Graduating with a Bachelor’s, baby

Tabo and her daughter on the graduation day

Tabo while pregnant

DOREEN NAWA, Lusaka
GETTING pregnant on university campus was not part of 24-year-old Tabo Masinda’s plan, and it certainly came with its own challenges.
Tabo hoped to finish her undergraduate education and start a family after working for a couple of years and travelling.
But everything changed in February 2016 when she discovered that she was pregnant while pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mass Communications at the University of Zambia in Lusaka.
“You need to abort, because I am not ready to be a father,” was the response she got from her boyfriend, the man responsible for her pregnancy.
But Tabo could have none of that talk.
The suggestion to abort and the refusal by her boyfriend to take up responsibility of the pregnancy depressed Tabo.
She knew at that moment that she was carrying a child, her child and that it deserved life, but the words from her boyfriend became clearer as she woke from her daze of confusion.
But deep down her heart, she told herself never to abort despite the challenges that child bearing would come with.
Tabo lived her words.
For a moment she considered it. It seemed like an abortion would solve her issues for just a moment. But then she remembered that abortion comes with its own challenges.
For Tabo, going the abortion way was putting her life and that of her baby at risk.
She remembers encouraging several other young women that came to her with fear after facing an unplanned pregnancy and she told them they were strong.
“I told them they could continue their education, and that they had support to be a successful parent. I realised I lacked the same hope for myself that I had for these women. I, too, could be strong. I, too, could continue my education, and had the same support to be a successful parent,” she says.
“No, I’m keeping my baby,” she told herself.
It was hard to be pregnant and continue her education.
She faced discrimination on campus, which made her doubt her ability to excel in school, and her young age brought insecurities of her ability to be a good mother but she gathered the courage.
Despite her doubts, she also had a wealth of support on campus; some of her friends were great pillars when she faced discrimination.
Another worry for Tabo was the disappointment she caused to her parents.
Yes, Tabo knew it was wrong and the thought of disappointing her parents after all the trust they had in her was unbearable.
To the contrary, her parents offered a great support system to her during this time.
“My parents, too, called every day to check up on me just to make sure I was doing fine, they encouraged me to focus on my studies, take care of myself for me and the baby’s sake. This was the greatest of them all,” Tabo says.
In all this, Tabo promised herself to focus on what was important and get rid of the negative thoughts.
She studied even harder, ate healthy, and prayed the more.
In no time, she was almost half way her pregnancy journey, and when it was examination time around September 2016, she sat for her second year examinations, did her media practice attachments while almost due. And she made it to third year.
In November 2016, she gave birth to a baby girl, Tumelo.
The struggles grew after she had Tumelo, as did the support she received and the strength she acquired.
In the midst of what seemed like accomplishments, she faced hardships along the way, but she realised that each trial made her a stronger and a more empowered individual.
Tabo had to figure out how to juggle school and a family life, while overcoming the refusal by her boyfriend to take up responsibility of the pregnancy.
As a new mother and a student, a lot of adjustments had to be made; she exited campus boarding facilities and had to rent an apartment with her baby in Kalingalinga Township.
She engaged a live-in maid to take care of her baby while she was in school.
It was tiring, she missed some classes but one promise she made to herself was never to let any of her children lack anything.
Before going for classes, she would prepare milk for her daughter.
Her parents assisted her in paying for the rentals and whatever monies remained from her bursary allowance, she channelled towards her upkeep.
Despite missing classes, Tabo made it to fourth year.
Many times she built castles in the air of how she would want to spoil her little girl, give her the best of life, take her to the best school, drive her to school and not walk by foot like she is doing.
Then she realised all this would only happen if she worked hard and focus on her school.
And because of this self-encouragement, Tabo graduated with a merit on March 5, 2019.
She says her story is in no way an encouragement for girls to have babies before the right time.
“The saying ‘you can’t serve two masters’ is so accurate. It was really hard for me but to those who are already in a similar predicament, know that pregnancy should never be the reason to postpone your career. Never get distracted,” Tabo says. PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON MARCH 17, 2019

Need to reshape banana production in Nyimba district

Amon Daka packing bananas for sale beyond Nyimba

A Banana plantation in Nyimba-PICTURES BY DOREEN NAWA

DOREEN NAWA, Nyimba
FOR smallholders in Nyimba district in Eastern Province, low yields and decreased incomes in their banana farming activities are part of their daily complaints.
Amon Daka, a 40-year-old smallholder who lives in the remote Chamilala village, east of Nyimba district, says his agricultural productivity has been a mixture of hope and despair as he always records miserable yields.
In cases where the yield is impressive, post-harvest losses will always bring his expected income down.
For Mr Daka and other smallholder banana farmers in Nyimba, the major problem has been access to the market in terms of transport and stiff competition, storage facilities and change in weather pattern that has contributed to a drop in yields each year.
Another major problem is the lack of adequate information on best farming practices such as when and how to plant the bananas, which has also led to a decrease in productivity, less income from their produce, contributing to low living standards in the area.
“I have been in banana production for over 20 years now. Before then, the business was lucrative because there was no much competition. We had few people that were involved in the banana production, giving the few of us enough room to market our produce,” Mr Daka says.
Mr Daka says the struggles in the banana production in Nyimba are discouraging not only to seasonal farmers but young farmers that want to venture into the production.
“Youngsters endure probably the most from these losses. They do not have the patience to wait like we do. I think something needs to be done to cushion what we are faced with and give life to banana farming here in Nyimba,” Mr Daka says.
The story is not different for 44-year-old Esther Tembo, who says banana farming has been unproductive for her.
“I always lack money to transport my produce to places beyond Nyimba, I have tried in these years to cultivate more by clearing land and planting new banana suckers but the weather has not been good for my farming activities,” she says.
Ms Tembo has an enormous smile when she just harvests her bananas on her small rural farm 45 kilometres north of Nyimba district.
However, the smile shortly turns to a glare when the topic turns to marketing her fruit.
Like most farmers in Nyimba, Mrs Tembo sells her crops by means of native brokers, who purchase instantly from farmers and then transport the produce to major markets in Lusaka.
Brokers are extensively disliked by growers, Mrs Tembo says, due to their unreliability and pay a pittance for their crops.
Nevertheless, farmers have little option but to sell to them.
They lack storage facilities to maintain their perishable crops.
“The brokers are not good,” Mrs Tembo says, recalling how much profit she would have made if she had a reliable place to sell her produce.
And once the brokers get to banana farmers in Nyimba, they paid only K2 to K4 per kilogram, a far cry from the K1 per fruit bananas have been fetching in Lusaka.
She says her year-end seasonal sales were disastrous. She only sold one-quarter of the bananas she grew, the remaining have been left to rot behind her house.
“Even the local market here is not different, we sell to travellers and the competition is stiff. It would have been better if we had maybe an industry to process and add value to the bananas, like drying them,” Mrs Tembo says.
According to statistics at Nyimba District Farmers Association, Nyimba has over 1,000 women farmers that are involved in banana production in small plantations in the area.
Yet, regardless of these statistics, little has been achieved to curb post-harvest food losses and lack of access to reliable markets in Nyimba in many years.
With better market, better storage value addition and technology, rural farmers could have a chance to develop high-profit products and transform their livelihoods.
Nyimba District Commissioner Peter Kaisa says bananas in Nyimba have high potential and the production can effectively contribute to economic growth in the country as well as alleviate poverty among the people of Nyimba.For Colonel Kaisa, value addition to bananas is the best way of reshaping production.
He says the district is seeking ways and avenues of how local farmers could get to process the bananas into various products and retail them.
“We have a lot of bananas that go to waste due to lack of post-harvest storage facilities. On our own, we cannot manage, we need people to assist us invest in appropriate technology that will ease value addition,”
Col Kaisa says substantial amounts of bananas are thrown away particularly during the peak harvesting season and even higher volumes incur some degree of quality deterioration leading to lower selling price.
Considering that bananas are perishable foods, Col Kaisa says farmers lose a lot especially when they are not sold on time.
“With all these challenges, we need partners that can commercialise the production of bananas in Nyimba,” Col Kaisa says.
Col Kaisa says the role of the smallholder producer is extremely important especially in Zambia in terms of creating jobs, but in order to succeed, agriculture has to be transformed.
He says what is needed is innovation and inclusion of technology into agriculture so that smallholders can see high yields and also improve their incomes, livelihoods and the economy.
Col Kaisa says public-private sector partnership is essential to improve access to markets and value addition technologies for smallholder farmers.
“The public and private sectors must work together to help us reshape the banana production here. With technology, a lot can be achieved in terms of mitigating the daily struggles that our smallholder farmers go through in producing bananas,” Col Kaisa says.
Col Kaisa says leveraging on increased investment by the private sector in sourcing from farmers responsibly provides an opportunity to integrate post-harvest losses interventions to demonstrate the business case and value proposition to catalyse system change.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, post-harvest losses is a serious problem in Africa.
The fruit and vegetable losses are estimated to be 50 percent or more.
This estimate is cumulative because losses occur at every stage of the supply chain from production to consumption.
Losses on farm level can be attributed to poor harvest practices and poor handling, and lack of timely access to the market. PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON MAY 5, 2019. LINK: http://www.daily-mail.co.zm/need-to-reshape-banana-production-in-nyimba-district/

Nyimba cattle herders treck for water

DOREEN NAWA, Nyimba
CHANGING weather patterns are having a dramatic effect on the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Nyimba district.
As an outsider, it’s easy to hear about lack of water for livestock.
It’s not the usual shortage experienced during the hot season in the months of September to November, shortly before the onset of the rains.
This year the shortage has come early.
According to the local people in Nyimba district, this is the worst crisis they are experiencing after three decades.
Since January this year, it has been hot and windy on most days in Chamwase village, about 50 kilometres north of Nyimba.
Personal stories about the drought by herders in Nyimba give one a picture on the importance of water.
The drought has affected people in the Chamilala, Chamwase, Machinkha, Kachele and Mvuwa area in Nyimba district.
In Chamwase village, dusty leaves swirl around Mabvuto Zulu, 40, and his colleagues as they sit under a fig tree.
The cattle herders are taking their cows to Lukusuzi River in search of water.
After a rest, they resume their trek with their animals to the river, a walk of more than 10 kilometres.
The Lukusuzi River is now the only communal source of water in this lowland area.
Mr Zulu says he is in talks with his family and may soon opt to migrate with the animals because the distance they cover is long.
He says the longer dry season and erratic rains are putting them under pressure.
At the same time, agriculture is expanding and increasing the demand for water for crops and livestock.
Mr Zulu blames the scarcity of water on climate change.
He says, “About six years ago, there was plenty of pasture and water in this area. But now seasons have become unpredictable, and this is disrupting how we feed our animals.’’
There is competition for water.
Other herders depend on boreholes for their livestock, but these are not enough.
Residents depend on the same source of water as well.
But not all herders are migrating. Ezekiel Chirwa, 39, commonly referred to as Zekia by his fellow herders, says migrating has been a challenge for him.
As they herd animals, the team usually has conversations around finding a solution to their water challenges.
“It looks like the changing weather patterns are here to stay. So as men, when we are in the bush, we usually strategise on what next because these walks are too much, they eat on our time with family back home,” Mr Chirwa says.
They want to have water in the vicinity.
He says, “I suggested the idea of digging water reservoirs in this area to trap water during rainy seasons to be used in dry spells to save our animals. And the idea was accepted.’’
One challenge is that these herders do not have resources to dig enough water points for their animals.
But the herders agreed to take turns digging the water points based on the number they chose.
“We will utilise the areas around our gardens especially during rainy season to dig water points and trap the water.”
According to Mr Chirwa, all the cattle herders in his village depend on Lukusuzi River for water for their animals.
He says water is an essential requirement for livestock business and has a significant impact on its welfare, productivity and profitability.
The dream of every cattle herder in the area is to have the water they need to sustain their cattle throughout the year.
“We know the levels of risk associated with water supply unreliability for both livestock and crops. We do not want to starve to death because animals are our lives,” Mr Chirwa says.
During the rainy season, Mr Chirwa says the water points are areas around their gardens which are usually water-logged, but now that the rains were not enough, their hope for the water points around their gardens has dried up.
“Here, the saying that ‘Water is life’ really means that if we are able to conserve even a little drop of water that we have, it goes a long way to securing the future for our families and livestock,” Mr Chirwa says.
Naison Sakala is a local livestock farmer in the same area.
He is optimistic the water shortage will end with the digging of water points.
He says many pastoralists lose up to five cows or more in the dry season.
“I had 86 cattle. I expected more by this February because the cows have calved. But to my dismay, the number is falling. I hope we shall not continue to lose animals to drought when the water points are finished,’’ Mr Sakala says.
Mr Sakala says the nearest water points are dry.
He says because of the daily graze by livestock, the landscape in the area has changed dramatically.
“As you approach small villages, there is nothing alive for as far as the eye can see. The little grass that is usually alive during this time of the year is gone, the water points are also dry. We only have the river now as the water source,” Mr Sakala says.
Mr Sakala moves with his son, James.
James is 10 years old, and he is smiling.
He is travelling with his father and other herders from their village.
The water crisis has forced James to abscond from school in an attempt to find water for home and for the family’s cattle.
Eastern Province is home to most of the country’s livestock.
According to the 2017 Livestock and Aquaculture Census, the province has 698,455 cattle. PUBLISHED ON MAY 5, 2019 IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL. LINK: http://www.daily-mail.co.zm/nyimba-cattle-herders-treck-for-water/