AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENT
OUR SOLUTION
Afrinspire’s programmes are climate-conscious, seeking to improve both the quality of life of the community and the environment in which they live. Afrinspire enables local communities to support rather than deplete their local environments, providing teaching about the merits of techniques such as conservation of natural resources, healthy nutrition advice, and recycling of nutrients.
Through drought-resistant farming techniques, developing carbon sinks and programs to replant mountainsides and protect water sources, Afrinspire helps communities build resilience against the challenges of climate change and natural disasters. This multi-faceted approach allows us to support our partners to meet their needs, whilst protecting the environment for generations to come.
Multiple SDGs relate to the environment, as it is a key challenge for our generation. Climate change and deforestation are core issues in the African context. Drought has been a precipitant for a number of regional famines in recent years. The World Bank (2018) states ‘Agriculture can help reduce poverty, raise incomes and improve food security for 80% of the world’s poor, who live in rural areas and work mainly in farming’. Within this domain, trees are also a critical resource; they are used for timber, making charcoal and furniture, to prevent soil erosion and to fix nitrogen for other crops. Farming without careful planning can deplete the soil of essential minerals, reducing the quality and quantity of crops which can be grown in later years. Additionally, relying on a single crop can leave farmers vulnerable to plant diseases, such as “banana wilt”, which decimated banana plantations in Uganda in 2009, plunging families in 43 districts into poverty.
“Thanks so much for supporting the capacity building for small-scale farmers"
Paul Kyalimpa (SAFI Sustainable Agriculture)
AREAS OF WORK
Sustainable Farming
Sustainable farming techniques can be used to develop small-scale individual farms, enabling families to grow enough food to survive on.
Afrinspire partners with organisations working to overcome the unsuitable or insufficient planning by teaching the incorporation of sustainable practices, including conservation of natural resources, recycling of nutrients and prevention of soil erosion.
Tree Planting
As deforestation shows no sign of subsiding and people's carbon footprint are ever increasing, planting more trees is essential. Aside from the global benefits of tree planting, the local community also benefits. For example, trees can offer shielding from noise and pollution, fruit for nutrition or income-generation, and aversion of landslides in mountainous regions.
Afrinspire is working with partners to combat deforestation, improve food production using techniques such as grafting to induce fruiting, and re-plant mountainsides already affected by landslides.
Agricultural Training and Drought Resilience
The Eastern African region remains largely dependent on agriculture as a source of income. It is unsurprising that the region has been subjected to a number of serious famines in the aftermath of droughts. Afrinspire is working with a number of partners to support families with agricultural training, supporting them to build resilience to droughts through diversification and learning to care for new crops, as well as enhancing their water supply.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
CARBON OFFSET WITH AFRINSPIRE
Our lives in the west consume huge amounts of carbon, at great cost to the planet. Mitigate some of this and support African communities at the same time by offsetting your travel or your whole carbon footprint with Afrinspire.
Find out your carbon footprint with a tool like THIS.
SHOP ETHICALLY
​In our global world, much of what we buy comes from distant parts of the globe, and this is particularly true with our food. Next time you go shopping, think about the air-miles involved in the food you are putting in your basket, and consider learning in more detail how your purchases affects climate change and communities all over the world.
RECYCLE
If you have spare small technology items such as small laptops, mobiles, memory sticks, scanners, tablets etc these can be transported out on our field visits. Please be aware that we can only transport goods of good quality in working order as they will be used on a day-to-day basis by our partners.
DONATE
DONATE to our sustainable tree-planting and farming projects to help African communities develop sustainable sources of healthy food.
