Earth Guardians Regional Director, Mensa Kwami Tsedze On Permaculture in Africa
“How can we find a solution for sustainable agriculture that is less pollutant, smart, food - safe and compatible with the equilibrium of ecosystems and also gives the taste of cultivating the land to young Togolese and West Africa?”
This is a question that Mensa Kwami Tsedze, Regional Director of Earth Guardians Africa has been asking himself. He has been able to learn about permaculture on the internet, but no reliable structure existed in his country to broaden his knowledge. However, thanks to an Abundant Earth Foundation, Mensa was granted a scholarship which allowed him to go to East Africa (Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe) to learn permaculture design.
He started at the Practical Permaculture Institute of Kenya, where he spent 2 weeks training and studying a range of theoretical and practical courses that covered the principles of permaculture, ethics, philosophy, garden and garden layout, water, soil, zone analysis, and the manufacture of some tools of works. He also learned how to make gardens, to prepare organic products such as composts and other organic farming inputs.
After his training in Kenya, he moved on to Uganda where he worked on the implementation of permaculture in schools. For a few weeks he, along with the other students in the training, had to go into schools for implementation and monitoring of permaculture projects. Included in these projects was the SCOPE network, a network installed in Eastern and Southern Africa for the promotion of permaculture and the installation of Food Forest in schools to ensure good nutrition for children. Within the schools they had to run synthesis workshops with teachers and educational authorities to explain how the systems worked and the importance of the children’s involvement within the systems.
Mensa had a great time traveling around to different countries learning the skill of permaculture implementation. He plans to bring it back to Togo in order to inspire youth because he believes that regenerative agriculture is the key to protecting the climate, biodiversity and ensuring ecosystem balance and food security for his people. His next steps are to gradually set up a demonstrative permaculture farm that will allow people to visit and see how it works. The farm will also serve as a base for their schools and community programs and will be able to welcome volunteers from all over the world who want to share their knowledges of permaculture with them. He will appeal to Abundant Earth Foundation to continue supporting his work to help build the very first permaculture center in Togo.