Nane Nane + Pangani + Sam Leaves

Well, it has been longer than I had intended between blogs, but I’ll see what I can do to get everyone caught up on the last 10 days.

Last week, Sam attended Nane Nane in Morogoro. Nane Nane is the largest Agricultural Exhibition in Tanzania. It was an opportunity for farmers, co-ops, district governments, companies, etc to show off what they’ve been doing in the world of agriculture over the past year. In one case, the Lushoto district government has setup a framework for its farmers to organize and deliver their products to Dar es Salaam to sell in supermarkets, hotels, and other retail outlets. One of the groups organized under this framework is the Usambara group. This group has solicited funds from USAID, and is actively fulfilling orders throughout the region. The group has a 9 member board with 1 manager and 1 private agricultural extension officer who oversee the production and transport of goods to their respective markets. The group takes 20% out of the revenues for overhead (transport, broker, packaging, storage, etc) and redistributes the other 80% to the farmers according to percent contribution. Furthermore, this particular group is all ORGANIC! Compared to other districts, Sam was adamant that the Rushoto district was on top of their game – on top of THE game for that matter!

Recently, we’ve been reading several articles on organic farming, including a collaborative study by UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) and UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) on Organic Agriculture and Food Security in Africa. The study was made public in 2008, and reaffirms findings presented in 2007 that organic farming methods “can result in increased farmer incomes”, “reduc[ing] poverty and improv[ing] food security of farming households.” They are also better for the environment, avoiding complications caused by the long-term use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides and by their benefits to “soil fertility, water supply, flood control, and biodiversity." A study done in Switzerland and published in a 2002 article in Science, found that while on average crop yields were 20% less using organic farming methods as opposed to conventional farming methods (inorganic inputs), the crops “required 56% less energy per unit of yield.” Thus organic farming is less energy intensive, which is useful in the developing world where energy supplies are often limited and erratic. Furthermore, a 2005 study published in BioScience of the Rodale Institute Farming Systems Trial – a trial that compares conventional farming to two forms of organic farming -- found that during “drought years, corn yields in organic systems were 30% higher than those in the conventional system.” Researchers concluded that this was due to “their soils contain[ing] much larger amounts of carbon and organic matter.” They also found an increase in the diversity of creatures, including “ twice the number of earthworms.” Other studies have indicated that crops raised using organic methods also taste better and are better for the body.

With that said, it is good for us to mention here that we are narrowing our focus to organic farming methods. Thus, the mission of the Agro-Livestock Vocational Training Center will be to equip farmers with the best ‘organic’ farming methods and access to markets for organic goods.

While Sam was getting the inside scoop in Morogoro, Brendan and I were back in Korogwe getting literal “scoops” of bright red earth out of two bore holes at the Kwakiliga farm (St John Mzumilo Farm). The samples were sent to the lab on Friday, and we are hoping to get the results this week. These samples will tell us the fertility of the soil (how nutrient rich or deficient the soil is currently), and from there we will plan a phased approached to ready the 41 acres for agricultural cultivation.


Sam returned from Nane Nane on Saturday afternoon, and we immediately packed up and headed to Tanga/Pangani the following morning. We had been discussing the possibility of taking a retreat to Pangani, a coastal town 3 hours southeast from Korogwe, but thought it would take too long to reach until Bishop Baji offered us a ride to Tanga on Sunday morning. The catch: we would have to stay for his sermon. His 4 HOUR sermon in Kiswahili! His stamina is quite phenomenal. Unfortunately for us, our patience is accustomed to 1 hour sermons, so the last 3 hours was a testament to our ability to endure. I’ve been reading a lot of books about climbing mountains and being tortured. One quote that keeps reoccurring is a quote about surviving these feats being less an act of pleasure or strength and more an act of one’s ability to endure pain. I thought a lot about that quote during the last 3 hours of the sermon. (No offense to Bishop Baji. I’m sure it was a great sermon. I just didn’t understand any of it!)

With the sermon endured, and the end reached, we headed to Peponi, 19km north of Pangani. For 1 day and two nights, we relaxed in our very own bungalow/house. Thanks to the Peponi resort being full, we stayed in “Malcolm’s” house (the brother-in-law of the owner’s house). Malcolm, thanks for the being out of town. We enjoyed your place!


A special part of our excursion was a visit to Sand island. See the pictures below.


On Tuesday afternoon, we were back in Korogwe and back to work. We immediately met up with Yakub and were wisked off to the District Council’s Agricultural Extension Office to meet with the head of the department, Dr. Njema. Our meet-and-greet turned into a meet-the-whole-department-in-our-conference-room-and-tell-us-what-you’re-doing-to-help-agriculture-in-Korogwe. In Tanzania, and with Yakub, one always has to be ready for the unexpected. In this case, we were caught a bit off guard. It’s always difficult to enter a room of experts in a field you’re a novice in and tell them what you’re planning to do to save the day. Thus, most of the time we revert to asking them questions about what they think will be most useful for the community. However, those questions inevitably come after we’ve already explained what we’re considering doing, leading their answers to sound astonishingly similar to our thoughts (mainly because they’re not going to offend any potential source of funding that’s coming in to the district). The difference is their answers will always include a part two: “We definitely need more training and the training center would fill a great need, but we’ve also got this irrigation scheme that we’ve been working on for 10 years that we just can’t get enough money to complete. What countries do you represent?” Then we have to carefully explain that we aren’t attached to large sums of money. Usually one or two people will remain in the room after that comment, and generally, they’re the ones we wanted to talk with in the first place.

That night, we watched the sunset in Korogwe. See the picture below.


On Wednesday, we made some final preparations for Sam’s departure meeting with John Mntambo and Father Komba. Notes were passed off, commitments made, and future goals set.

On Thursday, Sam and I left for Dar es Salaam. That night we reached the Ubungo Bus Terminal in Dar, had Eddy our taxi driver from our first visit to Dar pick us up, and headed to dinner. We ate an Indian feast at Alcove, an Indian/Chinese restaurant on the main drag in downtown Dar. Eddy, our driver and good friend, joined us for dinner to celebrate Sam’s last night in the country.


On Friday night, after a full day of perusing the Dar markets, Sam left the sprawling tempest of cars and humans to head back to the states. Some hours later I received an email stating the following: “I’m standing in front of a Scottish bar in Zurich! – sent via Blackberry”. I’m sure it was a rough trip home…

That night, after Sam left, I was invited to crash at Eddy’s apartment for the night. Situated some kms outside of the city center, Eddy’s apartment is lost amid a maze of housing developments reachable only by navigating a myriad of indistinguishable dirt back roads. Looking up at the night sky, realizing that I was alone in a foreign city thousands of miles from home, I wondered about the craziness of such a decision: to stay the night with a young man Sam and I had only known for a few days. But in those few days, Eddy had become a part of our Tanzanian experience. He had become an advocate of our cause – a loyal partner and a generous friend. That night, Eddy opened up his two room house to me, an Mzungo from an ocean away. Set amidst a scattering of apartments and houses, Eddy’s tiny apartment represented his world – a place where a bucket represented his shower, a hole in the ground his toilet, and two chairs his living/dining/family/den room. There is some irony in all of it though, or lunacy if you don’t know Eddy well enough. He did have a plasma tv in his sitting room as well as a giant refrigerator that only contained two bottles of water and took up half of the room with its immense volume. And his bed, oh yah, it’s a king size bed that leaves 1ft on either side for maneuvering. I think only Sam will understand it….


After seeing Sam off and spending the night at Eddy’s I hopped a Scandinavia bus back to Korogwe Saturday morning. On Monday, the work will ramp up with extension officer meetings, surveying, action plan writing, market visiting, and so on. I’ll shoot to get the next update out by Friday. Thanks again for reading.

Take care,
Jesse