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Visiting Jacana
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‘Are they Chinese?’ A boy of about 10 looks through the window and watches us (2 white women) as we sit in the car. He asks Collins, Jacana employee with whom we are spending a day.
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'Are they white? Yes', says Collins. Smiling, the little boy lets go of the window and there is another look at us.
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The little boy did not speak English. Collins loudly translates for us.
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We arrived in a village over an hour and a half away on a dusty orange road full of bumps and potholes. Fortunately, the rainy season has just ended that drives easier.
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We will visit some farmers participating in the 5-year “AFAS” project. The farmers are now in their fourth year and have undergone a number of trainings including: bookkeeping, compost making, crop rotation, nursery bed care, making organic crop protectors, growing less known crops and principles of organic farming.
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The farmers have made a certain portion of their land available to put the newly learned into practice. We get to watch that.
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We, Ria and Marjon are friends of Rik and Dinie. Once we met them (17 years ago) in Ghana and we have continued to visit and follow them. Ria is currently chairman of the board in the Netherlands and Marjon is a fan.
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We will visit a number of farmers. Jacana's support and assistance is essential and much appreciated. What is striking is that the farmers are so incredibly proud of what they have learned and how they now put it into practice. Where normally only maize is grown, tomatoes now shine, okra blossoms and cabbages grow like crazy. We also saw nursery beds with seeds, ready to be transplanted. Piles of home-made compost to add to the crops. Planting e.g. basil and marigolds between several crops to ward off voracious insects and/or attract bees. Taking care of trees and shrubs planted near/in the farmland providing natural fertiliser. Under the Zambian sun, it is shown to us with broad smiles.
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The water supply on farmers' land is diverse and sometimes problematic. The first farmer we visited thought his solar panels were broken. We took the portable solar panels back to the office and checked them. Nothing wrong with them, it turned out to be the pump, which was then repaired. Later, we visited a farmer whose land was too wet. The drainage was not right. The onions were sadly standing in the water. At another farmer's place, drilling a borehole did not work. There they started digging manually. Two people had been digging a well for 3 days. Which succeeded! The inventiveness in obtaining and handling water is amazing. If one thing does not work then something else is invented and tried. If -in worse case- there is no way of getting enough water, then the farmer gets his commitment fee back.
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Other problems: a field full of cabbage in which some seemed to have 'exploded'. The farmer whose cabbage it was, did not know what caused the problem. Jacana manager Bester, a graduate agronomist, diagnosed the problem: the cabbages were suffering from highly irregular watering. Result, bursting cabbages. Farmer happy, problem solved. The cracked cabbages were cheerfully taken as pig feed for a fellow farmer. Occasionally, Bester also came across a disease or strange growth that he did not recognise. A quick photo with the phone and a special app brought the answer.
It was surprising to hear from the farmers that they were especially happy with the training on 'bookkeeping' that gave them a better understanding of their income and expenses. In addition, 'making compost' and 'growing less know crops' scored high.
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The focus for this year of the “AFAS” project is on marketing less known vegetables. Jacana will explore with farmers how they can market their 'new' vegetables.
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We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with Rik and Dinie and their staff. To see how in 10 years Jacana has grown into an organisation that serves so many people with water, knowledge and expertise. Jacana reaches to those places where people desperately need help. In places where the children cannot distinguish a Chinese from a white person.
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Marjon Bakker & Ria de Vries
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