The Sustainable Food System Initiative aims to transform the local food production and consumption landscape towards a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable model. Kayabwe Town, faces challenges related to food security, environmental degradation, and socio-economic disparities. Through this project, we seek to address these challenges by promoting sustainable agricultural practices, fostering community engagement, and enhancing access to nutritious food options.

Conservation Agriculture (CA) principles serve as a universal framework adaptable to diverse agricultural landscapes and practices, emphasizing locally tailored approaches. A fundamental tenet of CA involves minimizing or altogether avoiding mechanical soil disturbance, while optimizing the application of agro-chemicals and nutrients to support biological processes without disruption.
CA promotes sound agronomic practices, ensuring timely operations and enhancing land husbandry for both rain fed and irrigated agricultural systems. When combined with other proven methodologies such as the use of high-quality seeds and integrated management of pests, nutrients, weeds, and water, CA serves as a cornerstone for sustainable agricultural intensification.
It offers opportunities for integrating various production sectors, including crop-livestock integration and the incorporation of trees and pastures into agricultural landscapes. Key practices within CA include crop rotation, mulching, cover cropping, and the use of organic fertilizers. Mulching involves the application of natural or synthetic materials onto the soil surface, while cover cropping utilizes leguminous plants like beans and groundnuts to enrich soil fertility and structure.
COTI will offer free training in organic fertilizers. Organic fertilizers play a pivotal role in CA, offering numerous advantages such as cost-effectiveness, improved soil texture, enhanced water retention, and stimulation of robust root development. These fertilizers can be derived from various sources, including minerals, animal waste, sewage sludge, and plants. Livestock manure, including farmyard manure and compost, represents valuable organic inputs that can be prepared on different scales, from small-scale home gardens to larger agricultural operations, using a variety of techniques such as compost piles, bins, or barrels. By integrating these sustainable practices, Conservation Agriculture not only fosters soil health and productivity but also promotes resilience, efficiency, and long-term viability in agricultural systems, thereby contributing to the sustainable development of farming communities and landscapes alike. Since then, we have been asked by many schools to provide them with reusable menstrual pads. Over the past year we have given out hundreds more. It is still our intention to create a social enterprise by selling the pads, however not until everyone who needs some and is without money to pay, has some