Palm manual ready for printing

Successful farmers around the world have wonderfully detailed knowledge of farming and the environment that should be the envy of any agricultural scientist. But the view that every semi-subsistence farmer is a peasant agricultural expert is too romantic. Most farmers in the Vanga area would give up farming in the blink of an eye if they could find another job that would feed their family. Most farmers are good enough to survive, but very few have the necessary expert knowledge needed to excel. And not many have a grandmother or aunt or father who is a reliable repository of all the accumulated expertise of the ancestors.

Apply this to family farmers that are interested in starting a small family plantation of oil palms. Most people that harvest palm nuts these days have experience only with wild palms or the old palms of the abandoned Unilever plantations. As far as they are concerned, God planted the palms and takes care of them. Most have given little thought to the conditions that make for a top-producing oil palm tree. They are content with whatever can be collected, unaware that oil palms have so much more potential. Expert knowledge is so scarce as to be non-existent. ACDI organizes a couple of grower’s seminars every year and farmers in the oil palm program benefit from 3 or 4 extension visits a year. But the small-scale grower has no simple reference at hand to guide him or her in the day-to-day management of nursery and plantation.

To rectify that handicap, I have been working on a manual for small-scale oil palm growers. It is 90 pages of basic advice written in relatively simple French with lots of illustrations. It is adapted from an English version developed for oil palm growers in highland areas of east and central Africa. But the extension staff here at Lusekele and I have tried to apply general principles to the more specific conditions of central Congo and highlight the specific experience of small-scale growers in the Vanga area. The manual aims to help farms adopt best sustainable palm growing practices and expand their vision of how productivity of palm oil production in the Kwilu can be improved.

Why French and not Kituba? Choosing a language for extension materials always poses a dilemma. Information in French can be used all across central Africa. ACDI is part of a development partnership that includes Presbyterians in the Kasai (Tshiluba speakers) and Mennonites in southeastern Bandundu (Pende speakers.) The manual could be useful in Lingala- and Kikongo-speaking areas too. By putting it in French right now, we make it possible for people in other regions of Congo to translate and adapt the information to their own conditions. True, Kituba would be a better choice for small-scale growers in the Vanga area. Translating the information into Kituba will be the next step.

ACDI advises and supports over 100 small farmer’s groups who have planted oil palms. Each group represents 5-25 families. Since 2003 we have helped over 700 farm families get started on planting over 825 acres of plantations, most less than an acre. By applying simple growing principles, a farm family can boost annual oil yield from 500 liters per hectare to over 2000 liters per hectare – a 300% increase.

Ed Noyes