Nurturing Sustainability from the Roots-Up: Agroecology in Schools

Schools are spaces for knowledge-building and shaping people into responsible individuals. However, not all is rosy within many learning institutions in Kenya, particularly in disadvantaged communities such as informal settlements and rural areas due to the lack of necessities that hamper the effective education of these young people. Furthermore, the school terrain may not be as conducive for learning, where for example some pupils travel very long distances to get to school, while others have to do with a lack of basic materials such as stationery in the form of books, pens, etc, while still for others transition from primary to secondary school is a mirage particularly if your parents or guardians do not have the financial muscle to ensure you finish your education uninterrupted. Furthermore, some children go to school even without breakfast, further highlighting the centrality of food within a learning environment.

Against this backdrop, a ray of hope is emerging. It is a collaborative initiative undertaken by Haki Nawiri Afrika. It involves collecting donations either in the form of books, or clothes and taking these to disadvantaged communities such as to young people including children living in informal settlements and those living in rural areas. During community meetings taking place in schools or farms, discussions on human rights are undertaken. The purpose is to shift the mindsets of young people and make them understand that they are humans, the other reason is for pre-emptive defense, to prevent rights violations before they occur through being armed with the necessary knowledge.

The right to food is central when it comes to school pupils. Without food, children cannot concentrate in class. Without food, school dropout is very possible as children seek basic survival. Lack of food can also push children either to child labour or transactional sex.Furthermore, most of African countries are agricultural.

There is also the fact that many young people do not look at agriculture as a profession. During a 16 Days of Activism on Agroecology session, asking university students what comes to their mind when they think of agriculture; the majority said a farmer sweating in direct sunlight, an exhausted person, or someone doing a backbreaking job. This is also echoed by a conversation with children on what they would like to be when they grow up. The responses got were; lawyer, policeman, policewoman, teacher, pilot, none said farmer, and yet everybody consumes food whether rich or poor.

Haki Nawiri Afrika is conducting community sessions focusing on agroecology with young people. These sessions are held in schools and also involve exposure visits to farms. Using school gardens, the initiative involves training children and university students on agroecology, and principles of agroecology including the connection between agroecology and climate resilience. Children get to understand practically the role of diversity and how this ensures food security and nutrition. The young people get to learn about why it is important to conserve and protect the environment, and how elements such as intercropping contribute to biodiversity.

When food production is made to be fun, many children and youth will adopt it. It no longer looks like this ‘dirty’ job but something to be proud of. It is quite exciting to see how law students are practically integrating agrology. Within Haki Nawiri Afrika, university students utilise their different courses to advance agroecology especially. From political science to gender, to natural resource management to psychology, all this comes together at the farm. The interactions enable incorporating different world views when it comes to matters of food production. The law students can assess the realisation of farmers' rights and the justiciability of the right to food, nutritionists would look at whether what we eat is nutrition-dense or deficient, gender specialists would priorities the role of gender in food production, what needs to change and what needs to be promoted. This is a far cry from the initial interactions when students would share that the determinants of what they eat are the amount of cash they have in their pockets, that when they have more money they prefer junk food because it seems ‘fashionable” whereas when broke is when they go for vegetables. Deliberations on nutrition in food are important during interactions with young people, it creates space for them to understand and be reminded that ‘you are what you eat’. These spaces also provide platforms for the co-creation of knowledge where for example the elderly are involved in the forum to pass on indigenous knowledge to the youth reinforcing food as a cultural heritage.

 Through these sessions, young people get to see the environmental protective benefits of agroecology, when they compare for example soil that is felt bare in their school field with soil that has vegetative cover.

Agroecology has the potential to create job opportunities for the youth. Despite having the world’s most youthful population, Africa suffers from a crisis of unemployment. Investing in agroecology therefore has the potential of creating job opportunities for these young people either in distribution, marketing, or actual production.

The youth also learn about ecosystem integration within agroecology, where food production and livestock rearing go hand in hand, through this, the benefits of a circular economy are reinforced among the youth. The positive aspects of this youth-agroecology engagement have been opportunities to participate in national and regional spaces and engage government officials at the local level. For example, registration of a 4K Club at General Mulinge Primary School is a framework that will exist for years to come and the pupils will often be reminded that they have a responsibility towards healthy and sustainable diets. The 4K clubs are an initiative to make young people to adopt a positive attitude towards agriculture.

Agroecology enhances positive governance in communities by giving space and opportunities for all to participate. In these sessions, young people are sensitized on leadership skills including how to plan the farm for effective output. The appreciation of elders and the rich knowledge they contribute is also emphasized. A permanent figure in Haki Nawiri Afrika’s community dialogues has always been 92 -year old Veronica Kalondu, she is a library of knowledge on the past about food production and nature. For her interacting with children in schools and university students re-emphasizes the revered role the elderly used to have in African traditional society.

Yes , it is possible to change narratives , to bring a sense of ecojustice when working with young people and to reconnect with nature.