Bulungula eco lodge created an Essential Oils project with the hard work of the dynamic duo, Felix and Phumzile, and with the leadership and guidance of the project manager, Charles and the Bulungula Board member, Donna.
The nursery plot
Bulungula eco lodge has now established a nursery site measuring approximately 150 square meters. This site is covered by a shade cloth structure and irrigated using a manual foot pump drip irrigation system. The nursery is used to propagate seeds and to cultivate cuttings from our parent plant stock. Once the cuttings are established they are planted into the project farmers’ plots and fresh cuttings are taken. In this way they are building up a base of parent plants to use as a source of cuttings.
They currently have the following trials growing in the nursery:
- Rose geranium
- Oreganum
- Rosemary
- Bamboo
- Tea Tree
- Thyme
- Lavender
- Marjoram
- Sceletium
This month they will be planting trials of Rose Geranium cuttings into individual nursery bags to run a small trial, with the possibility of selling established cuttings to the rest of the Essential Oils market.
Expanding the group of farmers
The focus of December’s work has been to accelerate the planting of additional family plots. The first results were disappointing with some of the root material (due to drought, followed by flooding) but they were lucky enough to arrange for some additional root material and were ultimately in a position to not only replace the poor root stock, but also plant more than the first three volunteer plots that were originally planned.
They had 14 applications for participation in the initial planting group and took a decision to use the root material they had to plant all 14 volunteer farmers. As well as lemongrass each project farmer was also supplied with a selection of vegetable seeds and fruit trees to ensure that the project meets its twin goals of establishing a cash crop while also improving food security.
This approach has several advantages:
- In the same space that the villagers would only plant corn, they are now planting three different crops allowing for three times the yield.
- Not only that but this ancient combination of plants also each takes different nutrients from the soil, each “feeds” the soil differently and each provides the human body with different nutritional benefits.
- The three crops also allow for a for longer harvest period.
- So a family would be able to start harvesting fresh beans after as little as 8 weeks, and then in sequence, harvest fresh corn, fresh pumpkin, dried corn and finally dried beans after 16 to 20 weeks.
- The basic principle of the system is that the corn will grow upright, the beans will use the corn stalks as a trellis to grow up, and the pumpkins will provide ground cover to all their root systems.
This research looks great on paper, and it felt especially rewarding to be planting an ancient farming technique in the context of this very rural village. They will evaluate the success of the pilot plot and if it works it would definitely be an interesting adaptation to introduce to the community.
Upgrading the Project Office
After a number of minor setbacks, they have finally established a small permanent Essential Oils office in the village. The bulk of the work on the office was done by the participating farmers, with much enthusiasm and gusto! This office serves as the administrative base, a venue for project meetings and training and a visual representation of the project to the community.
More information on Bulungula here
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Very interesting article, Great to hearing Bulungula eco lodge is expanding in such a way.. Love the pics used. Keep up the good work.