Report from BHW Zambia Partnership Facilitator Following Visit

Key person: Barnabus Mwelwa

I visited the CORAC partnership to discuss the future of the programmes that they are running. The results of those programmes were recorded in the previous report in May 2024.

Recent Events

Cassava Trading Programme

This programme continues to progress well, now with two groups of 10 since the fish trading has also switched to cassava. There is a lot of pressure on the supply of cassava this year due to the drought causing failure of maize crops, and people pushing to have food security.

The current groups are working well and have established relationships with cassava farmers in the Luapula province. They can source cassava in one of two ways, either they buy processed cassava from the farmers, or the better option is where they buy the cassava still in the ground in the field and process it themselves. This requires harvesting, peeling, soaking, drying and packing. 

Working through the numbers per bag shows a total cost of 708ZMK with a sale price of 1,000ZMK, i.e. profit 292ZMK (US$11.50) per bag.

Small Microloan Programme

Due to the power load shedding issues caused by the drought affecting the hydro dam, many smaller businesses are suffering. Costs to do anything are increasing, and the margins in trading goods are reduced. Most of the loans are 500ZMK (US$20) to be repaid within 6 months with interest, but currently people are struggling with this. They are to have a meeting with the beneficiaries when the next round of repayments is due to make a plan going forward. 

Farming

The farming is “not good” says Barnabus. The issue of drought has really affected the outcomes for this year. They were also given bad advice by agriculture ministers who told people not to plant in late October when there was some rain. This meant waiting until December for the next decent downpour, and this delay meant the following dry period really affected the cob development. Those that did plant in late October did a lot better.

Overall, the average yield of the 14 farmers in the programme was just 0.6 ton per hectare equivalent. The best farmer had 1.2 ton per hectare equivalent. The CORAC Foundation farming demo plot, 12.5m x 12.5m, yielded a total of 35kg, which was 2.5 ton to the hectare equivalent.

Currently there are also issues with normal water sources for growing winter crops drying up. Streams, boreholes and wells just have no water.

There are still some issues with these farmers using traditional methods. Mulch is lacking because neighbours burn fields and that comes across to burn all the grasses and crop residue. Sometimes children chasing mice also come and light the fields. The distance to the farm is also causing issues with people not wanting to travel that far to weed so many times.

Going forward they have suggested the following ideas for the farming budget:
• Call the farmers in June to come and slash some fire breaks, and to cut and store the mulch ready for next season.
• Reduce the area of the fields from 1 lima to a quarter lima to ensure the people can manage the size of the field well.
• Highlight the difference in yield from the CORAC demo Foundations for Farming plot, that made good use of the rain that did come.
• With a reduced area to be farmed, they may look at the possibility of a bore hole at the farm to provide water for winter vegetables.

They are also considering growing some cassava at the farm, first as a demo plot of 1 lima. This pilot programme, if it works well, could also help have a cheaper source of cassava for the trading programme in the future. A request will come for sourcing some stick seeds from BHW's Chaba partnership (ZAM16).

Welfare Programme

Twice per year they give out food supplements and cash to 17 vulnerable families that they have identified. Sometimes they must also help with some hospital issues as well. This year things are likely to get worse for people. They have been able to occasionally link these people to other aid organizations as well to receive help.

Often these people have been dumped by other family members as they cannot afford to look after them. Barnabus visits them often, and says they don’t even have blankets to sleep, just a sack that they may share with up to four people.

This year they are requesting a possible increase in the welfare budget (currently at 25,000ZMK/US$1,000). They would like to be able to buy some maize very soon and store it, to be able to distribute and sell some later to buy other necessary household items. They are currently investigating the costs and where to source some maize.

Education 

There are still 32 orphans on the school requirements programme. Each child gets a total of 2,250ZMK (US$90) per year in the way of a school bag, shoes, uniform and other requirements.

One issue facing the children is how to study at night with no power as they cannot have light to read.

They are requesting to see if the budget could be increased to provide more funds in December so more uniforms can be purchased.

Ideas for the Future

Requests for:

• Cassava demo plot (awaiting numbers)

• Welfare budget increase to purchase maize and store (US$1,762)

• Increase school requirements budget by 38,000ZMK (US$1,500) in December

• Bore hole and pump, they are to find out costs and see if it can fit into the current farming budget re reduced area to farm with FFF.