Malawi is nicknamed the “warm heart of Africa.” It’s easy to see why. It’s full of intelligent, capable, aspirational, inviting and overwhelmingly peaceful people. Yet poverty devours the lives of its millions. Malawi is at the bottom of the international totem pole of world wealth and power. In Malawi, 12 million out of 14 million people live off their own small gardens. Each plot is typically one hectare (2.2 acres) or less. Agriculture like this accounts for 75 percent of the gross domestic product in Malawi.

Late Portland, Oregon, deacon Louis Simpson’s estate created the Louis Simpson Foundation in order to carry on philanthropy “in pursuit of virtue.” The foundation intends to collaborate, fund, demonstrate and develop an optimal “conservation agriculture” (explained below) model throughout Malawi for the benefit of the nation. Ultimately, the hope is for these practices to spread to poverty-stricken subsistence farmers throughout Africa and the world.

As beautiful as Malawi is, with its stunning sunrises and sunsets, mountains and valleys full of breathtaking color and variety, lush greens contrasting with rich brown soil, people do not live happily under their vines and fig trees. Many, including many of the 187 members of the United Church of God, live in conditions so primitive it would shock most members in developed countries. In Malawi, 52 percent live below the official poverty line of 15 cents a day per capita, according the 2012 U.S. AID report on the country.

That’s not a typo. That’s 15 pennies a day.

Personal gardens provide food—if there is water. There is abundant water in the rainy season. But due to the dramatic effects of climate change over the last decade, what used to be five months of rainy season (from October through February) is now only two and a half months, with dry spells within it. This makes the steady growth from seedlings to mature plants very difficult. As you travel, however, you often see surface water. When brethren in Malawi pray, “Thy kingdom come,” they come from an entirely different lifestyle and experience than most members of God’s Church worldwide today.

Demonstrating the Millennial Future: God’s Way of Farming

In the last 10 years, a revolutionary method of agriculture was developed. If widely practiced, it could transform agriculture throughout Africa. It could even cause it to become a breadbasket for the entire world. It’s called conservation agriculture (C.A.). Its principles are consistent in striking ways with the principles of the law of God. It “gives” to the land more than “takes” from it. It respects the nature of soil’s ability to strike a thriving balance when treated respectfully. With widespread use of C.A., Malawi could be enormously productive. It could even be wealthy by current standards. Research in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and elsewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa has proven that even in severe conditions, these C.A. farming practices conserve water in amazing and logical ways. It also builds back the structure and quality of the soil and greatly improves plant treatment that can multiply the yields on crops.

The Simpson Conservation Agriculture Model Demonstration

The Louis Simpson Foundation’s executive—UCG pastor Howard Davis—and its board of directors, likewise comprised of UCG ministry and members, hired a newly called member of the Church in Malawi. He will coordinate certain member farms throughout Malawi to create the Simpson Model of conservation agriculture. The model, its principles andoutcomes will be academically published to be applied throughout Africa inside and outside the Church. The foundation’s administrators will work with the Lilongwe University of Agriculture, one of Africa’s premier centers of agriculture science. It will also work with Lilongwe University Graduate School of Agri-Business. Lilongwe is at the geographic center of Malawi.

For three weeks around the Feast of Tabernacles this year in Malawi, the foundation worked on a plan with various individuals. Some were United Church of God members and other persons of faith, some of whom hold or held executive positions in government, universities, or other positions in business or government. The plan described the scope of the scientific demonstration. It will involve 10 farms, mostly in the area around Lilongwe. Test plots were chosen, and Lilongwe University students will work through a Simpson Foundation student work study grant of 4,000 hours on the University’s sprawling farmlands. Simpson demonstration farms are also in Blantyre, the other major city in Malawi. Blantyre is still the head of commercial activity, media and industry in Malawi. Farms in the large northern town of Mzuzu and the strikingly beautiful Mangochi area, where the Feast of Tabernacles is held on Lake Malawi, will also be locations of scientific demonstrations on members’ farms.

Scientific Theory and Model Outcomes

The Simpson C.A. model is highly labor intensive. It combines all the best practices that were already identified or are in use by other small subsistence farmers. First, the land is not planted in the traditional way. Instead of rows of hoed ridges about 40 inches apart with a trough between and sloping vertically down where there is a slight or steep grade downward, ridges are flattened. This restrains and reverses the enormously ruinous erosion patterns from washing away the naturally very deep Malawian soil layer.

Then a new technique called “no tillage” soil preparation is used. The ground is left undisturbed, and the seed is planted on level ground in planting stations. This redevelops its natural water retention structure. It ultimately leads to much more water under the surface to be retained for crop roots to survive and grow during dry periods.

Another innovation is the layering on the topsoil of “green manure.” All the crop husks and each crop’s un-harvested green matter is neatly cut and laid between all the plants. This green manure layer dramatically restores soil’s vitality by shading against the hot sun, impeding water evaporation from the soil, and re-supplying nutrients, nitrogen especially, to the field.

The planting stations mentioned above are platforms where crops grow. They’re holes filled with animal manure at the grade of the level field. The seed is placed in its own individual ecosystem every 20 inches. A nine-inch hole is dug about nine inches wide on the flat ground. Manure is placed in each hole and mixed with high nitrogen urea. This creates a planting station of great biological activity of microorganisms and nutrients. This nutrient-rich environment increases yield by a factor of two to four. It can cause up to twice the crop density as before, doubling the yield again. For the next 20 years, every crop will be planted in these holes.

Another innovation is year-round irrigation practices. Using what is called “water harvesting,” shallow wells typically less than 20 feet deep are dug. In concentric circles originating at the well, a trench a meter wide and a meter deep is dug every other meter for three to five rings around the shallow well. The well itself is lined with bricks with porous openings for ground water to seep in. When it rains, the rains fill the concentric trenches and the well to the brim. As it seeps into the ground, it dramatically recharges the immediate area’s water table as all the water during the rainy season (40 inches of rain) is absorbed right there instead of running off. This is positive for two reasons.

First, the well retains enough that water is available for low tech irrigation by simple $130 foot pumps. They serve for the entire typical 2.2-acre farm for the entire dry season. Workers at $1 per day hose water on each planting station by hand. They do this once a week during the 9 months of drought without interruption, or it’s done for long periods before the wells are exhausted. Coupled with the greatly reduced evaporation of the planted field and the inherent water retention of the manure in each planting station hole, the farmer will be able to farm all 12 months instead of just four. Doing this can triple his production. With crop rotation of nitrogen-fixing legumes (such as peanuts) alternating every three to four months with maize (corn), income is anticipated to increase 10 to 20 times over current practices within one year. There’s no need for artificial chemical fertilizers beyond the second year. “Farming God’s Way” hopes to increase the average farm from $250 annually to anywhere between $2,500-$10,000, depending on the crops chosen and the effective application of farming methods.

An organizational structure called the Simpson Agriculture Cooperatives allows for an organized scale-up. This allows for the spread of these techniques across Malawi and other parts of Africa. This model creates a corporate structure while farmers retain ownership not only of their land, but of the entire cooperative structure legally. This work is carried out by the Institute for African Development, created by the newly registered Simpson Foundation-Malawi. Many national and international leaders in science, government, academia and business have agreed to be fellows of this new Institute of African Development based in Lilongwe, Malawi. Their work is to create Africa’s finest model of farmer-owned, professionally managed cooperatives. It works to create and spread partnerships with all appropriate national and international organizations in government, education, media, finance, marketing and business.

So far, it’s already making progress. Ten demonstration sites were chosen around the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. Wells were dug, and planting is now underway. Field logs, all cost inputs and every element of the planting protocols are being recorded in the demonstration against scientific controls. Every farm has three fields: the Simpson C.A. field with irrigation, an equal-size plot using the same technique but without irrigation outside the rainy season, and then a third field planted in the traditional, destructive way. Comparisons throughout the country will be made, along with the test plots at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture.

LifeNets, Church Members, Simpson Conservation Agriculture, and Simpson Model Cooperatives

The work of LifeNets over the years in Malawi produced an infrastructure of competent members that will allow the Simpson Foundation’s work to be possible. The federal and civil government levels in Malawi are very excited about the work of the foundation. As the foundation achieves its objectives, it will provide LifeNets with follow-on programs to support in places where the Simpson C.A.s and Cooperatives are established.

As members of God’s Church, let’s all pray for the success of the LifeNets and Louis Simpson Foundation collaboration in Malawi. In a very exciting way, we can demonstrate some of what the world can be like when we pray, “Thy Kingdom come.” One day, poverty will be abolished. We are working to show how the world might be able to dwell safely, “every many under his vine and fig tree.”