Watering Cans & Windmills
Aren’t sprinkler systems great? You set them to come on twice a week and, without any physical effort at all, you can keep your lawn green and lush. But suppose you didn’t have a sprinkler system. And you didn’t have a garden hose. And suppose what was at stake wasn’t your lawn, but food for your family.
“I was hesitant about the windmill at first,” he admits, “but now I am a windmill champion.”
Bonface Sadiake and his family used to spend from 6am to 11am every day just watering their gardens with watering cans. “No matter what we tried back then the crops in the garden never had enough water,” he recalls. His family went hungry during the dry season, and he struggled to pay his children’s school fees. Food was scarce and money was scarcer.
His life began changing when he got involved with Africa Windmill Project. “I was hesitant about the windmill at first,” he admits, “but now I am a windmill champion.” In addition to getting a windmill, Bonface learned irrigation methods like basin planting and appropriate use of manure. Instead of just growing maize, he diversified and started growing potatoes, tomatoes, and beans. Soon his children’s health visibly improved. Eventually out of his profits he managed to buy livestock and built a studier house. Now he dreams of purchase transportation to get his goods for market more easily.
The turnaround that irrigation farming can bring to the family of a subsistence farmer like Bonface is almost impossible to overstate. It’s life changing.
