Ngara, TZ – Kabalenzi Primary School starts another year of bean farming – 15 Jan 2021

SODAT is assisting the students to prepare their bean field at Kabalenzi Primary school. It is their third year growing, and they are excited about implementing improvement ideas from last year.

They hope to see a bountiful harvest because they are expecting lighter rain than last year, when heavy rains negatively impacted bean development. They are planting earlier this year in the hope that the expected rains will provide the right amount of water when the plants flower and start to develop bean pods,

The school is targeting for a larger harvest this year so that the students can feed themselves from their own production, and rely less on bean contributions from parents. This will be good for their families because while many households produce more beans than they can eat, they need to sell their surplus to generate important income. The bean price tends to be higher than the maize price, so parents will normally want to sell their beans rather than contribute them to the school.

Only a limited amount of land is available for cultivation, so the school normally needs parent bean contributions if they are to feed their students all year round. Therefore SODAT is looking for ways to assist the parents to improve their income, so that they will be more able to contribute beans for their children’s breakfast when needed.