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New Life Found in Potatoes
JTW Teaches Local Farmers How to Grow an Alternative Crop with Modern Irrigation Techniques
September 30, 2009
In recent months, Irish potatoes have sprouted in Dzuwa, and with them, new hope for economic stability in the oft-impoverished region. These small gifts of God benefit the local villagers three times over as they work their way from the soil of the newly-employed worker to the market as a revenue-producer and finally to the stomach of the famished.
Those who tend the potatoes are not only given a daily source of labor, but training in advanced irrigation techniques that will allow them a greater breadth of job skills. The potatoes also generate revenue because they do not go straight from the ground to the belly. As a result, this new potato enterprise will have less need for funds from JTW and might eventually supplement the resources of JTW in its continued work in Dzuwa. Unlike food from outside countries which may perish in storage bins awaiting delivery, the 20,000 plus potato plants are also able to quickly nourish the local population without allowing time for spoilage.
In a time where corn (and the nutritionally-bereft nzima that is produced from corn) is in shorter supply and unable to meet the needs of the people, these Irish potatoes will be a blessing several times over. Of course, this blessing is only possible because of the benevolence of Dzuwa's Western counterparts, and more importantly, the grace of God in providing for both spiritual and material needs. Potatoes sustain the life of the living, but Christ-the Bread of Life and the spring of living water-provides new, eternal life to the spiritually-dead. At least for a season, potatoes become the new symbol of this greater truth.
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The newly sprouting Irish potato plants in July, 2009
Water from the nearby river is pumped to a water tank on a hill and then flows with gravity through pipes to fill the troughs on either side of the planted potato plants |
