Future Plans

We became registered as a Charity in the Gambia named the Home Farm Project in 2004. We have a full Committee which meets every month together with a team of Home Farm Project Volunteers, who take care of the hands on development of the gardens. We have also established a fund raising group in the UK called Africa Organics. The Africa Organics Committee are responsible for raising funds and finding sponsors in the UK for more Home Farms. The Home Farm Project Committee will organise and carry out the implementation and installation of the gardens under my supervision in the Gambia.

We have now completed the development of a fully working Home Farm in the first village. Next year we aim to develop another one. Eventually, with a permanently employed Working Team of three men, we could develop 6 Home Farms every year. We will site the Home Farms in the same district to give the young men an opportunity to form a local club (like the Young Farmers' Clubs in the UK) and meet with each other socially and exchange plants, seeds, ideas and experiences. This way it is hoped to build up a strong ethos of permaculture in that area and provide the added incentive and enjoyment of a social interaction with other like-minded people. When we have 6 Home Farms set up in one region we will move on to another region and repeat the process. Obviously, if funding takes off, we could employ more than one Working Team and set up Home Farms in different regions simultaneously.

The Home Farm Project is direct, positive action and is not only applicable to the Gambia of course. Impoverished people all over Africa, where tribal land availability still exists and where the environment is largely unpolluted and traditional skills are still practiced, could benefit. The project can grow as big or small as sponsorship permits. At the moment it is a small project but we all believe that many small achievements can lead in the long run to the fulfillment of a larger scale objective. Public response will determine how many villages can have Home Farm style food provision. It will not be difficult to find young men throughout the country, (or the continent), who will be pleased to accept the challenge of making it their business to stay in their village and grow food for their communities.