Young people must live into the future that is likely, resulting from the damage to our planetary home, not the future that some adults pretend might still be possible. Therefore, one of the reasons I went to the COP climate summit in Egypt was to announce a scholars’ oath to the future. That’s where we committed to give greater attention to helping young people adapt to an increasingly disrupted situation because of environmental degradation and a breakdown of industrial consumer societies.
That is why I am pleased that at Bekandze Farm we have launched our internship programme for Balinese high school students to learn regenerative farming methods. We have partnered with the State Vocational High School of Petang, which is one of just 2 government schools in Bali that teach agriculture. Together, we are helping to train the next generation of Balinese farmers. Our 12 week internship program gives students from Years 10, 11 and 12 a solid grounding in organics, permaculture and other regenerative farming methods that they would not otherwise receive through their standard curriculum. Our first intern, Ngurah, began last month. In the photo above you see him with our head trainer Pak Edi on the left, himself a graduate of the school.
Enrollments in agricultural studies at the school have fallen by a half since tourism returned to Bali. That is one reason why the head of the school agriculture program Pak Suriya reached out to us to help him create a more attractive and fulfilling program for his students. We are grateful to The Lighthouse Regenerative Organic Farm in Woombye, Australia, for their generous sponsorship of our first intern. Their sponsorship covers Ngurah’s travel, board and lodgings during his stay, and pays him a small daily wage.
I know there are many ways we can each do more to help the younger generations adapt in fun and socially positive ways, at all ‘levels’ of society. One way you could help that is by financially supporting our internship programme. Therefore, we have left open the donations page at Chuffed.org. We were pleased to raise 50% of our target for the crowdfund for the smallholder training. If you donated already, thankyou, and we will be in touch about an online gathering with other donors. Any donations from now on will go to the internships. For this, we are pleased to continue our relationship with the Schumacher Institute, a UK charity, to process your donations.
In the last few months myself and colleagues have been approached to host students and visitors from elsewhere in the world. The aim of Bekandze Farm is to promote a transformation of agriculture in Bali so that it is both more environmentally friendly and collapse-ready. Therefore, we have been focusing on Balinese smallholders and students in this first phase. However, we are pleased to announce that later this year we will be ready to receive foreign visitors to spend time with us learning about regenerative farming methods. We will announce further details at the end of July (2024). Please subscribe to this blog to find out more. Alternatively, follow Bekandze Farm on Instagram or Facebook.
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Prof Jem Bendell 
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