Starting at 4:30 AM and another 9.5 hour bus ride (I swear I never want to get on another bus in my life), we ended up in Mpika in the North part of Zambia. Unlike Luangwa, the weather here is quite chilly and the sky was rather overcast. Drew and I had just improved upon the training manual and we were ready to give this new and improved one a go. Unfortunately, either due to bad food or the bumpy road, Drew received a severe case of stomach issues and had to rest for our first day and a half (don’t worry, he’s much better now). In the end, I observed the training on the first day and then we both interviewed the 20 agents the following day (it took a long time). Before you continue reading, I apologize for the lack of photos in this post, but this is an important topic. But as the title mentions, today I’ve decided to focus on farming, especially since Mpika is a large on agriculture and over half of the new agents we were training were farmers. I will refer to him as Gordon, in order to preserve his anonymity. It all started with a bottle of Embe. We were at the counter about to buy something to drink and I asked Gordon what he liked to drink. He told me mango juice (Embe to be precise), so I bought us both a bottle and we sat down to eat lunch and converse. I asked him what Embe meant and he told me it was the word for mango in the native tongue of Tanzania. Now, this led him to open up much more about his own goals, which was to start an all-natural fruit juice company in Zambia. “Most of the juice is imported,” Gordon said, “But with the right inputs and technology, we could have our own juice right here.” I was very interested in what he had to hear, so Gordon told me all the details about agriculture and his life. Currently a researcher at a local university, he graduated from Copperbelt University in a prestigious agricultural program, set up by a very knowledgeable Zambian. Although he works as a researcher, he considers himself a farmer. Even though he owns 1/4 of a hectare, which is about half the size of a football field, he hopes to one day be able to increase his business, and here’s his insight into the farming in Zambia.
I thought it was very interesting that he never mentioned outside aid, rather the need for Zambians to help each other internally. He believed all the resources existed, but Zambia needed better distribution of inputs focused more on agriculture. Having companies providing these inputs to these rural areas truly makes a difference in their lives by increasing annual yields which lead to an increase in sales, so farmers can invest more and more until they have larger plots of land from which to start pursuing other goals, such as a juice company. At least this is the goal. One quote stuck out in mind when I asked him what the situation for most farmers now. Gordon said that people were too comfortable on their small plots of land, so they could not improve their livelihoods: “Comfortability Prevents Progress”Later, I met another agent who grew tilapia and three-striped bream in his fish pond. When I asked him why he decided to join the training, he told me that climate change and overuse of water was drying up all the wells, so he no longer had enough water for the pond.
SIDENOTE: I’m really excited to work on my senior design project which is an aquaponics system that reduces water use for fish farming and agriculture by 95%. Although we hope to implement it in Uganda, I would love to scale the product for use in Zambia one day as well! Both Gordon and the fish-farmer hoped to be VITALITE agents so that they could make additional money to expand their farming industry by being able to afford products. But at the same time, they wanted to help their communities be able to afford these inputs by advertising about VITALITE products. For those of you still confused about the title. Let me give you some insight into American history. Back in the day, Ben Franklin anonymously called himself Poor Richard and created a field guide for farmers to help them succeed and increase yields. Similarly, VITALITE aims to provide the inputs necessary for Zambian farmers to succeed. Different century, same problems.
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