Regenerative Farming in Kenya | Circular food systems in East Africa 1/5

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

Regenerative agriculture is a farming
practice that brings back destroyed soil

in a way that makes
soil healthy and productive,

restores biodiversity
and improves nutrition.

That’s the future.

There are two innovative farms in Kenya

practicing regenerative agriculture.

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

The story about this farm
is not just about chickens,

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

It was typical to any small farm,

it was heavily grazed,
it was tilled.

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

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

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

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

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

and try and revitalise
it by using livestock

to fertilise the soil
in a natural way.

Conventional poultry farming
is usually in confined houses

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

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

On the broiler pasture,
we have a small dairy herd

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

And they graze the grass
down to about six inches.

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

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

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

What they poop out is
our resource for the soil.

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

We are trying to rebuild
ecosystem health,

and it’s effective.

And then behind the chickens
are the sheep that come in

who also maintain a
sort of level of pasture

where we want it
for the broilers.

In other poultry operations
the poop is a burden,

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

Our system of farming
is nature-enhancing.

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

you would see exactly where
the chicken coops have been.

And the idea is that if
your soils are healthy,

your pasture is healthy,
your animals are healthy,

we are healthy and
the planet’s healthy.

Agroforestry is a practice of
either agriculture in forestry systems

or forestry in
agricultural systems.

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

for long periods of time.

Farmers are able to produce
diverse portfolios of food

allowing them to
make more income,

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

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

and only two years
ago it was just bush,

lots of weeds, very
overgrown and not much life.

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

We decided to
set up agroforestry

because we wanted a
food production system

that produces
superior quality,

enhances soil and sequesters
as much carbon as possible.

And enhances,
of course, biodiversity.

It was really when
we first went to Brazil

and discovered the advantages
of syntropic agroforestry

over any other
agroforestry.

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

are also in Africa,

and so, we knew
we could do it here

and just slightly
change it, ever so slightly,

just to fit into
the local context.

So, if you can imagine
in a natural forest,

you’ve got lots
of different levels.

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

you’ve got your
sub-canopy,

and then you’ve got
your ground level stuff.

In some circumstances,

you’ve even got food
growing under the ground.

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

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

be it from seed
or from seedling.

You start planting
trees and other crops

that begin to grow slowly
and help each other.

Fast growers begin
to diversify the system

and produce food at
the onset of the systems.

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

that build the soil for you.

The difference between Tamalu
and the neighbours is very evident.

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

If it’s dry season,
it’s just dry.

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

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

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

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

It doesn’t really
matter what it is,

if you taste it,

it’s really yummy.

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

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

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

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

The end goal is to be able to consistently

supply those big urban markets,

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

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

who are really looking
after the environment.

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

this is where you
start building flavour.

And more and more you
see customers push back

and actually demand their food
comes from responsible sources.

The future has got food
and feed for everyone,

we should not just
think about ourselves.

We are part of nature.

We need to have a
stable agricultural system

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

to produce healthy
food for human beings,

and other parts
of the ecosystem.

And therefore,
get on a path of growth

that is based on the wider
concept of circular economy.