to Land

36 • From Lab to Land
Knowledge
Knowledge is a strong thread running through
the push–pull story. The technology’s most
obvious and widespread contribution to
knowledge is through helping raise what is
needed to pay ‘school fees’, the catch-all
name given to the costs of education from the
primary to the postgraduate level. But push–pull
extension also supports peer education, as well
as life-long and experiential learning, in many
cases building the confidence and social standing
of adult adopters, both female and male.
Across the region, among most of those
interviewed, education is viewed as a pathway
to future prosperity. The idea of bettering your
children’s chances in life by buying the best
education you can afford for them is deeply
ingrained. The Kenyan respondents in particular
placed a high value on educating girls, and there
were many cases of sisters and brothers within
one family reaching the same level of education.
Ethiopian farmer Ayal Abera lives with her
two sons and daughter and is divorced from her
husband, who she was forced to marry when
she was still a child. She sees that helping her
daughter continue her education is the main
way to ensure she avoids her mother’s fate. But
while she wants all her children to attend to their
education, she also makes sure they learn how to
farm in their spare time.
As well as being a champion of push–pull,
Sarah Obama – who was born in 1922 and did
not go to school – is passionate about education.
With the profits from her farm and large-scale
push–pull-based dairy operation, she has paid
for the education of many orphans. “I want every
child to go to school,” she says. “I am quick to
support girl-children for education if they are left
alone. Push–pull gives food to feed children –
and gives excess to sell for school fees.”
The many female farmer-teachers the
push–pull programme has trained, and the peer
farmers trained by Heifer International who teach
push–pull as part of their sustainable agriculture
module, are appreciative of the diverse skills and
capacities they have developed. “When I go,
and I see what I have taught being understood
and used – this makes me happy,” says Mary
Onyango. “Being a peer farmer has made me
learn more about farming. Farmers look up to
me and this challenges me to come up with
new things.” She reflects on the continuing
importance of farming in a world where people
are more highly educated than when she was
a girl. “A better education is now needed to
improve farming, and this training starts at home.
Learning and education can happen throughout
life. Even if a child grows and gets a job, they still
have to be interested in and know about farming,
and continue with it.”
Over the years, the push–pull programme
has also supported adopters to understand the
science behind the technology, to experiment
and to share learning with other farmers. These
three themes come together in the story of
Rosemary Oriema, a Ugandan farmer who is
hosting several experiments to understand the
challenges that farmers in Tororo district are
facing with implementation.
“Without education there are no opportunities,” says
Sarah Obama.