Effective micro-organisms: The key to healthy
soil and healthy diets in rural Fontem
Hello fans,
welcome to Suzy Farms. Today we are going to share with you a story about Mrs.
Nven, who successfully restore a healthy soil for healthy plants and healthy
diet within her community. Kindly read till the end and share your own opinion
in the comment section below.
Mrs. Nven usually wakes early to prepare
breakfast for her family of seven (7). After sending off the four younger
children to school, she starts working in her vegetable garden. There she will
harvest some vegetables like huckleberry, amaranth greens, leaves of fluted
pumpkin and water leaves, then she proceed to the market where she sells them.
When she return in the evening, she will pick some more vegetables to prepare
food for the family dinner. Although Mrs.
Nven comes from a farming family, she hadn’t always worked with vegetables before.
Her parents had exclusively cultivated cocoa, just like most other families in
her village Takwei in Fontem. You may be shock to know that they have never
enjoyed the product of the cocoa plants.
Cocoa is cultivated mostly for export to the West which makes them just
bare labourers at the bottom of the business pyramid. So when Mrs. Nven finally
married her husband Mr. Awung, she settled into a similar life: her husband
grew mainly cocoa, and worked as a labourer in the off-seasons. But, because
they were dependent on a single crop for sustenance, her family – just like the
others – faced food shortages for 4-5 months of each year.
In 2016,
Mrs. Nven started a vegetable garden, measuring 200 square meters. She hoped
the family could save what they spent on buying fresh produce from the market
and be assured of a varied and nutritious diet. But few vegetables flourished
in the hard, red soil. Desperate not to lose the inputs and effort she had
already invested, she drained her savings on chemical fertilizers. At first the
chemicals seemed to work. The vegetables flourished. But gradually, she noticed
that the soil was getting harder still, water would not drain, and the
vegetables developed a strange bitter taste. Then, in 2020 she was advice to
use effective microorganism which brings with it a unique approach: Effective Micro-organisms (EM) are specially cultivated bacteria that could condition the
soil and manage pests. Though she was very skeptical when told, she finally
decided to give it a try.
She bought
just 2 litter and begins by combining the EM mixture with fixed proportions of
sugar, molasses and chopped-up vegetable waste. The mixture is sealed and
stored, and the bacteria get to work, turning it into a rich, soupy compost.
Once ready, the mixture is diluted and applied to vegetables or other crops.
This activates the natural micro-organisms in the soil, conditioning it so
other beneficial creatures, such as earthworms, can flourish. It also counts as
a nature-based solution: a holistic approach to improving local conditions that
promotes the well-being of people and the environment. Soon other farmers too
were interested after seeing the result in her vegetable farm. They got a
litter of EM and started adding it to their compost heap too.
Through a
combination of trainings on her farm, visits to other sites, and connecting
with other farmers, Mrs. Nven eagerly learned how to produce EM. She expanded
her garden to 1000 square meters, devoting 100 square meters of it to a
greenhouse where she could grow organic vegetables year-round. Since then Mrs.
Nven garden has flourished. Same with most farmers in her community who have
also learn to produce EM from scratch. Bingo, what a wonderful way to recycle
waste into fertilizers to enhance beneficial soil microbes to restore soil
nutrients for healthy plants, optimum yield and reduce pest. Yes, self-production
of EM and no more buying of expensive chemicals resulted to low input and higher
output. Isn’t this what every farmer of entrepreneur looks for? Low cost, high
yield, high profit returns, poverty alleviation, food security, reduce
malnutrition, community development, restoration of ecosystem, pollution reduction,
etc.
“The
quality of the soil is better,” she says. “There are more earthworms and fewer
soil-borne pests. Weed growth has reduced, my vegetables grow faster and the
soil has become rich and dark. I see ladybirds in my garden now, and I’ve
noticed better drainage. More importantly, now we can keep the produce for a
longer time.” Mrs. Nven plot is now an active community learning site. Farmers
come, even from other villages, to learn how to replicate her successes. “If used efficiently, EM can be a farmer’s
friend, as it provides more nutrients and yield. This might seem rather a minor
benefit to some but here, in remote rural areas, it is everything. It leads to
improved nutrition, better incomes and sustainable living conditions for
small-scale farmers.”
Indeed,
agriculture is the main source of subsistence and livelihoods for the Bangwa
clan. But these agricultural resources are also highly climate-sensitive,
leaving the Nweh people with little capacity to adapt to the changing climate.
Solutions like EM are therefore crucial to helping small-scale farmers build
resilience and improve nutrition, livelihoods and soil health at the same time.
We hope that, all rural farming households can benefit from the use of
self-made EM application in their farms and bid goodbye to conventional fertilizers.
There are many new effective technologies and techniques to improve their food
and cash crops that we shall be sharing on this platform. Kindly like, share,
subscribe to keep up with
update.
Don’t
forget to share your own opinion in the comment section below. We keep learning
from each other and growing as a team. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if many farmers
in rural areas especially in Sub-Sahara Africa were able to double their
vegetable and crop yields without the use of chemical fertilizers? This will
make the per-capita income of participating households to double, too. It is
evident from the result as the production of vegetables for farmers using EM in
their farms rose considerable while in non-participating villages, the volume
and yield of these same crops registered a decline in production with little or
no profit.
Mrs. Nven produces:
Huckleberry, cabbage, lettuce, Amaranth greens, leek, chili pepper, garden egg,
Koki bean, cucumber, water leaves, pumpkin, tomatoes and sweet bitter leaves.
Her family eats well, and she has plenty to sell in the markets, where the
quality and safety of her organic vegetables is well known. She can boost of a
year round vegetable supply from her farm and greenhouse thanks to the
application of EM. The days when the family spent part of the year short on
food are now a distant memory. This is
what she had to say
“We can
smell the freshness in the vegetables now,” she says. “When using chemical
fertilizers and pesticides, we could not smell it – quite the opposite. And we
can sell our produce all year round at a good price, even in the rainy season.”
Watch the full video on Suzy Farms (youtube)
