What do nutrition, regenerative farming and entrepreneurship have in common?
Well, whether you work on a business or a farm, food comes first. People need to eat. A healthy diet is the base of all human activity as is it crucial for providing essential nutrients, maintaining healthy bodily function, and reducing the risk of chronic diseases. And above all: just to feel good and be ready to take on the world.
Nowadays, healthy nutrition is still not always prioritized before focusing on other parts of life, even though it highly determines the success of activities one pursues. Healthy nutrition is oftentimes seen as optional and an outcome of other life’s choices. What if we turn this around and make healthy nutrition the starting point? Both on your plate and on the farm? Because variety in the field results in variety on your plate.
After all, healthy life and healthy soils thrive by two things: balance and variety. That was the approach of the training given by our colleagues Monique, Lisa and Elisa in Manica, Mozambique.
The third training week of Nuffic project: ‘Strengthening Capacities Of Citt And Zambezi University’ let nutrition be the starting point that tied regenerative agriculture and business together.
The training started with a recap on nutrition, highlighting gender sensitive dietary needs and bridging the gap to farming related issues: the health-risks of aflatoxins in crops and its causes in the field.
The second day was an introduction in regenerative agriculture and its principles and practices in the Mozambican context. We took time to discuss the differences between conventional and regenerative farming, its implications for the environment, crop health and nutritional value. The group was very engaged and active in group work assignments. To illustrate the theory in the field, a farm visit was organized to the UniZambeze School Farm, led by Regenerative agriculture specialist Joao Shenga. The participants identified opportunities for the school farm to transition into regenerative. On the third day, the lessons learned were combined into the last topic: regenerative farming as a business not only focusing on profits, but also taking into account environment, social aspects and health regarding what crops to grow in a crop consortium. In other words: holistic farm management. To give the participants a practical tool to experiment with at home, a business case assignment was given as last exercise: a vegetable box to sell to customers based on a crop planting schedule.
We look back at a fun, interactive week and look forward to continue the project. Thank you so much participants, for your active participation!
During the field visit
During the training
During group work
During group work
During group work
Group assignment: healthy nutrition
Busy working on assignments
The group
The CITT School farm
During the farm visit
Agronomist Joao at the farm
During the farm visit
