Lake Victoria & Rock City: Mwanza and Sengerema

For five days, I went to Mwanza and Sengerema on Lake Victoria with a genetic resources scientist from AVRDC World Vegetable Center.  It was a follow up and consultation field visit on the Enhanced Homestead Food PRoduction Project (EHFP), a partner initiative of Helen Keller International (HKI), Irish Aid, Tanzania Home Economics Association, the Tanzania Food and Nutrition Center, Tengeru Livestock Training Institute, and AVRDC.  EHFP is a three-year project aimed at improving maternal and childhood health and nutrition in Mwanza region through the increased household production and consumption of vegetables (rich in micronutrients to prevent blindness and tropical diseases).  Because it's on the shores of Lake Victoria, the majority of the population relies on fishing (of tilapia and the famed Nile Perch) for livelihood and dietary staples.  Vegetable production and consumption is relatively uncommon and diets are imbalanced (fish and cassava).  EHFP works with 1200 homestead gardens (usually 6 m x 6 m) in two districts (twelve villages) and also has a poultry and nutritional education component.  EHFP has three levels of training: masters (project staff, extension officers, etc.), training of trainers (group leaders), and cascade training (of farmers on the ground).  In the past, they have provided trainings on traditional pesticides, consumer preferences, seed production, improvement of garden characteristics, and planning using a seasonal calendar.  HKI encourages best practices including: mulching in bed preparation, intercropping, raised beds, crop rotation, use of organic manure, use of local homemade biopesticides, proper irigation, and crop diversification.  Naturally, period evaluation is necessary and that's what our visit was addressing.  I observed that the majority of farmers in the area are cultivating cassava, sugarcane, maize, and cotton as cash crops.  They also grow potatoes and pineapples, in addition to the EHFP gardens of Chinese cabbage, amaranth, nightshade, okra, Ethiopian mustard, and tomatoes.  The soil seems to be of low quality (sandy and don't retain moisture well) and water is still a challenge even though many of the farmers we visited live close to the lake (irrigation systems are expensive and some farmers are "lazy" in the words of the extension officer).  Other obstacles they've faced include germination problems, seed saving and production (though they've been trained in how to do this), the limits of only having access to hand tools, and no synthetic inputs, which are too expensive (a good example of organic by default).  They were asked about their seed variety preferences and given some advice including: mix ash dust with soap or use neem, tobacco, or livestock urine as a pesticide, to overcome germination problems by improving management techniques, and to strive to sell at the market after they've fed their families.  One farmer we met was particularly committed and successful, such that he was able to afford a new house and send his children to school.  In the end, we visited 80 farmers in four days, which was exhausting and unfortunately monotonous, though different subvillages boasted unique landscapes and it was useful to see the reality of what farmers are doing on the ground.  Some other general observations were that the disposition and skill of the agricultural extension officer can have a great impact on the community, reflected in the quality of the gardens, how farmers' attitudes and levels of commitment are key in success, and how both taste/palatability and market preference are important to farmers.  Something else unique and mildly comical is that farmers here think that vegetables are goat food and how fish and cassava are for humans - a mentality that should be changed to have a nutritional impact.  I also learned that HKI first purchased hybrid seeds from Kibo Seed Company and then proceeded to acquire and distribute Open Pollinated Varieties from AVRDC, which would allow the farmers to save and reuse them each season instead of having to buy them each year.  And what's really exciting is that individuals beyond the project beneficiaries are learning valuable lessons: family members, friends, and neighbors are replicating cultivation methods and beginning to grow vegetables themselves.  HKI aims to scale up EHFP to reach 3,600 farmers with an added component related to gender, and once the EHFP project wraps up, HKI will begin the Canadian-funded CHANGE project or "Creating Homestead Agriculture for Nutrition and Gender Equality."         
  

Jokes. A Dalla Dalla in Mwanza that pretty much sums up how a lot of people here feel.

Boarding the ferry to cross the inlet 

Mwanza is known as "Rock City"

What we had for dinner every night - sumaki na wali (rice and fish - tilapia)

Pineapple

Mulching

Drying cassava

Farmer field visits

This farmer could buy a house with the money he made from his new gardens

Gardens on the shores of Lake Victoria

Can you spot the massive birds?

A cell phone company that supports farmers by offering information via text

The famous Nile Perch - Dad, this one's for you!

Cattle crossing