La Ferme Permacole in Madagascar: more and better!

Meet Lionel, founder of La Ferme Permacole. He used to work in conventional companies and is now working to make Malagasy farmers grow more responsibly and to make people eat better using Permaculture. “This project was much easier to realize than expected. We actually just needed to go for it and believe in it!” Read his inspirational story…

A few words about you…

I actually come from the world of “classical” business. I have worked as consultant for several years in many countries and in different fields: medical, textile, telephony and recently in renewable energies.

A few words about your project…

We are a little farm growing organic fruit and vegetables in Permaculture, which we sell in baskets.

Permaculture is a form of agriculture where we don’t use any fertilizers, chemicals or even products used in the organic agriculture such as copper sulphates.

To be able to grow without all these products, it is essential to recreate a complete ecosystem and therefore to work with all the fauna and flora to balance our cultures. The examples that people know best are the earthworm which aerates and enriches the earth and the ladybird that eats aphids. But there are thousands of animals involved in balancing cultures.

So far, we have made mounds of culture in a surface of about 700 m². We’ve also grew legumes in an area of more than 2000 m² to reinvigorate the land that was in a bad state. We’ve worked on the water by designing our spring and digging a well next to the mounds. We are also currently finishing a pond of 400 m² to develop aquatic life. And we are growing hundreds of trees on our land that is just over one hectare in order to create a "forest garden". And finally for the comfort of our teams we are in the process of building official homes.

How did you come up with this idea?

Seeking to eat better, I wanted to grow an organic vegetable garden on a plot in the outskirts of the capital. I looked for a method of cultivation and I came across Permaculture which is a set of principles, including a method of organic farming in "biodynamics" that tries to imitate nature to create abundance of harvest. Gradually, the project evolved into a "Pilot Farm in Permaculture" to show that it really works and to later share this expertise to people and especially Malagasy farmers.

What were your biggest challenges?

We faced two big challenges since the beginning of this project. The first one was to implement this ecological balance, because we had to work on a field where there were almost no trees, diversity and vegetation. The second one was to find people to participate in the project, which even stopped for a while at the beginning because we couldn’t find the right people.

What were your best moments?

My best moment was definitely when we had the first harvests, in less than 3 months. The quantity was impressive compared to the small area and even though we didn’t use any chemicals.

How do you see your business in 10 years?

Our goal is to create a real balance on this micro farm and to continue to share our experience to a large number of people, especially to the Malagasy farmers. Since this is not a commercial enterprise, there won’t really be a different project in 10 years than the one we have today, so we will continue to share.

How is it to be a social entrepreneur?

First of all, you have to have a real desire to do something for others and not to be interested in money. The positive side is to share and work with good and dynamic people. Concerning the difficulties, we also have them in a conventional company, so they are always manageable. This includes finding the right suppliers, the resources, the technical skills, and then setting up the distribution network and so on…

Your last message?

This project was much easier than expected to realize. We actually just needed to go for it and believe in it!

Let’s not wait for others to change things for us, let's not wait for our politicians to develop our country and let’s all just do something because change will come only if great ideas and good intentions turn into concrete actions.

If thousands of people started different constructive projects for our future, we would be able to evolve the society.

To know more about La Ferme Permacole and its missions, visit the page: https://www.facebook.com/La-Ferme-Permacole-214725422401336/