Twambo Time: David Muunga

Twambo Time: David Muunga

Steve, Simon and myself spent a crazy day biking out into the bush in an attempt to get to a farmers group meeting we had organized. It had just rained two days before (the first day it’s really rained since I’ve been here, which I’ll talk more about later) and many of the dirt paths we were weaving through were still quite muddy. Because the rains had been so heavy two days prior, one of the small ‘streams’ that we were supposed to cross had turned into more of a medium sized river. There wasn’t too much of a risk to us from the river because it wasn’t flowing too hard, but there was a risk that the bikes could have been caught by the current and because of the pressure on them we might have not been able to hold onto them. Turning back was not an option because over 20 farmers were taking important time out of their farming days and traveling long distances just to get to this meeting. If we didn’t show up, we would have lost a lot of creditability and respect from them. So, Steve, Simon and myself waved down some local kids playing by the river and we all braced ourselves around the bikes and slowly and surely got the bikes across the river. We arrived at the farm of the person I wanted to tell you all about, David Muungu (you can tell already by his name why I like this guy) just as the last farmers were showing up.

We all greeted every single attendee at the meeting with our Tongan greetings, “Mwabonwa, muli buti? (You are seen, are you well), which is then replied to by “Twabonwa, Kabotu” (I am seen, well). This is then followed by going around to everyone attending the meeting and sharing the standard Zambian handshake as I described at the beginning of this entry. We all then circled around the huge tree located in the middle the area, as is tradition for these meetings (which although does have some historical importance, most people now just say it’s to provide some shade from the 35+ degree heat, either answer suffices for me). IDE holds many of these group meetings to provide a forum for the farmers in the area who own one of our pumps/drip kits or who are interested in possibly getting one. At these meetings, the farmers discuss some of the problems they are having and we try to facilitate ways for them to come up with their own solutions for them. They usually end up asking questions to us about various things such as better farming practises, how to repair a broken pump or what crops to start growing this time of year. Having this meeting was a very strategic decision made by Steve because on top of the regular meeting objectives, Steve wanted all the other farmers to see the plot of land of David Muungu and hear his story.

David Muungu had lived in the area for over 12 years farming on a small plot of land maybe half a hectare large (50m x 100m). From information I had quite loosely translated at the meeting, he was married, had three sons, two daughters and they all lived in the 3 different small thatched roof mud huts that he had built. He had always been a subsistence farmer for his life, always struggling to grow enough food just to feed his family. David usually only grew maize and sweet potatoes because that is what was grown on the land before he got there and is usually what most farmers in the area focus on. He only grew a small plot of vegetables because they required irrigation and he didn’t have enough time or labour to water them having only a bucket to use. One major problem he faced, was that in some years, when there was a heavy drought, the maize crop would mostly fail leading his family into very hard times. I was told later that he had already lost two children in past drought years. David had heard about the IDE treadle pump from another farmer and one day decided to track down Steve. Steve was able to explain to David about some of the advantages of increased vegetable growing and also how having a treadle pump could possibly help him expand the amount of land he could use because of the time he would save on irrigation. David thought about it for some time and after saving up money, he was able to purchase a treadle pump.

David was very fortunate in that the ground water table under his land was very high, enabling him to dig shallow wells around his farm in order to access water for irrigating his crops. Then, using his pump along with constant farming input and knowledge support, David had doubled the amount of land he was able to grow crops on and quadruple the yield that he produced, in just over a year and a half. Selling his excess produce on the market, he was able to earn enough money to pay for the schooling of two of his children. He was also able to take some of the money he earned and invest it into purchasing another pump because he wanted to increase the amount of land he farmed for the next season. His wife and children had also benefited greatly because they were able to spend much less of their time irrigating using a bucket (as it was typically their responsibility) and they were able to have a large amount of food security despite the heavy drought.

Most importantly in his opinion, David, who was also the treasurer in his village group, could demonstrate how well the program had worked for him to all the surrounding farmers such as was the case at this meeting. This not only motivated these other farmers to work just as hard and smart as him, but seeing all his peers around him oo’ing and awe’ing at all his hard work gave David a huge boost in confidence. This confidence helped David realise that he could do more with his plot then what had just been done in the past and now he has a vision of doubling his crops again for next year so he can afford to send the rest of his kids to school.

Development Point: Leadership Development and Peer Education

Of course this is only one story, and there are many other much sadder stories of farmers whom I met that I could have shared. But I couldn’t help but get extremely energized meeting someone like this as it really made me feel great to know that programs like ours at least have the potential to have an impact on someone’s life like David. I’m sure it will be a story that I’m going to use to keep me inspired in those times when it seems like inspiration is nowhere to be found.

(Note about the story: I was only able to meet David twice during my time for short periods of time and I was a bit confused over some of the details I learned because of translation issues. There is a large possibility I have misconstrued some of them and I’m sorry for anything that I didn’t understand. The reason I’m saying this is because I know some development people like using these case studies to illustrate one situation and I didn’t want to misrepresent David’s life in any way. I just wanted to give a general idea of some of the successes that our work can potentially have. I would ask that anyone looking for an official case study please wait until I start working in Choma so that I can make sure I’m truly giving an accurate picture of their lives. Thanks!)

---

---