Gender Equality Zambia Project #54045

Lift 300+ Zambian Women Out Of Extreme Poverty

by The Harvest Fund

Project Report | Jan 25, 2023
Harvesting Our Way Out Of Extreme Poverty

By Michelle Kurian | Executive Director

One solar powered water pump cultivates so much

Who knew that such a tiny vegetable could change so many lives? For many in the world, a tomato is just something to have around the house - to make tomato chutney or Jollof rice or pasta sauce. But, so many farmers in southern Africa basically farm to survive. Our farmers, especially, have prioritized maize and never found a way to farm as a business.

It's important to learn from past mistakes. At The Harvest Fund, we always reflect on our lessons learned. In late 2022, the Chibote Cooperative's tomato crop suffered from cutworms. In other words, these pests were in the soil and literally cut the bottom stem of the tomato plant. We also learned that it is incredibly hard to grow so many tomato plants from seed given the soil type in our region. So, we found a local woman who owns a small nursery and grows tomato seedlings. Now, we support her business by buying tomato seedlings directly from her. Now, transporting thousands of seedlings is tough work. A third major learning comes from the Tubuke Cooperative. They found that their seedlings dried up soon after transplant. We realize that the seedlings need to be transported very quickly from nursery to farm. This is tough given the price of fuel, time, and weather but we have learned that it's key to success.

By end of March 2023, we plan to harvest at least 13,000 tomatoes which will result in nearly $4,000 USD. We will increase the tomato production each harvest through weekly in-person monitoring.

We also want to manage risks. We know that tomatoes are susceptible to spoilage. Thus, we are brainstorming a system to use too-ripe tomatoes. Tomato powder is easily processed at our cooperative's small farms. Most importantly, they can fetch up to 6X the price of fresh tomatoes!

For our farmers, being able to contribute to the local economy with fresh tomatoes is a HUGE WIN. Now, being able to add value to a basic crop and sell it as a unique product is an EVEN BIGGER WIN. Thank you all for your supporter because this could not have been done without you!

P.S. We're working on an amazing video featuring one of the Chibote Cooperative's farmers, Ms. Juma, and can't wait to share it with you in the next report.

Our technical director in his element with plants

Village roads flood delaying input deliveries

Our staff planting side-by-side with a farmer

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Sep 27, 2022
Tomatoes Are Sprouting!

By Michelle Kurian | Executive Director

Farmers at our seed supplier's (Syngenta) training

As our farmers’ cultivate little tomato seedlings, we are so grateful for our donors because it is YOU that made this happen. This GlobalGiving campaign launched a tomato project with women farmers in Zambia. Usually, women farmers grow enough crops to barely feed their families. However, we help them use climate-smart methods to grow tomatoes which can generate more income for them and their families. We provide them with the seed, fertilizer, nurseries, and solar-powered irrigation systems to grow the tomatoes. Then, we collect the tomatoes in crates and sell them to large buyers that the farmers could not otherwise access. We split the revenue with the farmers. With the new revenue, we continue the tomato project across two of Zambia’s ten provinces, serving 400+ women and 3,000 beneficiaries. Your donation has multifold impact!

Since the last report, we have further developed our soft skills curriculum. In the 3 years since launching our organization, we have realized that technical agriculture skills can only take our women farmers so far. Since they have such a marginalised place in society, we need to do more to develop their self-esteem and confidence. So, we have soft skills training that focuses on marketing, budgeting, entrepreneurship, and value addition. Value addition is also a new component of our program. Though tomatoes fetch a good price, we realize that we can help the farmers generate even more income by helping them process tomatoes. “Value addition” is the term used in agricultural development that refers to adding value to a basic crop. Our farmers live in extreme poverty and, in order for them to earn a sustainable income and beyond basic survival, we really need them to learn how to create value from their crops. We are happy to say that we have worked with talented volunteers and local experts to create this curriculum.

We have engaged a young graduate from the University of Zambia as a data collector. She hails from a farming household in the region where our farmers live. We strive to empower African women in many different ways and being an equitable employer in one way. As the data collector surveys our farmers, the data will be uploaded into a virtual dashboard. This way, donors like you can see our impact numbers.

Soon, the rains will start in Zambia but we hope to have the first tomato harvest ready to go by then! Stay tuned for our next report in January!

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Watch our Technical Director and Co-Founder's feature by UNDP

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May 11, 2022
2022 Looks To Be A Bountiful Year

By Namonje Namukonda | Operations Manager

Our partnership with GlobalGiving - particularly our individual donors - continues to be an integral partner. Each individual donor has played a critical role in accommodating the needs of impoverished, rural women in Zambia. Since the beginning of the year, there has been regular use of the solar-powered water pump that was installed in late 2021. This allowed the women to start growing vegetables for sale through the farming cooperatives to which they belong. We will commence our formal tomato cultivation project at the end of May.

The farming season in Zambia runs from December to April and it is in these months that the women plant maize (corn) for their sustenance and sell the surplus during the year. We provide robust extension (the agricultural term for training) services during this farming season. From our rigorous field inspections, we have observed vast improvement on crop management with the farmers. We expect higher yields as the rains were adequate and provided favorable conditions for maize cultivation.

Preparation for the pilot tomato growing project is almost complete. Inputs (seed, fertilizer, etc.) will be distributed in mid-May so that we are on schedule to commence by the end of May 2022. With these inputs, each cooperative will cultivate their own plot of tomatoes, which are a high value crop in the region. We will connect the cooperatives with a buyer so that they are able to sell all of their tomatoes.

We are scheduled to have more in-depth training for the women in June. In this training, we want to focus on non-agricultural soft skills, such as entrepreneurship, budgeting, marketing, cost analysis, as well as value addition, which is adding value to their crops by creating new products (for example, converting tomato plants to tomato sauce). Some agricultural skills that we will focus on after June include land preparation, pest scouting, and the management of their fields after harvest. We want to equip them with skills to manage their farms and empower them in other ways so that they can become self-sufficient.

If you read our last report or followed us on social media, you may have heard that we expanded to a new province (Southern Province ). Thus, with your support, we are now operating in two of Zambia’s 10 provinces. This expansion is going well. We hope to have success with the new cooperatives in this province as we have had with the ones in our current province (Lusaka Province).

Thank you for your great generosity! We at The Harvest Fund, greatly appreciate your donations. Your support helps further our mission to help marginalized women achieve their full potential and the eradication of poverty. Your support is invaluable to us.

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