WEBVTT

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Farmers in Africa are important to the economy, 
but also very exposed to climate change.

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Regenerative agriculture is a farming 
practice that brings back destroyed soil

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in a way that makes 
soil healthy and productive,

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restores biodiversity 
and improves nutrition.

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That’s the future.

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There are two innovative farms in Kenya

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practicing regenerative agriculture.

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We have Tamalu using agroforestry and
Farmer Max using livestock to regenerate soils.

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The story about this farm 
is not just about chickens,

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it’s about using chickens 
as a tool to regenerate soil.

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It was typical to any small farm,

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it was heavily grazed, 
it was tilled.

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We got in 100 chicks 
and it kind of evolved from that.

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Over many many years the ground was 
being used in a conventional way of farming,

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which means that over time you have
a loss in the microorganisms by tilling it.

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You’re releasing carbon which 
is food for the microorganisms.

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What we’re trying to do is 
stop any disturbance in the soil

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and try and revitalise
it by using livestock

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to fertilise the soil
in a natural way.

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Conventional poultry farming
is usually in confined houses

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where there’s a batch of
3,000 to 4,000 chickens.

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What we do is we take away
that pressure by shifting the coops.

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On the broiler pasture,
we have a small dairy herd

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that we move about 10 days 
in front of the chickens.

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And they graze the grass 
down to about six inches.

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The patties are full of natural protein
by the time the chickens graze over them.

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So, it further substitutes their 
feed in terms of natural protein

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that they are able to forage 
and peck at on the ground.

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What they poop out is 
our resource for the soil.

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Their poop is high in nitrogen,
they are fertilising the soil.

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We are trying to rebuild 
ecosystem health,

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and it’s effective.

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And then behind the chickens
are the sheep that come in

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who also maintain a 
sort of level of pasture

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where we want it 
for the broilers.

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In other poultry operations
the poop is a burden,

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whereas for us it’s a 
tool to regenerate soil.

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Our system of farming 
is nature-enhancing.

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If you had a bird’s 
eye view of our farm,

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you would see exactly where 
the chicken coops have been.

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And the idea is that if 
your soils are healthy,

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your pasture is healthy,
your animals are healthy,

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we are healthy and 
the planet’s healthy.

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Agroforestry is a practice of 
either agriculture in forestry systems

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or forestry in 
agricultural systems.

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So that trees and crops 
are on the same piece of land

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for long periods of time.

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Farmers are able to produce 
diverse portfolios of food

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allowing them to 
make more income,

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rather than when they were relying 
just on one crop or one enterprise.

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What we’re standing in here are 
actually tunnels that used to grow flowers

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and only two years 
ago it was just bush,

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lots of weeds, very 
overgrown and not much life.

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It’s just amazing that you can bring 
that all back within less than two years.

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We decided to 
set up agroforestry

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because we wanted a 
food production system

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that produces 
superior quality,

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enhances soil and sequesters
as much carbon as possible.

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And enhances, 
of course, biodiversity.

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It was really when 
we first went to Brazil

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and discovered the advantages
of syntropic agroforestry

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over any other
agroforestry.

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We realised a lot of the crops
that they were using in Brazil

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are also in Africa,

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and so, we knew
we could do it here

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and just slightly
change it, ever so slightly,

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just to fit into
the local context.

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So, if you can imagine
in a natural forest,

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you’ve got lots
of different levels.

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You’ve got your canopy crops,
you’ve got your emergent above that,

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you’ve got your
sub-canopy,

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and then you’ve got
your ground level stuff.

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In some circumstances,

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you’ve even got food
growing under the ground.

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And that’s what we’re strongly
mimicking in a system like this.

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In syntropic agroforestry,
everything is planted at the same time,

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be it from seed 
or from seedling.

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You start planting
trees and other crops

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that begin to grow slowly
and help each other.

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Fast growers begin
to diversify the system

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and produce food at
the onset of the systems.

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So, you’ve got a continuously
self-propagating family of plants

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that build the soil for you.

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The difference between Tamalu
and the neighbours is very evident.

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Where our neighbours are the lands
are bare or just one monocrop all the way.

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If it’s dry season,
it’s just dry.

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But in our system,
it’s always green, always bushy.

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In Tamalu, we’re living in a food forest.

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Even if it’s just a normal
tomato, if you taste it,

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it’s not just juicy but
it has some flavour.

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It doesn’t really
matter what it is,

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if you taste it,

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it’s really yummy.

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We’ve been harvesting very superior
quality produce from the farm.

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We started with families, but
now we’re at the online shops.

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We’ve been selling to restaurants
also locally in Nanyuki and Nairobi.

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And we are also selling our farm
produce to shops in Mombasa too.

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The end goal is to be able to consistently

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supply those big urban markets,

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because that’s part of the circular vision of this farm.

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As chefs, it’s our duty to
source our food from producers

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who are really looking
after the environment.

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And I can tell you from a chef’s
point of view, this is where it starts;

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this is where you
start building flavour.

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And more and more you 
see customers push back

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and actually demand their food
comes from responsible sources.

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The future has got food
and feed for everyone,

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we should not just 
think about ourselves.

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We are part of nature.

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We need to have a
stable agricultural system

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in which we’re able to store
a lot of carbon in the soil

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to produce healthy
food for human beings,

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and other parts
of the ecosystem.

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And therefore, 
get on a path of growth

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that is based on the wider
concept of circular economy.