William Tom and myself (James Davy), went on our monitoring and evaluation trip from Friday 29th January to Friday 5th February. We covered all the areas in our jurisdiction (being Harare and surrounding areas) but did not manage to see every Trainer of Trainers (TOT) because we were a bit strapped for time, we did see most of them though. There are 28 TOT’s in the Harare OTC training area.
The trip on the whole was encouraging, although we could not discount a few discouraging aspects. Most of the TOT’s had made a good effort towards implementing Foundations For Farming into their churches, trainers, farmer groups and communities. Most of the TOT’s stated that they had held trainings in their respective areas and had been doing follow-ups. Some were notable in their hope and perseverance. An example was in Muzarabani where Pastor Mhike was continuing to train his guys even though their rainfall had been very bad and most of the crop had died out. He expressed great confidence in the coming season and was still excited to keep trying.
High Points:
• At least one church has been planted as a result of the teachings of Foundations for Farming through OTC. One of the churches planted in December has already got 70 members. That was a church planted by Pastor Jongwe.
• Some TOT’s have done the farming at a very high standard and have taught this equally well to their trainers. Two good examples are Pastor Chiripanyanga in Mudzi, Mutoko and Pastor Kandulu in Madziva. Ps Chiripanyanga has one notable trainer who had really excellent standards in her crop and she had very good mulching. It was so good that their crops were still alive and growing even though they had not received rain for nearly three months! They also support 360 orphans. Ps Kandulu had gone the extra mile in his plot. He had brilliant standards, he had demarcated and separated the different crops (maize, round nuts, ground nuts and beans). His maize was partially mulched but he was in the processing of adding mulch when we got there. He had also planted a variety of fruit trees and was tending them well. They also appeared to be actively blessing the surrounding community. On top of this they had partially worked on a farm plan.
• Frank Kumire of Bindura had done a very good compost heap.
• Almost all of the TOT’s we visited had good standards in their fields.
• Almost all of the TOT’s had an encouraging attitude toward what they were doing. They appeared to be excited and though some of them had failed they were still keen to continue and learn from their mistakes.
Low Points:
• Most TOT’s visited had a distinct lack of mulch and therefore, in the lower rainfall areas, their crops had either suffered or failed.
• The weeding in most areas was not done very well and could be sorted out with the mulching.
• Some areas were not done at a very high standard and trainers had not caught the vision and thus had not done a good job.
• Some areas had just simply not received the rainfall they needed for the maize, but possibly they learnt the importance of some aspects such as mulching etc Muzarabani had officially been declared a disaster area in terms of crop production.
• Most of the areas had not done compost although a couple of areas had started to collect materials.
• One area (Norton) was odd in that they had received too much rain and their crops had become waterlogged and some was dying as a result. They also had not used mulch.
• Aphids seemed to have been a problem in many areas but appeared to have not had a huge impact on the crop.
Written by James Davy
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