Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitator Following Visit

Key person: Doris Nkausu

We visited with Doris in June to discuss the impact of the drought on the farming programmes, guardians of the orphans, and the community at large. She is pictured on the left with her mum Grace and aunty.

Recent Events

Drought

The drought has caused many issues with crop failures and now “load shedding” of power which is affecting many local small businesses.

The cost of food has become very difficult, especially with the location of being so close to the DR Congo border, where traders and smugglers increase demand, and therefore prices. Currently a bag of maize can go as high as 600ZMK (US$24) for 50 kg. 

Farming

For farming, there was an early rain in late October, but the government farming advisers were instructing people not to plant at that stage. Then no rains came until early December, and once the crops of maize reached tasselling stage very little rain came, meaning cob development was very poor. There were also some issues with worms and caterpillars because of the dry, getting into what cobs were there and destroying them. This can be seen in the photo.

Most of the 30 guardians’ fields of ¼ hectare averaged only 1-2 bags. These are the people who have previously been trained in Foundations for Farming and normally they are getting a minimum of 15 plus bags from this area. That gives them some to consume, and some to sell to provide funds for the farming inputs in October–November, but with the poor harvest this year, this is really challenging.

They are saying, "once we consume the bags we harvested in 1 to 2 months, what will we eat? The next harvest will not be until May – June 2025."

The field Doris and the orphans planted together was much better. They used 719 seed and planted in October when there was some rain despite the advice not to plant. This meant with the remaining rains that came, the cobs were able to develop, so they harvested 15 bags from the ¼ hectare.

They have already shared these 15 bags out to the 30 guardians according to each family needs re size of family and what the family already had. Even now, some people are coming early in the morning to Doris’ house to pled for some maize to feed their family. 

Government Farming Co-operatives

The new government removed all the old cooperatives and people must reapply, with the idea that younger people will start to benefit. Doris has helped the people to apply into the cooperatives, and they are registered but need to pay fees to confirm the registration in June (200ZMK/US$8) and then pay for subsidized fertilizer by the end of July (900ZMK/US$35).

The fertilizer given for this 900ZMK is six bags in total, 3 x D compound base dressing, and 3 x urea top dressing. This is a very good deal, since on the open market the cost of one bag is over 1,000ZMK.

School Leavers

Doris had two young boys who were previously helped through the Patience Orphans Programme come to her to see what they could do, now they have finished school. They had seen the lack of onions in the local market and so Doris has helped them with some onion seedlings. The boys come each day to water and to work in the garden.

Plans for the Future

Doris wants to be able to help these people by focusing on the future in this difficult year. Her main concern, apart from just the hunger, is how people will afford to fund the capital to plant crops for the next season.

Given the opportunity to join the government cooperatives, she is requesting some funds to put 15 people into these, that they can then pool together and share the farming inputs amongst the 30 guardians. The cost of this is 1,100ZMK per person, so a total of 16,500ZMK (US$635).

She is also concerned that when it comes time for the people to prepare land and plant, the hunger will be very bad, so people will have very low energy. The request is for some funds (US$1,100) to purchase some bags of mealy meal now, before the price continues to rise, that can be stored and given out with the farming inputs so people can have the energy to farm well. Otherwise, this problem they face now will continue a downward trend, with low yields even if rains are better next year.

Doris says “People are crying, praying to God for his mercies. They are very fearful of how they will live this year. But at least they will be helped, and we will be pushing them, or they will go nowhere”.