Meet the Team
Marie-Kathrin Melnitzky-Ekhator
Chairwoman
After 25 years of stage life as singer and harpist, Marie got married to an Edo-man and, equipped with music, dance and a deep interest in fundamentals, started to study the Nigerian way of everyday life and building up her infrastructure in this fascinating country.
Gradually focusing on Agriculture she became Head of International Outreach with NFGCS, Nasarawa, whilst becoming part of the Regenerative Agriculture movement.
As a mother of 7, she needs to dedicate her life experience, energy and remaining time to the future of all other mother’s children to grow up in a healthy and beautiful environment, filling it with laughter and joy and becoming enlightened members of their communities. As a Lover of Nigeria she needs to do this in Nigerian soil.
Nanpan Jason Bloom
Vice Chairman
This experience drove Nanpan to redefine his purpose in life. He chose to do only that which would make a difference to humanity and make the world a better place. His desire found fulfilment in Regenerative Agriculture.
He believes that as a people, we are duty bound to ensure other people have easy access to food at affordable prices. This, he believes we can achieve by placing emphasis on preservation of the soil which serves as the storehouse for the food we consume.
His passion is to continue to serve the God of creation by spreading the gospel inherent in Regenerative Agriculture
Ayotunde Ekundayo
Secretary / Member
Born in Nigeria (a country not without many challenges) and having had the privilege of relating with people with distinct perspectives, cultures and way of life, Ayo has realized that the need to preserve our world is one thing that unites us as a human race.
He hopes to dedicate his immediate future to promote both farming practices and general Regenerative Lifestyle by people, parents and children. Acts that work to not only protect our beautiful nature from the current climate emergency but ensure our environment is liveable for many more decades to come.
Zeralda Melnitzky
Treasurer / Member
As a Member, she hopes to spark a movement of rethinking our present way of life by (literally) turning back to our root, the soil.
Zeralda hopes to boost farmer’s self esteem and to challenge the Youth to question our current lifestyle. She hopes to inspire them to work together in propagating a Regenerative Lifestyle and not continue our mistakes. She wishes to encourage the Youth to nurture their wisdom, be bold enough to change and break with outdated traditions.
With a background in Transcultural Communication, Online Marketing, Entrepreneurship and Management, Zeralda oversees the books and gives financial as well as Marketing advice to the Team of the ReGen-Naija Initiative.
Bare soil encourages erosion
What drives us
We believe that:
- the base of every society is agriculture.
- the base of agriculture is soil.
- farming is a noble profession to keep soil, landscapes and society thriving.
- farmer’s must be sole decision makers over their operations, independent of agro-input businesses.
- it is necessary to think outside any tribal box
There is no time to lose
Soil has been classified as a limited resource by FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) There is enough left for another 30-60 years only if we do not change the presently predominating destructive agricultural practices. RegenAg leads to an upward cycle, enhancing soil, producing healthy and nutrient-rich, safe food, growing biodiversity, allowing livelihoods to thrive, making farmers independent in their methods and choices, leading to food security.
Today, we are seeing that most of the conventional agricultural practices have led to a speed increase on the down cycle, depleting soil and landscapes, reducing biodiversity, cutting farmers’ income and independence, leading to farming as the profession with the highest suicide rate worldwide. The choice is ours: down or up?
This fuels our emotion: thirst for justice
We empower Nigerian farmers to provide ample, healthy, and affordable food to local customers as enlightened, independent, and respected stewards of the land. The fruit of their labor, the income, shall belong to the farmers only as independent stewards of the land.
This sparks the fuel: righteous anger
We are motivated by the notoriously bad governance in Nigeria to do better and take responsible action where the government fails us.
The team of the ReGen-Naija Initiative wants to raise awareness on how to successfully use the art of RegenAg to escape unhealthy dependencies and produce affordable healthy food for all, to heal our soil, landscapes, communities, and way of life.
This gives us patience: humanity
The laws of nature were created by God and RegenAg respects these laws.
Fonio field