Ngara, TZ – Schools prepare corn fields on time – 30 Sep 2021

SODAT collaborated closely with three schools to successfully prepare for planting five acres of land with corn. They worked together to design the planting and then purchased and delivered the necessary agricultural inputs like seeds successfully within budget and on schedule.

This good organization is assisting the primary schools to grow their own breakfast ingredients for students to eat for breakfast. The students are involved so they are gaining farming knowledge and practice opportunities as part of their EK subject. The students’ new farming skills will empower them to assist their community’s improvement.

The schools are facing the challenge of late rains that caused the them to plant the corn three weeks later than planned. Sadly, this schedule change might impact the budget for the breakfast servings because there will be a corn supply gap next year that will need to be filled.

The change will delay the family farm corn harvests, which will reduce how much corn the parents can plan to contribute to the school breakfast between now and when they start to harvest. We pray that the delay will not reduce the size of the harvest when it comes!

The parents are very busy in their fields in October, so SODAT’s manager David is hoping everyone can meet in November to discuss the expected corn supply gap and options for closing it.

One option is to sell banana bunches that the schools grow, and then use the income to purchase beans and corn for breakfast. Bean trading might also help close the gap, because bean prices can be as low as 600 TZS / kg, at harvest time, and then over double after 5 months to as much as 1,300 TZS /kg.