Blog Post 14 – Mike gets Philosophical

Not sure exactly what has spurred my philosophical spirit today. Maybe I am looking back on the first half of my trip to Zambia and wondering how to make sense of everything I've learned. Maybe EWB's values of internal reflection and planning are finally getting to me. Or maybe I am just finding something to do this Friday afternoon after visiting the headsman, landing a job teaching computer's at the local secondary school and waiting for the 'chairman', Mr. Snallebum, to come pick up some eggplant seeds. But whatever the reason I have a few fun question's I have been pondering recently that I will try to tackle now.

Question 1: Farmers are smart people. Do they really need our help?

Quick background: I was visiting the headsman, Mr. Mazuma, today and we spent quite a while discussing marketing issues. He seemed to be of the opinion that I could help him generate ideas for how to make more money, so I asked him about his garden and plans.

Me: “Is there any crop you think you could grow that no one else does, so that you have a good market?”
Mr. Mazuma: “Well I am looking to grow ginger and garlic which I can sell at SPAR. Maybe you could help me with some advice on those. Oh, and last year I planted a few Irish Potatoes and got about Kw1.3 million. This year I'll try to plant half a lima or so.” From what I've seen practically no one else grows garlic, Irish Potato or ginger. And Kw1.3 million is a lot given I pay about Kw100000 for a month's room and board.

Me: “How about record keeping? Maybe if you started keeping records you could see which crops do the best, and make you the most money?”
Mr. Mazuma: “Yes! I think next time you visit I will show you both my records and long term farm plan. In fact I draw out my garden on paper and after the season compare the expected yields with what I actually got to see where I need to improve. And I also keep family labour records, so that I can reward some of my family with money if they work a lot this month.”

And so the conversation went. How am I supposed to help someone who already does all this stuff? These guys are a few steps ahead of me. So do farmers need my help? What else can I offer them? At first glance it seems nothing. Short of creating a massive factory that takes tomatoes and cans them in Pemba, there's not too much I can do to help them find markets for their goods. Of course there are a couple major flaws with my argument: this man has a grade 12 and collage education, so there are likely many illiterate farmers who do not keep records, and records or not, he is still a small scale farmer.

Question 2: So why do small scale farmers seem to remain small scale farmers?

I think there are a number of things that contribute here. I have been fortunate enough to talk to a few very good small scale farmers, who seem like great candidates to move up to larger farms, and yet do not. Here are my thoughts why:

One issue seems to be with priorities, and what farmers spend money on. Many have large families, and even in their 50s they still have school-aged children. This means they have the cost of sending these kids to school, which is quite significant for farmers. So I suspect that instead of using the money to finance new enterprises on their farms, they spend that money on schooling instead. Which is nice because it will lead to a better educated next generation, but it is definitely holding this one back.

Next comes something I will call “total farming power”. I was surprised to find here that sons do not help their fathers on the farm very much. Most of the labour is done by the man, and then his wives will also help. However there are only so many person-hours that can be spent on the farm, and I think this is a limit some farmers are reaching. There are a number of solutions including purchasing animals or hiring labour, but I think many of the farmers are afraid of the extra costs these will bring. The small scale farmer does not appear to put a value on their own time, so the idea of hiring labour seems foolish since they could just work harder themselves. Which is fine, until you are working 12 hour days, 6 days a week and still not managing to keep the whole garden under control.

Question 3: How do we help these farmers to move up to medium scale?

Well that's easy! I've just identified the barriers: farming power and money, so all we have to do is remove these barriers. We give them more animals and money, and all the farmers will increase their scale. What? Oh, NGO's have tried this in the past and it didn't work? Ah, now that is a problem.

One thing I have noticed is that farmers are quite jealous of each other. One farmer I have talked to said that he actually plants decoy vegetables because he knows others will follow him. Then he plants the real garden and ensures himself a less crowded market when it comes time to sell. No joke. So maybe we find these farmers who are the trend setters, and somehow boost them up to medium scale. Get them tractors and animals and financing, and get someone on their butts making sure they do it properly. Then the others will all say “Aha! Look this man has bought a tractor, lets all do the same”. Ok, a bit optimistic but I think with some refinement the idea has potential. If these natural leaders already exist, why are we not using them more? No this is not my idea, I think its called “Positive Deviance” and we learned about it in pre-dep, but I think its a good one...

...Mike