Train Primary Teachers in Conservation Agriculture

Project update and exciting project announcement below

This quarter we’ve been back at Inyagui Primary school. Even though the main part of the project is now over we want to stay involved and make sure that outcomes are sustainable. While we were there we spoke to the Head Teacher and a number of others and checked out the maize crop and the chicken house. We also had a look at the record keeping to see what crops had been harvested, how many eggs had been produced and what was done with them, whether feeding students or helping the school buy much needed equipment. The students eat eggs every two weeks (we’ve encouraged a little more frequent if possible) and surplus have been sold for $380, meeting community needs. Chicken and egg production has doubled with over 4,000 eggs being produced since we started.

At the time of the visit, the school had established 360 cabbages, 7500 onions, 400 tomato plants and 5 beds of kale, all for the school kitchen. Also we heard that parents have been buying school crops and selling them on in the community for a profit. This means that more food is circulating in the local community addressing our goals around malnutrition and the profits are helping pay for student’s tuition fees. Win-win. There’s also big plans to add three more irrigated Pfumvudza plots to the farming activities so the school is really going from strength to strength. With more regular, nutritious food for the students, parents and the wider community plus the entrepreneurial activities supporting school budgets and developing the skills of the students we’re delighted with the situation.

Were also super excited to announce a new project with Ghuza primary starting NOW. This project will last two years and use an enhanced model to delvier more sustainable benefits addressing food insecurity malnutrition and building more resilience in the community against the effects of climate change. We can’t wait to get started and we’ll tell you more next time!!!

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This has been a particularly exciting quarter and we’re happy to present some of the evaluation findings from our work with Inyagwe Primary School. For a long time now (Covid presented some delays) we’ve been working together to teach conservation agriculture, helping to tackle food insecurity and build resilience against the growing effects of climate change.

“This project allows everyone in the community to earn money and have enough food.”

Mr N. Majogo, School Development Committee, Chairperson

Crop production over the course of the project has gone through the roof, here’s some highlights comparing 2020-2021.

Onions – up from 600 to 1,300, that’s 217% growth

Tomatoes up from 120kg to 400kg a growth of 333%

Sugar Beans – up from 10kgs to 60kgs a whopping 600%.

Maize – up from 150kgs to 1,750kg, a staggering 1,167%

To date, approximately 40 meals have been provided for each of the 398 students attending the school. Totalling 15,920 meals this is a great and substantial achievement but still falls a long way short of what is truly required. With the school aiming to give one meal per student, per day this requires 1,990 meals per week and we can see that approximately eight full weeks of food have been provided thus far. The great leap forward in capacity and relative to what they were able to produce/provide before is a true measure of the success of the project. This is further supported by feedback received from the Headmaster stating, “Yes, benefits were observed. It increased the school enrolment and minimized absenteeism.” A teacher goes on to note “Pupil’s participation in classwork has highly increased”.

There have been other benefits too but we’ll save some of that for next time…

Thanks to all our donors and supporters. Please help us spread the word, and raise more funds so we can keep up this life changing work.

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What have we done recently? The answer is - quite a lot! We’ve been delivering training to schools and communities on nutritional gardens with a particular focus on cash-crops. Using our climate smart methods this work supports livelihoods by producing chia, mucuna bean and sunflower. There is of course the added bonus that people have their own sustainable source of sunflower oil for the home.

We’ve also been working with our key school Inyaguwe to ensure that they are preparing the land for the next planting season. This is a great time of year to be making mulch which, using the by-products of the season just gone has be ability to put fresh nutrition back into the ground making it strong and fertile for the coming crops.

We’re also excited to be working on a new proposal for an enhanced methodology – if you’d like to find out more get in touch with our Operations Manager, Andrew Jackson at andrew@zimbabweeducaitonaltrust.org.uk Building on the way we’ve always done things we plan to make things more sustainable and wide reaching in the long-term.

Thanks as always to all our supporters.

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We were back at the school this quarter and delivering more tools along with seeds and other materials required to maintain their Pfumvudza crop plots. The headmaster, staff and students have been diligently taking care of the space and (as you can see in the photo) the crops are really flourishing. The drip equipment is being maintained and there are plans to expand its use which would be a big boon to what could be produced.

On top of this we’re pleased that with a little help the school has constructed their layer chicken house. The pupils were very excited to receive the chickens and jumped right in to taking charge of looking after them. In the 5 weeks since they arrived the chickens have laid 241 eggs and now average one egg per chicken per day.

This is a very exciting moment for the school as, along with the crops which are growing, they now have eggs to sell with the funds able to help support the maintenance and expansion of the project as well as the school’s budget going forwards.

Thanks again to our donors and supporters. Did you know that GlobalGiving are match funding the first donation of any new monthly donors? Please consider helping to spread the word. Thank you.

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This quarter saw us continue our delivery of the school’s project with the key step of installing a drip irrigation system. Students and teachers we’re excited to see the equipment arrive and with the help of staff and irrigation technicians it was installed on site. Students then got to see how it worked and the instant results visible as little pools of wet soil became visible all along the planting beds.

Discussion was held with those who had previously received training to ensure that theory is put into practice around mulching, crop management, tillage and of course irrigation. With the seasonal rains now on their way preparation is underway to ensure that the land is ready so that crop yields can be maximised and vulnerable students can be fed. Materials are now being purchased for the establishment of a layer chicken house. Utilising by-products from the farming activities to supplement the chicken’s diet this will provide a cost effective supply of eggs going forwards. With an open day on the horizon to show prove our methods to the community, things are shaping up nicely.

Thanks again to all our donors for your wonderful support – the more you give the more we can do.