Why fruit trees?

Follow this link to an interesting article about how fruit trees are improving lives in a region in India.  Families plant a minimum of ten fruit trees every time a girl child is born. Find out why by clicking below:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/south_asia/10204759.stm

Planting manioc

10 a.m. break is devotions, announcements, and a short ag/development lesson along with the coffee and doughnuts.


We've just planted a good strain of manioc for multiplication. Here you see them preparing the sticks and then planting them, at the correct slant, at the correct distance for optimum growth.

Trees planted

Rows of trees and happy planters, Simon Dagson and Roy! 91 coconuts and 325 oil palms, a special breed eventually for village distribution, with much more oil and meat to the fruit.

Planting trees!

Here's a truck full of trees to be planted

Planting on CEFA land

Here's Simon in the foreground with a helper way in the background, marking where to plant trees in rows so that they are properly spaced for optimum growth.

CEFA's buffer zone park

Here are some steps leading up to a quiet place, which will have a bench of some sort soon, to think and pray, and then here are the peanuts you saw a couple of weeks ago being planted! The rains are falling and food is growing!

Lots of work going on at CEFA!

These men are squaring off these rocks for use in the foundations of buildings. On the first day of work, a couple of them had saran wrap in front of their eyes, wrapped around their heads for protection against chips flying. Sorry we didn't get a photo of that! Roy provided goggles and gloves after that!

These men are planting a type of squash that yields high protein seeds to eat. In front of them you can see the sisal and then little clumps of vetiver grass which will grow up to make a live fence line.

These men are clearing land for planting -the goal to be cleared is about 50 acres. This land will be the new home for oil palm, coconuts, and new varieties of beans and casava.

These men are clearing a road into the new land, for access to the gardens and building site.