Today sustainable agriculture is a popular concept in farming, although it can mean many different things. At ACF we used words like sustainable, green and regenerative to describe what we wanted to accomplish within our various projects. But we were unsure how exactly to implement them. Then we stumbled across Emma Naluyima, a farmer in Uganda, who is running a profitable small farm using a a circular food system. Naluyima’s farm design seemed like a perfect fit for ACF.
The average farm size in Malawi is 0.7 hectares and about 60% of smallholder farmers cultivate less than 1.0 ha of land. We wanted to maximize production on our land by using new and more efficient and environmentally friendly agricultural techniques and methods. In hopes what works with our design and methods could be copied and pasted to other smallholder farms.
Our team was inspired by Naluyima’s farm, especially how each section of the farm was integrated with the other. Be it composting, manure, hydroponics, fish farming, rotating crops and livestock a balance is made throughout the farm with nothing wasted.
ACF offers the chance to experiment with new crops and farming practices to see what is profitable in Malawi and what might not. In hopes surrounding farmers will see ACF and take ideas and practices from our small farm to theirs.
Check out some other videos of circular food systems in Africa. They offer some great inspiration.
acfmalawi.com 