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Forward Organic Resource Management

The Forum for Organic Resource Management and Agricultural Technologies serves as a platform for promoting innovation among those seeking to make better use of what is too often overlooked.  These under-utilized organic resources include crop residues, agro-industrial by-products, domestic wastes and native plants with poorly understood properties.  Perspectives on the value of organic resources differ greatly. For example, on large farms, crop residues are considered a disposal problem while the poorest of smallhold farmers must scavenge for crop roots as a source of cooking fuel.

The rush towards modernized agriculture has bypassed better use of what was already available in rural areas, and the traditional knowledge to realize this lost advantage is held by fewer members of the rural community as time passes.  Meanwhile in urban areas, accumulating garbage subjects residents to offensive sights and odours as well as unnecessary health risks.  Waste recycling is too often viewed by planners and much of the public as a large-scale industrial process, not as an opportunity for cottage industry or more efficiently operated households.

But we humans are very adept at responding to changing circumstances, usually because we are responsible in one way or another for the changes in the first place.  If necessity is the mother of invention, then under-utilized organic materials must be the father because without curious minds and busy hands it is unlikely that we will improve our wellbeing and surroundings.  Ambitious humans do not allow useful materials to be wasted and through a process of trial and error, we will develop means to turn adversity into advantage, and as we develop experience and skills, we discover the solutions that hopefully will not lead to greater, unforeseen problems in the future.

As Lamech Nyangena concluded in his hand-drawn poster at the first FORMAT event in September 2000, “Surely nothing is useless!”  While some sophisticates dismissed this proclamation by a smallhold tea farmer from Kisii district as simplistic, most in attendance rallied to the call and, over the next two annual FORMAT events, many things had surely become valuable!  Water hyacinth was being processed into compost, animal feed and handicrafts.  Pest control products prepared from the neem tree were carefully documented and attractively packaged, rather than resembling “backroom concoctions”.  Useful oils, exudates and gums were being recovered and marketed by entrepreneurs, and their new products were provided free publicity by national news organizations.  Seeds and products from under-recognized traditional crops were displayed and distributed.  Research officers and farmers stood shoulder to shoulder examining composts prepared from different materials and stored in different ways.  Cooking briquettes, household items, even plastic fence posts fabricated from domestic wastes were displayed and being marketed by entrepreneurial self-help groups.

The grassroots had tapped into opportunities that could not have been imagined only two years earlier! Each of the three annual FORMAT events held in Nairobi was only able to accommodate about 160 participants.  During every concluding discussion, the organizers were correctly reminded that potential beneficial impacts were being restricted by the size and location of our events.  I will not describe in detail the time and energy required by a few volunteers to secure funding and organize the annual FORMAT events, but be assured it was no easy task.  Rather than simply justify their past efforts in terms of time and resources, the organizers “turned the tables” on participants’ concerns, and challenged them to contribute chapters on their different interests that would be combined into a book on organic resource management in Kenya.  This publication is intended to “take FORMAT” to a wider audience and to formalize the knowledge presented at FORMAT events. The enthusiastic response by FORMAT members has led to the production of this book.  Keep in mind that many of FORMAT’s most dedicated participants are not particularly experienced authors, and that many innovators are much attached to the fruits of their efforts and do not write with the polish and dispassionate review of journalists or scientists.  Nonetheless, the final product is unique in its coverage and a valuable asset to anyone with interest in grassroots development and innovative resource management.  “Surely nothing is useless”, particularly this book!