History of the Kastom Gaden Association...

Page updated
Sun, Oct 14, 2007

OUR HISTORY: Kastom Garden Project

The beginnings...

THE KASTOM GARDEN PROJECT

It was while working with village communities on North Malaita in the Solomon Islands that Tony Jansen got the idea of an agricultural aid project that would operate in several of the provinces.

On his return to Sydney, Tony incubated the idea in the airless, windowless hole in the wall that, at the time, was the office of the non-government organisation, APACE (Appropriate Technology for Community and Environment).

Funding for the project was obtained from the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and the Kastom Garden Project (KGP) came to life.

To start the project, Tony returned to the Solomons in late 1995 and secured the assistance of Joini Tutua, a longtime supporter of APACE, Deputy Premier of Choiseul Province, active member of Honiara’s sizeable Seventh Day Adventist congregation and organic urban market gardener.

Projects
Lalano High Altitude Farming Project	Project focus: Assessment of crops suitable for growing at elevations between 400 and 600 metres in the mountainous interior of North Malaita island, Solomon Islands. Duration: Less than one year - 1994.
Solomon Islands Planting Material Network (PMN)	The PMN started in 1996 with a series of workshops in the Solomon Islands led by Jude and Michel Fanton from the Seed Savers Network in Australia. Honiara Seed Centre: The Honiara seed centre, was the only Planting Material Network (PMN) seed multiplication and processing centre until regional centres were established in 2001.

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THE KASTOM GARDEN 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.

Projects
Kastom Gaden Project	Project focus: The improvement of community food security through the provision of training in improved farming methods.
Lauru Kastom Garden Project	Project focus: The improvement of community food security through the provision of agricultural training.
Lauru (Babatana) Ethnobotanical Manual Project	Project focus: Documentation of the bush food resource of the Babatana language region of Choiseul island.