Farming God's Way

by Davis Omanyo ~ March 2012

Go to any village or community and ask this question to any family: “How do you spend your day as a family?” 95% of the answers are similar in meaning—only the words are different. This is the basis of development. If you do not know how families spend their time, then you may not being doing the right thing in that community. How time is used determines both food production and income of families worldwide. Proverbs 10:4-5 says, “Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth. He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during harvest is disgraceful.” This explains how we can use the time which the Lord has given us wisely for our own good.

Why am I talking about time and its use? As a development practitioner in a developing world, I have discovered by experience that if we neglect talking about how individually we spend our time, we may not achieve the overall objective of transforming communities. Using scripture in our teaching helps communities make evaluations and understand their situation differently—even if they do not become Christians. I hope and pray that this transformation becomes part of their life, and that Christ will reveal Himself to them in His time as they reflect on the lessons they have learned. “Farming God’s Way (FGW),” or “conservation farming,” is one approach to farming that glorifies God.

Most traditional farming methods deplete soil fertility, and most villages report getting less food from the same acreage. Many farmers talk of delayed rainfall and therefore delayed planting. It is obvious that poor farming methods have depleted the soils, and most families are not able to produce enough food to last year-round. Because of these experiences, most families no longer use their farms for food production. The soil has been further eroded by water run-off because there is no longer enough groundcover to reduce the run-off when it rains. Many trees have been cut down to create charcoal for cooking and sale for family income. The result of all of these actions is the destruction of the environment, and it is all done to help families feed themselves each day.

Namakangala and Ouma’s family are an example of how CRWRC is helping these families develop more sustainable environmental practices. They have learned to produce enough food to provide for their family’s basic needs and have some surplus to sell for income. They are a happy family with four children that is investing time in learning better farming methods. Both Namakangala and Ouma attend CRWRC FGW workshops. Their success has become the talk of the village. Theirs was a family that was seen as poor and not able to offer anything, but now the whole village admires them and visits to hear how they did it. “How have you made it?” everyone asks. Their answer is simple: “God brought us teachers from CRWRC who taught us how to manage our farm and our time together as a family. We learned God’s purpose for us and to take care of what God has given us. We looked at what we have—the land, our children, ourselves and above all the time to use. How we spend our time determines our future with God and for us as a family,” Ouma says. She adds that her husband stopped drinking and she is now his work companion during the day. Here’s her story:
We put in place what we learned. CRWRC taught us from the Bible. We saw what God wants us to be like: he does not want us to be hopeless, but he has given us all we need. It is all around us if we open our eyes to appreciate it. We realized that we needed to restore the land that God has given us to take care of…. Look at the maize we are now growing! We have learned to cover the ground with mulch to help restore fertility and reduce surface run-off. We plant in the same holes and do not plough the land. Our yield has increased four times: we used to get five bags of maize from our one acre plot and now we get 20 bags! And we know that we will get even more next harvest. We are aiming to get a total of 25-30 90 kg bags from the land. We only use ten of these bags and the rest we sell. We can now pay school fees for our children. They are happy to be in school. We don’t ask anyone to support us. The three acres of land that we had neglected is like gold to us now. We also own a cow that gives us milk to drink and manure to fertilize the soil. We are still learning.

“My husband spends most of his time on the farm now, where before he used to spend his time drinking with friends. I hated it. We were disheartened because he was not useful to his family at all. But now he is the pillar. I am proud to see him here working. Recently we started to plant trees because they protect the soil from the sun and hard rain. Trees also help hold moisture in the soil so that it doesn’t dry out as quickly and helps the crops to grow better. Keeping the ground covered and not plowing it has been very beneficial to us. We are thankful to God because we had given up on being able to support ourselves as a family. We were the poorest family in the village. We could not ever imagine people coming to learn from us. Now you see what God has done for us. We are thankful. Now we tithe part of our harvest to the church and we pray before we plant our crops.

Please Pray

• Pray for communities where CRWRC staff live and work. May God continue giving them the skills needed and the wisdom required to reach out to these communities.
• Please thank God for Namakangala and Ouma’s dedication to their work. They have become the best farmers in their community.
• Pray for me as I visit different communities to share my experience and teach new skills.
• Pray for our children as they continue with their education. Our two oldest daughters will soon complete their undergraduate studies. Pray for their next steps in life again after college.
• Pray for rain in the region. Weather changes are affecting food production and poor families are hurt most.
• Pray for good governance in the countries in East African region.
   

Davis and Beth Omanyo
Kampala, Uganda

About Davis Omanyo

Davis Omanyo is CRWRC's Team Leader for Eastern Africa.

Davis is the sixth born in a family of 10 children. He was born in a rural village in western Kenya, and grew up in a village called Ganjala. His parents took him to an elementary school in the village, where he attended first through seventh grade. He then joined a missionary boarding high school. Davis’s father was a teacher, and he also worked on the family farm with Davis’s mother. They held onto Christian values that they passed on to all their children.

After high school, Davis trained as a pilot - a career he held until 1982 when he joined college to train as a public health specialist. Davis worked with the ministry of health, Government of Kenya for 5 years before joining the Anglican church of Kenya, diocese of Eldoret, where he worked as a health coordinator until 1994. It was in 1994 that he came to know about CRWRC through its partnership with the Anglican Church of Kenya, Nambale diocese.

Davis started working with CRWRC in 2000 at the home office in Grand Rapids in the area of HIV and AIDS response program, after completing his masters degree in Public Health and International Health, from Boston University, USA. After 9 months working in the home office, Davis moved to work in East and Southern Africa region as CRWRC-regional HIV and AIDS coordinator, a position he held until June 2004, when he was hired as a Country Consultant in Uganda. In 2006, he took over a new role as team leader for Eastern Africa.

Davis is married to Beth Wambui Omanyo. They have four daughters: Joan, Marion, Julian and Helen. Three of their daughters (Joan, Marion and Julian) are in boarding high schools in Kenya. Davis and Beth live in Kampala with their last born daughter, Helen. Beth wife works as a physiotherapist in one of the mission hospitals in Kampala. Davis and Beth were born during the same month and year but three days apart. They celebrate their birth days together.

Email:  domanyo@crwrc.org