FARM-Africa is one of the partners we are working with in Africa. In 2006 we supported the final stages of their work in Northern Tanzania, helping 260 farmers to access seed and improve their skills at growing fruit and vegetables. The results were very encouraging, (and you can read more about them here), so in 2007 we agreed to fund a second project of theirs, this time in Southern Sudan.
While over 90% of the land is suitable for farming in this area, more than twenty years of civil war have had a devastating effect, and the hundreds of thousands who fled are now returning with nothing. We are supporting FARM-Africa's partnership with farmers and herders, training them in practices that enable them to get the best from their land, and so rebuild their lives.
We are particularly glad to be funding this, since, as ActionAid points out, not many funders are willing to fund start-up projects in post-conflict situations. The foundation's willingness to take a risk has got this work off the ground and is having a real impact.
FARM-Africa aims to reduce poverty by enabling marginal African farmers and herders to improve the sustainable management of their renewable natural resources.
The organisation works in partnership with communities, governments, local organisations, international NGOs and the private sector to develop strong rural livelihoods and then share the results of their work with others for it to have maximum impact in Eastern and Southern Africa.
FARM-Africa began working in Southern Sudan in 2005 after the signing of the Naivasha Peace Accord. The accord provides for a high degree of autonomy for the south for six years, after which a referendum on independence will be held.
We have agreed four years of funding to support FARM-Africa's Southern Sudan Livelihoods Recoveryand Development Project which began early in 2007. Working in Gogrial West County in Warrap state, the aim is to reach a total of 15,340 vulnerable households, 92,340 people, by the end of 2010.
Theproject will see farming families gain immediate nutritional benefits, through initiatives such as goat credit, the provision of seeds, tools, fruit trees and water points and training in innovative farming techniques. Families can begin to build up livelihoods and assets with a view to feeding their families and ending their reliance on food aid.
Project activities will also enable FARM-Africa to develop relationships with farmers, government extension staff, and local organisations that will be essential for longer-term development in the area.
Objectives Update - July '07
FARM-Africa established a small head office in the Southern Sudan capital of Juba, and uses a Mobile Outreach Camp approach to deliver project activities with staff living and working closely with communities.
So far this year, the project has meant that:
- Seeds and tools have been distributed to almost 1500 households - including sorghum (cereal), groundnuts, tomato, okra, kale, eggplant, maize, onions, sesame, pumpkin, beans and peas.
- 800 mango, guava and orange trees have been distributed and planted.
- After training 33 people in ox plough techniques, they returned to their districts and trained a total of 128 teams of oxen. This enables communities to cultivate land much more quickly.
- 50,000 animals have been vaccinated.
- Working with SUPRAID, FARM-Africa has drilled five boreholes. Each one provides water to meet the daily domestic, livestock and homestead needs of 300 households. It is also working to renovate broken boreholes and train people on how to dig shallow wells.
Other components of the project include targeting female-headed households to receive goats on a credit basis, forming Farmers' Research Extension Groups to trial new farming techniques and identifying and training Community Animal Health Workers.
Local tools and ox ploughs
The most limiting facor for most farmers in Gogrial West County is due to the type of tools available. The most common used in the area is called a maloda, requires a farmer to kneel on the ground, and takes approximately five hours to work between 20m² - 50m². Using a well trained pair of oxen and a mould board plough however, three farmers can cultivate half an acre of land (2,023 m²) in just two hours.
A previous attempt to introduce ox plough techniques into this region by the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) was initially resisted by local farmers. Oxen are so prized, that people were unwilling to harness them for agricutltural purposes. However now that the benefits have been demonstrated, farmers are growing much more enthusiastic.
Mr. Valentino Akot's experience
Mr. Akot is a farmer who lives in Ajong village in Gogrial West County and participated in FARM-Africa's ox-plough training. He was more than keen, and his bulls were the first to be trained. He put this into practice immediately and within a week managed to cultivate his field of five acres.
This is what Mr. Akot had to say about ox-ploughing:
'Last year I was in the field from May to October, because by the time I finished planting my small field of sorghum, the weeds had grown taller than the crops; and by the time I finished weeding, the early sorghum was ready for harvesting. I planted very few groundnuts because of this problem. This year I was among the first to start planting sorghum and also the first to finish cultivation in my small village, because of the ox plough FARM-Africa gave me. This size of field would take one to two months for my family to cultivate and another month for weeding.
I later used my plough to rent out at 45 Sudanese Pounds (£11) per day and the money I got was used to employ seven people to do weeding for 15 days. See, now I have the best sorghum (5 acres), enough/healthy groundnuts and sesame from which I am expecting the best yield ever.
This has given me free time to work in the grinding mill to get extra money to add on to the one for renting my plough, for harvesting the crops and also helping my family and relatives. I get 150 Sudanese pounds (£37.50) from the milling business. This is very small amount compared to the money I was getting from renting out my plough, but I want to keep my plough for next year because the share will get finished and getting the spares is difficult.'
www.farmafrica.org.uk