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USAID/ Zambia - Success Stories
Potholing Technology: Francis Malambo's Survival Technique in the Face of Cattle Losses
Irrigation Technology: Smallscale Farmer Enters International Export Business
CARE Trained Community Livestock Auxiliaries Help Fight against Cattle Disease
To be Widowed is not the End of LifePotholing Technology: Francis Malambo's
Survival Technique in the Face of Cattle LossesFrancis Malambo, a small-scale farmer in Monze District narrated his experience with potholing technology to the Post Newspaper in October 2000. Pot holing refers to a conservation farming technique that involves making holes in the field. During crop production, inputs ¾ fertilizers/manure, seed, water, lime ¾ all concentrate in the prepared hole as opposed to being spread over an area in furrow cultivation. This concentration of growth enhancing factors around the plant significantly increases yield.
Francis said, "Potholing type cultivation introduced by the Cooperative League of the USA (CLUSA) has assisted me and my family greatly since the death of our animals. Our reliance on cattle here in Southern Province was total. With draft animals, we could cultivate large expanses of land and obtain good harvests. When the animals died of corridor disease (East Coast fever) eight years ago, we could only cultivate a small fraction of our land using hand hoes. We stood on the brink of starvation. Fortunately, CLUSA came in 1998 and introduced this potholing technology. With potholing cultivation, one does not need a big portion of land to get a good harvest. I am now getting more bags of maize from one hectare than I used to get from the four hectares I cultivated using cattle. I have enough maize to feed my family, with excess crop to pay off the seasonal inputs loan and sell some to milling companies. So, my animals are no more but my family will live on."
Francis added, "Both me and the other farmers in my group are now well aware of the benefits of potholing technology. This technique allows us enough time to prepare our fields and plant our crops with the first rains. The technique concentrates plant nutrients in the hole. Our yields are extremely good. This technology has brought development to our area. We have lost our animals but with this technology our harvests have improved and the pressure for more agricultural land has dissipated."
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Irrigation Technology: Smallscale Farmer
Enters International Export BusinessOn retirement from the Zambian civil service in 1988, Mike Phiri settled on his 4 hectare smallholding just 60 kilometers from the capital, Lusaka. Since any type of pension is negligible in Zambia, Mike cultivated his land during the rainy season producing enough corn to feed his family. Occasionally, he grew vegetables for subsistence. He lived simply, well aware that given the low local maize prices, he would be losing money if he tried to grow maize or other crops for the local market. In March 2000, everything changed. Under a new loan scheme, the Zambia Agribusiness Technical Assistance Center (ZATAC) would supply irrigation equipment for the production of baby corn, runner beans, and mangetout peas. The vegetables would be contracted for sale to the country's largest horticultural exporter, Agriflora Ltd. The firm, near the Lusaka International Airport, had over the years exported a wide range of fresh vegetables to Europe. Interested in expanding production beyond its own farms, Agriflora saw the attractiveness of working with various smallholders in the vicinity of its pack house located just outside the airport. This would only be possible if the small producers overcame the constraint of rain dependent agriculture and were organized by some other organization to act as a group. At ZATAC's request, CLUSA, with their group mobilizing techniques began working with the small farmers.
Within three months, Mike's drip irrigation equipment was installed by ZATAC while Agriflora Ltd. installed a small refrigeration warehouse next to his house. By September 2000, nine months after his irrigation equipment was installed, Mike had delivered 1.3 tons of fresh vegetables to Agriflora and received $1,500 payment for the produce. Over the next twelve months Mike's net income target was $4,000. Mike remarked, "Things have moved very fast. We are very happy with ZATAC. Both my neighbors and I have been occupying this land for over a decade. We did not know that we would one day be in the international export business. The vision of ZATAC and Agriflora in mounting this project is simply phenomenal. We have now broken clear of the vagaries of seasonal agriculture. We grow crops all year round for the European market and we receive an all year round income."
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CARE Trained Community Livestock
Auxiliaries Help Fight against Cattle DiseaseIn two years, 1999 and 2000, farmers in Livingstone district lost 6,162 cattle worth $560,181 to East Coast fever. For these farmers, losing cattle-used for plowing and transport-means loss of productive assets. In Zambia cattle are also "banks on hooves," so losing cattle is both a loss of wealth and status. To help farmers combat this devastating disease, USAID's partner CARE trained 130 community livestock auxiliaries (CLAs) to supplement efforts of scantily staffed government veterinary services.
Fabian Makandauko, a trained CLA in Delevu, treated four cows belonging to Mr. Ngandu with ox tetracycline and de-wormed four others belonging to Mr. Mabi. He also took blood and lymph node smears from a cow and sent the samples to the laboratory where results confirmed presence of anaplasmosis. Fabian has castrated 10 cattle belonging to farmers in his area and made follow-ups on cattle deaths to monitor the incidence of East Coast fever.
Similarly, Joseph Siachiwa, a CLA in Siamasimbi, undertook routine samplings of animals to monitor disease incidence. He collected blood and lymph node smears from 41 animals and sent samples to the Veterinary Department for analysis. Three animals were positive with East Coast fever, six with red water sickness, and five with gall sickness. The veterinary services prescribed drugs accordingly, which farmers accessed through the CARE facilitated drug loan scheme. In addition to treating animals, Joseph also reports on movements of animals by cattle buyers to the Veterinary Department as a way of containing the spread of East Coast fever.
These "barefoot" vets are assisting the thinly stretched Government Veterinary Service to provide livestock extension, early identification of disease incidence, and administering of drugs in accordance with the laws. In the process they are directly supporting farmer families to keep their agricultural tools and family assets intact. The CLAs have helped to arrest the spread of East Coast fever and save animals, which would otherwise have died.
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To be Widowed is not the End of Life
This is the story of Grace Muuka, a Zambian entrepreneur.
"My late husband worked for an accounting firm and also ran his own accounting business in his free time. He had 27 clients. I assisted him as a secretary while he was at work. We also had a general retail trading shop that I ran. When my husband fell sick, we used the shop and accountancy income for his treatment. Unfortunately things did not work even after spending all our business money. My husband died on 14th February 1997.
It was very difficult for me to continue running two businesses because all the money was spent on his treatment while other things were taken by creditors and relatives. This was the darkest time of my life. Thank God for USAID's Human Resources Development Project (HRDP). Before my husband died, I had already attended three workshops with HRDP in business planning and basic finance, accounting for nonfinancial managers, and production management. I remembered the information I got from HRDP office on lending. I picked one institution from the HRDP list called Country Services Limited Co. Because of the knowledge I got from HRDP workshops, I was able to sit down and write a business plan that I presented to Country Services Limited for a loan. My plan was approved and I got a small loan amounting to K500,000 (approx. $150). Because of the knowledge I acquired from the workshops, I was able to plan how to use the little money I got from Country Services Limited. And because during all the workshops I attended, facilitators stressed financial discipline, I am able to control myself in the way I use business funds.
I am proud to say that my shop is doing fine, I have also employed a qualified accountant to enable me continue running my late husband's private accounting firm, which is no longer private because I have registered it as I.C.M. Management Accountants Ltd. with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. I have maintained 27 clients, the same number of clients my husband had from Kabwe and Kapiri towns.
To be a widow is not the end of life. I would like to salute HRDP personnel who are working tirelessly to impart business knowledge to small businesses and encourage widows to go forward and see the beautiful light at the end of the tunnel through their programs. Money is not the only thing that can improve your business. Knowledge and skills are the best tools to improve business, and I am happy that HRDP provided these to me."
(From HRDP Newsletter April/May 2000)
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Updated: Wednesday, January 9, 2002
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Last Updated on: July 19, 2004 |