Food production is basic to any society, but never more so than in a subsistence level economy. Some 70% of Tanzania's population is still rural, and very much in need of training and equipping in all primary production areas. With 40% of the people regularly in need of extra food, and with a vast lack of employment opportunities, the role of agriculture in all its forms becomes even more paramount.

At En Gedi, home of The Joshua Foundation, we are developing a series of agriculture initiatives under the direction of Renee Moose, our Agriculture Manager.


The newest of our projects is a rabbit-breeding programme. The initial purpose of this project is to provide a continual source of meat for the leaders and teachers at our training colleges. This will provide a great start to larger forth-coming projects and will be incorporated into the agricultural teaching centre that we are beginning to develop. Our programmes seek to provide teaching and demonstration opportunities with local village leaders, showing them how they can teach their communities to supply a high quality and cost effective meat while also being good stewards of God's creation. This is just one of the many practical ways we are seeking to empower the poor, supplying them with the knowledge and skills necessary to more cost effectively provide for their families.

Smaller projects include new compost tumblers to provide sufficient compost for all three of our En Gedi vegetable gardens, and the set up of an organic “no-dig” garden within our stable garden, which will eventually be created in the other two gardens as well. These projects have been a wonderful teaching opportunity for our agricultural workers and have enabled them to more effectively work their own land. Training courses will later be offered to other workers as well.

We are now looking ahead, to the development of The Joshua Agricultural College. The college will provide degrees in agriculture, following a biblical curriculum, with a focus on our responsibility as stewards of God's creation. This initiative is at the earliest stages of development but we hope in time, it will be established and will become yet another tool for seeing community transformation, as Africans grasp new methods for effectively utilizing creations resources.