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LILY Online Magazine
BEYOND SUBSISTENCE
EMPOWERING, TRAINING & USING
TREES
TO PROVIDE FIRE WOOD NUTRITIOUS FOOD BUILDING & AGRICULTURE AND SO MUCH MORE IN DEVELOPING COUNTIRES It’s very easy in Western Society to become bogged down with our own struggles, but imagine if your struggle was to simply surive? Many of the world’s poorest people are subsistence farmers - they live on what they grow from year to year. Sadly, poor crop yields or crop failure can lead to malnutrition or starvation. Trees are an essential ingredient for subsistence farmers to break the poverty cycle. The integration of trees into farming environments can replenish soils, provide nutritious seed for food, fuel for cooking and valuable timber for building.
Enter... BEYOND SUBSISTENCE! Beyond Subsistence is a non-profit organisation headed by CEO Jon Lambert and supported by a dedicated team of individuals who undertake forestry and agroforestry development. Their focus is to bring about long-term, sustainable improvements in the areas of farm productivity, nutrition, housing, community wealth and the environment.
“ TOGETHER, WE CAN HELP MOVE SOME OF THE WORLD’S POOREST BEYOND SUBSISTENCE”.
Beyond Subsistence focus on 2 main areas: 1. Agroforestry Development 2. Rocket Stoves These programs aim to provide people with self sustaining skills and lifestyles.
A
groforestry Development
A key solution for improving the livelihoods of subsistence farmers is to improve their income through agroforestry. As soils are depleted from erosion, repeat cropping and over grazing, there are few options to improve agricultural productivity. Inorganic fertilisers are commonly used in western countries but are not affordable or available to subsistence farmers. The best solution is to reintroduce trees to the farm land. Trees help to heal the land. Canopies protect soils from damaging winds and intercept valuable airborne sediments. Some species, like acacias, are leguminous and able to collect nitrogen from the atmosphere and return it to the soil. Tree root systems have the ability to access nutrients deep in the soil and deposit them back into the topsoil as they shed their bark and leaves. Trees also encourage micro-organisms in the soil, which play a very important role in improving the soil fertility.