wfn.org | Church program pushes agricultural, rural development

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Feb. 21, 2000	News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-21-24-31-71B{083}

NOTE: This report is accompanied by a sidebar, UMNS story #084.

By United Methodist News Service

In Liberia, United Methodists are helping introduce a new breed of poultry -
Triple Production Red - in hopes that it will improve the breeds currently
found there.

Launched by church members in North Carolina, the poultry project has
received funding through both the United Methodist Committee on Relief
(UMCOR) and a new initiative of the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries that promotes agriculture.

Approved in October 1998 and called SARDI - Sustainable Agricultural and
Rural Development Initiative - the program is a response to the problems of
hunger, malnutrition, poverty, disease and environmental degradation faced
by millions around the world.

It is designed to help partner churches and their communities improve the
productivity and stewardship of their agricultural resources, including
crops, livestock, fisheries and forests.

The initiative's first regional workshop took place last September in Ghana,
with participants representing nine countries in West Africa. March
workshops also are set in Kenya, for East African countries, and in
Zimbabwe, for Southern Africa. 

Jim Gulley, program executive, said SARDI is a renewed commitment by the
church to focus on agriculture and development needs. "The reality is the
majority of the people we work with around the world still are rural
people," he explained. In addition, "many of our churches have property.
Some of it is significant ... in some places 400 acres, in other places
4,000 acres."

The word "sustainable" is a key part of the renewed focus. The question,
Gulley noted, is "how can we enable people to look at what they have,
utilizing the resources close at hand" and then complement those resources
with other assistance?   

The idea is to address current needs without depleting natural resources in
an area, focusing on agricultural production, processing, storage, marketing
and natural resource management.

In Ganta, Liberia, for example, an old poultry house stands on the grounds
of the United Methodist hospital, near a secondary school where vocational
agriculture is taught. A grant from UMCOR's emergency services unit will be
used to repair the poultry house, and money from SARDI will support the
first year's operation of the breeding project. 

John Bishop, the Presbyterian veterinarian from Ohio who developed Triple
Production Red, will help train the agriculture students. His breed, Gulley
explained, is called "Triple Production" because it offers higher quantities
of eggs and more meat on the chicken, and it has the ability to sit and
hatch its own eggs - a trait most commercially raised chickens have lost.

Communities will become responsible for the various projects. "We really
have a priority of finding and developing leadership ... in the
communities," Gulley said.

The regional consultations in Africa - with more eventually planned for
Latin America and Southeast Asia - are being used to help develop
priorities. Plans also are in the works to develop a team of technical
advisers for each region and specific criteria with which to just the
effectiveness of each project.

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United Methodist News Service
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