Plenty International

Garden-based Agriculture for Toledo's Environment (GATE)

The focal point of Plenty Belize's current work is its multi-faceted GATE program. GATE aims to create a replicable model of local sustainable livelihood and environmental benefit based on organic school gardens

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The GATE project has become an integrated educational tool to address the multiple threats of environmental degradation, unsustainable agriculture, and poor nutrition.

The GATE program has now grown to incorporate over 35 schools throughout the Toledo district. Plenty Belize staff, local partners and volunteers provide this support at each school on an ongoing basis.

While the school garden is the centerpiece for this project, this school gardening project includes several components that make a productive and sustainable program.

These include:

Extension work/ technical assistance;
Tools, seeds, and other supplies;
Training of village volunteers to assist with the gardens;
Classroom training; educational support to teachers in integrating the gardens into their curriculum;
Encouragement to start home gardens; and nutrition and food preparation education.

The GATE project is a collaborative effort of many people and organizations -

The District Education Department,
The administrations of the Methodist and Catholic schools
PTA members, villagers, teachers, principals
Sustainable Harvest International
Belize Minerals
Belize Marketing Board
Trees for Belize
Pan American Health Organization
Presbyterian Hunger Program
Atkinson Foundation
Protected Areas Conservation Trust
Toledo Development Corporation
SATIIM
Ya'xche Conservation Trust
Toledo Institute for Development and the Environment
UNICEF Belize
NOPCA
Peace Corps
and many individuals, as well as Plenty International’s donors.

The efforts and resources of these varied people and organizations are coordinated and managed by Plenty Belize and Plenty International.

The rural population of Toledo (primarily Mayan and Garifuna peoples) relies to a great extent on subsistence slash and burn style agriculture focused on three major crops – corn, rice, and beans.

This type of traditional agricultural practice uses 5-7 times the land space as sedentary agriculture.

As the district’s population grows (it has already experienced a 36% increase from 1991-2000), it exerts increasing pressure on the land to produce.

As a result, the district is faced with a vicious cycle of diminishing productivity of the land as fallow periods are shortened, and increasing destruction of rainforest habitats to create more agricultural space.

The project strategy is to create a model gardens that can be replicated by both village residents and other interested communities, demonstrating the methods and benefits of organic gardening and sustainable agriculture and their relationship to a healthy biosphere.

slash
Slash and Burn

Belize garden transplants

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2010 Summer Bulletin

Plenty Regional Offices

Environment:
Properly developed and maintained organic gardens contribute to environmental protection. Organic gardens build and replenish the soil fertility of a plot of land, which increases the land's ability to produce over many seasons. This can reduce the need to clear new lands for agricultural crops, which helps preserve the rainforest. Organic farming has been shown to protect biodiversity at every level of the food chain, from bacteria and plants to earthworms, beetles, birds, and mammals. By working with nature to build healthy soils, the runoff of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is avoided, thus protecting our river and marine environments as well. All these factors are especially critical to preserving the environmental health of rainforest regions.
Food Security and Nutrition:
Sustainable agriculture like organic gardens can also decrease malnutrition and poverty levels by increasing the amount of nutritious foods grown locally for consumption and sale and reducing costly chemical inputs for farming families. GATE schools use the produce from their school gardens in their School Feeding Program, which provides nutritious lunches and snacks for the students.
Education:
Organic school gardens provide a unifying theme that teachers can use to teach the standard Belize curriculum. The GATE Program encourages the use of the gardens and school kitchens to teach not only about agriculture, nutrition, and the environment, but to teach math, science, English and other core subjects as well. Leah Cho, Plenty’s office assistant, interviewed school principal, Jane Locario, “Students learn that they can grow things even if they don’t have a big yard”, and also that “they can play a part in improving their nutritional status.” She also sees the children learning team spirit, responsible behavior, and commitment.
The students express an interest in these activities as well. One student, Mario Sanchez, says that he “enjoys watering the plants and knowing how to take care of them.”

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