Read at : http://www.cityfarmer.info/your-seeds-for-small-family-gardens-in-desertified-area/

Your Seeds for Small Family Gardens in Desertified Area

ML

Prof. Dr. Willem Van Cotthem, Honorary Professor University of Ghent (Belgium), has set up a wonderful program to help people in desertified regions.

“In every village of the developing countries where we have constructed family gardens and school gardens in the past, there is now less risk of famine. Indeed, we have shown the people and the children how to produce their own vegetables and fruit trees with a combination of traditional methods and modern technologies, e.g. soil conditioning to keep a garden soil moistened with a minimum of irrigation water. Such things are never forgotten, even if these people move to urban areas, where they will try to set up a tiny little garden.”

“That is the reason why I make this appeal upon you : please help us to collect seeds of vegetables and tropical fruits that can be grown in family gardens and school gardens in desertified regions.”

Read more here.

==============

Thanks for the link with my website and the invitation send to your readers to contribute to our humanitarian action. Currently, I am sending seeds to two different projects :

(1) UNICEF-project in S.W. Algeria : refugee camps of the Sahrawis-people, living already 30 years in camps in the Sahara desert without any fresh food. The seeds are now used to grow vegetables and fruits in small family gardens and school gardens.

(2) SCAD-projet in South India (Tamil Nadu), where the SCAD Agricultural Center is now setting up demonstration gardens for the local farmers of 450 villages in the drylands. The new technology of the waterabsorbing soil conditioner TerraCottem is combined with traditional methods to grow local cereals, like sorghum and millet, and local pulses and onion. Seeds of new varieties of vegetables and fruits are introduced to study possibilities of enriching the diversity of daily food, especially in view of enhancing the intake of vitamins by the children.

I am looking forward receiving seeds of all kinds of vegetables and fruits, adaptable to subtropical or tropical climate in dryland areas, in order to help poor rural people to better food and higher annual income through market enrichment.

Seeds are most welcome at my address :

Prof. Dr. Willem Van Cotthem
Beeweg 36
B 9080 - ZAFFELARE (Belgium)

Sincere thanks in advance.