The course provides a learner charged environment where students wrestle with and find applicable answers to the life issues of hunger, malnutrition, food insecurity, poverty and environmental degradation. Students engage in learning how cultural beliefs, broken relationships, non-sustainable agriculture practices and a lack of understanding contribute significantly to these global issues. Students are equipped with knowledge and fundamental agriculture and community development skills to impact the lives of multiple people groups from rural farmers to urbanites.
The course presents a Biblical grid for agriculture, aims to restore the value and dignity of the farmer, and brings value to the vocation of farming.
Students learn practical, restorative and sustainable agriculture, food production and community development skills equipping them to address these very issues and bring hope for the future.
Natural and organic practices are presented and promoted. Students learn soil rebuilding techniques, appropriate plant choices, varying natural food producing methods with application and appropriate integrations. Studies include, fundamentals of soil health, plant nutrition and natural pest and disease management, agro-forestry, permaculture, bee keeping, human nutrition, natural medicines, business and leadership development, and animal agriculture all within the context of people centered community development. Instructors are qualified experienced practitioners who bring their expertise to the classroom and participants.
The 22 week course provides both personal and team learning experience. Classroom teaching integrates with practicals and implementation of the methods taught. Participants develop their own food growing plots, experience growing field crops, take part in caring for a livestock enterprise, and practice environmental stewardship. Additionally, incorporated weekly throughout the school, staff led student teams work in selected collaborative communities. Here, students get hands-on experience in supervised community development application providing opportunity to implement and multiply learned principles and practices. Community Collaboration participation includes weekly planning, prayer, and strategy for multiplying learned views, principles and practices. The learning process is strengthened by weekly debriefing, processing, and coaching of the team experiences in the collaborating communities.
EXPECTED OUTCOMES: Changed World Views and Paradigms.
Agriculture restored as a viable, honorable and marketable vocation.
Confident people able to demonstrate how changes in mind set, agriculture practices, restored soil health, and integrated food production methods can result in improved crop yields, improved nutrition and improved individual and community health.
Confident people equipped with knowledge and skills in recognized and viable natural and organic food growing methods as an alternative to and in contrast to the commonly promoted conventional agriculture practices.
Tangible Hope, communities changed positively reflecting a holistic representation of the Kingdom of God for generations. Broken lives and land healed and restored. Dependency and poverty reduced , even eliminated, replaced with bounty grown from their own hands. Lives and communities that are food secure, economically secure, socially secure, spiritually secure for generations.
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