A Great Start

Moses had good news for me. He was able to visit about half of the farmers who participated in our group and check out their progresses. Everyone of them has started composting. Some even have as many as 3 piles. I was elated. Compared to their counterparts in the city who have more exposure to information, the Tanzanian farmers in the mountain village have more of a hard time learning the new techniques. I am glad that Moses was there to help them along the way. He put their level of understanding at only 50% despite great level of interest and willingness. His visits and consultations to the much-neglected farmers are invaluable.

The group leaders also seem to have taken up their responsibilities nicely. In between our visits, they helped visit the group members to encourage and monitor progress. It's all very encouraging.

Although it is my wish to eventually expand the program by incenting the farmers in the group to teach others in the village, both Moses and I agreed that it is too early to do so as the seed members are still not very familiar with the technique. Instead, we will start giving out vegetable seeds to the farmers for a nominal fee. The reason for the farmers to share a tiny fraction of the cost for the vegetable is to ensure that the farmers have vested interest in the program and commitment to make the program a success. I have learned from other projects that when things are given out for free, the recipients have less motivation to make things work. The free handout could also create dependency, abuses and false sense of entitlement.

With vegetables, we hope to improve the nutrition of the villagers' diets which are mostly maize and beans. It takes only 2 months at most to grow vegetables. This means that we could see impact quickly and impoverished farmers can benefit shortly. If they are successful with composting and growing vegetables, they might even be able to sell any surplus that they manage to create.

So much to look forward to!