Agriculture
Agriculture
With the sustainability of the school project in mind, ADH as undertaken an agricultural project. Income from the agriculture should contribute long-term to finance the school operations. Currently domestic agricultural products are grown on a total area of 10 hectares and are sold at local markets. This helps the food-poor region and creates new jobs. The agricultural project also provides opportunities to involve the local community with the school project and teaches them to take personal responsibility for the school in Mushapo. The professional cultivation can also serve in the future for practical training.
Dec
2013
Manioc is soon ripe
The manioc on our own land is growing well and can soon be harvested. We will increase the cultivation of manioc to another four hectares of land, hoping to generate more income for the school.
Oct
2013
Clearing the fields and increase in our animal population
The pineapple and manioc plants, which we took over from SADR are doing well. But we urgently need to weed the fields. Both fields should be ready to be harvested by the turn of the year. The animal husbandry is successful. One of the sheep bears a lamb and soon after, the second ewe bears two lambs, which brings our animal population to a total of 3 sheep and 3 lambs – a 100 percent increase within the last two months.
Sep
2013
Stealing - a great challenge
Stealing is a big problem for our farming project. Great parts of our harvest were stolen and we have now the same problem, which caused the agricultural company SADR to finally close their site in Mushapo. A friend from Kinshasa, Prof. Mpona who speaks the local language, Tshiluba, is helping us to solve this problem by giving stern talks to the inhabitants of Mushapo. He tries to impart that stealing from the fields means stealing from the school - in the end from their own children.
Feb
2013
We are selling pineapples
We had taken over the pineapple plantation from the former SADR farm. We harvested the ripe pineapples and sold them in different markets. To transport the fruit, we used the typical bush transporter – a loaded bicycle. But because of the narrow profit margin, it is no longer cost-effective to continue to cultivate pineapples. So we concentrate on manioc, which is slower to grow, but easier to market.
Jan
2013
We acquire an electric generator
For the need of electrical power during occasional power outages, we installed a donated generator in our Camp in Mushapo. The generator was transported by truck from Kinshasa, and had been loaded sideways to avoid it rolling around during the transport. This resulted in the battery leaking onto the generator and upon arrival it had to be completely taken apart by the `Denys` Team, each piece had to be cleaned and then assembled. Now it works just fine and is a huge benefit to our project.
Dec
2012
The focus is on cultivating manioc
The old five-hectare manioc fields are being inspected, since they had been neglected for some time. We constantly have to test the quality of plants and soil as the weeds, especially the elephant grass, grow fast and can easily destroy the harvest. The fields were found suitable and the soil is being prepared. We will concentrate on cultivating manioc, since it is a favourite staple in this country and both roots and leaves are edible.
Nov
2012
We begin the farming project
We start using the seven-hectare of land from SADR to plant new manioc, corn, beans and peanuts. Our own land which is still wilderness, will eventually be cleared so we can plant there as well. We bought some Acacia plants for the boundaries of our property. A friend gave us some moringa, jackfruit and breadfruit tree seedlings. Cassava and pineapples are already planted and are prospering!
Oct
2012
Growing vegetable and breeding animals
We had to find a better way to provide the ADH Team with food, so that we don`t need to bring a big supply. Therefore, we brought seeds from Europe to plant our own vegetables. To begin with, we tried onions, tomatoes, carrots, eggplant and salad. We already tried to cultivate beans, but need better ground for that. SADR also gave us three sheep and we are starting to breed our first chickens.
