Drip irrigation project at Kaoma Women’s Centre
Corn storage at Kalumangwe Farm
Chilli pepper bush at Kalumangwe Farm
AGRICULTURAL TRAINING
In the words of Maggie Wamunyima, WISE Project Coordinator, “Hunger and starvation make a woman vulnerable such that she may fall for anything, but an empowered woman makes an informed decision and plans for her future.”
Knowing that women perform 70% of all agricultural work in much of Africa and certainly in Zambia, WISE engages in three major programs in order to fulfill our mission objective in agriculture.
Drip irrigation project
Wise student
Crop diversification training
KALUMWANGE FARM
WISE’s large farm plot, a 2-hour drive from Kaoma, is now the scene of much activity and productivity. This farmland is used as WISE’s flagship for agricultural training programs. For example, in February of 2018, the Ministry of Agriculture selected the WISE farm for a “field day,” a program in which the Ministry selects regional farms as models for local farmers. One of WISE’s student interns, John, served as WISE’s spokesperson, explaining the various steps that led to our exceptional yield in maize and several other products.
Not only does the Kalumwange Farm serve as a training center, WISE scholarship students volunteer at the Farm, and proceeds from harvest are used for the secondary school scholarship fund.
Drilling a borehole at Kalumwange Farm
Maggie in the maize, 4 months before the 2018 harvest
Drying corn
CONSERVATION AGRICULTURAL TRAINING
In 2015, Zambia adopted a new agricultural policy, based upon the model developed by the director of the African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina. This model emphasizes conservation farming and reduced corruption.
Many rural farmers, however, are unaware of the new program and its benefits. Thus, starting in August of 2017, WISE invited approximately 20 female-headed households to the Kalumwange Farm for several days of training. A representative from the Ministry of Agriculture spent three days with the women, explaining and demonstrating crop rotation (many subsistence farmers grow only maize, which is very hard on soil), organic fertilizer techniques, and seeding techniques.
This summer, the participants will go through a second round of training. By possessing the ability to grow a variety of superior-quality farm products for sale and for the benefit of their own families, the women of Kalumwange will become their own “answers” to Maggie’s question:
“WHY THEN MUST A RURAL WOMAN BE EMPOWERED IN AGRICULTURE?
- They provide the “food basket” for their family and this reduces malnutrition.
- They are able to take their children to school and encourage their girls to finish school. This reduces teenage pregnancies and early marriages.
- They can contribute to the national Gross Domestic Product.
- They will be having healthy pregnancies and be able to plan for child spacing.”
Costs for training 20 women in Stage 1
Costs for training 20 women in Stage 2
DONATE TO WISE-ZAMBIA AND
SUPPORT OUR MISSION
Fertilizing produce at Women’s Centre
Poultry expert from Lusaka
Poultry Incubator
POULTRY RAISING
A third prong of our agricultural program is training in poultry raising and management. In Zambia, “free range” chickens are known as “village chickens,” the most prevalent form of poultry in rural Zambia. Most Zambian rural women have tried to raise poultry at home but face such challenges as inadequate feed, improper feeding/ watering equipment, lack of proper housing, with the result being much illness, die-off, and theft – both by animals and people. WISE’s training programs not only address these issues, providing the women with not only the tools to safely and economically raise chickens for personal use, but also for sale.
WISE’s first poultry training workshop took place in September 2017, when 20 women from Kaoma District met at Kaoma WISE Trust Women’s Centre for a day and a half. The instructor was Zambia’s foremost authority in poultry, who provided the women with a thorough, helpful, and entertaining program. He gave them an extraordinary amount of information, answered many insightful questions, and provided suggestions (with photos – as well as live chickens!) for low-cost methods to build chicken housing and create watering and feeding stations, often using recycled materials. The women also went on a field trip to see a nearby productive and sanitary poultry facility.
A generous donor underwrote the cost for much of the first poultry training workshop.
We will continue poultry workshops. A critical element to these workshops, including our ability to conduct them at a greater frequency, is the presence of an incubator and chicken coop at the Women’s Centre. Plans are underway for the construction of these two facilities. We also need to construct a security fence surrounding the property to help with stage 2 of the training. Lack of funding is all that holds us back.
SPONSOR A POULTRY WORKSHOP
SPONSOR INCUBATOR & COOP
SPONSOR SECURITY FENCE
DONATE TO WISE-ZAMBIA AND
SUPPORT OUR MISSION
OUR
BLOG
