Ngara, TZ – School irrigation system enables harvest through the dry season – 14 Nov 2018

This August SODAT completed installing stage 1 of an irrigation system at Mukibogoye Primary School. The system was finished just in time for the dry season. It includes a portable water pump that moves water from a year-round natural spring to an elevated 5,000 liter tank. The tank feeds 4 standpipes that service all of the school’s vegetable gardens.

The irrigation system proved effective and enabled students to continue meeting their harvest target of 50kg per school day. The vegetables are mixed with beans and bananas harvested from the school farm to provide a nutritious meal for students each school day. Better Lives supplements the students’ efforts with porridge, but the school is targeting to be food self-reliant by the end of 2020. School breakfast is known to improve student attendance and performance at school.

Now that the irrigation system is in place and students are meeting their vegetable harvest targets, SODAT is turning its attention to sustaining and improving the breakfast program. They will sustain the program by gathering data about the impact of school breakfast on students’ performance, attendance, and health. This is important data to show with future supporters. They will improve the program by expanding the area used for farming corn and beans. Corn and beans are part of SODAT’s plan to create food self-reliant schools.

SODAT hopes to assist the 3 schools they  currently work with to achieve food self-reliance by the end of 2020. After that, they dream of assisting all 8 schools in Ngara ward to become food self-reliant.