Mozambique post-floods - Blossoming crops in SVP school!

After the damages caused by the floods in January, the school of SVP - S. Vicente de Paulo, in Chokwé, planted seeds on its farming plot.  

Our Local technician Hilario reports on how the school community came together...

Report on the Farming Plots in S. Vicente de Paulo

Local parents helping to sow seeds

First Phase of Project Implementation

At SVP school we considered this to be a very important project in the future so its implementation had to be sustainable and productive. This is the reason why before distributing the seeds by the families with farming plots we thought it would be best to first launch the pilot project on cultivation since it is very important to have a sound knowledge on production and productivity.

Regarding the way we implemented this first farming plot project in SVP, we had an initial meeting with all the parents and children’s guardians to present the project and request their commitment. Three parents volunteered to be in charge of the farming plot and the other in helping at least once a week (parents are organized in shifts). Up to now we are happy with the parent’s level of commitment and involvement in this project.

Sowing carrots in SVP

It is important to mention that during this first phase we sowed: lettuce, onions, carrots, cucumber, cassava and pumpkin. The lettuce will be ready within two weeks, carrots within two months and onions within three months …

The children help in the farming plot’s light work, but always after school and after using their free time to play and have fun.

Second Phase of Project Implementation

Our local technician in SVP, dedicated Hilario

The second phase involved a research of the most committed parents who need to develop the farming plot project. Our estimate is to support 30 families but, up to now, we only have 13 because, as mentioned in the first part of this report, we chose to carry out a sustainable implementation of the project.

In order to have better control of the help provided to the families we sowed around 300g of onions and 300g (+/- 10.6 ounces) of lettuce. This process is expected to facilitate the calculation of amounts the parents need to transplant to their farming plots, and it is also a way of transferring new types of cultivation (here only the traditional ones are used). For this I asked a friend, who is attending the last year of Agricultural Engineering, to help us and he has been providing good advice.  Now we already started distributing the lettuce and onions by the parents to be transplanted to their farming plots and we provide other seeds according to their needs such as: corn, cabbages and beans.

Mafita's Grandma taking lettuce to transplant to her farming plot

Since we are still in the initial stage of the project’s second phase, we think we will see the results within three months.

"Mano" (little brother) Hilário Langa