Food Security Zambia Project #51544

Food Security for Hungry Families in Zambia

by African Artists Community Development Project, Inc.

Project Report | Apr 4, 2022
Next Steps for the Communal Farm

By Marsha Winsryg | Director, AACDP

Prisca Plowing

Two years ago we began our project "Delivering Food to Hungry Families in Zambia". After getting our community through the initial crisis, we began to focus on more long range, sustainable solutions to poverty-based food insecurity. We started a communal farm, and have changed our GlobalGiving Project title to "Food Security for Hungry Families in Zambia" to reflect our new direction.

A year ago, the Communal Farm was just the seed of an idea. That seed has germinated and grown. We acquired land, it has been cleared, a well has been dug, and crops have been planted.

Now we must take the next step. To move forward there are several things that we want to accomplish:

Create a vegetable garden ($1,000). The farmers need seeds, fertilizer and fencing.
Purchase a farm vehicle ($5,000 - $6,000). We need a van to transport the workers from town out to the farm. It will save the exhorbitant cost of a daily hired car, and will soon be needed to bring produce to market. And if there is ever an emergency on the land, a vehicle could mean the difference between life and death.
Start raising goats ($2,000). Diversity is the key, and we are all keen to balance the flora with fauna on this farm. If we acquire 25 goats, we should be able to start selling goats in less than a year. With proper management, we can expect a sustainable, profit-making business.
Install a solar submersible water pump system ($9,600). The irrigation system we already have in place serves one portion of the land. We were hoping that the rains would sufficiently care for our crops planted on the other parts of the land, but global warming said no. There’s a very good chance that this will also be the case in the coming years, so the more underground water sources we can tap, the more prepared we will be to have successful crops despite the weather. Plants, animals - everything in farming is dependent on water, so the greater our access, the greater our rewards.

We feel that all these objectives are important, and would like to approach them simultaneously. They will be funded in part by the proceeds of our next GlobalGiving campaign, “Little by Little” to be launched April 4, 2022. For 5 days, from Monday, 4/4 - Friday, 4/8/22, GlobalGiving will match your donation up to $50 at 50%. That means a $10 donation becomes $15, a $50 donation becomes $75. This is a great time to help this Communal Farm to expand, thrive and succeed.

Please visit the AACDP website for a more detailed report.

Links:

AACDP web site

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Feb 22, 2022
Communal Farm Spring 2022 Update -

By Marsha Winsryg | Director AACDP

Women Working on Farm

Communal Farm Update Spring 2022

I am thrilled to report that things are growing at the AACDP communal farm! The farm workers are busy transforming the raw land we purchased into food for the Mama Bakhita Community.

The farmers are women who I have known for many years. Many are mothers of disabled children who attend the Mama Bakhita School and some are also Zambezi Doll makers. They have planted large plots of corn, soy and peanuts, staple crops that, when properly mulched, can thrive with less rainfall than other crops. The rains have been good this year and the plantings are all doing very well. This is deeply satisfying to the community, who have lately been unable to afford the high price of nshima, the maize flour that is the basis of their diet. No Zambian can imagine a meal without nshima, and now our community will be able to produce their own.

The farmers enjoy working on the land to benefit themselves, their families, and their community. One of them, Charity Lunda says she likes leaving town to come out to the farm where it is much more peaceful, and the air is fresh. She is looking forward to spending more time there and would like to bring her daughter Deborah, who has cerebral palsy and attends the Mama Bakhita School. Many of the farm workers have children who would all love to be able to spend time at the farm, enjoying the countryside. Helping in the gardens or playing under a tree would be such a pleasant change from town life. Some of the children may also be able to learn new skills.

The land is 23 kilometers from town, too far to walk. The only way to get there now is to hire a car. The round trip costs from $25 to $50, too expensive to bring children. We will soon need a vehicle that can transport small groups out to the farm, carry equipment and eventually bring crops back to town. It is a large expense; a used van will cost about $6,000 dollars, plus maintenance and fuel costs.

As of today, the staple crops are thriving, and the community is very encouraged by what has been accomplished so far. To quote Exhilda Kamonyo, a farm worker and the chairwoman of the Zambezi Doll makers, “This project is something that will change our lives and eventually sustain us. We will not only produce our own food but produce some to sell as well.”

Our sustainable future is blossoming! We are all elated with the progress so far. Water, seeds, a piece of earth, and hearts willing to work are making our dream come to life.

Marsha Winsryg
Director, AACDP

P.S. For those interested in the nitty gritty, below are further notes about farming & sustainability.

Now that the initial crops are thriving, the next step is to prepare the soil for the vegetable garden. It must be fertilized soon, and Sydney Mwamba, the manager of AACDP in Zambia, feels that at this point we cannot afford to follow organic protocols. I argued that non-organic methods may be cheaper in the short run, but more expensive in regards to the long term health of the people and the land. He agrees, but is being realistic about what we can afford now.

To find a reasonable compromise that addresses both financial and health concerns, I reached out to a friend involved with Island Grown Initiative, an organic community farm near my home in Massachusetts. She sent me links to two very useful African farming projects with programs in Zambia:
• Women Who Farm Africa has a lively Facebook page that offers advice and contacts within Zambia.
• Grounded is a Zambian non profit organization that teaches regenerative farming. It was exciting to find so much information that is useful for us at their website.
I am confident that we can move in a direction that is healthy for the land and people. Sydney understands these objectives and will work some of them into a realistic plan for the future. He has assured me that food, vegetation and manure composting will be a growing part of the farm’s methods, especially as goat and/or chicken farming is instituted in the near future. It will all take time.

The AACDP community is so grateful for the donations which helped create these possibilities. Your partnership in the communal farm is vital!

Marsha Winsryg
Director, AACDP

Young soy plant

Young corn (maize)

Hoeing weeds

Links:

Nshima -Why they grow corn/maize which becomes Nshima

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Jan 10, 2022
The First Crops Are Being Planted!

By Marsha Winsryg | Director

Women planting peanuts

We are all affected by the pandemic. But can you imagine the toll it has taken in countries less well off than ours? In Zambia, the price of food has tripled, making it impossible to adequately feed families who had been just getting by before Covid. Among the hardest hit were folks like the AACDP community of families who have children with disabilities. We ran a food drive for three months in June, July and August of 2020 to provide at least some staples like corn meal, sweet potatoes, oil and dried fish.

Then our Zambian manager, Sydney Mwamba, came up with the brilliant idea that we start a campaign to buy land and create a communal farm that our small community can run themselves. This concept offers a real and sustainable solution to food insecurity for the years to come. It especially makes sense because these people come from villages that depend on growing crops for sustenance and income; they know how to farm and are very excited about the possibility of using their skills to secure their future.

Farmland was found and bought, a well dug and a solar irrigation system installed. Tools were purchased and a cow brought to plow the field for the first crops of corn, soy beans and peanuts, just as the rainy season begins. These crops do not need much attention once they are planted, as long as they get water. So, as soon as these first staple crops are in the ground, the women (and they are almost all women) will start to cultivate vegetables and build fences for protection.

The farm is thirteen miles from Livingstone, so traveling there and back in a single day does not leave enough time to get much work done. A simple shelter has been built so that the small groups who come out to work can stay overnight. When they cannot be there, a neighbor acts as a caretaker, keeping their seeds safe and checking on the farm.

We can see that in the future a vehicle will be a great asset for transport to and from the land and for hauling materials but for now we are discussing other projects such as raising chickens, goats and fish farming, which all have potential to create income for further improvements. "Village chickens", as farm raised chickens are called, are sought after because they really are much tastier than the ones in the grocery stores and so are a good source of income. But goats are the cheapest to raise because they forage in the surrounding land, which cuts feed costs and helps cultivate the wild fields nearby, so we have elected to begin with the goat raising program.

Sydney Mwamba, our Zambian manager, hopes that within a year we can raise several generations of animals that will bring in an estimated $1000. For now we have alotted $900 to build a goat shed so that we can begin raising the animals as soon as possible.

Sustainability is the ultimate goal, and we are on the path toward achieving it. Seeing the energy surrounding the farm and its possibilities is truly wonderful. The bottom line is that now there are possibilities where none existed before, and these capable, competent women are determined to transform those possibilities into reality.

The AACDP community is so grateful for the donations which helped create these possibilities. Your partnership in the communal farm is vital!

Traditional chicken coops for Village chicken farm

Example of future goat shed

Links:

blog post on website

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