Approached by former Wagin Uniting Church pastor John Butler, Mr Pederick was asked to be involved in a project that would help people in the African regions create sustainable farms.

“Myself and a man from Frankland, Ron Watkins, have been asked to go over and assess and report on what is happening over there,” Mr Pederick said.

“The third world is struggling due to the price of wheat and rice doubling over the last couple of years so we are going to try and provide them with information that will help them create something more sustainable.”

Mr Pederick said he was just going along for the farming side of things but Mr Watkins, a Nuffield Scholar, was going to focus on water harvesting, conservation and erosion control.

“I farmed 3000 acres here in WA, but over there it’s possibly only three acres so it’s scaled down dramatically,” Mr Pederick said.

“To be honest, I’m going in pretty blind and it will be a steep learning curve for us, as well as them.

“But we will do a lot of questioning in the first few days and use that information to base our reports on.”

The men’s roles will be mainly advisory as they will create the reports and then leave the farmers to implement them.

Mr Pederick has done a lot of reading on potatoes and

may even suggest growing pineapples.

“Here we know of farming as air seeders and tractors but over there we are talking about a bullock and a single furrow, with vegetables or fruit,” Mr Pederick said.

“We will probably try and apply some world technology

where applicable but it will still have to be very basic.”

The trip will see Mr Pederick and Mr Watkins spend a week in Malawi, where they will stay with an ex-pat, followed by two weeks in Kenya.

“I think things are going to be pretty rough in Kenya,” Mr Pederick said.

“It certainly won’t be a holiday, that’s for sure, but it will definitely be an adventure.”