Agricultural Support to Azerbaijan Project

Overview:

The $8.5 million, four-year (2014 to 2018) Agricultural Support to Azerbaijan Project (ASAP) increased the incomes of agribusinesses and agricultural producers to accelerate the development of Azerbaijan’s non-oil economy. To accomplish this, CNFA increased access to finance using local Business Services Providers (BSPs) to grow and expand exports of agricultural entrepreneurs, promoted improved production practices through strengthened extension services, facilitated a favorable business enabling environment and expanded dialogue and the use of analytical tools and training.

Approach:

ASAP was built on the successes of USAID’s support to agricultural producers and processors in Azerbaijan over the last 15 years. Various activities strengthened the ability of domestic producers to meet international quality standards, increase exports and yield better supply and domestic market demand, in turn boosting employment and incomes. ASAP targeted value chains with the highest economic potential including hazelnuts, pomegranates, orchard crops and vegetables. Activities specifically yielded these results:

1. Increased Technology Adoption: ASAP assisted growers and processors to adopt new technologies and techniques to increase the quality and quantity of production.
2. Supported Increased Sales: Through ASAP, CNFA facilitated increased exports and enhanced domestic marketing through more rigorous food safety systems, packing and post-harvest methods.
3. Facilitated Business Connections: ASAP’s activities strengthened the linkages among actors in the respective value chains and fostered cooperation through strengthened industry associations.
4. Bolstered the Quality of Services Provision: The project built the availability, quality, capacity and sustainability of BSPs and public and private extension services.

Overview:

CNFA implemented the USAID John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program in Southern Africa starting in 2008. From 2008 to 2018, the $7.9 million CNFA-implemented F2F Program operated in the countries of Angola, Malawi and Mozambique and aimed to generate rapid, sustained economic growth in the agricultural sector through short-term technical assistance provided by expert U.S. volunteers, including farmers, bankers, professors, civil servants and active and retired business people. Lasting two-to-four weeks, volunteer assignments focused on a range of topics, from training farmers’ associations in improved production techniques to teaching cooperatives better financial management and marketing.

CNFA volunteers were guided and supported by highly trained home and local teams. Through the storytelling of returned volunteers, F2F increased the broader American public’s understanding of international development issues and the critical importance of U.S. development programs.

Approach:

CNFA worked with agribusinesses, extension agencies, cooperatives and farmers to provide expertise on topics including crop production, post-harvest handling and marketing of seeds, cooperative and association development, business plan development, communications and marketing support and financial management.

1. Increased Agricultural Sector Productivity and Profitability: CNFA’s approach focused on increasing smallholder productivity and profitability by targeting high-potential value chains in each target country.
2. Improved Conservation and Sustainable Use of Environmental and Natural Resources: CNFA balanced increased agricultural productivity with improved conservation and sustainable resource use. Examples of volunteer roles include water management, integrated pest management (IPM), and integrated soil fertility management.
3. Expanded Agricultural Sector Access to Financial Services: CNFA linked smallholder farmer organizations and small and medium enterprises with credit via appropriate channels, including microfinance institutions, banks, supplier credit, leasing, equity investment and blended capital from investors.
4. Strengthened Agricultural Sector Institutions: CNFA strengthened farmer organizations, including cooperatives and associations, local NGOs, industry associations that support improved input supply, and agricultural universities.

Overview:

The six-year (2012-2018), $41.1 million Agricultural Growth Program-Livestock Market Development (AGP-LMD) project was a livestock market development project funded by USAID, as part of the U.S. Government’s Feed the Future Initiative. AGP-LMD fostered growth, created jobs for rural households and reduced hunger and malnutrition by increasing the competitiveness of livestock value chains, including meat and dairy.

The project was part of USAID’s broader contribution to the Government of Ethiopia’s Agricultural Growth Program, which increased agricultural productivity and market access for crop and livestock products in targeted areas while bolstering the participation of women and youth. Additionally, CNFA supported local partner organizations to lead interventions through existing cooperatives, associations, government agencies and private firms, spurring sustainable economic growth in Ethiopia.

Approach:

1. Increased Productivity and Competitiveness of Selected Livestock Value Chains: AGP-LMD provided training to livestock producers, enabling them to improve their production and increase their competitiveness in domestic and international markets. They also built the capacity of agro-input retailers and private farm suppliers to expand their businesses and offer improved commercial farm inputs and services.
2. Improved Enabling Environment for Livestock Value Chains: The AGP-LMD team facilitated policy discussions to reform bottlenecks and involved a variety of stakeholders in project workshops and platforms. The project also built capacity for public and private sector actors, coordinated linkages with other USAID programs and applied research to yield successful interventions. Over the life of the project, AGP-LMD developed and supported 11 livestock-related policies, regulations and administrative procedures.
3. Improved Quality and Diversity of Household Diets: AGP-LMD integrated communications and community mobilization efforts related to nutritional practices throughout its activities, targeting improvements in quality and dietary diversity for children under two and people living with HIV/AIDS. Through development agents and health extension workers, AGP-LMD reached more than 160,000 people with nutrition messaging.
4. Facilitated Women’s Empowerment: AGP-LMD trained more than 400 women entrepreneurs in business and leadership, equipping them with skills like time management, strategic planning, business relationship management and information and communications technology (ICT) to help them participate more formally in the marketplace, increase their savings, improve the quality of their products and strengthen their household decision-making power.

Partners:

• Netherlands Development Organization
• International Medical Corps
• Self-Help Africa- Ethiopia
• Organization for Rehabilitation and Development in Amhara
• Relief Society of Tigray
• Institute for International Education
• The Oromo Grassroots Development Initiative

Overview:

Côte d’Ivoire’s cocoa sector is valued at $4 billion annually. As the country’s number-one export and foreign exchange earner, it also represents more than 40 percent of the world’s cocoa supply. As a whole, the crop contributes to roughly 15 percent of the West African nation’s gross domestic product.

Earnings from the cultivation and sale of cocoa support five million people in Côte d’Ivoire, including an estimated one million smallholder farmers and their families. On average, these farmers live on less than $2.00 per day and grow cocoa on small plots of between two to five hectares with low or declining productivity.

These smallholder cocoa farmers have limited capacity to increase the amount of quality beans they can sell, which would otherwise be a viable means of increasing their incomes and improving their livelihoods. This is of great concern to the Government of Côte d’Ivoire, which is engaged in its own efforts to strengthen the country-wide capacity to meet rising global demand and improve domestic processing operations. The Government currently maintains a goal of keeping 50 percent of cocoa processing in-country.

To support the cocoa sector in addressing these and other challenges, CNFA is implementing the three-year Maximizing Opportunities in Cocoa Activity (MOCA) from 2017 to 2021.

This $14.6 million USDA Food for Progress activity focuses on increasing the productivity and efficiency of actors in the cocoa value chain. It also seeks to expand the trade of cocoa and cocoa products by improving the quality of crops on existing Government-designated farmland, all towards boosting farmer incomes from these high-value commodities.

Program Approach:

MOCA increases the productivity and efficiency of actors in the cocoa value chain by strengthening the capacity of producers, cooperatives, producer groups, input suppliers and processors of cocoa.

Activities to improve and expand the trade of cocoa and cocoa products focus on reducing losses during production, harvest and post-harvest by increasing access to quality inputs and services; enhancing production, harvest and post-harvest handling techniques; strengthening market linkages; and facilitating access to finance and financial services for producers and cooperatives to more adequately meet existing market opportunities.

These activities occur primarily in the cocoa belt regions of Côte d’Ivoire, where MOCA works with 24 cooperatives and 9,000 producers, input service providers, local processors, financial service providers, exporters and U.S.-based chocolatiers.

1. Supporting Producer Groups & Cooperatives: MOCA supported farmer cooperatives in areas such as cooperative governance, general and financial management practices and systems, human resources management, access to finance, service delivery, external relations with input and service suppliers and buyers, gender integration and sustainability.
2. Working with Government & Institutions: MOCA closely coordinated its activities with the Conseil Café et Cacao (CCC) and used the expertise of Côte d’Ivoire’s Agence Nationale d’Appui au Développement Rural (ANADER) and Centre National de Recherche Agronomique (CNRA) to provide services to farmers and cooperatives.
3. Providing Business Development Services (BDS): MOCA delivered BDS support to over 30 cocoa entrepreneurs and cooperatives in rural and urban areas in business planning, market linkages, capacity building, environmental awareness and the establishment of businesses and business infrastructure.
4. Facilitating Agricultural Lending: The Activity partnered with six banks, micro-finance institutions (MFIs) and financial service providers to increase over 3,500 producers’ access to and benefit from the use of mobile money, insurances and credit services to pilot new financial services such as crop insurance.
5. Providing In-Kind Grants for Equipment and Inputs: MOCA awarded 12 in-kind grants valued at $350,000 to entrepreneurs and cooperatives throughout the cocoa value chain in the form of agricultural inputs and equipment.
6. Developing Agrodealers & Input Suppliers: In collaboration with OLAM, the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the Jacobs Foundation, MOCA established five spray-service professionals’ units (SSPUs). These SSPU’s provide 125 mostly male rural youth opportunities to engage in cocoa service provision. They also provide affordable fee-based services facilitated by cooperatives for other producers. MOCA also established a network of Farm Service Centers (FSCs) in partnership with Callivoire/UPL. These FSCs improve smallholder access to quality inputs and equipment in MOCA’s zones of intervention and further develop collaboration between producers and agrodealers through improved training and training spaces by these input suppliers.
7. Training on Improved Production Techniques: MOCA provided training and pruning tools to 9,000 producers through a network of 170 lead farmers from over 20 supported cooperatives with the objective of increasing production and reducing losses due to black pod disease. MOCA also worked in close collaboration with Guittard Chocolate and producers from two cooperatives to produce quality flavor cacao. The first container of quality flavor cacao beans resulting from this initiative was exported in February 2021.
8. Facilitating Market Relationships: The Activity partnered with the Fine Chocolate Industry Association (FCIA) to increase awareness around quality flavor cacao opportunities in Cote d’Ivoire. MOCA also supported the ambitions of two cooperatives to access new market parties and directly export their products.

Partners:

1. SOCODEVI

Esnath Tshuma, 45, lives in Tjompani village with her 13 year-old nephew, Tandana. Esnath is a strong-willed woman who has worked hard throughout the years, but her life irrevocably changed after sustaining a severe injury three years ago. In November of 2012, Esnath was repairing a fence in her field, when she turned and lodged her foot in the fence. She fell, twisting her leg and fracturing a bone in the process. The injury resulted in paralysis of her leg and impaired mobility of her right hand. She is now limited to walking with crutches, as well as a using a plastic yard chair in lieu of a proper wheelchair to maneuver around her compound.

Her husband travelled to South Africa to look for work in August 2015, but has not been able to find a steady source of income. She receives a bit of money from her brother who works in Bulawayo, but since her injury, she has been relying on the kindness of her neighbors and the sale of her own personal items, like used blankets and dresses, to make ends meet.

“After my injury in 2012, I felt like I couldn’t do anything and was spending a lot of time sitting around idle,” said Esnath. She explained that due to her disability, she was no longer able to perform most of her daily activities like fetching water, collecting firewood, and farming. Cooking over an open fire on the ground was a particularly uncomfortable task, but she was unwilling to give up this role.

Esnath was thrilled when in early 2014, her sister-in-law, Tshihomanana Tshuma, offered to build her a clay stove that would allow her to sit while cooking. Tshihomanana participated in an Amalima training to learn how to build an environmentally friendly, fuel-efficient ‘eco-stove.’ After learning how to work with the clay, she realized that she could easily build a platform for Esnath’s eco-stove to allow for cooking while seated. The results were perfect; not only is Esnath able to complete her daily chores with increased comfort, but due to the eco-stove’s fuel-efficiency, her young nephew saves time and energy searching for increasingly scarce firewood in the bush.

Tshihomanana learned about Amalima’s Community Health Clubs (CHC) through the eco-stove training, and asked Esnath to join her in participating. CHCs promote increased awareness of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) practices in communities through completion of a 20 module Participatory Health and Hygiene Education (PHHE) training. CHCs foster learning for change through promotion of practical improvements at the household level to change the behaviors of community members in favor of a more hygienic environment. In March 2014, 16 women and one man from Tjompani village established the Mukani CHC and began receiving lessons from Nosizo Dube, their neighbor and Community Based Facilitator (CBF).

“After joining the CHC, I realized that I could stand up for myself and do something with my life,” noted Esnath. The lessons highlighted vital steps to improving hygiene that Esnath was capable of completing at home, such as sweeping, washing hands at critical times, using a 2-cup water system, rubbish disposal and cleaning dishes. Perhaps more importantly, belonging to the club gave her a special comradery with her group members. The members proved to be more than just a social outlet; recognizing her needs, the group pitched in to build Esnath a tippy-tap hand washing station, a private bathing area, and a rubbish pit at her homestead.

Left: Esnath and Tshihomanana with her private bathing area. Right: Mukani members wash hands at Esnath’s tippy-tap.

After completing the PHHE sessions, all 17 Mukani CHC members graduated at a community-wide ceremony. After this milestone, the members recognized a positive momentum with their initiative and made the decision to continue working together as a Village Savings and Lending (VS&L) group. To make this transition, they received training on VS&L methodology from Amalima, including group formation, constitution development, group fund development, loans and loan appraisal, and record keeping.

Mukani group held its first VS&L meeting in August 2015. Their objective is to save for short-term needs such as food, kitchen utensils and school fees, as well as to pool financial resources for larger, higher-impact income generating activities. The group’s long-term goal is to establish a poultry business with their savings. At each meeting, hosted by a different member on rotation, members make a $10 contribution. Each month $10 is set aside for group savings and investment in their poultry business, which they hope to establish later this year. The remaining cash is used to provide the hosting member with kitchen utensils and a goat valued at approximately $35. The balance is then shared out evenly among members for their household use. The group has $70 saved to date.

Tandana and Esnath together at home.

Esnath already has plans to grow her small livestock herd with the goat she received from hosting the December 2015 meeting. She is also looking forward to being involved in the poultry income generating activity to become economically self-sufficient; the group considered her accessibility when selecting where the chicken coop will be located.

After receiving her eco-stove and joining the Mukani club, Esnath recognized her ability to lead a full life. The training Esnath received from Amalima is invaluable, yet the support and friendship from her group members has been as vital to her livelihood. She is grateful for the opportunity to join the CHC. “It has given me a sense of purpose,” she says.

As the arid climate of the Matebeleland region in Zimbabwe is not particularly suitable for crop production, a majority of rural Zimbabweans in this area rely on livestock production for their livelihoods. These farmers face many challenges, namely access to water and resources to protect and maintain livestock health. Traditionally, small holder farmers in Zimbabwe have depended on skilled veterinary services and NGO personnel for livestock health services such as dehorning, castration, vaccination, dosing and other treatments. Yet, veterinary extension officers are burdened with a zone of coverage that is too expansive to meet the needs of most farmers and animals in their regions. To purchase vaccines or visit the nearest Department of Veterinary Services Doctor, small holder farmers must often travel long distances and pay debilitating amounts of money. To address the gap in services, the Amalima program is training Lead Farmers and Paravets (auxiliary animal health workers) to provide much needed veterinary services to local communities and to increase knowledge about effective livestock management practices in three major areas: disease prevention; supplementary feeding, and improved breeding.

Mr. Putshe Sibanda of Mzila Village is a farmer, husband, father of seven, and Village Savings and Loan (VS&L) group member, but he has now added one more commitment to his already busy schedule: community Paravet.  As an owner of 13 cattle, 34 goats and many chickens, Sibanda sought to improve the health of his livestock by participating in Amalima Lead Farmer livestock training.

Sibanda was determined to put what he learned into practice. Armed with his new understanding of improved livestock management practices, he reached out to farmers in his community to train others about animal health. As an Amalima Lead Farmer, Sibanda committed to reaching 10 farmers through a cascading training model– but he easily reached 30 individuals in a matter of weeks. He saw that there was a demand for livestock management training in his community with participants young and old, male and female, wanting to improve their livelihoods by investing in their livestock.

After the success of his initial trainings, Sibanda elected to participate in additional Amalima and Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) training in September 2014 to become a Paravet. These trainings cover both theory and hands-on application of various practices such as disease prevention, identification, and treatment, nutrition (supplementary feeding, pen fattening and feed harvesting), breed improvement, dehorning, and the calving process. Since participating in this training and assuming his new role as a Paravet, Sibanda has worked with over 100 households to treat more than 500 goats, 300 kids, 300 cattle and 1,000 chickens. He treats issues ranging from popped and pulpy kidneys and blocked udders to diarrhea and birthing complications.

Sibanda says he draws his motivation for this work from the potential financial empowerment that livestock production can provide for small holder farmers. Sibanda, as with all Amalima-trained Paravets, does not charge a fee for his services. Even after the countless hours of work he has volunteered, he remains focused on a larger goal for his community: “I want my neighbors to also succeed with their livestock and not suffer,” he says. Sibanda believes in a two-pronged approach to improving animal health and livestock production: training community members on livestock management skills and increasing access to localized veterinary services and vaccines. He sees these inputs as key to increasing livestock herds and, in turn, improving the livelihoods and food security of whole communities.

“Since I started training with Amalima, my goats and cattle are no longer dying,” he said. “I had lots of issues with deaths during and after pregnancy. My survival rate for calves was previously one out of five (20%). As my neighbors began to see that I knew how to care for and vaccinate my animals, they also began to seek my assistance and buy vaccines. They are now aware that it is best to vaccinate for disease prevention, and not for a cure.”

Members of surrounding communities now consult him on a regular basis. Through his training and home-visits, he helps other farmers establish good habits for livestock management. Often, when making a home-visit, he will invite one of his trainees to accompany him to gain valuable hands-on experience. Two of his trainees have started helping other farmers in their communities with livestock issues, further spreading improved animal husbandry practices in the process.

In light of the poor rainfall this season, Sibanda also encouraged farmers to re-plant small-grains and beans in mid-late January. If the crops do not produce food for humans, the stalks and leaves can be used as fodder for animals in upcoming months. In addition, he trains farmers to dig a large storage hole, line it with plastic, and keep grasses and other forage in this cool, dry space to keep feed fresh.

Sibanda (left) with trainees from Mashasha livestock group in Mzila village, who also participate in the communal livestock medication supply system.

Sibanda’s role as community paravet exceeds that of a trainer and veterinary service provider; he is mobilizing entire communities to practice sustainable livestock management practices. In Mzila village, he has established a communal vaccination and medication supply system. Participating farmers purchase a vial of medication that is suitable to local animals, and Sibanda coordinates with the group to make sure that an appropriate variety is acquired. He also instructs each household on proper storage of the medicine in a cool, dry space. The purchased medication is then part of a communal supply available to all contributors if their animal(s) fall ill, with Sibanda responsible for applying the treatment. Inventory is calculated periodically to determine how and by whom supplies were used, and how they should be replenished. Through this investment, the community is controlling and preventing the spread of disease.

Sibanda is also a dedicated member of the Kancane Kancane VS&L group, which formed after receiving Amalima training in early 2015. He is the only male member and explains his interest in participating because “animals don’t tell us when they are going to be ill, and having savings ensures access to funds for purchasing the appropriate treatment. I want to start teaching and promoting VS&L to men, particularly to encourage saving for vaccines.”

As a Paravet and community mobilizer, Mr. Sibanda is leading the way with his sights planted firmly on a future where resilient communities are earning their livelihoods by practicing smart, livestock management.

This story, written by Allison DiVincenzo and Katie Murray, first appeared in USAID’s bimonthly publication, FrontLines.

Richard Ndebele wears many hats. Farmer. Grandfather. Laborer. Mentor. And now, by working with USAID, trailblazer.

Ndebele, 65, lives in Impu village, a rural, semiarid stretch of southwestern Zimbabwe currently facing a historic drought as a result of El Niño. In many ways, Impu village is no different from the rest of the country, where 2.8 million people are estimated to be food insecure this year. However, this area is characterized by low rainfall even in a good year, not to mention particularly high levels of poverty and stunting levels over 24 percent.

USAID, through its five-year, $43 million Amalima activity, is working in Impu village and the surrounding rural areas to strengthen communities’ resilience to shocks, such as drought, by enhancing nutrition and food security, improving livelihoods and helping communities plan and prepare for disasters. Amalima is the Zimbabwean Ndebele language word for a custom where people work together to help themselves through productive activities like preparing land for farming or repairing a dam.

Confident, respected and forward-thinking, Ndebele, a grandfather to five, has taken an active role in many aspects of Amalima. As a member of the Impu village Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Committee, Ndebele received training from the activity to identify and define disasters common in the community and to develop an action plan to respond. And in a gender reversal for this patriarchic society, he is a “lead father,” leading peer-to-peer support groups that help mothers learn how to better feed and care for their children.

A Flea Bath for Cattle

In his role identifying potential disasters, Ndebele, along with other members of the DRR Committee, identified their top priority: the rehabilitation of a dilapidated old dip tank, which was subsequently reconstructed under the supervision of USAID technical experts. Functioning like a large flea bath for cattle, a quick swim through the dip tank protects cattle against disease-carrying ticks. Ndebele worked with 103 other members of the community to repair the dip tank, receiving $30 a month in exchange for his labor.

Richard Ndebele at dip tank. Photo: Allison DiVincenzo, USAID

“The wages really came as a relief, as I managed to buy food for my family,” said Ndebele, who also bought a goat with his earnings, a potential income-generator for his family.

Now over 1,800 cattle belonging to 200 households can use the dip tank, preventing disease and death caused by ticks and protecting livelihoods in a place where economic stability is tenuous. Ndebele is now part of a committee that will manage use of the dip tank, ensuring it will never again fall into disrepair.

This is one of 32 facilities built or rebuilt through the project. “Not only do these construction projects build resilience against future droughts, but with compensation for the laborers, they meet the immediate needs of people in a very vulnerable situation,” said USAID/Zimbabwe Mission Director Stephanie Funk. “USAID’s Amalima activity has put much-needed cash in the hands of nearly 4,000 workers.”

Women’s Work?

In his role as lead father, Ndebele is breaking down gender barriers by volunteering to facilitate a care group, which is usually run by a woman. In addition to promoting better nutrition for small children, these groups provide a forum for group discussion on the challenges women face in their communities. Amalima has more than 24,000 care group participants led by 1,700 lead mothers. Ndebele, however, is one of only three lead fathers.

He meets with the 10 members of his care group once a month on the dusty ground under a large, shady tree. There they share key health and nutrition messages. He also treks to each of their homes to provide individual mentorship, assess adoption of behaviors and speak with influential family members, such as grandmothers or husbands. Ndebele encourages husbands to provide support in household and childcare activities in an effort to improve the family’s nutrition and food security.

In rural Zimbabwe, women are responsible for household chores and childcare activities, as well as the most time- and labor-intensive agricultural tasks. Impu village and its neighboring communities adhere to a predominantly patriarchal culture that affords limited rights to women and where men are reluctant to take part in duties perceived as womanly.

Richard Ndebele at food distribution in Zimbabwe’s Impu village. Photo: Allison DiVincenzo, USAID

When Ndebele first started as a lead father, he says, “Men used to laugh behind my back. But they stopped once they needed my help.” By teaching improved infant and young child feeding practices through his care group meetings, his peers now understand he is helping families raise strong, intelligent boys and girls that will better contribute to their household and community’s prosperity.

Ndebele strongly believes that health and nutrition are issues relevant to the entire community and should not be ignored by men. Still, it is the women who are encouraged by the lead father’s advice and wisdom.

Care group member Silvia Moyo learned about the important nutritional benefits of breastfeeding. With Ndebele’s encouragement, Moyo relayed that information to her husband and talked to him about the challenge of making time for breastfeeding when she has so many household duties.

Moyo and her husband together formed a solution that works for their family. “I am very determined to breastfeed my son so that he grows up intelligent and takes care of me when I’m old,” said Moyo. “I’m very happy with the support my husband will be giving me. We will help each other in the household and also use an eco-stove to save time.”

Ndebele’s pioneering role as a lead father is raising awareness of the benefits of male involvement in childcare activities and setting an example for young boys. “Men come to me and ask questions about nutrition, health and their children’s porridge,” he said.

Already the project is seeing positive results. According to preliminary data, the proportion of infants under 6 months who are exclusively breast fed is now 84 percent, up from 45 percent at the start of the activity.

Ndebele believes he and his village are at the forefront of improving their food and nutrition security, and building resilience to natural disasters. “It has built in us a sense of togetherness and helped us realize that, as a group, we can achieve many things,” he said.

The majority of farmers in the Matabeleland region of Zimbabwe rely on rains for their agricultural activities. When rains are poor or erratic, crops fail, harvests suffer and people don’t have enough food to eat. Tsholotsho district in Matabeleland North is no exception. This area is characterized by low, unpredictable rainfall during the farming season and year-round arid conditions. Farmers are often forced to rely on alternative coping strategies, including remittances, paid casual labor and craft-making, to make it through the lean season. However, cultivation methods based on low-till conservation agriculture (CA) promoted by the USAID-funded Amalima program are improving harvest yields in this dry environment and influencing many households in the process.

Cecilia Ncube, 66 years old, is a smallholder farmer in Zenzeleni village of Tsholotsho. She is a widower and lives with her three daughters and five small grandchildren. Several of her children are in South Africa and send back remittances on a monthly basis, which, combined with income from basket-making, is how Cecelia survives. Concerned about her family’s precarious livelihood and food security situation, she decided to participate in the Amalima program’s CA training. “I am so excited that I am taking part in this conservation farming intervention. Before the Amalima program arrived, I would use draught power to till most of my land. I would have to wait for other villagers to finish ploughing their fields before they would let me borrow their oxen. I realized that every time I was ploughing too late, well after the planting rains had gone, and more importantly, this method made the soils quickly dry off,” says Cecilia.

Amalima builds on existing communal initiatives in order to improve household food security and nutrition status through initiatives like conservation agriculture and livestock trainings, improving access to agricultural inputs and strengthening community resilience to economic and climatic shocks. The Amalima program draws its name from the Ndebele word for the social contract by which families come together to help each other engage in productive activities such as land cultivation, livestock tending, and asset building.

Conservation agriculture (CA) is a set of soil management practices that minimize the disruption of the soil’s structure, composition and natural biodiversity. CA has proven potential to increase crop yields, while improving the long-term sustainability of farming. As part of land preparation, farmers dig planting basins rather than plowing the whole field and lay manure fertilizer in the basins before planting. This method of field preparation minimizes soil disturbance, consequently reducing erosion and increasingmoisture retention when the rains fall. Specific spacing guidelines also promote maximum yields. Amalima CA training covers land preparation methods, fertilizer application, planting, pest management and post-harvest handling.

“At first I thought this process was too labor intensive and I didn’t see how I would be able to till a reasonable piece of land. But our mentors, Amalima field staff and AGRITEX [GoZ Agricultural Extension] Officers encouraged us to work in groups of ten so that we could assist each other with land preparation. Working this way, we were then able to work on one plot a day,” she explained. Cecelia is now part of a conservation farming group made up of 10 women in her village who also participated in the Amalima training. Soils around Zenzeleni village are sandy and the group had to collect cow dung around the nearest watering borehole to place in their planting basins to enhance soil fertility and reduce the loss of soil nutrients from water run-off. According to Cecelia’s group’s constitution, members provide assistance preparing 0.5 hectare of each members’ field using CA techniques. As a result of this cooperation, Cecelia managed to complete the millet planting on her plot before the first rains in the 2014/2015 season and was excited to compare the results of her CA and conventional plots.

In January 2015, Cecelia explained, “With good rains this year, I am expecting to harvest 300kgs of millet on this 50m by 50m (0.3 ha) piece of land. On the same piece of land I used to get around 150kgs of millet using conventional farming.” A few months later, the sorghum in her CA plot was a lush green in comparison to the crops in her conventional plot. Cecilia lamented that if she had known that the millet in the CA plot would do so much better than in the conventional farming plot, she would have dug CA planting basins throughout her fields herself.

At left, Cecilia with her lush CA millet plot in January of 2015. Right, she stands with her conventional farming millet plot on the same day.

The 2014/2015 season did not bring good rains – rainfall was 40 percent below normal in Tsholotsho – but Cecelia’s small CA plot yielded 200kgs of millet despite the drought, which is more than double the yield of neighbors who used conventional methods on the same sized land. On her 1.7 ha conventional farming plot, Cecelia yielded 650kgs, which is only 3.5 times the yield on an area of land almost six-times larger. Six months since her harvest, Cecelia still has 100kg of millet available for her family’s consumption.

After witnessing the increased yields from Cecelia and her fellow group members’ CA plots, many new farmers from Zenzeleni village eagerly participated in CA training in July and August, and formed several new CA farmer groups for the upcoming growing season. Cecilia’s CA farming group plans to expand their area of cultivation in the future using draught power and mechanized CA to prepare planting basins.

Cecelia is using CA techniques on her entire 2 hectare plot this year, explaining, “Since adopting CA, my yield was better even during a poor and erratic rainy season. CA is the best technology that I urge all community farmers to adopt. It has come as a revelation in addressing the challenge of food security both at household and community level especially for us households without any means of earning an income to feed the family.” As of early October, Cecelia had already prepared 75 percent of her plot using CA techniques.

Known as Abathwa in Ndebele and Basangwa in Kalanga, the San inhabit remote areas of southern Africa, including Tsholotsho district of Matabeleland North province in south-western Zimbabwe. By tradition, the San are a nomadic people of hunter and gatherers who value seclusion from the rest of the world as a way to avoid disturbance and preserve their culture. Historically, this mobile and insulated lifestyle has made the San hard to reach for development assistance programs and has contributed to higher levels of illness and food insecurity. The Amalima program partners with San communities to improve health and income while respecting their desire to maintain traditional values.

In Tsholotsho, San communities are largely found in Ward 10 where the Amalima program is building on existing communal initiatives and solidarity to address food and nutrition insecurity and strengthen resilience to shocks. Through an introductory communal meeting with an Amalima Field Officer, members and leaders of Mtshina village San community became interested in the program’s trainings, particularly conservation agriculture and the Amalima Community Health Club (CHC) concept. Both adults and children were frequently ill with diarrhoea and water-borne diseases, and the village at large was motivated to improve their community’s livelihood and food security. Traditional leaders noted that San communities in the area have felt left out of many development initiatives because they are perceived as ‘outcasts’ in local society and have historically been marginalized by the sedentary, agricultural communities. As a result of the meeting, twenty-five community members (13 males & 12 females) representing households from half the village decided to establish the Siyazama Community Health Club (CHC).

As part of Amalima’s efforts to improve nutrition and health among pregnant and lactating women and children, CHC’s aim to increase awareness of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) practices in communities through completion of a 20 module Participatory Health and Hygiene Education (PHHE) training. CHCs foster learning for change through promotion of practical improvements at the household level (e.g. washing hands at critical times, and establishing latrines, “tippy tap” hand washing stations and rubbish pits) to change the behaviors of community members in favor of a more hygienic environment. The CHC members began receiving lessons in September 2014 from Grace Moyo, their neighbor and Community Based Facilitator (CBF), who was trained herself by an Amalima Field Officer and Ministry of Health Environmental Health Technician (EHT). After each week’s lesson, members conduct practicals at home with family members where they put their training to use.

CHC member, Anna Madhumane, acknowledged how health unconscious her community was prior to the formation of the CHC. Of the widespread disregard for cleanliness she said, “People were not hygienic and, they used open defecation.” But Anna quickly pointed out that behaviors changed after the trainings: club members adopted the recommended practices. They built tippy taps, pot racks, rubbish pits, began to keep clean yards and wash their hands. “The CHC also gives us a platform to share ideas,” she said. “We talk about moulding bricks and getting more men involved to help dig pits for latrines.” The general community at large began to adopt some of the hygiene standards too – like digging a hole for ‘cat’ sanitation method for defecation and tippy taps for handwashing – which resulted in a noticeable reduction in cases of illness.

After completing the PHHE sessions, all 25 Siyazama CHC members graduated at a community-wide ceremony with songs, dramas and poetry about the importance of WASH practices. The MoHCC EHT, who works with Amalima, noted that this ward was generally regarded as a health unconscious community. “The San people were always looked down up on,” she said, “but now with this graduation and the change that has happened they have attained better status in local society.”

At the ceremony, Anna was awarded the first place “model home” award for adopting and maintaining hygienic practices at her homestead where she lives with her 16-year-old son, two grandchildren and a 3-month-old great-grandchild. She constructed a tippy tap, rubbish pit, pot drying rack, and practices clean dish-washing. Anna indicated that she is happy with the way the community has changed and she is determined to be a champion of hygiene standards—especially after receiving her award. “The certificate is a source of motivation for me. If am lazy to clean the yard, I am motivated to keep the cleanliness of my home when I see the certificate,” she said.

However, the club members recognized that their efforts to improve their community shouldn’t be limited to hygiene alone. In fall of 2014 while the CHC was at its early stages, the 25 members also participated in an Amalima conservation agriculture (CA) training to learn methods to increase yields in the arid area where they live. Most people in Mtshina rely on casual labor in the surrounding villages as a source of income, which generally goes towards buying corn meal and paying school fees. With CA, members hoped to become more independent and capable of feeding their children year-round. The training covered land preparation methods, fertilizer application, planting, pest management and post-harvest handling. After working together as a CHC group, the transition to CA was a natural process, noted Ana. In the spirit of Amalima members worked together to prepare the land and dig basins for each other’s fields—a practice which sped up the time it would take one household to do the work alone and resulted in each plot being ready for planting before the first rains.

On her 0.5 hectare plot, Ana planted maize, millet, sorghum, round nuts and groundnuts. Despite the severe 2014/2015 drought, Ana’s plot achieved above average yields for the season with 150 kgs of millet, 75 kgs of sorghum and 18 kgs of ground nuts and round nuts each, of which she has 50kgs of millet remaining. Of the maize, she said “it completely dried out. You could have lit a match and burned the field to ash.”

The CHC members recognized that their CA plots had much higher yields than farmers who practiced conventional farming and had a very poor or failed harvest. With this in mind, the members have already started preparing land for the upcoming cropping season. Each household plans to use CA methods, focus on planting millet and sorghum (small drought-tolerant grains) and avoid the more water-dependant maize. With the support of Amalima, Mtshina village is also establishing a nutrition garden where kale, tomatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes and other vegetables will be grown for consumption and sale, generating income and improving dietary diversity for 50 households.

“A few years ago,” Ana started, “if Amalima had approached our community, we would have fled, or hid, wishing to avoid contact with outsiders.” But now, Mtshina village is showing a commitment to hygiene and food security, which will benefit themselves, their children and grandchildren.