A small team led by outreach leader Brian Smith of Agri-Stewards, Lebanon, Ind., recently visited Kenya and Tanzania to share how the principles of “Farming God’s Way” (FGW) can help farmers there increase their crop productions.

First stop: Arusha, Tanzania

The team first visited Megan and Michelle Moss, sisters who went to Kenya and Tanzania with Agri-Stewards in Feb. 2013, and are now CMF missionaries.

“Our biggest project was re-plumbing a large garden area,” said Brian. “We brought some T’s and valves and got to work.”

The team also took over items to consider as micro-enterprise opportunities: a 10-bucket Chapin drip irrigation kit and a hand-crank corn sheller.

“I would guess that 95% of the corn is still picked and shelled by hand in Africa,” said Brian. “You wouldn’t believe the excitement we created when we demonstrated that simple device.”

A final project was helping BUV Tanzania, another CMF ministry project, add a planter to its lineup.

“We adapted a Yetter 71 single row unit to a two-inch tube to slide into a receiver and assembled it in the BUV shop, then gave it a trial run,” he said. “I believe a lot of mechanization can be accomplished with the BUV, including threshing, shelling and grinding.”

Second stop: Eldoret, Kenya

The goal of this stop was to introduce four communities to the principles of FGW and trainer Ryan Boonstra. Each community invited Ryan to return in February to lead the trainings so they can increase their harvests.

Final stop: Missions of Hope’s Joska Farm, Kenya

Agri-Stewards has previously spent time working at Joska, but on this trip, the group planned to teach the full FGW curriculum, with two days in the classroom and a full day of demonstration.

Thanks to the FGW training by Pius Mutie in March 2014, the Joska farm had thrived, said Brian.

“The highest yield in the surrounding community was 20 bushel to the acre,” he said. “At Joska they harvested 54 bushels to the acre! Many had taken notice of our plot, and assumed the white guy had brought magical seeds. They were shocked to learn that we had used a local variety.”

Pius Mutie led the extended training, and taught in Swahili.

“I believe the participants understood the teaching at a deeper lever than ever before,” said Brian.

Other accomplishments at Joska included harvesting some sweet potatoes that were planted in March.

“We planted these as an experiment to see how well they would do in this soil and climate,” said Brian. “We were very pleased with the results, and learned that sweet potatoes are a prized snack at Joska School during their tea time!”

Agri-Stewards hopes that the farmers who have been taught Farming God’s Way principles will be willing to break from their traditions and seek God’s ways.

“Many Kenyans have been taught conservation agriculture methods, but prefer to go along with the crowd and not break tradition,” said Brian. “Only God can bring true, lasting change.”