Moshi, TZ – Local indigenous knowledge on dealing with extreme Draught in Kahe – Mar 2023

The Global Effect of the weather has been well experienced by the school children of Kahe primary schools on their school feeding program in the Grow Own Breakfast (GOB) fashion. While practicing their best organic farming in their school Banana and Vegetable gardens the Children of Kahe they encountered a huge challenge of higher need of water for irrigation resulted on extreme draught in the area.

Parents and teachers come together on applying local available means on dealing with it by building shades on garden beds and also apply serious mulching by using the banana leaves as to reduce the direct sunlight the plant and soil around them with effect on lowering evaporation rate of water from the soil.

These local techniques have been benefiting the children on continue harvesting their food from their gardens. Also they have been able to shape their gardens into healthy gardens waiting for rains to come whenever soon it is.

Together with above benefits and achievements still the GOB program is experiencing higher cost of irrigation resulted from having not enough storage capacity for reducing rates of water pumping and also the driving around of the solar pump costs has going higher due to more frequency needed for filling up the available tanks, this has also consume more human resources in terms of hours spent on just ensuring enough water is available for the gardens.

We all hoping in future rains will come and also improving the electric pumping life cycles with a more Easy, Effective, Efficient and Enjoyable (4E) designed newly introduced electric pumps which are not mobile to save hours of pumping water and other associated costs.