Improving Nutrition through Permaculture in Malawi

In Malawi, health is directly dependent upon the environment as over 90% of people living in Malawi fulfill their nutritional needs through subsistence agriculture. If the environment around them doesn't supply the food they need, then they do not eat. Despite this, we are finding that current agricultural systems are destroying the very soil that plants depend on to grow, making it more difficult every year to extract a yield. Permaculture can be a useful approach for improving the environment around us while at the same time providing us with food and healthy water, in addition to medicines, fuel, and building materials.

In Malawi, we developed a programme based upon the principles of Permaculture to restore both nutritional and environmental health. The Permaculture Nutrition Programme activities include:

- Promotion of local foods through seed collections, establishing permanent gardens and demonstrations on using and identifying the local foods;

- Courses to train people in methods of Permaculture Nutrition;

- Developing a training manual with supplemental teaching aids so that others can have a base of teaching tools to work with;

- Compiling a field guide of local foods in Malawi. This will be used by extension workers to teach Malawians and expatriates about the abundance of foods Malawi has and how to utilise them.

What is Permaculture?

The word "Permaculture" is the combination of the two words "permanent" and "agriculture". Two Australian men named Bill Mollison and David Holmgren coined the term in the 1970's. It is an agricultural philosophy that allows us to use the resources that we have around us to their fullest potential. By observing and learning from our environment - such as how Nature replenishes its soil, protects and conserves its water resources, and has adapted to the specific climate of an area - we can learn how to imitate these natural processes when we are designing our farms or gardens. The more closely that we can work with Nature, the more likely we are to establish a balance which will provide us with the things that we need without harming the environment. One of the founding fathers of Permaculture, Bill Mollison, has defined Permaculture as "the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems, which have the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems."

Permaculture has a useful saying that can help to point us all in a more positive direction:

"SEE SOLUTIONS, NOT PROBLEMS"

Although we have created a number of environmental and health problems in this world, it is not too late to restore health in our bodies and in our environment. To do this we will need to change our thinking about our place as humans in this world and realise that we are part of Nature, not above it. We currently see humans all over the world trying to control the environment around them, when instead, if they simply live with Nature it will provide them with all that they need. To us, this is what Permaculture is all about - living within the cycles of Nature.

Why use Permaculture to improve nutrition?

In Malawi we began to notice a relationship between the emphasis on maize, activities that are leading to environmental degradation, and the resulting nutritional problems we are currently seeing. The agricultural systems that are being promoted now involve planting solely maize in combination with fertilisers and chemicals to attack insects and other plants that may interfere with maize growth. This system is unhealthy for both the human body and for the environment. The body needs to eat a variety of different plant foods in order to maintain health, just as the environment needs to contain a variety of plants to maintain its healthy balance. Permaculture emphasises learning about and imitating these natural systems of variety and balance to provide for all our needs, and by doing so it provides us with the diverse diet that we need for health.

Improving nutrition through promoting local foods

In the past, Malawi's environment and diet revolved around a wide variety of local fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, millets, sorghums, roots and various animal foods. Although many of these foods are still available, they are vanishing quickly because of the push to supply maize year-round. either by forcing the land to produce it. or by bringing in maize aid when the environment is unable to meet our maize demands. Maize is not the only culprit: people are becoming more interested in obtaining the foods of the West than in giving attention to the abundance of foods around them.

Expatriates who come in to 'help' often never take the time to learn about these valuable food resources that are already here. These local foods that are being crowded out by maize and Western foods are higher in nutrients than are Western foods, are available with no work or money, and are delicious! Our project has categorised over 500 plant foods available in Malawi that are able to meet all the nutritional needs of people living here and we are trying to revive the knowledge of these plants. Slowly we have been collecting these food plants, sharing the seeds, teaching about their importance in nutrition and the environment, using them in our own meals, and encouraging their use for anyone living in Malawi.

In two years we have established over 150 different local foods in just one small half-acre plot, in addition to other plants that can be used for fuels, medicines and building materials. Many places in Malawi are now establishing similar gardens of local foods because of our programme - at health centres, at nutrition rehabilitation units, in villages utilising 'grey' water from washing clothes, dishes, or bathing, at the end of wells where water often sits in a large puddle, at mission hospitals, for AIDS patients, at schools - the list goes on. We are now beginning to document these Permaculture Nutrition activities so that we can share with others the potential that the environment offers if we work with it.

contd... [Read the full story in MSWord at the top of the right-hand column]