Unemployment in Zambia is extremely high, in some areas up to 90%. As a result, most families, an estimated 70% of households, attempt to survive through subsistence farming. The staple crop of subsistence farmers is nutrient poor maize. Slash and burn cultivation is a common practice, resulting in the removal of nutrients from the soil. Throughout Africa substandard farming techniques are used at every level, including inadequate watering, poor soil development, inappropriate fertilizing, and poor pest control. Primitive agriculture techniques add to the burden of poverty and result in malnutrition in rural populations. In Zambia, 63% of all children under five years of age suffer from iron and vitamin A deficiency; and southern Africa is one of the hardest places in the world for a child to survive. |
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Seeds of Hope is working to introduce agriculture training that encompasses the full continuum from ground and crop selection through to marketing and seed selection for the next year’s crop. SHIP’s strategy is to develop demonstration farms at strategically placed locations where farmers can come and learn practices to implement on their own land. We have several hectares in Zambia where we have introduced drip irrigation kits and treadle pumps which provide better irrigation to fields, increasing food production all year round. We are seeking to employ better growing techniques throughout the process from methods of land clearing and cultivation, selection of more nutritional crops, fertilization, consistent watering and proper use of pesticides, to raising marketable crops and bringing them to market. |
In 2006, Seeds of Hope was given 170 acres of land in Zambia by a Zambian chief excited about the work we are doing for his people. This land, now known as the Peter Reimer Memorial Farm in honor of Peter’s contributions to SHIP’s agricultural work in Zambia, is the site of some farming and agricultural training. In addition to this we are promoting farming in Mapalo in the Dambo area as well as at our Resource Center in Mapalo. We are excited about a recent partnership with Cal Poly University and Northrise University of Zambia which will facilitate further agricultural research and development to meet the needs of communities in Zambia. |
See Peter Reimer's Agricultural survey for SHIP here |
