Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Oil palm grower's manual just off the press

Grower's manual in simple French designed to help Congolese small-scale producers develop sustainable, productive family plantations.

Since 2002 ACDI Lusekele, the Baptist Convention of Congo's agricultural extension program in the central Kwilu River area, has aggressively promoted high-yielding oil palm varieties to replace worn-out family plantations or diversify traditional shifting cultivation. A family cultivating as little as eight-tenths of an acre could boost family annual income by $200, enough to cover most (if not all) health and education expenses for a typical family. A small-scale plantation can also improve stewardship of the family's land by encouraging permanent coverage of the soil, use of nitrogen-fixing legumes and maximum recycling of nutrients used by the palms. Over 1100 farm families now participate in the program.

Improving family income and ensuring good stewardship of the land both depend on growing oil palms wisely using the accumulated experience of generations of growers and researchers. But what happens when the generation of pro-active peasant palm growers, the bearers of that accumulated wisdom, disappear without teaching the next generation? A whole new generation must scramble to gather together that body of knowledge that makes growing successful. ACDI Lusekele has tried to help farmers get up to speed in two ways: convene an annual oil palm workshop for representatives of all our cooperating associations and make sure that an extension specialist visits every association 4 - 6 times per year to debrief and troubleshoot problems in nurseries or plantations.

Now we have another tool in the arsenal: a simple oil palm grower's manual. Based on ASD / FAO's Smallholder Oil Palm Manual (published on-line and only in English in 2004), the manual has been adapted to the particular needs of small-scale Congolese growers with very limited cash resources. The adaptation is translated into French. It includes extensive diagrams, pictures (most in color) and informative tables to illustrate the key practices for managing a successful smallholding.

ACDI Lusekele has been using a home printed rough draft for a year now. The new commercial printing is done by Lulu Press, Inc. The result is attractive and reasonably durable, an important factor when book storage conditions are not always good. This will be the kind of resource that helps our small growers one more step toward independence and responsible stewardship of what God has given them.

Copies of the manual can be purchased directly from Lulu Press (click here) at $23.99. (A download copy is available for $3.99.) If your church, Sunday school class or small group would like to help make this manual available to small-scale Congolese palm growers through a revolving publishing fund, your tax-deductible donation can be made to:

International Ministries ABCUSA
Mission Finance
Box 851
Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851
donation code: Specifics Project "BIM-CG-002011 - Palm Project - Niles"

Friday, February 5, 2010

Kimobo Denny -- striving for God's good gifts

Kimobo Denny, in the center, with her daughter and son-in-law.

The mud and thatch houses of Kimbata sprawl for nearly a mile along a dirt road a bit south of Djuma. A dense forest of huge trees once surrounded the village, but that was long ago. Now one is more likely to see brushland, scrubby forest regrowth that follows two years of traditional cropping. On the poorest soils only grass will grow. Farming conditions have become more difficult as each new generation adds its numbers to the village.

In 2002, crop disease was laying its imprint on top of the normal hardships of semi-subsistence farming. Cassava mosaic virus sabotages the plant’s mechanism for trapping sunlight and turning it into food energy. Cassava yields weakened. And suddenly many families who were scraping by before found themselves wondering if they would have anything to eat during the lean months before the next harvest. When our agricultural extension team organized a farmer’s forum that year, people put the cassava disease problem as their number one priority.

Have you ever recognized a problem, had God present you with a way to new life through it, but finally held back because you were afraid to risk change? After that first forum in 2002, most families in Kimbata were in that boat. What would the ancestors think if the current generation abandoned those cassava varieties that had served them well for decades or even generations? Wondering about the answer was a scary thing for most people. A few women bought disease resistant cassava cuttings from other (less hesitant) villages, but most did not. Until Kimobo Denny stepped out on faith that God had something good for them in these new varieties.


Kimobo is not a very likely looking champion of technological innovation. She is modest, with a shy smile. But she was the one who invited the ACDI extension team to Kimbata to help the church women establish a demonstration / multiplication field of new disease-resistant cassava. The women would try it together, just to see if the claims were true. No one would be demonized for breaking faith with tradition and no one would have to risk it all to try the new varieties. They would share the risk.

I’ve said it many times: these new cassava varieties are God’s provision in people’s time of need. Over seven years we have seen them produce 3 to 4 times what traditional varieties do. A few farmers have harvested 5 to 7 times what most Bandundu farmers take from their fields. Kimobo Denny and the women of the Baptist church in Kimbata found that they could trust God for His provision.

ACDI extension specialist, Philippe Kikobo, speaking to Kimbata church members and their neighbors in 2008.

In 2010, there are still some people in Kimbata who fear the wrath of traditional spirits more than they fear the food shortages created by virus-riddled cassava. But a large number of families in Kimbata have discovered that God gives good gifts, that He is our help in time of need, that He can be trusted to protect us when we walk with Him. Kimobo Denny has been sharing this good news and her manioc cuttings with people in surrounding villages. The fruit of her faith and courage is seen not only in Kimbata, but in Mukilu Lubasu, Kitaba, Mulari and Kilongo. Hundreds of families are no longer pressed against a wall by hunger because of this Christian woman who knew that God had something good for her neighbors. The ACDI Lusekele team was just able to give encouragement and guidance at the proper time.

Another family in the middle of their disease-free manioc field.


Sacking up the peanut surplus in early 2008. Manioc successes gave people the confidence to try new peanut varieties too.