A Thousand Gardens in Africa

Slow Food has embarked on a new, ambitious project: creating a thousand food gardens with the Terra Madre communities across Africa. New gardens are being created in schools, villages and urban fringe areas, starting in nations where the Terra Madre network is already well established - such as Kenya, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Mali, Morocco, Ethiopia, Senegal and Tanzania.

The gardens will cultivate local varieties using sustainable and organic methods, and intercrop vegetables with fruit trees and medicinal herbs. Importantly, the project is promoting seed exchange among the communities in order to preserve biodiversity and enhance farmers' autonomy.

The project's three garden models are:

• school gardens: cultivated by students together with their teachers
• community gardens: managed by a community sharing work and crop
• family gardens: groups of gardens managed by single families belonging to a community

The costs of creating a garden is approximately 900 euro:

• Materials: € 250
• Training local participants: € 100
• Exchanges with other projects and regional training: €100
• Coordination and technical assistance: €250
• Contribution to scholarships for African students to attend the University of Gastronomic Sciences: € 100
• Contribution for African garden communities to participate in the Terra Madre world event: €50

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