We’re all familiar with planes dropping missiles, but have you ever imagined them dropping something entirely different—something life-giving instead of destructive? Imagine if, instead of missiles, aircraft released small black balls.
In Kenya, hundreds of thousands of black balls are distributed every year. Children launch them with slingshots, and people scatter them as they walk. Each of these balls contains a tree seed encased in a protective shell, safeguarding it from birds and other threats. When the rains come, the shell gradually dissolves, allowing the seed inside to germinate. This simple act of scattering seeds is transforming dry, barren landscapes into lush, green environments.
Tiny black spheres, known as Seedballs, are revitalizing Kenya's barren landscapes. Enclosed in charcoal, these seeds are launched across vast areas using slingshots and helicopters. When the rains arrive, the seeds nestled within the charcoal sprout to life.
Back in 2016, Teddy Kinyanjui and Elson Carsten founded an organization called Seedballs Kenya with the mission to restore Kenya's forests by partnering with schools and local communities. This initiative, initially an experiment, has been hailed as a success and is now being replicated in several countries.
Each Seedball contains a single seed encased in a layer of charcoal and shaped into a coin-sized ball. According to Teddy, these Seedballs are scattered across fields during the hot season. The charcoal coating serves an essential purpose: it protects the seed from being eaten by birds and other animals. Once the rains come, the moisture absorbed by the charcoal triggers the seed to germinate, eventually giving rise to a new plant.
Teddy explains that a plant acts like a nurturing mother to the seeds in its vicinity, aiding their growth. These seeds eventually produce new plants. The initiative began in 2016 with schoolchildren, who were tasked with distributing seeds on school grounds. The seeds were handed out to local children, who then used slingshots to spread them over wide areas.
To make the process engaging, competitions were organized among the children. They were challenged to launch the seeds as far as possible using slingshots. This approach turned the task into a fun game, which the children enthusiastically embraced.
According to Teddy, in remote areas where delivering seeds by hand was challenging, Seedballs were dispersed using helicopters. GPS technology was employed to pinpoint precise locations where the seeds were needed. Instead of passenger seats, the helicopters were loaded with sacks of Seedballs to ensure timely and accurate delivery. In this method, 20,000 Seedballs were dropped in just 20 minutes.
It is estimated that nearly 13 billion Seedballs have been distributed in Kenya so far. Even if only a small number of seeds sprout and mature into full-grown trees, each mature acacia tree can produce thousands of seeds each year.
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