To be able to produce your own healthy food and creating a self sufficient lifestyle became more and more important worldwide especially during Covid-19 times. In countries like Kenya facing food insecurity, malnutrition, water shortage/flooding and energy inefficiency for many household its even more important. In rural but also in urban settings it is crucial to improve resilience of the people’s lifestyle to increase their chance to deal with environmental shocks.
We are developing a 2 acre piece of land into a Permaculture demonstration site to include annual and perennial vegetable systems, food forest, animal and crop rotations, water and energy harvesting systems. The site is used for healthy food production for the children at the school, and will be used as a base for Permaculture education as well as providing an example of systems for those interested in the local community. Our farm provides food, fuel and a sustainable lifestyle for the centre, called Permaculture Knowledge Hub.
What is permaculture?
There are many ways to define permaculture. As many ways as people that practice it. Our definition would be
Permaculture is a design system that allows us to set up a regenerative circular lifestyle that enables us to live with nature while producing food and energy.
From the originators of Permaculture:
“Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labour; and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single product system.”