To help the poor farmers in the surrounding villages of the Kutu region, we are encouraging maize plantations. You may remember that we brought 500 kg of maize to Mabala 2 years ago. It took a long time for this project to take root, but after we offered the farmers to buy the maize from them, they were encouraged to grow more. Now they even sell the maize to traders who ship it to Kinshasa and sell it there. We hired agronomist Alain, a young, energetic farmer, to oversee this project. We also gave him money to collect the first 5 tons of maize and bring them to the Fimi River. From there it goes via the Kasai River to the Congo River until Kinshasa, where BBK members will sell it and use the income to support the school. All this is still a pioneer effort and we will have to see how it works out.
