Moshi, TZ – Maendeleo bean planting underway, students hope to improve from previous season – 27 Jun 2017

Maendeleo Primary School is beginning their second season grow crops at their School Breakfast Farm. They are hoping to improve over last year’s disappointing groundnut harvest. Students planted 2.5 acres of beans with the objective of documenting the expected inputs and outputs per acre of beans. This will enable Tupendane to collaborate with the school to plan for full life cycle sustainability. Beans will eventually be part of the sustainable school breakfast design that provides students with protein, carbohydrates, fats, and vitamins.

In 2016 the school planted groundnuts. The harvest was disappointing but they learned from the experience and made improvements to the design of the farming program. Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) ideas included:

• Process Improvements – Planting during the proper season reduces irrigation costs and crop damage due to heat or flooding.
• People Improvements – Creating the School Breakfast Farm Task Force focused responsibility on a smaller number of interested parties to be accountable in the community and react quickly to issues and opportunities.
• Parts Improvements – Planting common local crops like beans improves the likelihood of success because local knowledge can be applied to solving challenges.

The school expects to harvest in late September, with beans ready for student consumption by the end of the year.