The power goes out in Pemba a lot. At least every couple nights around dinner time for about an hour and a half, and then sometimes in the day as well. Its some sort of power sharing scheme, to ensure that Zambia can get by on as few power plants and dams as possible. Though I'm not sure what the ecological effects of everyone cooking on charcoal are. It is times like these, when there is no light (daylight is from 6AM to 6PM), and my house-mate is away somewhere, that I am very thankful for the comfort of my 6 hour battery life on my laptop.
Soon, I will be very used to the lack of power. Tuesday I started work for real -- Lianne and I rode to some local farmers on our bicycles, and I met a farmer that soon I will be staying with. Mr. Morrison is an excellent farmer, I'm guessing he has about 10 acres of land, full of cabbage, beans, tomatoes, peppers, and a few orange trees. He is near a stream, which he uses for irrigation – he pumps water into a couple massive drums using his treadle pumps (it takes about half an hour to fill). Then he opens the valve on the drum, and using a long hose he waters his crops. I'm sure after staying with him for a while I will be able to learn a ton about farming in rural Zambia. And he has said that I can grow a small garden on his land, which I am looking forward to greatly.
My future home is about a 30 minute bike ride from Pemba, so I am looking forward to some good exercise in the morning. And there is no power, so I suppose I will be charging my devices at work. And getting home at a reasonable hour will be a must, as Zambia gets increadably dark at night. I am excited about getting away from my current life though, I didn't come to Zambia to watch crappy pirated DVD's, or listen to Chris Brown, or play pool in the evenings, as I can do all that in Canada. But in Canada I don't have the opportunity to live with a farmer who has 2 wives, or eat nshima every meal and observe how a rural farmer's family interacts.
Anyway enough excited speculation, I'm sure I will have good stories about rural life after living with Mr. Morrison for a few weeks, and now I will discuss work.
Some background: Zambians in the Southern Province generally grow maize, and harvest about now. Maize is a rain-fed crop, but now the rains are done, so any crops will require the use of irrigation. And by done, I mean it will probably not rain the entire time I am here. Maize is sold to the government at a price of about Kw 65000 per bag, which is about $13 CAD or so. I think good farmers will harvest about 100 bags. But the government only pays you in October, so you can also sell to other people now for about Kw 48000 per bag and get cash now. I believe this is illegal. Traditionally this single sale is the only source of income for the farmers, so they either use the money to buy ground maize to make nshima, or grind it locally and store it to feed their family for the rest of the year. Now the farmers are looking to other ways of making money, which IDE is strongly encouraging. Some already have established gardens of cabbage, tomatoes, beans, rape and peppers. Most of these plants are small and are in the transplanting stage, but some cabbage and rape is ready for harvest.
So Tuesday we went about 5 km into the field on our bicycles (yes, it shouldn't take 30 minutes, but you are not considering the sandy dirt roads or the Zambian speed at which we travelled), past the school and to a few farmers gardens. I say gardens partly because that is the word to describe a non-maize plot, and because these plots are often literally the size of gardens. Good ones are about 30 paces by 50 paces, and not so good ones are maybe half or a quarter of that size. The biggest barriers to large gardens seem to be access to water, as it often requires the farmers to walk a few hundred meters from the water source to the plot, carrying the water in a bucket. Mr. Morrison is able to grow such a large number of plants because of his treadle pumps.Wednesday Lianne was tired from all the cycling, and we walked to a local cluster of houses sponsored by the Catholic Church. In all there were 13 families, and all are members of the IDE project. The houses are quite reasonable, compared to other local houses, and all are about 500m from either of 2 hand water pumps. Each has a decent size of land for a garden, and most are taking advantage of it, some more than others (one farmer was making bricks from mud obtained by mixing water with dirt from a local termite mound, to supplement his gardening income). Some farmers had potentially a few hundred kg of crops to be harvested in August or September, while others will only have a few kg. It was very interesting to see the differences in quality of crop, and I hope to find out why some are bigger and better than others. A couple hypotheses I'd like to examine: size and composition of family, soil quality, other part time or full time jobs.
Thursday Lianne was still too tired, but Willard and I went to meet the chairman of the closest group, who is also a good farmer. He owns a guest house, which he is renovating, and a significant portion of land which his garden is on. He told me that if he could obtain a source of credit, he would make his garden 2 or 3 times larger, and was showing me his weir dams, where his tank and treadle pumps will go when he buys it, and his drip irrigation system which is pretty good. He was confident that he could manage a larger farm, even while working on his guest house. However when I probed further, he also mentioned that besides credit, the other main problems facing Pemba farmers were access to water and access to markets. In fact, with the current markets available to him, he probably couldn't even sell what he had, so I'm not totally sure if obtaining credit would help him or hurt him. Especially with the interest on loans being insanely high (I think up to 25% if I understand correctly).
During these 3 days, we were talking to the farmers to collect information. We are trying to find out what farmers are growing which vegetables, and when they expect to harvest, so that we can try to find markets for them. This is important because it appears local supply far exceeds local demand.
Friday we had a team meeting, so while during the other days I was able to find out what the farmers identified as issues, Friday I found out what the IDE workers saw as major obstacles. IDE Pemba is divided into 3 field offices, which are about 100km apart. Without internet, it makes for very awkward communication lines, so the team meetings that happen a couple times a month are pretty important.
From what I could gather, the field workers are having major problems disseminating the information that they have. The plan is to teach program promoters (PPs) in each of the major zones, and then the PPs are supposed to spread the info to the other farmers. However Tonga farmers live very far apart from each other, even within a village, and it can be hard for the PPs to travel between the farmers to teach them. Add on the fact that IDE does not offer incentives to the PPs and other local NGO's do (for example bicycles that enable the PPs to travel to other farmers), and the field staff are getting quite frusterated.
Even in training sessions where farmers do show up, the IDE staff sometimes make little progress. For example, one of our pillars is Gender (the others are input supply, marketing, capacity building in farming techniques, irrigation and credit) and while many farmers promise they will be more sensitive to gender issues during the trainings, in practise there is no change. Because Tonga's are quite polygamous, and traditionally men and women have very different roles, this is a major sticking point.
On the positive side, there are some successes. We have obtained a possible source of credit for some farmers. Markets are being found in local schools, hospitals, Spar market and the like. And irrigation is being widely embraced, with over 100 farmers requesting vouchers that will reduce the cost of irrigation technology that they wish to buy. This includes treadle pumps and drip irrigation kits.
So that was the first week of work for me, and here are some pictures of Pemba to show you what I've been up to. My camera had an incident, I broke the LCD screen, but it still takes pictures, so I just have to guess what I'm aiming at and it seems to still be OK. Next time I go to Lusaka (in a month or so) I can hopefully get the screen repaired, and then go picture crazy...
...Mike
Soon, I will be very used to the lack of power. Tuesday I started work for real -- Lianne and I rode to some local farmers on our bicycles, and I met a farmer that soon I will be staying with. Mr. Morrison is an excellent farmer, I'm guessing he has about 10 acres of land, full of cabbage, beans, tomatoes, peppers, and a few orange trees. He is near a stream, which he uses for irrigation – he pumps water into a couple massive drums using his treadle pumps (it takes about half an hour to fill). Then he opens the valve on the drum, and using a long hose he waters his crops. I'm sure after staying with him for a while I will be able to learn a ton about farming in rural Zambia. And he has said that I can grow a small garden on his land, which I am looking forward to greatly.
My future home is about a 30 minute bike ride from Pemba, so I am looking forward to some good exercise in the morning. And there is no power, so I suppose I will be charging my devices at work. And getting home at a reasonable hour will be a must, as Zambia gets increadably dark at night. I am excited about getting away from my current life though, I didn't come to Zambia to watch crappy pirated DVD's, or listen to Chris Brown, or play pool in the evenings, as I can do all that in Canada. But in Canada I don't have the opportunity to live with a farmer who has 2 wives, or eat nshima every meal and observe how a rural farmer's family interacts.
Anyway enough excited speculation, I'm sure I will have good stories about rural life after living with Mr. Morrison for a few weeks, and now I will discuss work.
Some background: Zambians in the Southern Province generally grow maize, and harvest about now. Maize is a rain-fed crop, but now the rains are done, so any crops will require the use of irrigation. And by done, I mean it will probably not rain the entire time I am here. Maize is sold to the government at a price of about Kw 65000 per bag, which is about $13 CAD or so. I think good farmers will harvest about 100 bags. But the government only pays you in October, so you can also sell to other people now for about Kw 48000 per bag and get cash now. I believe this is illegal. Traditionally this single sale is the only source of income for the farmers, so they either use the money to buy ground maize to make nshima, or grind it locally and store it to feed their family for the rest of the year. Now the farmers are looking to other ways of making money, which IDE is strongly encouraging. Some already have established gardens of cabbage, tomatoes, beans, rape and peppers. Most of these plants are small and are in the transplanting stage, but some cabbage and rape is ready for harvest.
So Tuesday we went about 5 km into the field on our bicycles (yes, it shouldn't take 30 minutes, but you are not considering the sandy dirt roads or the Zambian speed at which we travelled), past the school and to a few farmers gardens. I say gardens partly because that is the word to describe a non-maize plot, and because these plots are often literally the size of gardens. Good ones are about 30 paces by 50 paces, and not so good ones are maybe half or a quarter of that size. The biggest barriers to large gardens seem to be access to water, as it often requires the farmers to walk a few hundred meters from the water source to the plot, carrying the water in a bucket. Mr. Morrison is able to grow such a large number of plants because of his treadle pumps.Wednesday Lianne was tired from all the cycling, and we walked to a local cluster of houses sponsored by the Catholic Church. In all there were 13 families, and all are members of the IDE project. The houses are quite reasonable, compared to other local houses, and all are about 500m from either of 2 hand water pumps. Each has a decent size of land for a garden, and most are taking advantage of it, some more than others (one farmer was making bricks from mud obtained by mixing water with dirt from a local termite mound, to supplement his gardening income). Some farmers had potentially a few hundred kg of crops to be harvested in August or September, while others will only have a few kg. It was very interesting to see the differences in quality of crop, and I hope to find out why some are bigger and better than others. A couple hypotheses I'd like to examine: size and composition of family, soil quality, other part time or full time jobs.
Thursday Lianne was still too tired, but Willard and I went to meet the chairman of the closest group, who is also a good farmer. He owns a guest house, which he is renovating, and a significant portion of land which his garden is on. He told me that if he could obtain a source of credit, he would make his garden 2 or 3 times larger, and was showing me his weir dams, where his tank and treadle pumps will go when he buys it, and his drip irrigation system which is pretty good. He was confident that he could manage a larger farm, even while working on his guest house. However when I probed further, he also mentioned that besides credit, the other main problems facing Pemba farmers were access to water and access to markets. In fact, with the current markets available to him, he probably couldn't even sell what he had, so I'm not totally sure if obtaining credit would help him or hurt him. Especially with the interest on loans being insanely high (I think up to 25% if I understand correctly).
During these 3 days, we were talking to the farmers to collect information. We are trying to find out what farmers are growing which vegetables, and when they expect to harvest, so that we can try to find markets for them. This is important because it appears local supply far exceeds local demand.
Friday we had a team meeting, so while during the other days I was able to find out what the farmers identified as issues, Friday I found out what the IDE workers saw as major obstacles. IDE Pemba is divided into 3 field offices, which are about 100km apart. Without internet, it makes for very awkward communication lines, so the team meetings that happen a couple times a month are pretty important.
From what I could gather, the field workers are having major problems disseminating the information that they have. The plan is to teach program promoters (PPs) in each of the major zones, and then the PPs are supposed to spread the info to the other farmers. However Tonga farmers live very far apart from each other, even within a village, and it can be hard for the PPs to travel between the farmers to teach them. Add on the fact that IDE does not offer incentives to the PPs and other local NGO's do (for example bicycles that enable the PPs to travel to other farmers), and the field staff are getting quite frusterated.
Even in training sessions where farmers do show up, the IDE staff sometimes make little progress. For example, one of our pillars is Gender (the others are input supply, marketing, capacity building in farming techniques, irrigation and credit) and while many farmers promise they will be more sensitive to gender issues during the trainings, in practise there is no change. Because Tonga's are quite polygamous, and traditionally men and women have very different roles, this is a major sticking point.
On the positive side, there are some successes. We have obtained a possible source of credit for some farmers. Markets are being found in local schools, hospitals, Spar market and the like. And irrigation is being widely embraced, with over 100 farmers requesting vouchers that will reduce the cost of irrigation technology that they wish to buy. This includes treadle pumps and drip irrigation kits.
So that was the first week of work for me, and here are some pictures of Pemba to show you what I've been up to. My camera had an incident, I broke the LCD screen, but it still takes pictures, so I just have to guess what I'm aiming at and it seems to still be OK. Next time I go to Lusaka (in a month or so) I can hopefully get the screen repaired, and then go picture crazy...
...Mike
"in Canada I don't have the opportunity to live with a farmer who has 2 wives"....Whoa! Smacked me in the face with that one.
ReplyDeleteSounds like an interesting expierence. Is that last pic in Pembia? It looks more developed than what you;re describing.
Yeah, the last one is Pemba Town. Note the row of single story buildings. Thats how you know its downtown. Well, the fact that the buildings are painted and have roofs that are not made of thatch tells you its downtown.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete