Poverty: Accepting the Challenge

The challenge is great: alone in the rural Region of Lindi more than one third of the inhabitants live at or under the poverty threshold of EUR 3 per day. 84% of the people live on agriculture and most of the farmers are small holders and still work their fields with the hoe.

Kilimo Timilifu in Mchinga Mbili Village takes on the challenge. One of their focusses is training the small scale farmers in the Region of Lindi.

They teach conservational farming methods that help the farmers cope with the bad soil composition and the climate conditions.

Last week almost 50 people – men, women, Christians and Muslims alike – attended a Seminar at Kilimo Timilifu.

One section of the seminar was about profit making and proper handling of money issues.

Practical training supports brainwork, that is why much of the time was spent on the field. Here, for example, the trainees build a composting pile.

For a composting stack these materials are needed: hay or straw, fresh green leaves, dry sticks and twigs, menure and water. The materials are piled up in several layers up to a hight of one meter, whereby the hay and the leaves are dipped in and sprinkled with water respectively.

“How long does it take now, until we finally have composted soil?” I asked Hayden, the course instructor. “Well,” she said, “if everything is set up nicely and the bacteria begin working and make the heap warm, the heap is composted in three weeks.”

On the last day I asked one of the ladies who had come, “How was the seminar?” “Oh, great! I have learned a lot of new things and I cannot wait to try them out on my own farm.” she replied.