Agriculture: Inspiring Stories

Sosthene Nkundimana

Sosthene is 24 years old and is originally from Gitarama in the south of Rwanda but he works in Ruhengeri in the north of the country. He is a farmer/businessman by trade. Sosthene found out about the Rwanda Beehive while searching for information on agriculture on Google.com. In addition to finding information about advanced methods of potato growing, Sosthene used the Rwanda Beehive to learn how to start and manage a small business. The Beehive guided Sosthene through the process of obtaining a small business loan from the bank which he used to start his business. He also followed the Beehive’s step-by-step guide to potato growing, and as a result, he has had great yields this year. He now makes a good living from his business, and he attributes much of his success to the information that he learned on the Beehive.
“The Beehive really helped me with my business. Thank you. You have been of great help to me.”

Bhim Bahadur

Bhim Bahadur, a poor farmer in the rural Kaski district of Nepal, had given up hope that his life would ever improve. The yield from his small piece of land earned him so meager an income that he could not support his family of eight. His annual income amounted to just $57. In fact, 80 percent of Nepalese are dependent on farming and forest products for their livelihoods. Already 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line and suffers from “hungry seasons”. USAID is working to raise the income of small farmers through improved access to water and market development. To improve access to water, USAID helped small farmers in these districts install over 26,230 micro-irrigation systems in 2004 and 2005. Through this, in 2005, he started growing cucumbers using drip irrigation technology installed on the group’s farmland. In a short time, he doubled his earnings, and even grew enough to bring some home to his family. His success encouraged him to install a drip irrigation system on his own land, which he is developing to grow tomatoes and vegetables.

Sanduq

A local microfinance institution provides small loans for poor rural people, with particular attention to women. The literal meaning of sanduq (pl. sanadiq) is ‘box’. These village funds, owned and managed by local members, are fast becoming the most successful autonomous microfinance institutions in Syria. Sanadiq were first introduced by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as part of the IFAD-financed Jebel al Hoss Agricultural Development Project. Abbas Abdulhamid Kharzoum, 45, and his wife Mariam Al-Zarraq, 38 have three daughters and four sons, and farm a small plot of land planted with olive trees and crops. They made a meager living until they got the chance to improve their family’s standard of living by investing in livestock-raising. With two loans of 50,000 Syrian pounds (SL) each (about US$1,136), they bought six sheep and four goats, which allowed them to expand their business into dairy and wool products. “I make cheese, yoghurt and concentrated yoghurt balls for long-term conservation. These are very important for the family diet, I’ve seen the difference these dairy products make to my children’s health. The new business provides the family with enough milk, meat and wool for their own needs and with surpluses to sell. We no longer have to buy dairy products to feed the family,” says Mariam Al-Zarraq. In fact, now we are selling to others in the village.”

Tursunali Jorayev

For many people in developing countries, farming is the foundation on which their lives depend. For two young men from eastern Uzbekistan, learning better ways to grow fruit invigorated their farms.
Tursunali Jorayev’s small vineyard was under-performing, so in 2008 he volunteered for a program development project, which presented local farmers a technique using trellises. Mr. Jorayev, a 27-year-old father of three, jumped at the chance to improve his livelihood. Under the program, AgLinks offered a cost-share arrangement to farmers who established trellises on one hectare of their land. Mr. Jorayev paid for the labor, food, and installation during construction, while AgLinks funded the cement, wire, and transport. Trellised grapes have advantages over “bush” grapes grown on the ground: their leaves receive more sunlight and air, resulting in greater clusters and fewer rotten grapes and diseases, all of which increase yield. By using trellises, Mr. Jorayev’s vineyard, located in Pop District, Namangan Province, prospered from 2008 to 2009. His yield increased from 3.5 to 8.0 tons, and his income more than tripled from 600,000 to 2.1 million Uzbek soums (US$1,424). Mr. Jorayev plans to invest in his vineyard, procure new grape varieties, and install trellises on his remaining two hectares. “We learned a lot of useful things—proper watering, fertilizer application, pruning techniques, canopy management.”



Rosario, Argentina

Thousands of families in the city of Rosario, Argentina, were able to feed themselves during the country’s recent economic crisis by growing their own food. Now more than 800 community gardens in the city feed some 40,000 people and produce surplus for sale. 

Urban agriculture has become a permanent part of the city’s fabric. Vilma Cala, a mother of four had to turn to soup kitchens when the value of the peso plummeted in 2002. “It was terrible, having to depend on others,” she said. That was before she started tending a large garden in a field criss-crossed by inactive power lines. Today, she feeds her family, sells fresh vegetables at one of seven farmers’ markets, and produces cosmetics from natural ingredients alongside 12 other urban farmers. Others prepare platters of fresh fruit and vegetables for sale, as well as soups and pies. 

Research launched in 2003 helped Rosario move from crisis management to a long-term strategy for integrating agriculture into urban planning. This included an inventory of vacant lands onto which to expand gardens, the provision of water sources, and the creation of garden parks to provide food and recreation facilities in residential areas. Rosario is now an international showcase for city farming.