My name is André Jurrius and I am an organic farmer. For the past decade, I have been farming in the Netherlands, a stones throw from the Rhine River, on the same alluvial soil upon which I was born. On my farm, Eko boerderij de Lingehof, we have 100 hectares of arable land. Stable income from my main cash crops – potatoes, onions, carrots, pumpkin, cereals and clover – provides the space I need to experiment with new species of annual legumes. I wanted to introduce legumes into my rotation to improve soil fertility on the flood plain and also to participate in emerging local markets. Decreasing meat consumption in the near future will be met with more plant-based proteins and people want locally-grown food.

I have always incorporated legumes into my double cropping system, starting with grass and clover. In 2008, I started growing lupins and have not looked back. Two years ago I started growing chickpeas and soybeans and this year I am intercropping with lentils and wheat. I’m also experimenting with heirloom varieties of dry edible beans. Lupin is well adapted to our climate as it can handle a lot of moisture in the soil. However, with the other legumes, wet periods during flowering and harvest, and the relatively cool summers are constraints to be overcome. The climate is changing so perhaps working with legumes will be an advantage in the future.

Many consumers have little experience with different legume crops, making them expensive and risky for now. However, I am not alone in my pursuit of growing legumes and creating new markets for these crops. I collaborate with people who are developing innovative ways of processing legumes and reaching consumers. For example, I work with Jacqueline Castelijns who is developing different recipes and products with lupine. I also work with other farmers and researchers passionate about overcoming the challenges of growing more legumes in the Netherlands.

Interview by Jesse Roberts, an intern at ILEIA.

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My name is Márcia Patrícia and like the great majority of women in the semi-arid I was destined by local custom to travel long distances to fetch water for the most basic of household needs. I was born in the municipality of Queimadas, in the rural east of Paraíba. As a child I worked hard to help my mother raise my 13 siblings. I married too early and faced deprivation and violence.

When I started to participate in the rural workers union of the municipality life took a new turn. Contact with the union allowed me to meet and exchange experiences with others. I also gained access to two hydrological structures: a cistern to store drinking and cooking water and one for food production.

The cistern is a technology that can capture and store rain water that would otherwise be lost as runoff. This removes the burden of travelling long distances to fetch water, especially for women, and enables them to grow food.

The ‘pavement-cistern’, which stores 52,000 litres of rainwater from a 200 m2 pavement, allows me to produce food, bringing autonomy and freedom. Today I market my produce and have become a community leader. I am the director of the rural workers union and the coordinator of the comission on animal husbandry within Polo da Borborema, a network of family farmers’ organisations and trade unions.

My experience is not an isolated one. In the Polo da Borborema, an initiative of 14 rural unions and more than 5000 women farmers led to the construction of about 1200 ‘pavement-cisterns’. This technology has strengthened a network of women farmer experimenters who are building autonomy through food production that can withstand even the most severe droughts.

In the past few years, more than 120,000 families across the entire semi-arid region of Brazil have mobilised around access to water for food production. They are transforming their own initiatives and experiences into public policies that can alleviate poverty, guarantee food security and, above all, empower women family farmers.

Interview by Adriana Galvão Freire of AS-PTA

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“Many believe growing food is for society’s ‘less privileged’. Starting in my community, I set out to change this false belief. I want to prove the potential to produce organic food and generate an income from urban farming in Belvedere, my home in Harare, Zimbabwe.

In October 2014, with 400 m2 and US$200 I started an urban agriculture project. I have already harvested two cycles of lettuce, enough to feed my family, sell some to the local supermarket and to people in my community. I’ve earnt enough income to invest in a drip irrigation system which will improve my production potential.

I have done the sums. If each of the 400 families in my community put their available land to this use there would be eight hectares for organic food production. This would provide high quality and healthy vegetables for the whole community, and reduce their reliance on vegetables grown more than 1000 kilometres away.

Most of my neighbours are waiting to see how my initiative pans out before starting their own. But one man heard about my work through the Zimbabwe Farmers Union and after a visit to my farm has planted 1000 lettuce seedlings in his back garden. I also collaborate with four other young farmers who live and grow vegetables in other parts of the city.

This is just the beginning of a new community of urban farmers in Harare. I’m confident that my next couple of harvests will encourage those ‘wait and see’ people and my experience will be multiplied. This will go a long way towards rediscovering, re-inventing and re-creating food production systems and ways of living. With some support from the local authorities and cooperation amongst the local community, this simple idea can be realised.”

Dominic Machingura can be contacted at evsimeon@gmail.com

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