Tiny Organisms Sweeten the Soil

Pristine pink pigs prance in their pens on the on the Sabika farm in Mokuno, Uganda. They seem awfully proud of themselves, and perhaps they should be. Their pens are not only tidy, but they actually smell sweet. The Sabika family treats the pens with indigenous microorganisms that break down wastes quickly, keeping flies and smells away.

Here's how it works: 

• Start with any kind of edible starch, such as bananas, rice or bread. Tear it into bite-sized pieces.
• Wrap individual pieces of starch into scraps of cotton cloth and tie closed.
• Bury the wrapped starch in a shady spot in a hole about one foot deep. Wait one week.
• Dig up the starch, unwrap and make sure it doesn't smell bad. If so, discard. 
• Mix the starch pieces together in a bag and top off with molasses or sugar.
• Hang the bag up for a week or more.
• Pour the mixture in a bucket, add water and mix. Add maize bran and more molasses or sugar. Cover the bucket and wait three days.
• Loosen the dirt bedding in the pen.
• Sprinkle the mixture over it. Attracted to the sweet smell, teh pigs will dig at the indigenous microorganism mixture, helping to mix it into the bedding.