Our Agricultural Training Center’s sustainable agriculture courses teach both theory in the classroom and important practical experience by visiting and working in the actual gardens.

Wilner, Director of the ATC and primary instructor, balances the ATC students’ classroom experience with practical field experience.  This week, the students had a good field visit to our various gardens and also made a trip to the Poul Mirak chicken project to learn from Willy, who manages it.  Willy taught the students about raising large flocks of both egg-layers and meat birds for Farmer John’s butcher shop.  We always introduce the students to sustainable agriculture models, whether for vegetable gardens, fruit tree nurseries, or animals like chickens or goats.  The ATC often gets the leftover chicken manure to use in their organic fertilizer when Willy cleans the chicken houses between flocks.

When the students work in the gardens, they learn to observe and identify which insects chew the leaves, which insects suck the sap of the plant, and which insects cause the most damage to the plants. They can see and learn the full phase of the impacts from the insects from when they start to attack the young plants, through the larval stage, and as adult insects.  Wilner teaches them treatments for each phase.  We always reassure the students that they are well-trained to become successful gardeners and farmers when they return to their homes to make a better life for their families.  Your support is allowing many lives to be improved through this “development for sustainability.”  Thank you for helping these families have a better life.

Rad Hazelip, Assistant Executive Director