Divason Phiri is 38 years old and lives in Masinja Village, Chinzu. Divason is married to Chrissy who is 34 years old. Together, the family has four children, all of them are girls, namely Patricia 11, Edna 10, Maria 7, and Enita 3. Three of the girls attend primary school except Enita who is the youngest.

Divason is a farmer and for years he has been growing crops like maize, groundnuts, soya beans among others. Divason has also been growing vegetables like tomatoes, mustard seeds and pumpkin leaves which provide much needed nutrients for his family. Unfortunately, growing vegetables is only possible during the rain season which is only 3 months long, from December until March.

“When CPAR introduced Farmer Field Schools, I was very much impressed when I was selected to be one of the first project beneficiaries from my village. We started our Farmer Field School with 25 members comprising 14 men and 11 women. After establishing the group, we were trained by experienced agricultural extension workers in new and improved agriculture practices such as conservation agriculture, inter-cropping, irrigation farming and village savings and loans programs. I was particularly impressed with irrigation farming because with irrigation you can grow crops throughout the year. The good thing about farmer field schools is that the learning is both theoretical and practical thus making a lot of farmers enthusiastic and willing to adopt a lot of skills.” Explains Divason.

Divason, proudly displays his high quality tomatoes

“At the Farmer Field School, we established our own plot of land to learn through practice. CPAR provided us with start-up vegetable seeds like rape, cabbage, mustard, onion and tomato. I was very interested in learning if tomato could be grown any time throughout the year. After sowing tomato on our learning field, I did the same at my garden at home and followed the good practices that we had learned. I was so amazed that from my small plot of 0.2 hectares I was able to harvest 300 kg from one cropping cycle. I sold about 100kg realizing K5000.00 (US$50).  It is easy to sell my tomatoes because they are of high quality. I used the remaining tomatoes to feed my family. From the profits on the sale of tomatoes, I was able to buy soap, sugar and writing materials for my school going girls and also bought shares at my village savings and loan group to also help boost my sources of income.“

Before joining the project, Divason was only getting 50kg per year of low quality tomatoes and now he is realizing 300kg per year of high quality tomatoes! He is looking forward to increasing his land to 1 hectar in the next growing season. “This time I will make sure that I start irrigation activities as soon as the rain season ends to grow more vegetables several times a year which will also help me realize more profits from my agricultural production.” Explains Divason.

Divason explains some of the agricultural practices he has learned through Farmer Field Schools. “I have learned the importance of following all good agricultural practices to produce high quality tomatoes like applying enough manure while sowing the tomato, mulching the crop to conserve moisture, removing the shoots to improve fruit size and quality and staking the fruit among others.”

Teaching poor rural farmers better ways to produce high quality tomatoes has greatly helped farmers from Masinja village to substantially increase their incomes and improve their families’ living conditions.

Many farmers in Tanzania have been struggling to produce enough food to feed their families due to severe land degradation. Drought is one of the major causes of these low crop yields which contributes to food insecurity among rural communities.

To overcome this challenge CPAR, through Farmer Field Schools (FFS), facilitates training for men and women farmers to promote crops that are drought resistant and have a short maturity period. One of these is the cassava leaf. The roots are rich in calcium and vitamin C and contain a nutritionally significant quantity of thiamine, riboflavin and nicotinic acid. The quality of cassava root protein is fairly good in terms of essential amino acids and is an important source of carbohydrates.

Lush cassava leaves growing year round despite adverse land conditions

Elizabeth Bunuma,  is 46 years old. She is a mother of six  children, four boys and two girls from Haruzale village, Bunda district, Tanzania. Elizabeth has been struggling for years trying to cultivate maize and traditional cassava in order to meet her household food needs year round. She says “my household was food insecure every year because of drought which affects maize and cassava varieties that took too long to mature  and were vulnerable to diseases and pests which means the yield wasn’t enough for my household.”

"Our children look so healthy now" commented Elizabeth

Elizabeth decided to join the Chipuka (Sprout) Farmer Field School (FFS) group. The group is facilitated by CPAR Tanzania’s field staff in collaboration with local facilitators who have been trained by CPAR.

Elizabeth acknowledges that one of the greatest things she has learned in the Farmer Field School is about the short maturity cassava which is also disease resistant. After she learned about this cassava variety she started planting them and in a period of 10 months she has already started harvesting cassava. She now has enough food to feed her household all year! Elizabeth feels, “relief now, this new variety of cassava is going to solve my food problems at home, thanks to CPAR Tanzania for bringing this variety and farming education to the women of Haruzale village. Farmers have also benefited from the nutrition training where we can use cassava in different kinds of dishes such as cakes as well as porridge enriched with local chicken eggs. Our children look so healthy now!”

In the future, Elizabeth hopes to sell her excess crops, for a higher price, at the market by processing them into cassava chips or white  flour. She is also very keen to share the knowledge about cassava production with other farmers in Haruzale village and nearby villages.

CPAR Tanzania has introduced this new cassava variety in three communities in the Bunda District. The aim is to enable 500 households to be food secure throughout the year.

Consequently, farmers in Abo Yayebena kebele, as is the case elsewhere in the country, have been faced with a shortage of quality seed. In cases where seeds are available, they are too expensive for poor farmers to buy.

Storing vegetable seeds until next season has never been customary for Abo Yayebenian farmers, however it is an important agricultural practice which improves efficiencies and reduces costs. 

Diffuse Light Storage (DLS) technology was introduced to the area by CPAR Ethiopia through the Putting Farmers First project. Putting Farmers First is  CPAR’s approach to supporting long-term food security for farming families in vulnerable African communities. It emphasizes the belief that small-scale farming is an effective means of sustaining livelihoods for rural African communities in the face of global challenges such as climate change and fluctuating food prices.

Storage of potatoes using Diffuse Light Storage

Diffuse Light Storage (DLS) is a post-harvest technology which uses natural indirect light instead of low temperature to control excessive sprout growth of potato seeds and reduces the associated storage losses. It is a low cost method of storing seed potatoes which has been found to extend their storage life and improve their productivity providing a new opportunity for poor farmers to preserve quality seeds.

The Putting Farmers First project has selected w/ro* Tejie Getachew from the Odda Farmer Field School group as a model farmer to demonstrate the technology. This was based on advice from the Odda Farmer Field School committee who explained that w/ro Tejie was among the most vulnerable Female Head of Households deserving priority to receive the inputs and the training.

w/ro Tejie proudly displaying her potatoes

W/ro Tejie Gizachew, is a 30 year old woman who is the sole income earner for her family of seven. W/ro Tejie’s family was living off of small harvests obtained through share-cropping which unfortuantely, was not adequate to support her family year round.

During the 2011 cropping season, w/ro Tejie, through the Odda Farmer Field School group, recieved improved potato seeds on a revolving basis and harvested them on only o.33 hectares of land.   Of the total output produced, she stored 1/3 for Diffuse Light Storage (DLS) while consuming and selling the rest.

When w/ro Tejie was asked about the advantages of Diffuse Light Storage (DLS) technology, she asserted that “there are so many advantages of this technology that it made quality seed accessible and affordable at the local level for the poor. I now have preserved my own seed for the next production season, and can market out the rest for extra income”.

*w/ro is a sign of respect for women in Ethiopia and is always put in front of the name.

Women farmers in Karatu, Tanzania want access to livestock because livestock can be a lucrative business – a mature pig of around 80 kgs can fetch $170.  To respond to their priorities, CPAR Tanzania launched a pig campaign last Christmas.  Here’s what has happened since:

In collaboration with local agricultural extension officers, we provided training in pig management to 80 women – 21 of whom are heads of their households.  Topics covered included types of pigs and their selection, caring for pigs and piglets, feeding and pig nutrition, simple pig house construction using local materials,  parasite and disease control, marketing, price negotiation and record keeping.

After constructing their pig houses, 80 sows and 20 boars, one boar for every four sows, were distributed to the women in their communities – Kambi ya Simba, Kilimatembo and Rhotia Kainam.  The women responsible for the boars ensure that they’re in good health to provide quality services to the sows, while the rest of the women bring their sows to the boars once they show signs of being in heat.

With proper management, a boar can service sows for  up to 5 years after starting the mating process.  After that, the boar will be too weak to mate and produce healthy piglets.  At that point, the women caring for the boars can sell them for not less than $200 each.  Each woman is responsible to train and pass on two three-month old female piglets to another woman.   So far, an additional 80 women have been selected — doubling the initial project investment — and the pig passing has begun with 20 women receiving piglets.   This ‘pay it forward’ principle will continue.

Cash in the hands of women leads to paid school fees, more nutritious food and healthier happier kids.  After that, a common priority is to lay the foundation and get started on constructing a modern house.

Ato Abebe managing his maize plot

CPAR-Ethiopia introduced the Farmer Field School approach under the Farmers First program and organized different Farmer Field School groups in target Kebeles. Ato Abebe was able to join the Lelistu** Farmer Field School group which was established in Bochesa Silasie KA of Were-Jarso woreda. The group has 30 male and 15 female members and is engaged in crop production.

After he joined the Lelistu Farmer Field School group, things started to change. He participated in the agronomic practices training which included training topics such as,  inter-cropping, seed selection, row plantation, and integrated pest management.

In addition to the training and technical support, Ato Abebe has received input of improved maize seed from CPAR. With this support, he sows on half a hectare of land using natural fertilizer (manure).

"Look, it is deep green and has a strong stand"

Ato Abebe reflects, “I have been informed for many years that improved seeds must get chemical fertilizer to be more productive and even to grow well. But in my Farmer Field School group I have learned that natural fertilizer (manure) can replace chemical fertilizer and it can even be used for more than three years.”

Ato Abebe describes his success “As an experiment I tried this technology on the improved maize seeds, and as you can see it is interesting, look it is deep green and has strong stand. I hope I will have more than expected result from this half hectare of land.”

** Lelistu is an Oromifa word meaning green and attractive

“My fellow farmers trusted me and elected me first as their Chairperson and later asked me to become their Farmer Field School facilitator.  Subsequently, CPAR trained us as Farmer Field School facilitators in various areas such as modern agronomic practices (application of the various soil and plant sciences to soil management and crop production), gender, HIV issues and recommended nutrition for children,” said Joyce.

“Through these trainings I realized that I had a potential in me and that life wasn’t really over as I had thought. I started serving my community and now I can stand before fellow farmers confidently serving them in different capacities. My confidence and self esteem in training and pursuing community programs has actually risen.”

The leadership skills that Joyce gained in her Farmer Field School group were soon recognized at the community level.

“Due to my popularity, as our Farmer Field School facilitator, I was selected by our Sub County to represent women in a farmers conference in Kitgum. I’m now capable of training my Farmer Field School group members in areas we were trained on.

My group is now among the best performing groups in our Sub County! As well, on Sundays I sensitize my entire community in church on topics such as malnutrition, nutritional practices and gender issues.”

Confidence restored, Joyce and her fellow Farmer Field School group members are pressing forward.

Joyce Ecech (in yellow shirt and flowered skirt) leads farmers from the Can Mii Diro Farmer Field School group through a ‘special topics’ Farmer Field School session on improved nutritional practices

In 2009, CPAR Tanzania launched Farmers First programs in two districts of Karatu and Bunda. Farmers First programs consist of the formation of farmers’ groups called Farmer Field Schools. They include both men and women who lack access to agricultural education, inputs and trainings.

Together the Farmer Field Schools discussed their household issues of low income and poor nutrition. It was decided that short maturity papaya seedlings are one of the solutions for their households. However, there was an obstacle that needed to be overcome; seedlings have to be raised in dry season but in these villages water is not readily available. To address this water shortage problem, women farmers were trained on the use of drip irrigation that uses locally available materials. They were also trained on topics such as hole digging and manure/compost application, inter and intra row spacing, pest and disease management, harvesting and handling, marketing, seed multiplication and the nutritional value of papaya. Papaya is very nutritious and contains a number of vitamins such as C,A,K,E and potassium which are essential.

Fruit tree nurseries were then established which included these short maturity papaya seedlings with the distribution of 2,000 seedlings to 200 women with an average of 10 seedlings per woman.

…

Planting papaya

Today women in Karatu District are benefiting from papaya fruits. In interviews with women in Kilima Tembo village, they acknowledged that papayas have been beneficial to them and their families. The papayas are being eaten frequently and are also being sold to earn cash to meet immediate household demands, supporting education expenses and sometimes paying for medical bills.

Selina Anael, is 47 years old. She is the mother of two children aged 17 and 15 who are  in secondary school, and two children in primary school. She is a member of Umoja Farmer Field School in Kilima Tembo village and one of the women who was supported with papaya seedlings after she had received training from CPAR. Selina started harvesting her papaya in June of 2011.

“I didn’t know I could earn this much cash from just selling fruits, I believed only crops such as pigeon peas and maize are the only crops to stick with for cash. I have been producing those crops for years and the benefit is very low compared to the workload involved. Although it has been a very short time since I started harvesting papaya, I have already earned an incredible amount of cash for school fees and supplies as well as improving our household nutritional status” says Selina.

Papaya fruits fetch a good price at the local market in Karatu and the near-by town called Mto wa mbu, one papaya is sold at 1500 – 3000 Tsh (US $ 1-2). Other farmers have started collecting seeds from those who were supported by CPAR to establish their own papaya tree gardens.

“I believe in the near future all farmers producing papaya will be food secure all year round” concludes Selina.

Almost 1 billion people globally are hungry, and more than 239 million of these people live in sub-Saharan Africa.

This year, CPAR celebrated World Food Day by raising awareness across Canada with the United Against Hunger in Africa campaign. Our dedicated Napkin Squad volunteers across Canada engaged their communities and informed thousands of Canadians through the distribution of awareness raising napkins to restaurants, coffee spots, school cafeterias, etc.

We would like to say THANK YOU to the following participating establishments.

Bedford, NS:

Thai Garden Restaurant
Sunnyside Restaurant
Cellar Bar and Grill
Finbar’s Irish Pub

Winnipeg, MB:
Degrees Restaurant

Saskatoon, SK:
Leven’s Company
Earthbound Bakery
Caffe SOLA
City Perks Coffee House
Christie’s Mayfair Bakery

Edmonton, AB:
Upper Crust Café and Caterers
Steeps Tea Lounge

Vancouver, BC:
Food for Life Conference

Bowmanville, ON:
Clarington Older Adult Association
Chanterelle Bistro
Walsh’s Snug
Chuky’s Kitchen
Clarington Public Library

Brampton, ON:
Turner Fenton Secondary School

Concord, ON:
Humanity First

Courtice, ON:
Barnaby’s

Maple, ON:
Aramark Cafeteria -Maple High

Markham, ON:
Windjammer Fish & Chips
Excellent B.B.Q Restaurant
Wok’s King
Shanghai Legend
Markham District High School

North York, ON:
Flemingdon Pizza

Oakville, ON:
Mac’s Sushi
Fit for Life
Davids Tea

Ottawa, ON:
Green Door Restaurant

Richmond Hill, ON:
Mr. Sub
Bayview Secondary School Cafeteria

Toronto, ON:
Sugar Mamma’s Mini Donuts
The Canadian Pie Co.
Trio Restaurante Pizzeria
Milagro Cantina Mexicana
Steakfrites Bistro
SOHO bistro
Le Gourmet Shawarma Cafe
Pizza Pizza
Heartbeatz Cliffcrest Community Centre
Seraphia Inspired Cuisine
ARAMARK Canada at U of T at Scarborough Campus
Paramount Fine Food
Popeyes
Manisha Restaurant
B and B Restaurant & Tavern
Spence’s 3 Star Bakery & Restaurant
Chat Bout Restaurant
Pho Ngon
Celebrity Kitchen
Rincon De La Boca Bar & Restaurant
Jane’s Bar and Grill
Tim Hortons
McDonald’s
Eglinton Fast Food Inc.
Doy Doy
Nonna’s Place
Bloordale Pantry
UNICEF Club at York

Vaughan, ON:
Subway

It is against this background that CPAR has continued to implement community feeding programs for children using the Positive Deviance (PD) or Hearth model. PD/Hearth is based on the philosophy that solutions to community problems usually exist within any given community. The approach encompasses efforts to locate those individuals inside the community who seem to have overcome the common challenges, and to carefully consider what it is that they are doing differently from the others. The key principles of the approach are the rehabilitation of malnourished children using locally available foods; the detection of moderate cases of malnutrition through routine screening; the adoption of appropriate behaviours and best practices by mothers; and the prevention of further malnutrition in children through introduction of sustainable healthy practices.

Mary Eliya is a 31-year old mother of three. Realizing that her son Paul was malnourished, she participated in the PD/Hearth session in the village of Chazama. Mary described her son Paul before entering the session: “My son Paul was miserable. He couldn’t go out and play with his friends. His weight kept on dropping, and he lost his appetite for food and he was sickly. When he was given food he could not eat much because it was the same type of food now and again and most of the time Paul was lonely. This was because I didn’t know how to prepare nutritious food. When CPAR came with the PD/Hearth idea, I decided to join since all the resources needed for this program are locally found.”

Mary Eliya and her healthy sons

Through participating in the PD/Hearth session, Mary has learned to adopt new ingredients into her family’s diet, bringing Paul back to full health.

“We learned how to make nutritious porridge with ingredients such as maize flour, pigeon peas, milk, groundnuts, eggs, vegetables, sugar and cooking oil. After 12 days Paul gained weight and he is very happy and he plays a lot with his friends. I will continue doing this at home since I now know what is needed to prepare nutritious food for my children,” said Paul’s mother. “This will help to prevent malnutrition in my other children and also to sustain the good health of Paul.”

Paul’s father expressed a similar sense of relief and optimism: “The gods have smiled on us. Since my wife started attending PD/Hearth sessions, our children are no longer frequently ill. This has helped us to concentrate on our farming business. This program has brought a lot of smiles on the faces of our children.”

In 2010, the villagers in Karukekere village, Bunda District, Tanzania were struggling to support their families on a yield of five bags of maize per acre of land. This was due to an ongoing drought that left many households unable to lift themselves out of poverty as well as unable to provide their families with adequately nutritious food.  In Karukekere village farming is the main economic activity and source of nutrition for many residents. This drought had devastated the land and the livelihoods of many in Bunda.

Chipuka (Sprout) Farmer Field School was established with 34 members (23 Female/11 Male) when villagers realized that maize, which had been a major crop for both food and earning income was not doing well. Together, with CPAR’s support, they decided to grow groundnuts as an alternate crop that would not only provide income but would also be a stable source of protein for their households.

Rebeca Selemani, demonstrating groundnuts harvest

During the baseline study, an exercise where farmers identify their needs and set priorities, farmers asked for sustainable, long-term solutions to help improve their incomes and nutrition, including getting support in cash crops. Responding to these needs, CPAR Tanzania facilitated training and provided inputs such as groundnut seeds. To promote agricultural self-sufficiency, CPAR Tanzania worked with farmers to ensure that improvements are sustained locally and replicated to other farmers. One farmer shares some of the knowledge that she gained “Groundnuts are a good cover crop, they also provide nitrogen fixation into the soil to reduce the need for using expensive industrial fertilizers. It is also a tap root plant so it helps to break the hard pan in the soil and allows water to go deep in the soil.”

Through this program, Rebeca Selemani, a mother of six children joined Chipuka Farmer Field School to learn advanced farming techniques for planting and harvesting groundnuts as an alternative crop. With bulk sales of the harvest, Rebeca is earning nearly double what she would have earned under the traditional cultivating system. Her success, just after her first year of growing groundnuts has encouraged her to buy more seeds for next year’s cropping season and to encourage others in her community to do the same.

Rebeca’s improved harvest is echoing throughout her community and benefiting future generations in Karukekere village. By farming groundnuts as an alternative crop, Chipuka Farmer Field School farmers are able to make nutrient-rich foods for their families from their crops. “It is really interesting, groundnuts help improve my income but also provide protein to my family, I make peanuts and use it in every meal for my children, they all look so health” says Rebeca.

With her improved income, Rebeca is realizing her long-standing dream of putting an iron roof on her home and paying the tuition fees for her eldest daughter, Ester, to complete secondary school without borrowing money. Living debt-free for the first time in years, Rebeca is now also able to pay for her youngest daughter, Felista, to go to secondary school.