By Mercy Egbuchulam-Onyianta | Project Leader
A Happy Healthy New Year to You and Yours!
I am excited to bring progress report and I pray that everyone is happy, doing well, and excited for the blessing of the new year, 2024, Amen!
Recap
Our Youth Farming Project, aimed at eliminating hunger in rural Nigeria, is a testament to our passion for empowering and equipping Nigerian youths with modern farming skills. Through the invaluable partnership with GlobalGiving and the generosity of donors like you, we’ve successfully implemented this project, training a total of 50 youth farmers since 2020.
They have cultivated corn, cassava, and various vegetables annually, supporting themselves,
their families, and the community at large. Your continuous support has made this life-changing experience possible, Amen!
Overview of the Project
Following the new modified approach in response to the demand and need of the program, ten newly trained youth farmers from the 2022 cohort who returned in 2023, were assigned individual small portions of LMF leased farm land for their own practical experience. They also were assigned volunteers who worked with them in their mini farms to use the techniques and strategies they learnt in the programs to create and grow mini vegetable farms of their choice periodically through the year 2023. They divided the main farmland into mini farms to devote each section to a specific crop, using a divide & conquer method to increase production levels. They will continue with this program in 2024.
Progress Made
Our Cohort 3 youth farmers have made a lot of progress and learned a lot.
They continue to expand their knowledge on practical farming, crop rotation and planting vegetables, and using different natural materials to make homemade manure. Throughout 2023, they planted and harvested corn, ugu, curry leaves, garden eggs, pepper, pumpkins and other vegetables in rotation, every 2-3 months. The harvest has been bountiful and the vegetables are still producing. Their coach, Prince Chiwuba says that they have harvested and
sold Ugu leaves a number of times in the past and also had more than enough leftovers to share with the farmers for their own personal use.
Furthermore, our youth farmers were also able to obtain and preserve some healthy Ugu vegetable seeds from the properly staked pods for the next
planting season in 2024. Bravo to all!
Next Steps – 2024
Our Youth Farmers have scheduled Monthly meetings to regroup and reconcile what worked, what didn’t work and make adjustments.
Our Youth Farmers will be harvesting and clearing out the garden eggs section, as well as the bell pepper and curry leaves sections of the farm, as the crops are due for replacement after about 3 months of periodic harvesting.
Our Youth Farmers have been planting and attending to the cassava mini- farm, which takes longer to mature. It will be ready for harvest in about 4 months.
Our Youth Farmers will start clearing the other sections of the farms and prepare it before planting starts. They will deploy their soil improvement techniques such as weeding, stump
removal and manuring, in the affected sections. They will use their stock piled ash/manure.
Our Youth Farmers will also buy yam seedlings that will be planted in sacks on a new area of the farm.
Major Concern for 2024
Our youth’s farm suffered a major problem in 2023 due to lack of rainfall/not enough water supply for the farm, which is needed for the crops to flourish and blossom.
“This year, while we pray and hope for enough rainfall, we have made an agreement with a nearby house owner to allow our Youth Farmers to obtain water from their tap water in their yard, by way of a hose, to bring it to the farm for tending the growing crops till onset of rain”, said Prince Chiwuba the Coach.
Conclusion
Our Youth Farmers are making significant progress thanks to your support. Your donations, combined with the matched funds contributed by GlobalGiving, enable us to sustain this program. We are immensely grateful, and together, our impact is creating a profound difference in the lives of the youth, their families, and the community as a whole.
Please accept our heartfelt appreciation, and take comfort in knowing that your contributions are truly meaningful to the youth, to LMF, to humanity, and to God.
Today, I am appealing to you to continue to consistently give during GlobalGiving’s matching funds campaigns because it allows our program to receive more funds. When you give, your funds are a direct contribution to providing our program with more resources. LMF is also open to grants, sponsors and partners, and if you can help in those lines, please do not hesitate to reach out for more information.
Furthermore, GlobalGiving is also matching monthly donations 100 % after a 4X re-occurrence, and the minimum donation of $10.
Once again, I express my gratitude for your thoughtfulness, kindness, and generosity. You are an integral part of LMF Team of Heroes, and our Youth Farmers will forever be grateful to you. May you always remain blessed, Amen! We will continue to keep you informed about the progress of the project. If you have any comments, questions, or input, please feel free to direct them to us, and we will do our best to provide answers and assistance.
Mercy Egbuchulam- Onyianta Prince Chiwuba
Founder- Lady Mitz Foundation Project Lead & Coach Nigeria
Links:
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