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Faithful Farming
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Kenyan farmer Simeon with the cabbages he grows using Farming God's Way |
Agriculture has a massive impact on the environment and on biodiversity. It is responsible for the way half the planet's habitable land is cared for and two thirds of the way its water is used.
In Africa, agriculture is also the main livelihood for most people - and African farmers are struggling because their fragile soils are increasingly degraded and crop yields are falling.
'Climate-smart agriculture' is the phrase given to ways of farming that help address these problems while also protecting the environment and helping farmers cope better with the impacts of climate change.
ARC is working with Christian and Muslim communities in Africa on faith-based approaches to sustainable agriculture which have enormous potential to transform farming across Africa. Our Faithful Farming programme integrates a farmer’s beliefs as a Christian or Muslim with practical training in sustainable agriculture techniques.
Farming God's Way
Farming God’s Way is based on the idea that God is the first Farmer and that how a farmer cares for his or her land should be a testimony to their Christian faith. It brings together Christian teachings about caring for Creation with practical training in sustainable agriculture techniques. Its natural methods are leading to increasing crop yields – sometimes by three, five or even ten times.
ARC is helping the movement and knowledge to spread. We've facilitated training in Farming God's Way for Christian groups in Kenya and Uganda, and helped them set up demonstration centres on church or faith-owned land so that they can take the message of this faith-based approach to farming to their congregations.
You can find out more about Farming God's Way here.
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Members of the Uganda Muslim Women Association during their training workshop |
Islamic Farming
In 2012 ARC's Muslim faith partners asked for help in developing a faith-based curriculum for sustainable agriculture for their farmers. ARC commissioned Global One 2015, a UK-based international Muslim NGO, to work with faith partners in Africa to develop an Islamic approach to sustainable agriculture.
Islamic Farming integrates Islamic teachings and scriptures with practical training in conservation agriculture and was launched in Kenya in March 2014 in partnership with the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (SUPKEM). Since the first training workshop in January 2014, when 30 trainers were trained, SUPKEM has trained a further 200 Muslim farmers and, with support from ARC, has set up 11 demonstration farms throughout Kenya.
Abdalla Mohamed Kamwana of SUPKEM says: "We want to empower the rural Muslim farming communities to embrace and integrate Islamic ways of farming into their daily farming activities since the Muslims have bought the idea and shown great interest and enthusiasm for this new concept of Islamic Farming."
"I am ready to go home and start this work!" – Islamic Farming workshop participant, Kenya
Find out more about Islamic Farming here.
ARC has produced this six minute video of Faithful Farming:
Faithful Farming from ARC on Vimeo.
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