NSI staff surveying 92 schools for the establishment of FFE/ALIGN school gardens in Bui Division broke ground in early April. Field agents led best-practices agriculture training for over 500 local women and men committed to volunteering time and labor to help their children receive hot meals in schools by tending community school gardens. Before the training sessions, expressed concerns about the local obstacles to food production such as: degraded soils, pest animals, access to water, lack of fertilizer and limited crop options. NSI staff discussed possible solutions with them and offered training in various ameliorative strategies.

The training sessions included strategies for addressing community specific obstacles. It further included the best methods for garden pegging, bed measurement, bed formation, manure application and crop planting. 500kg of improved seeds of maize, 500kg of beans, 3075kg of Irish Potatoes, and vegetables were distributed to the participating schools for planting. Water needs will be addressed by FFE/ALIGN’s solar-powered well initiative in the coming months. And a foundation was established to expand the school gardens’ impact in the future by increasing the variety of crops grown with the introduction of hardy and nutrient rich superfoods.