We decided to set off on the market research tour to assess the markets in the Luangwa area.This time of year any vehicle heading towards Lusaka is very difficult to access. Many of the farmers have just sold their crops and are eager to head to the big city. We waited by the roadside from 9:30 until 15:30 which is a new record. The truck was overloaded and we didn't get there until after 17:00. We arrived at the school well after dark to find that the guest accommodation was occupied so we crashed on the couches and it was freezing! The demand was less than we had anticipated but it will still be profitable even if it won't be a get-rich-quick miracle. I'm trying to stay positive. Rome wasn't built in a day. An overwhelmingly large operation as the groups introduction to contract farming might have been a disaster anyway. At least that is what I'm going to tell myself.
All three boarding schools made tentative agreements to buy Cabbage, Onion and Tomato from us although two of the schools were only interested in recieving shipments for two of the three terms. Luangwa high school also said that they would buy 100 bags of maize from us.
The follow up meeting went well although three of the farmers were not in attendance. Everyone that came has said that they are financially sound to source the inputs required, which is good. Now our next step is to find a cheap way to order fertilizer (it will have to come from Lusaka or Malawi). We are looking into collaborating with other farmer groups to minimize transport costs. Mr. Chaala at the head office in Nyimba is assisting us in drafting the contracts. It seems like everything could go great but time is really winding down so things have to happen somewhat fast!
Saturday, July 26, 2008
The First Farmer Meeting
At Thursdays meeting all of the members attended, which was great. Bassa kept me guessing and he showed up a few hours late. None of the old men from his area made it. That was kind of a drag but I guess thats the breaks. Initiative is something that has to just be there to some degree. If someone won't make the effort, they can't be forced. In the meeting first we talked about crop profitability. We also brainstormed potential markets where our farmers could have a comparative advantage and we arranged a market research tour. They decided that everyone should contribute an equal amount and that Pio and I should go. I think that Pio and I probably have the most marketability, but just the two of us going will be limiting the amount of learning that can be happening for the group. In the end the decision belonged to the group. Most of the profitable crops that we talked about like tomato and cabbage require a substantial amount of inputs, such as fertilizer and insecticide. It made me somewhat worried about the farmers that have less financial capital.
I was also nervous about all of the farmers being able to come up with the 18,000ZK for the research tour. especially because those that have more access to inputs might profit a lot more and dominate the enterprise. I was really worried about Bassa coming up with the cash to contribute for the tour but he was the first one to bring it at the next meeting. Its great to see his enthusiasm. I really hope that the project can work out as well for him as it does for the other farmers involved....
I was also nervous about all of the farmers being able to come up with the 18,000ZK for the research tour. especially because those that have more access to inputs might profit a lot more and dominate the enterprise. I was really worried about Bassa coming up with the cash to contribute for the tour but he was the first one to bring it at the next meeting. Its great to see his enthusiasm. I really hope that the project can work out as well for him as it does for the other farmers involved....
Reaching the poorest of the poor and seeing unexpected Capital
JUNE 12th
I've been thinking a lot about my goals at the beginning of the summer and have been making an effort to stay critical of my partner organization. One thing that had made me very uncomfortable about the organization initially was the 30,000 ZK joining fee. How can I help the poorest of the poor with this restriction? It made me think that maybe working as a government extension worker like some of the JFs in Ghana would have been a placement that provides a more pro-poor approach. This week I was wrapping up the last of the farmer interviews. Yesterday I went to Peter's place. He was accompanying me to interpret interviews for some more farmers.
Peter is a farmer that has shown some serious initiative to take his farming operation to a more commercial level. Food security is not an issue for his family, increasing profits is the main goal. We walked from his place deeper into the bush to visit the next farmer, about ten kilometers from the road. As we walked he explained the purpose of the visitor who had come while we were taking our breakfast. The man had been doing piecewoork, digging furrows for Pio's garden with three other labourers. This man prematurely collected more than his fair share of wages. When the other three had found that their share was less than expected, Pio stood firm and said that it was an issue that shouldn't be resolved by him paying more but that they should resolve the issue themselves. After all he had payed the agreed price. I asked him how much he paid them I was astonished to hear that it was 2,500 ZK, which amounts to 71.4 cents. It occured to me that these were those living on less than a dollar a day that the millenium development goals describe. It really troubled me and the rest of the walk I struggled with the nature of my placement. Maybe I could justify that helping build the capacity of the member farmers will help them send their children to school, which would add to the capacity of the nation as a whole. The walk was pretty long and so was my pessimistic internal dialogue.
When we reached our destination at Bassa's place, thinkgs looked OK the irrigation farrows looked similar as some of the other skilled, productive farmers. Then the interview process started. I was further impressed to learn that Bassa as well as his neighbours were completely organic, and had never seen fertilizer use. He grows sweet potato, cabbage, bananas and even rice. Rice is not normally grown in Eastern province, maize is the much more in demand staple crop. When the issue of maize production was (finally) raised. We found that Bassa had planted 8 lima, which is two hectares. His yield unfortunately was less than ten bags (totalling 500 kgs.) Peter looked at me and informed me that this size of a field should be producing something in the neighbourhood of 400 bags. It had been a difficult farming season due to flooding but to me that news was shocking.
When we talked about the main challenges of farming, Bassa's neighbour mentioned hunger. He also mentioned that with small yields one can be forced into doing piecework for other farmers to secure food. It was as if divine intervention had heard my internal struggle on the long walk over and immediately addressed it by bringing these farmers into contact with me. His neighbour was especially interested in the potential link to organic markets.
Peter and I started going through some 'farming as a business' concepts with the farmers over lunch. They expressed that road access was very difficult. They had tried pitching the idea of building a road to the community but most of the elder farmers rejected it as a waste of time and labour when hunger was still a source of adversity. Bassa called for one of the children to fetch his step father, one of those who staunchly opposed the road building idea. (Road Building meaning cutting down trees so that an oxcart can pass). The stepfather arrived with a firend and upon arriving, the other old man said to me in English,
"We can join, but we need to know when we will get the fertilizer." I explained that directly giving inputs was not one of the activites of the association.
"What benefits have you seen from the association?" The old man challenged Bassa (who is a member)
"None! because nobody in this community will collaborate with me." The two men explained that the reason they would never join is because their current problem was one of inputs and initial capital. They said that membership could only be considered once their problem of initial capital was addressed.
"You have no capital?" Peter asked.
"No." The old man replied.
"What do you use to buy things like soap? Don't you have any crops which don't require fertilizer? That you could sell to raise some small amount of capital?" Peter further challenged.
"No."
"Irriko! (its there)" Bassa thundered in. It was become somewhat clear that there was an attitude limitation on the capital which could be realized by the farmers.
We started doing some inputs minus outputs calculations to assess the profitability of the maize field which we were gazing out over....
Planting, weeding and harvesting... 75 days labour @ 2,500 ZK (piecework charge) = 187,500
Transport to hammermill .... = 120,000
Grinding at hammermill .... =160,000
Total input cost = 467,500
Total value of the 10 bags of maize... = 450,000
Some were shocked, some laughed and a lot of conversation ensued. We talked about the importance of individual labour as capital. If one wastes their main source of capital like this, how are they supposed to increase their income? At the end of the conversation, Peter asked again,
"So do you have capital?"
"Yes" they all replied with smiles and nods.
"We wont give money but there is money in sharing idea, so you are free to come to the meeting on Thursday and see how much more we can benefits, when we are an even larger group."
"Tizaonana pa Chennai (We will meet on Thursday)" we all said as we parted.
I was so impressed and proud of Peter. After that brief period of time their answers had completely shifted from "no" to "yes". Now I felt like we really had the opportunity to reach 'Dorothy'.
I've been thinking a lot about my goals at the beginning of the summer and have been making an effort to stay critical of my partner organization. One thing that had made me very uncomfortable about the organization initially was the 30,000 ZK joining fee. How can I help the poorest of the poor with this restriction? It made me think that maybe working as a government extension worker like some of the JFs in Ghana would have been a placement that provides a more pro-poor approach. This week I was wrapping up the last of the farmer interviews. Yesterday I went to Peter's place. He was accompanying me to interpret interviews for some more farmers.
Peter is a farmer that has shown some serious initiative to take his farming operation to a more commercial level. Food security is not an issue for his family, increasing profits is the main goal. We walked from his place deeper into the bush to visit the next farmer, about ten kilometers from the road. As we walked he explained the purpose of the visitor who had come while we were taking our breakfast. The man had been doing piecewoork, digging furrows for Pio's garden with three other labourers. This man prematurely collected more than his fair share of wages. When the other three had found that their share was less than expected, Pio stood firm and said that it was an issue that shouldn't be resolved by him paying more but that they should resolve the issue themselves. After all he had payed the agreed price. I asked him how much he paid them I was astonished to hear that it was 2,500 ZK, which amounts to 71.4 cents. It occured to me that these were those living on less than a dollar a day that the millenium development goals describe. It really troubled me and the rest of the walk I struggled with the nature of my placement. Maybe I could justify that helping build the capacity of the member farmers will help them send their children to school, which would add to the capacity of the nation as a whole. The walk was pretty long and so was my pessimistic internal dialogue.
When we reached our destination at Bassa's place, thinkgs looked OK the irrigation farrows looked similar as some of the other skilled, productive farmers. Then the interview process started. I was further impressed to learn that Bassa as well as his neighbours were completely organic, and had never seen fertilizer use. He grows sweet potato, cabbage, bananas and even rice. Rice is not normally grown in Eastern province, maize is the much more in demand staple crop. When the issue of maize production was (finally) raised. We found that Bassa had planted 8 lima, which is two hectares. His yield unfortunately was less than ten bags (totalling 500 kgs.) Peter looked at me and informed me that this size of a field should be producing something in the neighbourhood of 400 bags. It had been a difficult farming season due to flooding but to me that news was shocking.
When we talked about the main challenges of farming, Bassa's neighbour mentioned hunger. He also mentioned that with small yields one can be forced into doing piecework for other farmers to secure food. It was as if divine intervention had heard my internal struggle on the long walk over and immediately addressed it by bringing these farmers into contact with me. His neighbour was especially interested in the potential link to organic markets.
Peter and I started going through some 'farming as a business' concepts with the farmers over lunch. They expressed that road access was very difficult. They had tried pitching the idea of building a road to the community but most of the elder farmers rejected it as a waste of time and labour when hunger was still a source of adversity. Bassa called for one of the children to fetch his step father, one of those who staunchly opposed the road building idea. (Road Building meaning cutting down trees so that an oxcart can pass). The stepfather arrived with a firend and upon arriving, the other old man said to me in English,
"We can join, but we need to know when we will get the fertilizer." I explained that directly giving inputs was not one of the activites of the association.
"What benefits have you seen from the association?" The old man challenged Bassa (who is a member)
"None! because nobody in this community will collaborate with me." The two men explained that the reason they would never join is because their current problem was one of inputs and initial capital. They said that membership could only be considered once their problem of initial capital was addressed.
"You have no capital?" Peter asked.
"No." The old man replied.
"What do you use to buy things like soap? Don't you have any crops which don't require fertilizer? That you could sell to raise some small amount of capital?" Peter further challenged.
"No."
"Irriko! (its there)" Bassa thundered in. It was become somewhat clear that there was an attitude limitation on the capital which could be realized by the farmers.
We started doing some inputs minus outputs calculations to assess the profitability of the maize field which we were gazing out over....
Planting, weeding and harvesting... 75 days labour @ 2,500 ZK (piecework charge) = 187,500
Transport to hammermill .... = 120,000
Grinding at hammermill .... =160,000
Total input cost = 467,500
Total value of the 10 bags of maize... = 450,000
Some were shocked, some laughed and a lot of conversation ensued. We talked about the importance of individual labour as capital. If one wastes their main source of capital like this, how are they supposed to increase their income? At the end of the conversation, Peter asked again,
"So do you have capital?"
"Yes" they all replied with smiles and nods.
"We wont give money but there is money in sharing idea, so you are free to come to the meeting on Thursday and see how much more we can benefits, when we are an even larger group."
"Tizaonana pa Chennai (We will meet on Thursday)" we all said as we parted.
I was so impressed and proud of Peter. After that brief period of time their answers had completely shifted from "no" to "yes". Now I felt like we really had the opportunity to reach 'Dorothy'.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
The Learning Process Begins
Nyimba
May 24, 2008
I am now in Nyimba and things are great. The meeting with OPPAZ went well and it is nice to know that I might be seeing Cherie from time to time. Eli and I traveled to Nyimba together . The bus was supposed to leave at 5:30 but it finally pulled away at eight after idling for two and a half hours while the bus filled up. The driver would occaisionally rev the engine to attract customers. We were pretty sleepy for the first half of the ride. By the time we got to Nyimba we were a little less groggywhich was nice because we met with my project partner Albert immediately after getting off the bus.He is pretty great. The association has room for improvement for sure. Albert has a real vision for how things could be with more time and effort. So far I am really comfortable with the way he sees my placement fitting in. He is really keen on getting me involved and also understands that I have a lot of learning to do before I can have any serious positive impact so I am glad that we are on the same page.
The organization has the mission of “Facilitating good governance among farming households or agricultural technological advancement , high productivity and increased well-being in a gender balanced and HIV/AIDS free environment.” There are 25 Infromation Centres, which each represent a sub-district of the association. Albert conducts periodic workshops in Nyimba where representatives from each Information Centre gather. Following the workshops they take the information that they have taken from the workshop back to their community to share. The workshop that I attended was well organized and he communicated some great ideas, although it was mostly in Nsenga so a fair bit was over my head.
The language here in Nyimba is Nsenga, which is part of the Nyanja language family. We practiced lots of Nyanja in Lusaka so my basic greetings are good and I’m getting ready to get into a more serious language learning mode. It’s definitely harder than French, Spanish or German. Just when I was getting somewhat comfortable with the a few phrases I moved in with a Bemba speaking family that has recently moved here. The father, Mwila, is a classic. He is always smiling and very jolly. His wife is beautiful and there are three adorable little girls that greet with curtsies. There is another teenage boy named Steve that lives there as well. The girls only speak Bemba so that has presented a new linguistic challenge. The family is very hospitable and won’t charge any rent for the week so I am trying to find ways thet I can help out around the house. Today I bought some Jam for breakfasts. Pio, one of the farmers from the NDFA workshop said that he only had jam at Christmas time so I was glad I could get a nice treat. He couldn’t tell me if it was a good price because he had never bought it before.
Last night we watched a sinful Nigerian romance-murder-love triangle drama. It was pretty classic. This family definitely seems upper class for Nyimba standards. It will probably help increase my ability to understand poverty to stay with a less well off family, but these five days will be a nice middle gear in the culture shock process.
I’ve been through culture shock a couple of times but I’ve never dived in this hard before with no one familiar around. Mom and Maddie’s calls and Carly’s letter were definitely nice to receive.
Kacholola
May 29 2008
I was dispatched to an even smaller town called Kachalola to act as an extension agent there. It has been a real trip so far. In the introduction session I sat on this chair at the front facing everyone while everyone discussed my arrival in Nsenga. There is much less English here so the Nsenga is going to need a turbo boost. It is much more rural African feeling here. No one has even heard of Pizza or Pasta so tales of traversing snow covered mountains on skis become exotic tales. I’m really digging it here. The people are even friendlier than in Nyimba. If I could score a family here that I enjoyed as much as the Mwila’s it would be great though. Tommorrow I’m visiting my new friend Daka’s farm and hooking up with Pio in the afternoon to tour the town.
June 2 2008
I have now visited several farms. I am unbelieveably impressed with the irrigation systems that are already in place here. They are much more advanced than the descriptions sounded. Some are much better than others but the association is about sharing ideas so there is potential for some great learning interactions between farmers. Kacholola is a very hilly area that has many springs and streams. This is unique for a community in Eastern Province and allows for the growing of crops such as banana, tomatoes, cabbage, onion and winter maize. This gives Kachalola a unique comparative advantage in the region where crops such as groundnuts (peanuts) and cotton are more common. On the Kacholoa side farrows are dug to divert water away from streams to irrigate crops, while on the Kabaza side of the Tambalala hill, there are farms on land that was water logged and furrows were placed to extract water from the land to make it farmable. I wonder about the degree of downslope migration of nutrients with these significant volumes of water constantly flowing downslope. Many farmers have expressed interest in piped irrigation which would definitely reduce soil erosion.
Almost all of the farmers identify similar dilemmas. First and foremost is market access and second is the access to fertilizer inputs. Accessing markets is very difficult. Transportation infrastructure is incredibly limited. Dramatically even compared to places I’ve visited in Central America and Asia. Gasoline is around $2.75/L. The closest markets to Kachalola are Nyimba and Feira, which are accessible by paid hitchhiking (even with large quantities of produce). However, showing up after an expensive day long trip in one of these places with hundreds of kg.s of perishable produce makes the farmer vulnerable to accept low prices and often ends up incurring little to no profit.
There is a hotel in Kachalola that once was quite a fancy big deal operation. Now it is dilapidated with and empty pool dried up grass and periodically cold beer ( depending on if there is paraffin in the refrigerator or not). There is no power in Kacholola and no power means no running water. A hotel really loses its luster with no power or running water. When the hotel was run by the government it flourished and all of the government buses from Lusaka to Chipata stopped here for lunch. There were 38 staff members and a restaurant. All together, this hotel once presented Kachalola farmers with a significant demand for food. Following Privatization of the buslines and the hotel to an unenthusiastic investor has seen the hotels prosperity wind down to a standstill. If the hotel could be revived it could be a keystone to development bringing jobs and agricultural demand.
Dad, Sarah and Steph, I loved getting the phone calls from all of you. Thank you so Much. Kelly and Pam thanks for the letters and Maxy, keep up the texting bro I’m loving it.
Feira
June 6 2008
Today Pio and I left for Luangwa boarding school to do some market research. Selling to an isolated consumer seems much safer than to people who will be trying to flip your product for a profit. Since marketing was identified as such an issue I am glad to be learning what it entails. We waited by the roadside in our fanciest duds for two and a half hours before we caught a ride to Luangwa bridge. There we waited another three hours to catch a truck south to the high school. Along the way we ran through some calculations together, talking about the net profit that Pio would make after accounting for transport, fertilizer, and seeds. We came up with a couple of figures and we had in our heads that we would start the bargaining at 1800Kw/kg. Thinking they would maybe want 200kg a week would mean a profit of around 240,000 Kw / week ($68 CDN)if the price settled at 1600Kw/kg. We showed up and heard that they buy there cabbage from Lusaka and drive it over 400km to the school. The prices were hard to compare since their Lusaka prices didn’t include transport but when we mentioned 1800Kw they said yes without even bartering. The trip was definitely a success. We also went all the way to Feira where we learned that the price of tomatoes is 100,000Kw/box (its 40,000 in Kacholola). From there we took a canoe to Zumbo in Mozambique and had a Mozambican beer and saw hippos on the way.
Kachalola
June 9 2008
I have a new neighbour named Moses who is a government agricultural extension worker. He is a great guy and I now have someone to share my charcoal cooking duties with. He is a real source of knowledge and he drafted me a map of the Kacholola (which I’ll post up soon). He just attended a workshop on promoting the idea of farming as a business and he has a lot of knowledge about irrigation techniques and consequences. Having someone to talk with and collaborate ideas with is really nice and I think we will do lots of learning and sharing together. He also has a motorbike and said we can share rides together (Don’t worry Eli I made him let me wear the helmet).
May 24, 2008
I am now in Nyimba and things are great. The meeting with OPPAZ went well and it is nice to know that I might be seeing Cherie from time to time. Eli and I traveled to Nyimba together . The bus was supposed to leave at 5:30 but it finally pulled away at eight after idling for two and a half hours while the bus filled up. The driver would occaisionally rev the engine to attract customers. We were pretty sleepy for the first half of the ride. By the time we got to Nyimba we were a little less groggywhich was nice because we met with my project partner Albert immediately after getting off the bus.He is pretty great. The association has room for improvement for sure. Albert has a real vision for how things could be with more time and effort. So far I am really comfortable with the way he sees my placement fitting in. He is really keen on getting me involved and also understands that I have a lot of learning to do before I can have any serious positive impact so I am glad that we are on the same page.
The organization has the mission of “Facilitating good governance among farming households or agricultural technological advancement , high productivity and increased well-being in a gender balanced and HIV/AIDS free environment.” There are 25 Infromation Centres, which each represent a sub-district of the association. Albert conducts periodic workshops in Nyimba where representatives from each Information Centre gather. Following the workshops they take the information that they have taken from the workshop back to their community to share. The workshop that I attended was well organized and he communicated some great ideas, although it was mostly in Nsenga so a fair bit was over my head.
The language here in Nyimba is Nsenga, which is part of the Nyanja language family. We practiced lots of Nyanja in Lusaka so my basic greetings are good and I’m getting ready to get into a more serious language learning mode. It’s definitely harder than French, Spanish or German. Just when I was getting somewhat comfortable with the a few phrases I moved in with a Bemba speaking family that has recently moved here. The father, Mwila, is a classic. He is always smiling and very jolly. His wife is beautiful and there are three adorable little girls that greet with curtsies. There is another teenage boy named Steve that lives there as well. The girls only speak Bemba so that has presented a new linguistic challenge. The family is very hospitable and won’t charge any rent for the week so I am trying to find ways thet I can help out around the house. Today I bought some Jam for breakfasts. Pio, one of the farmers from the NDFA workshop said that he only had jam at Christmas time so I was glad I could get a nice treat. He couldn’t tell me if it was a good price because he had never bought it before.
Last night we watched a sinful Nigerian romance-murder-love triangle drama. It was pretty classic. This family definitely seems upper class for Nyimba standards. It will probably help increase my ability to understand poverty to stay with a less well off family, but these five days will be a nice middle gear in the culture shock process.
I’ve been through culture shock a couple of times but I’ve never dived in this hard before with no one familiar around. Mom and Maddie’s calls and Carly’s letter were definitely nice to receive.
Kacholola
May 29 2008
I was dispatched to an even smaller town called Kachalola to act as an extension agent there. It has been a real trip so far. In the introduction session I sat on this chair at the front facing everyone while everyone discussed my arrival in Nsenga. There is much less English here so the Nsenga is going to need a turbo boost. It is much more rural African feeling here. No one has even heard of Pizza or Pasta so tales of traversing snow covered mountains on skis become exotic tales. I’m really digging it here. The people are even friendlier than in Nyimba. If I could score a family here that I enjoyed as much as the Mwila’s it would be great though. Tommorrow I’m visiting my new friend Daka’s farm and hooking up with Pio in the afternoon to tour the town.
June 2 2008
I have now visited several farms. I am unbelieveably impressed with the irrigation systems that are already in place here. They are much more advanced than the descriptions sounded. Some are much better than others but the association is about sharing ideas so there is potential for some great learning interactions between farmers. Kacholola is a very hilly area that has many springs and streams. This is unique for a community in Eastern Province and allows for the growing of crops such as banana, tomatoes, cabbage, onion and winter maize. This gives Kachalola a unique comparative advantage in the region where crops such as groundnuts (peanuts) and cotton are more common. On the Kacholoa side farrows are dug to divert water away from streams to irrigate crops, while on the Kabaza side of the Tambalala hill, there are farms on land that was water logged and furrows were placed to extract water from the land to make it farmable. I wonder about the degree of downslope migration of nutrients with these significant volumes of water constantly flowing downslope. Many farmers have expressed interest in piped irrigation which would definitely reduce soil erosion.
Almost all of the farmers identify similar dilemmas. First and foremost is market access and second is the access to fertilizer inputs. Accessing markets is very difficult. Transportation infrastructure is incredibly limited. Dramatically even compared to places I’ve visited in Central America and Asia. Gasoline is around $2.75/L. The closest markets to Kachalola are Nyimba and Feira, which are accessible by paid hitchhiking (even with large quantities of produce). However, showing up after an expensive day long trip in one of these places with hundreds of kg.s of perishable produce makes the farmer vulnerable to accept low prices and often ends up incurring little to no profit.
There is a hotel in Kachalola that once was quite a fancy big deal operation. Now it is dilapidated with and empty pool dried up grass and periodically cold beer ( depending on if there is paraffin in the refrigerator or not). There is no power in Kacholola and no power means no running water. A hotel really loses its luster with no power or running water. When the hotel was run by the government it flourished and all of the government buses from Lusaka to Chipata stopped here for lunch. There were 38 staff members and a restaurant. All together, this hotel once presented Kachalola farmers with a significant demand for food. Following Privatization of the buslines and the hotel to an unenthusiastic investor has seen the hotels prosperity wind down to a standstill. If the hotel could be revived it could be a keystone to development bringing jobs and agricultural demand.
Dad, Sarah and Steph, I loved getting the phone calls from all of you. Thank you so Much. Kelly and Pam thanks for the letters and Maxy, keep up the texting bro I’m loving it.
Feira
June 6 2008
Today Pio and I left for Luangwa boarding school to do some market research. Selling to an isolated consumer seems much safer than to people who will be trying to flip your product for a profit. Since marketing was identified as such an issue I am glad to be learning what it entails. We waited by the roadside in our fanciest duds for two and a half hours before we caught a ride to Luangwa bridge. There we waited another three hours to catch a truck south to the high school. Along the way we ran through some calculations together, talking about the net profit that Pio would make after accounting for transport, fertilizer, and seeds. We came up with a couple of figures and we had in our heads that we would start the bargaining at 1800Kw/kg. Thinking they would maybe want 200kg a week would mean a profit of around 240,000 Kw / week ($68 CDN)if the price settled at 1600Kw/kg. We showed up and heard that they buy there cabbage from Lusaka and drive it over 400km to the school. The prices were hard to compare since their Lusaka prices didn’t include transport but when we mentioned 1800Kw they said yes without even bartering. The trip was definitely a success. We also went all the way to Feira where we learned that the price of tomatoes is 100,000Kw/box (its 40,000 in Kacholola). From there we took a canoe to Zumbo in Mozambique and had a Mozambican beer and saw hippos on the way.
Kachalola
June 9 2008
I have a new neighbour named Moses who is a government agricultural extension worker. He is a great guy and I now have someone to share my charcoal cooking duties with. He is a real source of knowledge and he drafted me a map of the Kacholola (which I’ll post up soon). He just attended a workshop on promoting the idea of farming as a business and he has a lot of knowledge about irrigation techniques and consequences. Having someone to talk with and collaborate ideas with is really nice and I think we will do lots of learning and sharing together. He also has a motorbike and said we can share rides together (Don’t worry Eli I made him let me wear the helmet).
Monday, May 19, 2008
Training Ends
Well, Training is over. We just had our last session of In-Country Training yesterday. In country was a lot more relaxed than the week in Toronto. Toronto consisted of 11-16 hours of sessions a day and sometimes homework in the evening. There was a huge amount of really positive interactive learning happening although the lack of sleep was sub-optimal. We had sessions on everything from Understanding rural livlihoods to the importance of active learning, and from how to avoid dissentry to understanding the economics of agricultural value chains. I walked away from it with a deep desire to make the skills and knowledge of the people in my host community very apparent to them.
Living at the EWB house was classic. There were the ten members of Team Zambia and another eight from Equipe Burkina Faso. It was great getting to practice french and having a sort of warm up cultural splash. I REALLY liked every person in the house a lot. It seems like living with 18 people that some of the roommates would get on your nerves after a while but it wasn't even close. Burkina left a day earlier than us and the house felt really empty we'll miss them all and it will be great to see them again at the return session.
The flight was crazy! We left Toronto for London, had seven hours of layover there, long enough for a whirlwind tour, fish and chips and a pint. Then we flew to Nairobi and had three hours of layover there, we touched down in Lilongwe briefly and finally landed in Lusaka.
Lusaka is pretty interesting, it's not as big as I thought it would be. The markets are very similar to those of Central America and small errands can be exciting adventures. We went over to Hans Hesse's (One of the Zambia Long Term Volunteers) house for supper last night and I talked for a long time to one of his young neighbours. Not only was she incredibly smart but she was just so curious and passionate about learning. She was quizzing me on the processes of conduction, radiation and convection and the process of photosynthesis. She talked about the ethnic origins of people from the different continents and asked me to define poverty. She was only in grade six which really made me reflect on how much effort and passion I had for learning and how blase I was about post secondary. (Initially I took two years off before starting University). I'm not sure if she would get the chance to go to University but she sure would have been more grateful than I was. It hardly seems fair. Hopefully one day access to education will have less barriers and is available to everyone who is a passionate academic.
That's All for now, my next post will probably be from Nyimba
Stay tuned.
Mark
Living at the EWB house was classic. There were the ten members of Team Zambia and another eight from Equipe Burkina Faso. It was great getting to practice french and having a sort of warm up cultural splash. I REALLY liked every person in the house a lot. It seems like living with 18 people that some of the roommates would get on your nerves after a while but it wasn't even close. Burkina left a day earlier than us and the house felt really empty we'll miss them all and it will be great to see them again at the return session.
The flight was crazy! We left Toronto for London, had seven hours of layover there, long enough for a whirlwind tour, fish and chips and a pint. Then we flew to Nairobi and had three hours of layover there, we touched down in Lilongwe briefly and finally landed in Lusaka.
Lusaka is pretty interesting, it's not as big as I thought it would be. The markets are very similar to those of Central America and small errands can be exciting adventures. We went over to Hans Hesse's (One of the Zambia Long Term Volunteers) house for supper last night and I talked for a long time to one of his young neighbours. Not only was she incredibly smart but she was just so curious and passionate about learning. She was quizzing me on the processes of conduction, radiation and convection and the process of photosynthesis. She talked about the ethnic origins of people from the different continents and asked me to define poverty. She was only in grade six which really made me reflect on how much effort and passion I had for learning and how blase I was about post secondary. (Initially I took two years off before starting University). I'm not sure if she would get the chance to go to University but she sure would have been more grateful than I was. It hardly seems fair. Hopefully one day access to education will have less barriers and is available to everyone who is a passionate academic.
That's All for now, my next post will probably be from Nyimba
Stay tuned.
Mark
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Z-UNIT
Team Zambia Arrives
Freedom
Me and Brian in Lusaka at the Freedom Statue
Bringing home Dinner in Lusaka
