History of the Kastom Gaden Association...

Page updated
Sun, Oct 14, 2007

THE KASTOM GARDEN PROJECT

Project focus

The improvement of community food security through the provision of training in improved farming methods.

Project duration and funding

Original funding for the period 1995-1998 was followed by additional funding that took the KGP through to the year 2000.

AusAID provided the bulk of the funding. Supplementary funding was provided by APACE members.

Project manager Tony Jansen based the design of the KGP on the earlier Lalano High Altitude Farming Project on Malaita island in the Solomons.

The early days - the KGP crew at Honiara project centre - (from left) Roselyn Kabu, Danny Besa'a, Tony Jansen, Jean Eroa.

Implementing agency

APACE (Appropriate Technology for Community and Environment), Sydney.

The project

The KGP worked with village communities to increase the security of their food supply and to improve their nutritional health.

The Kastom Garden Project had two main foci:
•	agricultural training
•	preservation and use of agricultural biodiversity through the Solomon Islands Planting Material Network.

The KGP operated on the islands of Malaita and, earlier, on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands.

Agricultural training

KGP training included:
•	soil improvement
•	improved agricultural practices such as mulching, integrated pest management, seed saving
•	increasing the diversity of food crops available to farming families
•	the development of food gardens in villages to supplement food produced in sometimes distant bush gardens
	improved farming techniques in bush gardens.

To facilitate the training, partnerships were formed with village associations.

Agricultural biodiversity

The Solomon Islands Planting Materials Network (PMN), a membership organisation, established a national seed reproduction, processing and distribution service in 1996, soon after the KGP was set up.

The centre was based at Burns Creek, Honiara, but has now been decentralised to provincial centres.

Traditional knowledge

Traditional farming knowledge and crops were documented during the project.

Assessment of traditional techniques led to the incorporation of some into the KGP training program because they continued to be effective. They were supplemented by new ideas passed on to farmers through KGP training.

Training local people

To ensure that the agriculture program could be sustained, local staff were trained to fill leadership, administrative and training positions.

Training provided on the job in the Solomon Islands was supplemented by training in Australia through partner organisations such as the Seed Savers Network.

The approach was successful and local people now manage and implement the work of the KGP successor agency, the Kastom Gaden Association.

The project

Children collecting beans

Village communities in the South Pacific rely on subsistence gardens for their nutrition. Training village farmers in improved methods of food production improves the quality and quantity of foods for the family diet.