencing wire to make a trellis for the grape vine.
The construction method for the house is that which is typical in South African rural areas. The floors, including the floors of the patios are of poured concrete, polished with wax. Walls are concrete bricks, plastered and painted on the inside. Roof beams are eucalyptus poles and there are pine rafters. Roofs are corrugated iron, which should probably be in the rustproof colourbond, which is now used in Australia for housing. There is no ceiling insulation. Windows are framed with iron. Houses like this are reasonably cool in summer – the shade from the pergola and the thermal mass of the concrete floors will keep temperature down.
More wealthy people in the villages would probably want a bigger house than that drawn here. The area intended for the patio could be taken up with further rooms and more patio space added. The tank could also be expanded. Typical recent designs for more expensive houses include a multitude of roof angles. These are difficult to fit with guttering for tanks, so these jumbled roof angles are not really a good idea for water collection.
Middle class households with multiple jobs may not find the time for all the gardening implied in this plan. In the village communities they could still use their home stands by hiring help, or opening them up to relatives for gardening. These kinds of arrangements are quite common. Another option is using their stands as a woodlot to supply wood to the community.
White ants
White ants or termites are a definite possibility. They are much more likely if a house is not being used. Pounding with a large wooden pestle – as is done when people grind maize – is probably very effective in keeping them out of the house and garden.
Yard and Gravel entrance
The ‘drive’ or cleared area as you enter the house is made from a very coarse sand and clay mixture, what is usually called ‘road base’ in Australia. The drive should be cambered like a road to make water run off to the sides, and channels with rocks should be placed around the edges. The lawn on the north side of the house is another area of open space. The rest of the yard, under the trees, should not be kept clean of weeds, but should be maintained with whatever ground cover establishes itself. To keep it tidy and collect mulch for the compost, these areas under trees can be slashed. The point of this strategy is to keep the surface soil moist and healthy by maintaining a constant cover of vegetation. This will help a lot to speed up the establishment of trees. The aim is to build soil quality. Leaves and twigs dropped from trees should be left where they fall, not tidied up and certainly never burned. Some leaves and branches will go in the compost or be cut for firewood or used to mulch the vegetable and maize patch. What should be weeded out are species with burrs. These should be pulled up and left on the ground as mulch – before they have set seed.
The hedge
| Plants for fences and hedges | |
| Aloes for example Aloe ferox | Jojoba |
| Boxthorn (Lycium ferocissimum) | Plectranthus barbatus |
| Bambusa bambos – Giant Thorny Bamboo | Sisal |
| Cestrum parqui – Inky, Green Cestrum | Yellow bells (Tecoma stans) |
| Euphorbia tirucalli | |
| Gliricidia sepium | |
It is difficult for villagers in South Africa to afford to buy the materials to make a fence to keep out goats and cattle. But if you do not have a fence, livestock will destroy your garden. What works best seems to be to put in as many iron standards and as much barbed wire as you can afford and to supplement this with a living hedge of plants that will keep out goats. Reinforce this with sticks and thorny branches. The following plants are typical for hedges in the villages in South and Eastern Africa. Golden bells (Tecoma stans). This will grow from cutting or seeds. It creates a dense hedge which goats do not like to eat. Green Cestrum (Cestrum parqui). This will also grow from cuttings and seeds. It is a poisonous plant but the awful taste of the leaves will almost always stop goats from eating it. Boxthorn (Lycium ferocissimum). This is a thick thorny hedge. Eurphorbia (Euphorbia tirucalli). A kind of cactus-like plant often grown as a hedge. Grow from cuttings. Glyricidia sepium. Can grow from cuttings. Makes a kind of growing fence if these are placed close to each other and reinforced with cut branches woven between the stalks. Often used in Asia as a fence. Jojoba. Another plant that is poisonous and animals do not like to eat it. Plectranthus barbatus. Easily grown from cuttings and forms a dense soft hedge of leafy growth that goats do not like to eat. Sisal. Spiky cactus that can be grown in combination with Euphorbia to make a composite hedge.
Some of these plants are defined as weeds in South Africa but they are also well established as hedge plants in the villages. I very much doubt whether any government program will succeed in eliminating these plants from the villages where they are now established. I do not think these weedy plants are that likely to invade patches of indigenous woodland. In the villages I visited, these plants had not gone wild outside of the villages. The absence of nutrients and rainfall sufficient to establish them on the veldt seemed likely to prevent this. My point in recommending these for home stands is that they are very available, easily grown by villagers from seed or cuttings, and have a range of uses on home stands.
The hedge should be trimmed to about 1.4 metres so it works to protect the maize crop from winds, while allowing sun in to the northern section of the garden. Ideally the best idea is not to start putting in fruit trees until you have established this goat proof hedge around the home stand. That is why quick growing hedge plants are a very good idea.
OR fence
This diagram shows the kind of fence you would construct if you had enough money to buy all the iron standards, the chicken wire and fencing wire required. This is certainly the quickest way to protect your garden. A living hedge takes longer to get working.
The perimeter fence around the home stand must be strong enough to withstand cattle, pigs, goats and poultry. Consequently I am suggesting a total height of 1.9 metres. The top 30 cm is above the last of the wires holding the fence in place. As a result it flops and does not provide purchase for chickens or other animals to climb. At the bottom of the fence it is probably necessary to lay rocks to weight the diamond mesh. Or it could be pegged down with large iron pegs like those used for marquees. These devices are to prevent chickens and goats from pushing or digging their way under the fence.
The mesh itself is strong fencing mesh (7.5 cm sides for each cell). The corner posts are either eucalyptus, robinia or prosopsis wooden posts (treated with creosote), or iron poles. Some varieties of eucalyptus are more durable in the ground than others. The other posts are iron standards that should be driven into the ground for about half a metre, with 1.6 metres above the ground. There are four fencing wires holding the fence mesh in place.
The patio
Patios are shown on both ends of the house in the house and garden plan. It is a kind of open verandah with a concrete floor. These are necessary to boost rain catchment from the roof area and also provide a convenient shelter and work space for the household. I have drawn the patio here with a concrete slab for the floor and eucalypt poles for the frame. I am suggesting that a galvanized iron stirrup set into the concrete be used to support the posts, with cross bracing providing stability for the structure. This is to avoid problems of white ants and damp rot destroying the base of the posts over time.
Cooking and kitchens
The most common arrangement for cooking in the villages is to use an open fire inside a thatched rondavel. An alternative is to cook outside and use a sheet of roofing iron as a low wall to protect the fire from winds. The problem with the rondavel kitchen fires is that kitchens end up dark, grimy with soot, and filled with smoke, which must be a health hazard. A lifetime inhaling smoke cannot be good. The problem with an open fire is that you are using a lot of wood. Projects in Africa have tried to deal with these problems by promoting rocket stoves or lorena (sand and clay) stoves. But after the project departs there is usually little commitment and neither of these designs have really taken off in the villages I have visited. Whatever the reasons for this lack of enthusiasm, I have decided here to suggest a simpler alternative that is more likely to be adopted. There is an ‘outdoor kitchen’, a rondavel with low walls and open sides. The fire is in the middle of the room and the smoke goes up to the top and then escapes around the edges. The open sides mean it is easy to see when you are cooking. Then there is the ‘kitchen rondavel’, which can be closed off. Here, the household keeps their cooking implements and pantry and sits on cold nights to eat.
The materials necessary to produce these designs will be supplied to poor people in the villages – the window frames and glass, fencing wire for ties, concrete and chicken wire to make the drain. Residents would supply materials such as the thatch, mud and cow manure. They would also construct these structures themselves.
The ‘kitchen rondavel’
Floor
The cheapest method of making a kitchen floor is to use mud and seal it with a wash of cow dung. Once this is dry it can be sealed again with a wax polish.
Door and Windows
Tall thin windows to fit into the curved walls of the kitchen rondavel would work well. They could have steel frames, as is common in villages, and be fixed, with circulating air coming through the open door. To keep the heat in at night, there are curtains which can be closed off. During the day, a large door on the north side is left open to let in some light and heat. This can also be closed at night.
Roof
This is the usual conical roof with thatch.
The spoon drain
Rondavels are identifiable with their thatched roofs. This gives very good insulation. However, it is a bit of a problem with guttering if you want to harvest rainwater from the roof. What is proposed here is that the water drops off the eaves into a ground level concrete spoon drain, 600 mm wide and 300 mm deep. These should be constructed with chicken wire mesh as reinforcing. They should be filled with stones to prevent loss of water from splashing and should drain around the rondavel, sloping down into the banana circle nearby. This banana circle is close to the kitchen, so kitchen wastewater can also be used on the bananas. This combination of the roof water and kitchen grey water provides enough to make a banana and pawpaw combination work well.
The ‘outdoor kitchen’
A lot of people cook outside even when they have a rondavel kitchen or an electric stove in the house. This is to save money on cooking, and also to avoid the smoke that builds up when you are in a rondavel. This is a design for an outside kitchen area where you do the actual cooking. It is like a rondavel but the walls are only a metre high.
This design uses the typical open fire normally used for cooking. The advantage for the cook is that it is possible to set up the fire and leave it to attend to other tasks, coming back every now and again to poke the wood in further towards the pot, as the ends are burned. Of course a design like this uses a lot of wood compared to a rocket stove. My view is that this kind of open fire is likely to remain the most popular option, for economic and convenience reasons. As a result, the problem of firewood shortage will have to be solved by providing adequate woodlots in the community grazing area. To be blunt, to harvest wood sustainably from an indigenous woodland, each family of six would need to have an area of about 7 hectares available for collecting fuel. Alternatively, the government could set up large forests and sustainably harvest them to provide firewood in the villages.
Cropping and vegetable options
Cereals and companion plants for cereal crops
| Cereals and companion plants for cereals: | |
| Bambara Nuts – Jugo Beans | Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) |
| Cassava | Sorghum |
| Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) | Squash |
| Maize | Sunflowers |
| Millett | Sunhemp |
| Mucuna pruriens – Velvet Bean | Sweet potatoes |
| Napier grass – Pennisetum purpureum | Vetiver grass for bunds |
| Peanuts | |
This is a comprehensive list of cropping options and includes good companion plants for the cropping fields as well as for the home stand.
While most maize will be grown on the cropping land, people in the villages almost always grow some in their gardens as well. These crops are mixed in with the usual summer vegetables, such as pumpkins, squash, cowpeas (sugar beans), beans, amaranth, Bambara nuts (jugo beans), guxe, nkaka, okra, or peanuts. In the dry winter season that is normal for most of South Africa, this area can be used for winter vegetables when there is water.
I have listed three companion crops that are good to put nitrogen in the soil. Mucuna, which forms a dense mat after harvest, when it is allowed to spread and take over. Pigeon pea, which also has edible pods. Sunhemp, which also deters the weed, Striga. All of these fix a lot more nitrogen than the edible legumes (cowpeas, peanuts) usually grown with maize.
For planting maize, I am recommending the conservation farming method. Dig a hole about the size of a cooking pot. Mix the soil with about a cup (a coca cola can size) of manure and a desert spoonful of lime powder. Put that back in the hole. Plant three seeds. When the seeds come up and are about 10 cm high, keep the strongest plant and pull out the other two. DO NOT make ridges for your maize planting. The aim is to let the rain water get into the growing maize plants. Mulch around the maize stalks and plant in your companion vegetables.
Vetiver and napier grass are used to stabilize a contour bank. They also can be cut to use as mulch (around plants or in the compost heaps). In cropping fields, you will want to construct big contour bunds (and ditches – swales) to arrest water coming down the slope and keep your fields moist in the dry season. In the house garden, you may fit in one or two, especially if they can be extended out of your yard to bring water from a nearby road or waste land.
Vegetables
The vegetables shown in the table below are not always the ones that people are likely to buy in the market. Many of the plants on this list are not promoted by ‘vegetable projects’ because they are hard to sell. However these vegetables are the ones that really work well for the climate and do not require watering after the seeds have sprouted. They hardly ever get pest attacks. When the spinach is dying because of the heat, the patch of blackjack and amaranth is looking very perky. These ‘ordinary’ vegetables are full of vitamins to make you healthy. Kovo is not grown much in South Africa (not like the rest of Southern Africa). In South Africa, everyone seems to be trying (without a lot of success) to grow drumhead cabbages. A job better left to commercial farmers with lots of expensive pesticides and irrigation schemes. Kovo is great because you just keep harvesting it through the whole of the year. When it starts to look old you just cut the long stalk into 15 cm pieces and plant these cuttings out again for the next crop! Kovo will survive dry conditions and come back firing on all cylinders when it gets a bit of watering or rainfall.
| Vegetables: | |
| Amaranth – tyheke (green and red) | Okra – mandande |
| Bidens pilosa – kukusa – Blackjack | Peanuts |
| Bambara nuts – deendloowa | Pigeon pea – thibonchis |
| Cassava – tsombola | Prickly Pear – Opuntia |
| Chilli – peri peri | Pumpkin |
| Chokos – chayote | Spider Flower – Cleome gynandra |
| Cow peas – mbaweni | Sugar cane |
| Garlic chives | Sunflowers |
| Green pepper | Sweet potato |
| Guxe – chorcorus olitolius | Squash |
| Kovo – a single leaf cabbage variety | Taro – marope/ matape |
| Lima bean | Tomatoes – cherry size |
| Nkaka | Watermelon |
All of the plants regarded as ‘wild food’ (imifuno) are terrific in terms of not having any pest problems – amaranth, guxe, blackjack and so on. But also some varieties of plants regarded as more cultivated garden species. For example small cherry tomatoes are less susceptible to pests than the most usually grown large tomatoes; single leaf varieties of cabbage (kovo) are easier to grow than drumhead cabbages.
Companion planting is used to stop pests. No chemical pesticides are used. They are too expensive for villagers and can cause health and other environmental problems. If a plant cannot readily be grown without pesticides it should be abandoned and replaced with another plant in the diet. Mostly, pests do not actually kill plants such as cabbages, but instead make them difficult to sell. This amount of pest damage does not have to be an issue for the home garden. A typical companion planting strategy used in South Africa is to establish a crop of onions and garlic and then interplant with other vegetables. Plants that deter pests are also an option – for example marigolds or mustard plants to deter nematodes, wormwood to deter insects. Plants that attract and house species that kill pests are also useful – for example borage to attract wasps, which will prey on caterpillars.
Leafy greens can be dried and saved for the dry season. This is usually called a ‘relish’ and added to various dishes. The vitamins in the leaves will last better if you dry these leaves in the shade. Make a little stand and a roof of leaves or branches to shade the relish as it is drying.
Mulch is prepared by trimming the hedge around the yard and by slashing the crops after harvest. This mulch should be placed on any area of the cropping patch that is not being used at any time. You can also plant into mulch which has been spread on the ground, pulling it aside to create a planting basin. The mulch protects the soil from drying out and gradually rots down to enrich and fertilize the ground. Compost and manure are also used to make the soil fertile. Green manure and cover crops can be useful in the home garden to enrich the cropping area of the garden. An intercrop of cowpeas is the most common nitrogen-fixing legume grown in this context.
The paths shown on the plan are to allow the soil to become soft rather than being packed down constantly by people walking on the garden. The paths should be wide enough so you can easily kneel down on them to tend the plants. The beds should be narrow enough so you can reach to the middle from either side – not more than a metre for each bed.
The vegetable and cereal bed will need extra protection from your chickens. One method is a short fence of sticks or chicken wire poking outwards from the bottom. As the chickens walk towards the vegetable patch they will walk under the fence and will find it hard to work out how to fly over it. It should be about half a metre high. The other method is just to close off the whole back of the garden with another hedge or fence to keep your chickens (and those from next door) out of your vegetable patch! See more on this later.
Trees
Shorter trees should go in the middle of the yard, and the larger shade producing trees on the south side of the house. The idea is that the sun on the north side shines straight on to the vegetable bed and cropping patch. Then the first trees to get the sun are the shorter trees (like bananas, naatches, guavas or pawpaws). Then on the south side are the really big trees (like macadamias or avocadoes or mangoes) that cast a lot of shade.
Trees are for wood, to fix nitrogen (leguminous species), for fruit and nuts and to provide habitat for birds.
Fruit and nuts
All fruit and nut trees should be planted with the following method which is time consuming but really works. Dig a hole that is one metre deep and one metre wide. As you dig up the darker soil near the top of the whole put it in a pile next to the hole. As you get down to the lighter coloured soil put it in another pile. Then fill the hole back up. The first bottom layer is the darker top soil from the first pile. Then add things that are going to help fertility like manure or mulch. Then at the end add some of the soil from the bottom of the first hole. Make a hole in the middle and plant the tree, without disturbing the roots. Water it in with two buckets of water. For the first year make sure the tree has at least a bucket of water every two days.
| Trees – Nuts and Fruits: | |
| Almonds | Loquat |
| Avocado | Macadamia |
| Banana | Malabar chestnut – Saba nut – Pachira |
| Black Monkey Orange – nkwakwa | Mango |
| Carobs | Marula – nkanyi |
| Citrus – Lemons, Oranges, Naatches | Mexican apple |
| Cluster fig – nkuwa –sirombe rombe | Mopane |
| Custard apple/African apple | Mulberry |
| Fig | Passion fruit/ granadilla |
| Grapes | Pawpaw |
| Guava | Pineapple |
| Jackal berry – ntoma | Prickly pear – Opuntia |
| Jambolan – dingkosi – Syzigium cumini | |
The more fruit trees of different kinds you can plant the more chance you have of getting plenty of vitamin C in your diet through the whole year. Fruit or nuts from your trees is the easiest kind of surplus to grow, so you can make some money from your garden – for example oranges, naatches, bananas, mangoes, avocadoes, macadamia nuts. It is usually possible to sell some of your crop at a little stall near the medical centre and any government offices or schools in your village. There will end up being more than your family could ever eat by themselves.
Other important trees for your yard
What has been found to be effective is to plant a mixture of slow growing fruit and nut trees with a nurse crop of fast growing nitrogen fixing species that can shade seedlings and help to make the soil fertile – for example acacias (any variety), leucaena, glyricidium. The roots of these legume trees put nitrogen into the soil which acts just like manure to fertilize your plants.
The leaves (and pods) of most of these legumes are also useful as food for your chickens. Some leaves also make good food for your kitchen. The best on this list for food are Leucaena (you can use the leaves as a vegetable and eat the young pods and seeds), Pigeon pea and Moringa. Moringa is very nutritious and grows quickly in this region. The leaves are delicious as a cooked vegetable.
The term ‘mulch’ is used to describe any leafy matter. This is what these quick growing legumes produce abundantly. You need mulch in your garden for two main reasons:
- Mulch is full of carbon and you mix a lot of this with a little amount of manure that is rich in nitrogen. It is this combination which works together to produce a rich fertile compost ready to add to your garden.
- You can also lay leaves from these trees on any part of your yard where the soil is exposed and needs protection from the sun. This will help to grow the soil organisms which make your soil fertile. The mulch will also retain water and keep the soil moist so soil organisms can live.
| Trees and shrubs for wood, mulch, fodder and to add nitrogen: | |
| Acacia mearnsii – Black Wattle | Leucaena leucocephala |
| Albizia species e.g. julibrissin | Mesquite (Prosopsis species) |
| Calliandra calothyrsus | Moringa olifeira |
| Combretum species | Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) |
| Crotalaria grahamiana | Sesbania sesban |
| Gliricidia sepium | Tephrosia vogelii |
While eucalypts or pines can be excellent species for a woodlot, they are not advisable for home stands where there is an intention to grow fruit trees. Eucalypts and pines use a lot of water and create chemicals in their leaf litter, which are toxic for other plants. This combination makes it difficult for fruit trees to become established near eucalypts or pines. Eucalypts and pine trees are also a fire hazard.
| Other useful plants: |
| Bamboo |
| Mopane |
| Neem tree – Azadirachta indica |
Bamboo is a very useful plant in home gardens. You can use the bamboo sticks to make all sorts of structures in the garden – fences, chicken houses, chicken runs and so on. You want a clumping variety of bamboo, not one that spreads through underground suckers and would take over your yard. The Mopane tree attracts the mopane worms that are so justifiably popular in villages in Africa. It would be great if they were planted along every street in the villages. This is a really effective way to increase the amount of protein that people are getting in their diets. The Neem tree is a useful species because the leaves deter insects. If you dry them you can drop them into your cereal storage bins (for example your maize granary) and they will deter pests. It is a big tree in the end, so a good idea to plant it on the street if possible. Protect the young tree from goats.
The banana circle
This design was invented by Bill Mollison, one of the two originators of permaculture (Mollison 1988). Here, as in Mollison’s original design, it is intended to make some agricultural use of the waste water originating from cooking, washing clothes and bathing. In this case, I have also attached the banana circle to the water coming off the rondavel roof. The idea is that the low depression in the middle of the banana circle creates a temporary pond when it rains. As the water soaks in, it provides ideal conditions for tropical plants such as bananas and pawpaws, which are planted on the edges of the bank or just outside the banana circle. The middle of the depression can also be used for water loving plants such as taro (madumbe). The banks can be used for water and shade loving ground covers such as sweet potato vines.
Mollison does not mention the possibility that this pond may harbour mosquitoes. What would prevent this? For a start, the water is just temporary and soaks in. As well, frogs and other small animals will clear up any problem like this. Nor do permaculture writers worry about the biological disease agents (pathogens) that may come out of grey-water. Why not? This contaminated water is used to grow vegetables, which are later eaten. So long as the outside of the vegetables is washed and they are boiled when they are cooked, this should not prove a problem. The bananas and pawpaws grown out of grey water do not themselves contain pathogens from the water that nourished their roots. One advantage of the design is that it contains grey water for treatment by soil organisms, rather than allowing it to percolate (with active disease agents) into the garden as a whole.
The Jenkins composting toilet system
In the garden and house plan, the toilet is located outside for privacy, in a small outhouse. The compost heaps are located nearby. This design comes from Joseph Jenkins’ excellent book Humanure (1994).
The basic principle of the system is heat generating, or aerobic, composting. All urine and faeces are deposited in a bucket. As you do this, you add soil, leaves or grass clippings to damp the smell. Every few days you take the bucket out and deposit the contents on a compost heap. You rinse the bucket out (dumping the water on the compost heap) and take it back to the toilet. On top of this, put a good layer of mulch which will be kept in a bin between the two compost heaps.
The mulch that is added to the compost heap to create good composting conditions is mostly waste garden matter – leaves and twigs, weeds, grass and hedge clippings. These constitute about 80% of the volume of the compost heap. Also what is added is kitchen waste and manure from chickens, if this is available. A bit of water needs to be added to keep the heap moist. In most cases the water used to clean the toilet bucket will be enough.
The compost heap creates enough heat and generates enough biological activity to kill all organisms that are dangerous to human health (pathogens) – bacteria, viruses and parasites (worms). The final outcome of the composting process is soil rich in nutrients to grow plants and safe for use. The length of time used in this system also acts to remove pathogens. A first compost bin is gradually filled for one year and then left to mature for another year before being used in the garden. Meanwhile, at the end of the first year, another bin is started.
One aim of a composting toilet system of this type is to re-circulate the nutrients that are in soil and are taken into food and then deposited as in the faeces and urine after digestion. For example, the elements nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. These elements are wasted and removed from the food cycle if human manure is sent to ocean outfalls or buried deep in pit toilets. In a composting toilet system this cycle is completed – food to humans to food again. This Jenkins compost toilet system is more convenient than pit toilets, less dangerous to health and more favourable to the environment. Human manure is also a cost free gardening resource that is too good to waste. It is difficult to buy chemical fertilizer or kraal manure if you are living on a pension or do not have full time work.
It is worth pointing out that all of the trees, ground cover and hedges suggested for this home stand plan make a lot of sense in terms of this toilet and garden fertiliser system. You need a big garden, lots of leafy branches and weedy ground covers to keep supplying this system with what it needs to make good compost. In turn, the system gets rid of human waste and provides a constant assistance to garden productivity.
Precautions
This system will only work if bacteria in the compost heap and soil organisms, such as worms, can do their work. Do not use bleach or disinfectants to clean the bucket. Just use water and a brush. Do not put any bleach or disinfectant on the compost heap itself. No Jik (bleach), no Jeyes fluid (carbolic acid), no Javel (bleach)!
The system needs to be constantly maintained by taking the bucket to the compost heap every few days – or more often if desired. You have to work to make sure there is soil (or mulch) in the bucket next to the toilet to cover the faeces. You have to make sure there is a big pile of vegetation ready for use next to the compost heap – so that you can always cover the stuff from the bucket when you take it to the compost heap. You need to be able to cover each bucket load with at least 20 cm of vegetation. At the end of every year you have to empty one of the two compost bins.
In my experience, in South Africa it is quite common for men to urinate outside and use the pit toilet only for faeces. A composting toilet system will work best if both urine and faeces are included. Most of the nutrients in human waste are in the urine! More moisture and more nutrients make the system work better.
Part A – the toilet
This is the design for the toilet itself, part B is the design for the compost bins (adapted from Jenkins 1994: 155).
The cabinet. This can be made from wood or even bricks stacked up. It is just a framework on which the toilet seat rests.
The frame. There is a hole in the frame, which is just big enough for the bucket to go through. The idea is that the top of the bucket is level with the top of the frame. When the toilet seat and the lid are closed, flies cannot get in and smells cannot get out. The frame is hinged at the back so that you can lift it up, along with the toilet seat, and take the bucket out.
The toilet seat and lid. This is just your standard toilet seat. It is screwed onto the frame at the back so the whole frame lifts from the hinge on the frame, with the toilet seat attached to it.
Bucket. This is a 20 litre bucket of the kind used in South Africa for carrying water. It could be 25 litres but it is only filled half way so it can be easily carried to the compost heap and does not build up odours.
Soil. A bucket of soil is kept next to the toilet. Every time you use the toilet you should cover the deposit with soil. A trowel should be left in the soil bucket for this purpose.
Part B – the compost bins
There are three compost bins. The two on the outside – (1) and (2) – are for compost heaps and the middle one (X) is to store vegetable matter (leaves, crop wastes, garden clippings, weeds) ready to be used on the compost.
Gradually fill the first bin (1) while the other one (2) is left empty. As the compost rots down it sinks in the bin. So the first bin is only full when the compost has sunk to the top of the bin. At this point start the second bin. Leave (1) for at least another year before using the finished compost. Continue in this fashion alternating the bins on an annual cycle. One is always rotting down while the other is being filled.
While I have drawn the compost bins here from the design in Jenkins’ book, they would also work reasonably well as three separated heaps on the ground. The advantage of the structure drawn here is that the wooden sides help to keep the temperature high by insulating the heap from cold winds. The sides also help the piles to keep moist. However a compost heap will also work quite well without any of this. The main thing is to keep it moist and make sure there is plenty of volume. A compost heap that is 1.5 metres wide and deep and at least a metre high by the time it has been completed will work better than anything smaller.
One way to test for moisture is the squeeze test. Squeeze some of the heap. It should feel moist, not wet. Like a damp sponge (Laffan 2000: 78).
Compost heaps should be placed on the bare ground – so that soil bacteria and organisms can start the process of composting.
Begin with a thick layer of coarse organic material including some small branches and twigs for this first layer – leaves, hedge clippings, and weeds. This first layer should be about 30 cm thick. Empty the toilet bucket in the middle and cover with another layer (about 20 cm) of coarse organic material. Also put in kitchen scraps as they become available. Keep this up until the first bin is full. Every week, move the material on the edges to the middle and rake the compost heap flat. The compost will sink as it rots down. The hot area where composting is taking place is always in the top layers of the heap. The bottom layers will start to cool after the composting process has finished. The bin is full when no more can be added.
The key to effective composting is to get a carbon to nitrogen ratio of 30:1. The way to get this is to mix ingredients with different carbon/nitrogen ratios. For example manure has ratio of 7 to 12 parts of carbon to 1 part of nitrogen. Straw has a ratio of 100 parts of carbon to 1 of nitrogen. Leaves are 60:1; paddock weeds are 20:1. This sounds very complicated. A rough guide is that coarse leafy vegetable matter should be at least 80 to 90 per cent of your compost heap by volume. My experience in South Africa is that most compost heaps have far too much manure and soil and not enough vegetable matter.
Iron star pickets or standards
In Australia, the iron posts generally used for fencing are called “star pickets”. They are triangular in cross section. In South Africa the most common equivalent is rail shaped in cross section and is called an “iron standard”. These should project out of the ground at least one metre and be spaced 1.5 metres apart on the corners of the compost bins. They should be driven into the ground 0.6 metres. Wooden posts such as eucalyptus fence posts could also be used.
Wooden planks
As said before, these sides made of wooden planks help to keep the compost heap warm but they should not be airtight. The idea is to let plenty of air into the compost heap to help with aerobic decomposition. The easiest method is probably to tie the wooden planks on to the standards with wire. Since wood is generally so scarce and planks cost money, chicken wire could work. To keep cold winds out of the heap, maize stalks or palm fronds could be woven through the chicken wire.
Rats and chickens (or dogs) may be considered a problem. They could spread some of the manure around the yard before it has been properly composted. This could be a health hazard. To prevent them disturbing the heap, the fronts of the bins can be closed off with chicken wire. A lid can also be constructed out of chicken wire and sticks that can be lifted off to get at the heap.
OR ‘Arborloo’ system
An alternative to a composting toilet that involves a lot less work and less contact with human manure is the Arborloo system.
This system has been designed by Peter Morgan (2007) and details for the construction of this variety are available from the website for his free book. Peter Morgan is an aid worker in Africa and the book provides many examples of work setting up this system in different countries in Africa.
He calls the design I am going to describe an “Arborloo”, meaning that a tree (arbor) will be planted in the location after its use for a toilet is over. This is a pit latrine. It should be dug about 1 to 1.5 metres deep and about 0.8 metres wide. Around the hole is constructed a ring of bricks, mortared into place with cement or clay and packed on the sides with dirt. The point of this ring is to stabilize the structure and raise the toilet pit off the ground, so that water will not drain into it. A strong ring of clay packed down hard could also work to provide protection from water draining into the pit. On top of this ring is placed the squat plate. This is a concrete disk about one metre wide so that it is wider than the hole for the pit. In the middle is a hole that you squat over. In the diagrams and photos for the site, Morgan shows how to construct the concrete disk. The first step is laying down a black plastic covering on the ground. Next, construct a ring of bricks as a mould for the concrete disk (a circle of bricks one metre wide). In the middle there is placed a plastic bucket with the bottom cut out. The bucket is squashed (and tied with string) into a pear shape to provide the mould for the squat hole. To reinforce the concrete, four pieces of strong fencing wire are laid across the disc in both directions before the cement and sand mix is poured in. Once the concrete disk has set you can roll it to place it over the hole. On top of this concrete disk, to complete the structure, a movable toilet room is constructed from poles woven together with a wall made out of grass stalks. The roof is a small thatched cone, like a small rondavel.
The method of using the Arborloo is simplicity itself. After using the toilet throw in about half a bucket in volume of dirt, ashes or mulch. A bit of each is good to create the best compost. Use the Arborloo for between six and twelve months until the hole is almost full. Then move the structure of poles and grass, and the brick ring and the concrete disk away. On the abandoned site, you fill the hole with about 30 cm more of topsoil. This can be left for a few months and then you can plant a small seedling for a tree in the spot. Underneath the manure will gradually rot down to form rich compost and the tree roots will grow into it. Meanwhile dig another hole, put in your ring of bricks, the squat plate and the pole and grass structure and begin again!
An alternative use of this structure is to leave the finished manure for twelve months to ensure it has fully decomposed and all pathogens are dead. Then dig it up from the hole and use it in your garden or on your cropping fields.
I like the Arborloo because it avoids any handling of composted human manure, which may well be regarded as disgusting. The tree-planting version of the Arborloo avoids this completely. You just plant a tree into normal topsoil. Even the version in which you dig up the pit after twelve months and use the compost creates a psychological distance between what you are doing and the “toilet” which is by now somewhere else. Clearly this kind of composting toilet would ideally be situated behind a screen of trees and shrubs to achieve privacy.
Tippy taps
In all cases toilets should be accompanied by what has been called a “tippy tap” (Brazier & Eden 2015). This is a large plastic juice bottle that has been filled with water. There is a small hole in the top so water can be poured from the bottle. It hangs by a string tied around the handle of the juice bottle. Another string around the neck of the bottle leads down to a stout stick. As you push down on the stick the neck tips down and the water pours onto your hands. There is a tray for soap next to the tap so you can wash your hands with soap.
The tank
Rainwater harvesting for food production by households is established in some parts of South Africa but it is far from common. In my experience fitted tanks are not always being used and do not always remain connected to guttering.
The design for the tank drawn here is based on those found in Water Harvesting by Pacey and Cullis (1999: 113). It has been modified to raise the tank off the ground by half a metre. This is to make it easy to sit a bucket under the tap. It is also to provide some water pressure for gravity feed from the tank to the garden beds with a hose. The other differences from the Pacey and Cullis design relate to the typical kind of bricks used in rural areas of South Africa. Although they are not a standard size a typical concrete brick is 44 cm long, 15 cm wide and 18 cm high. In this diagram, I have shown them laid on their sides, to maximize the strength of the structure. House construction with concrete floors and concrete bricks for walls is very common in rural communities, so the construction method for the tank makes use of this knowledge base.
In the house and garden plan, I have placed the tank on the NW corner of the house so that the tank can assist in shading the house from the western sun.
This tank is approximately 5 000 litres. According to Pacey and Cullis (1999: 60), a 30 square metre roof could fill a 5 000 litre tank if annual rainfall is 635 mm. The roof in these designs is 124 square metres which would certainly fill this tank and a big garden pond as well (see below). Clearly, the main consideration is the cost of concrete and bricks.
I am unsure of the typical cost of a tank like this. It would be expected that the householders themselves would construct the tank or they would pay for the labour. The cost to government would be the cost of the materials and training. Agricultural departments would provide training for beneficiaries – working on demonstration home stands in each village. In 2006, a 5 000 litre plastic tank cost R1 500.
A reason for using this design is that a tank like this can be constructed from locally available materials using skills that are widely dispersed in the community. Consequently it can also be repaired and maintained locally. Another advantage of this design is that it is ideal for a situation where you want to provide tanks on demand but do not want a whole lot to be supplied and never used. With this design, tank materials are supplied on demand but villagers themselves provide the labour to construct them or pay for the construction by local trade workers. So people will only apply for the materials and put in the work if they really intend to use and maintain the tank. So the actual cost of this design to government (or an NGO) is probably less than for a supply of plastic tanks, since tanks would only be installed to people who were really committed to using them. As well, delivery will be a slow process as the benefits of tanks that are properly installed and connected to adequate guttering and roof catchment gradually becomes apparent. All this will reduce the financial pressure on government or an NGO project.
I have shown this tank with an internal diameter of two metres and as 1.6 metres high. A circular shape is especially strong and rondavels made of concrete bricks provide a model for this structure. A concern with brick tanks is that the weight of water in the tank pushes the walls outwards. To cope with this I am suggesting fencing wire be stretched around the outside of the tank and mortared into place as the wall is plastered with cement.
Tank walls and foundations
These are made with concrete bricks laid with a mortar that is 1:2 cement/sand. Begin by excavating the trench for the foundations. A layer of sand is first. This is called “murram” by Pacey and Cullis. It is a mixture of coarse sand, fine gravel and clay. Build the foundations and wall up to the level of the concrete floor you are going to put in. Allow the foundations to set and backfill outside the foundations with soil. Inside, add the murram mix up to the floor level. Stamp it down flat.
Lay the concrete floor.
After this has set, build up the inner wall in stages. After each stage of the inner wall has set, tie fencing wire around the outside of the bricks in the wall and tie it tight. Keep doing this till the full height of the tank has been achieved.
Plaster the walls inside and out, first with a thin layer of 1:2 cement/sand, and when this has almost dried add another layer, to a depth of 15 mm.
The inside walls and the floor are finished off with a concrete slurry (water and concrete).
The tank walls and floor should then be cured for the next seven days. Pour water into the tank to a depth of 50 mm and keep the tank wet. The walls must be kept damp with wet hessian sacks, or by being sprinkled with water. The aim is to prevent the concrete from drying out too fast and cracking. As concrete sets, it takes in more water.
The tank should not be used for 48 days while the concrete sets – so concrete does not get into the water.
Tap
This should be installed as the bricks are being laid. It should be 8 cms above the concrete floor. The idea is that the tap is well clear of any dirt that may settle in the bottom of the tank.
Tank roof
This is constructed with timber rafters and corrugated iron. Ideally it should be mosquito proof so the underside of the corrugations must be filled with mortar – as is usually done with houses in rural areas. The tank roof should be sloped to let the rain off and so there are no puddles on the roof to take mosquito wrigglers. For this plan it would make sense to slope the tank to the west so water runs away from the house. The tank roof must be strong enough to take a person’s weight.
Intake filter
This should be a galvanised iron or plastic basin. If it is to be galvanised iron it could be constructed from galvanised iron sheeting or from corrugated sheets. It is perforated with holes (about 2 cm) in the bottom to allow water in. It is important that this entry be mosquito proofed. Nylon mosquito wire or shade cloth would work well. A scarf around the outside of the basin and a mat inside would be necessary. It would have to be held in place with stones or bricks. The basin is at least half a metre wide. The hole has to be large enough for someone to climb through to clean the tank every year.
Downpipe
This should be at least 100mm in diameter plastic pipe. It should be able to be pushed to one side if it is desired that the first flush of water after the dry season is to be discarded – to clean the roof without the dirt getting into the tank.
The gutter
This must be much bigger than most guttering used on houses now. Big downpours of rain must be collected in the tank and not overflow the gutters and vanish across the yard. So a 200 mm gutter is the minimum that will work well. If necessary this size of guttering could be constructed from corrugated iron sheets by a local welding shop. Ideally, appropriate sized guttering would be supplied and made available for home stands. The guttering must be fixed to the rafters with wire, making sure it is hanging securely and cannot be tipped sideways. It must slope down to the downpipe. An even slope is necessary to prevent water from pooling in the gutters and becoming a home for mosquito wrigglers. On the house garden plan, the downpipe comes from the western corner of the house, so that the whole length of the gutter is collecting water for the tank.
Wooden rafters
Generally houses in rural areas have rafters that are shorter than the corrugated iron roof, which normally stops at the edge of the wall. Consequently, there is not much chance of attaching the gutter to the end of the rafter. My suggestion is that each rafter is extended by nailing another section of wood firmly to the end of it. This extended rafter can then be used to hang the gutter. In new houses I would suggest much longer eaves, and rafters that project to take a gutter.
Overflow pipe
It would be a 100 mm plastic pipe located just below the rafters of the roof of the tank and be on the western side of the tank. When the tank overflows, the water would come through this pipe, falling to a concrete channel at ground level running to the garden pond. The end of the overflow pipe should have a piece of fly wire or shade cloth tied around it.
Maintenance tasks for the tank
This list of tasks is derived from that set out by Pacey and Cullis. They divide tasks into those that the householders themselves have to see to on a regular basis and occasional tasks, which may require some assistance from trained trade workers.
Regular tasks
- Sweep roofs and clean out gutters with a brush. Clear leaves from gutters and the intake basin. How often this needs to be done will depend on the number of leaves that fall on the roof. Trees that overhang the roof should be pruned back.
- Check the fly wire on the overflow pipe and the fly wire covering the intake basin to make sure both are in good repair and keeping out mosquitoes.
- Measure the water level in the tank with a stick poked into the hole for the intake basin. Leave the stick on the tank roof and do not contaminate it with germs by using it for some other purpose in the garden.
Occasional tasks
- At the end of the dry season empty the tank and repair any leaks if necessary. These will show up as wet patches on the outside of the tank. Use the same mortar mix as in the original construction.
- Clean out the bottom of the tank to remove any dirt or slime that may have accumulated in the year.
- Check that the roof, gutters and downpipe are all working well and have not come loose. Repair them if necessary. Make sure there are no spots in the guttering where water pools and mosquitoes can breed.
Ideally, local people would construct tanks. These would either be the householders themselves or local tradespeople trained by the departments. The departments would only supply the materials for tanks; they would not pay for the labour of construction. These local people could also be called upon to maintain the tanks and ensure that they are still working. If they were local tradespeople the motive would be to ensure that the system of water harvesting in their village is working well, creating a demand for their work in tank construction.
I am absolutely convinced that carrying out the regular and occasional tasks listed above will be quite sufficient to avoid health risks from tanks.
The Garden Pond
The garden pond is to take extra water that is not needed for washing and cooking and to provide water for gardening. This water is absolutely necessary to get seedlings and new trees established, but the aim should be that all established plants get by with the water that rainfall provides – with as little assistance as possible.
To make a garden pond to take 10 cubic metres of water (10,000 litres) you would need to dig a hole approximately three metres by four metres and 80 cms metre deep.
The cheapest way to line it to prevent the water seeping out is with black gardening plastic. Make the hole curved so the plastic can easily stick to the sides – for example start at more than a metre deep in the middle and gently curve up to the edges. Lay stones on top of the plastic as it comes out of the pond and sits on the edge. Then place dirt on top of the stones to create a mound all around the edge of the pond.
As you can see from the diagram, the pond has shallower edges to encourage frogs and allow water plants to grow. Put some soil in the pond for the roots to bury into. Grow whatever water plants are around in local dams. Fish such as tilapia can also be grown and caught for food.
I am recommending a grid of poles across the top of the pond so it is hard for small children to fall into the pond and drown.
Keeping chickens
“Chickens” as they are called in Southern Africa, can provide a lot of protein from the home stand and be fed to a large extent with surplus from the garden. The common “indigenous” chickens that are common in the villages tend to look after themselves. They do not get diseases much and can survive the local conditions well. They are free range and forage in gardens for food.
There are some problems with the way these indigenous chickens are usually being kept. The chickens are not well fed and do not produce a lot of eggs. They lay their eggs anywhere, making them hard to collect. They scratch all over the yard, making it hard to grow food. The chickens are not protected at night and end up being taken by predators.
The result is that flocks of chickens are usually small, households only get to eat chicken every few months and there are no eggs. To solve these problems you need a chicken house with nesting boxes. You need to keep the chickens in this house at night. You need to feed them at least a part of their diet, while they forage for the rest. If the chickens are free range during the day you need to protect the vegetable patch. You need to give all parts of the garden periods of rest so that the weeds that chickens eat can get a chance to grow. Ideally a family of six would have at least twenty chickens so that there are plenty of eggs and a meal of chicken at least once a week.
Protecting your garden from chickens – three methods
I am going to write about three different methods of organizing your chickens. The first one is the easiest and the last one is the most work but probably would work the best.
Dividing the home stand
Divide the home stand into two halves. The half with the house and trees should be free range for the chickens. The other half for the cereal crops and vegetables should be closed off by a chicken proof hedge and fence. The main reason for this is to protect garden seedlings and vegetables.
Dividing the orchard
Once you have protected your vegetable patch by dividing the whole yard, you can also divide the remaining half of your yard (the orchard and house) into two parts. Allow the chickens into one part of six months and then move them to the other part. This is to give each part a good chance to grow weeds and chicken food without having the chickens scratching around. A good thick ground cover of mulch, grass, weeds or vines is the best condition for the orchard.
Keeping your chickens in a chicken run
The other alternative is a big chicken run. It should be placed under shade trees – for example a mature mulberry is ideal.
On the house and garden plan, I have made the chicken run 15 metres by 3 metres or 45 square metres. This is probably the minimum size necessary to accommodate the typical flock of 12 to 20 chickens that most households maintain. Opinions vary about the amount of space necessary for each chicken. While 12 square metres per bird is necessary if birds are free range and feeding directly from the garden and orchard, 2 square metres per bird is probably more usual for a run where birds are fed with greens (see plant list), fruit, food scraps and cereals brought to them in their yard. The run is divided into two halves so one half can be rested for 6 months and allowed to grow a cover of grass and weeds, while the other is being used. It is probably necessary to cover the roof with wire to prevent chickens flying out. The height should be 1.8 metres with an extra 30 cm of wire at the bottom of the fence buried and weighted with stones under the ground – to keep dogs and mongooses from digging under the fence.
Feeding the chickens
Some of the plants listed here as chicken food should be grown in the cropping fields and harvested to be stored to feed your chickens (for example wheat, maize). Others should be grown as a weedy understorey where the chickens forage underneath the fruit and nut trees (for example dandelion, clovers, oxalis, nightshade). Some should be grown in the vegetable patch (for example amaranth, sunflowers) and harvested to feed the chickens. Also feed your chickens with any maggots you get in the compost heap.
| Plants for poultry food: | |
| Cereals and greens | Shrubs and trees |
| Amaranth | Acacias |
| Boxthorn | Boxthorn (Lycium ferocissimum) |
| Chickory | Caragana arborescens – Siberian pea shrub |
| Cleavers | Carob |
| Clovers | Coprosma repens – Mirror Bush |
| Dandelion | Fig – native fig |
| Maize | Leucaena |
| Millet | Moringa olifeira |
| Nightshade | |
| Oxalis | |
| Sorghum | |
| Sunflowers | |
The chicken house / chicken coop
The chickens should be kept in the house at night. Put some food in their feeding tray and herd them in. Close the door and let them out again in the morning.
The design for the chicken house shown in the diagram is from April Sampson-Kelly, an Australian permaculture designer. She was inspired by a visit to Tarnuk Bush Foods in Victoria, where a design like this was proving very effective. In the context of Australia a key virtue of the design is that it keeps out foxes. This may not be relevant in South Africa but it is probably good to have a design that keeps the chicken house off the ground and allows the poultry manure to be easily collected. The design is aimed to achieve a number of goals in combination:
- Chickens lay better in darkness and privacy.
- The chicken house should protect chickens from foxes.
- The chicken house should be easy to maintain and the eggs should be easy to collect.
- The poultry manure should be easy to collect.
- Hens lay better in comfort, protected from the extremes of temperature and wind.
Grid floor
A grid floor can be constructed from wire mesh or you can just make one out of small sticks tied together with string. This floor is covered to a depth of 12 cm with straw, leafy branches or other litter. As poultry manure collects in the floor and falls through the grid, it can be retrieved and the litter gathered for the compost bin. Perches within the hen house are fixed above the level of the nesting boxes. Every week or two clear out the straw and put it in the compost heap. Replace with fresh straw.
South facing mesh
While three sides are closed off, protecting the hens from wind, the south side has a grid. From inside the hen house, the bright grid window above the nesting boxes hides the boxes from view, making a secure environment for laying hens.
Doors
There are doors on three sides, giving easy access to the dust bath, the water trough and the floor.
Nesting boxes
There should be one nesting box for every five hens. These look into the dark side of the hen house, making the laying hens feel safe. There is a heavy lid, which can be lifted off to allow easy access to the eggs from outside the hen house.
Fox proof ladder
Rungs of the ladder lead to a high entrance that can be easily accessed by birds. However the rungs of the ladder are too far apart for a fox to climb. There is also a half metre of overhang for the roof, preventing a fox from getting in from above.
Insulation
The roof can be insulated with silver insulation foil underneath the corrugated iron. For South Africa, a thatch roof is a good option. The walls of the hen house protect the hens from winds. In hot weather the area underneath the hen house can be shaded with shade cloth or hessian curtains.
Final comments
For projects
This manual is a set of ideas for things that may work on home stands to improve food security. To get something like this going, the most important first step is to get a group of people together in the village who are keen to meet regularly and form a gardening club. You need people who do not expect your project to provide them with a paid job or a lot of expensive equipment. They are people who are most likely to be doing something already in their home gardens and you can help to make their work more effective. In a context like this, the manual here is a resource. People in the gardening club can look through and see what ideas they would like to try on their own home stand.
For villagers
Working on your own food security through household provision may seem like the last thing you need when income is desperately short and it is hard to get a job. But in fact, every piece of food you produce on your own land is a piece of food you do not need to buy in the shop. Growing some of your own food means that there is more cash in your house that can be used for other things. As you will also know, growing some food means that you can help out other families and in return they will help you out when you need it. You will also end up with a bit of a surplus of some crops, some fruit, some vegetables, when they are in season. You will be able to sell some of these to people in your village who do have jobs and are well paid. The suggestions in this manual are just that. Suggestions. You do not have to do everything at once and some of these ideas will not suit you. You should start with the things that look most useful or that seem like the most fun to begin with, and add more elements to your household garden as you go along.
References:
Brazier, Anna and Saw Eden (2015) Learning about nutrition: A facilitator’s guide for food security & livelihoods field agents, LEARN (Leveraging Essential Nutrition Actions to Reduce Malnutrition), Myanmar
Jenkins, Joseph C. (1994) The Humanure Handbook, Jenkins Publishing, Grove City
Laffan, Jennifer (2000) Organic Farming: soils, crops, fruits and vegetables, NSW Agriculture, TOCAL
Mollison, B. (1988) Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual , Tagari Publications, Tyalgum, Australia
Morgan, Peter (2007) Toilets That Make Compost Swedish Environment Institute, http://www.ecosanres.org/pdf_files/ToiletsThatMakeCompost.pdf, Date accessed 24 June 2016.
Pacey, Arnold & Cullis, Adrian (1999) Rainwater Harvesting: The collection of rainfall and runoff in rural areas, Intermediate Technology Publications, London
(C) Terry Leahy, 2017.