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History of the Kastom Gaden Association... Page updated |
THE KASTOM GARDEN PROGRAMME
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The Kastom Garden Project grew from a single person in 1995 to a fluctuating total of around seven staff by the end of the decade. By that time, it had spawned a number of projects brought together under the umbrella of the Kastom Garden Programme: |
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| • | the Kastom Garden Project (KGP), operating on Guadalcanal and North Malaita more info |
| • | the Lauru Kastom Garden Project (LKGP), devised to obtain the funding necessary to take the Kastom Garden Project into the island of Choiseul (the traditional name for which is Lauru) more info |
| • | the Lauru (Babatana) Ethnobotanical Manual Project, established to document the traditional bush food resource of the Babatana language area of Choiseul; food shortages in the highlands of Papua New Guinea during the El Nino drought of late 1997 proved that the bush food resource was a significant repository of emergency food. more info |
The Kastom Garden Programme drew on the experience of the Lalano High Altitude Farming Project in Malaita Province, Solomon Island, to formulate a comprehensive programme of small scale agricultural development.
The programme was auspiced by Australian NGO, APACE (Appropriate Technology for Community and Environment) and supported primarily by funding from AusAID, the federal government aid funding body that is part of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
New people
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Diversity in people is as important to an aid organisation as is diversity of crops to community food security: |
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| • | not long after the KGP started, a young Malaitan woman by the name of Roselyn Kabu started work as a volunteer soon after the project started; she took the project into North Malaita, her home territory, where her ability to speak the local language - Lau - would prove advantageous |
| • | Guadalcanal man, Daniel Besa’a, joined the KGP as a trainer and technical adviser; his involvement was to prove critical to the development of the hands-on workshop training which would follow |
| • | in the Sydney office of APACE, Lisa McMurray - who later joined the Fred Hollows Foundation as Pacific coordinator - contributed to the Kastom Garden Programme while programme manager for APACE's micro-hydroelectric energy projects. |
| • | Russ Grayson served in the APACE Sydney office as project manager for the KGP as well as for the CanCare Lae non-ferrous metals recycling project in Papua New Guinea and as projects, communications and development education officer for APACE |
| • | Nairy Pitakaka, a joyful and capable woman from the island of Choiseul served as coordinator for that island; Nairy’s passing in 1999, due to illness, was a blow to the program and to those attracted to her happy personality. |
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Roselyn and Nairy served as regional coordinators for the programme. Their roles included: |
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| • | training |
| • | follow-up visits to villages participating in the programme |
| • | making contact with villages interested in participation |
| • | planning activities in cooperation with Tony. |
The Planting Materials Network
Critical to the agricultural training work of the KGP was the Solomon Islands Planting Materials Network (PMN).
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The PMN was set up to: |
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| • | increase farmer self-reliance in the supply of seeds |
| • | to train villager farmers in seed production, processing and seed saving |
| • | to multiply the diversity and quantity of seed available to village farmers. |
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The PMN: |
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| • | was launched with workshops delivered by the Australian Seed Savers Network |
| • | found its first coordinator in Roselyn Kabu |
| • | employed two young Malaitan women - Wendy Betsy and Mary Timothy – and trained them as the PMN’s first seed curators with responsibility for the seed production/ processing/ distribution cycle and associated administrative work |
| • | obtained further training for the seed curators and improved performance through the placement of Australian, Emma Stone, in 1988 and 1989. |
Winding up the projects
With the cessation of AusAID funding in 1999, both the KGP and the LKGP were officially ended. The ethnobotanical manual project also ended in 1999 after the work of information collection and plant identification and use had been documented.
The Kastom Garden Programme itself came to an end in 1999 and the Kastom Gaden Association was set up to continue the agricultural training. The Solomon Islands Planting Material Network continued its work as a separate organisation.
For TerraCircle, a valuable training ground
TerraCircle was established as a means to continue the work in food security and nutritional health started by the KGP in 1995 and to seek new opportunities in the region and beyond.
The Kastom Garden Programme and the Solomon Islands Planting Material Network proved valuable training grounds for those who later joined TerraCircle. As well as delivering benefits to rural communities in the Solomon Islands, the learnings from the Kastom Garden Programme now inform the work of TerraCircle.
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The programme |
Roselyn Kabu discusses seed saving at an exhibition in Honiara, Solomon Islands.
THE PROGRAMME
The Kastom Garden Programme drew on the experience of the Lalano High Altitude Farming Project in Malaita Province, Solomon Island, to formulate a comprehensive programme of small scale agricultural development.
The programme was auspiced by Australian NGO, APACE (Appropriate Technology for Community and Environment) and supported primarily by funding from AusAID, the federal government aid funding body that is part of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
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© 2007 Kastom Gaden Association | PO Box 742 Honiara SOLOMON ISLANDS | P: 677 39138 | F: 677 30840 | |