By Gregoire Mutshail & Jacques Kayombo | Project Leader & Project Agronomist
Progress report on GLOBAL GIVING funds.
In this month of September 2023, we would like to thank the donors of our project Professionalize and empower 180 Congolese families and wish them all the best for 2023.
2023 is a year in which the DR Congo has experienced several natural disasters, especially in the east of the country. Please allow us to continue passing on the words of thanks from the hearts of the beneficiaries.
We are helping to bring food security to every household in eastern DR Congo with little financial means with the vegetable garden bags.
Famine is becoming endemic in DR Congo because of the war. But together, we can put an end to it and bring hope. We are passing on to future generations the new techniques for producing the fruit and vegetables needed to ensure food security.
Support for the accelerated production of fruit and vegetables for more than 2,500 manages with USD1,200 received from GlobalGiving, i.e. a cost of around USD0.48 per vegetable garden bag, helping the population to combat famine and poverty, especially among families displaced by internal wars.
The NGO Coordination Technique pour le Développement (CTD) has launched the short-cycle sack vegetable garden project to try to reach several vulnerable people at once, despite the fact that we are short of funds. Leafy vegetables are produced more in this dry season, when vegetables grow better in the Mwenda valley, and the 180 beneficiaries, including 115 women and 65 young people, produce more Okra, head cabbage, Chinese cabbage and amaranth.
Our biggest weakness is the lack of funds received in 2023.
We are attaching photos of training courses on the production of bag gardens produced in the east of the DRC in North and South Kivu.
DESCRIPTION OF THE TRAINING MODULES
Micro-gardening training can be divided into five (5) modules. Objectives have been defined for each module. The intervention strategies may vary depending on the number of beneficiaries of the training, the specific nature of the target, the safety context and the desired goal (age, gender, level of education, etc.).
The objectives can be presented as follows:
Module 1
Objective 1
Through a fairly exhaustive presentation of micro-gardening systems, to enable the trainees to measure the importance of this habitat culture in their lives and to understand the constraints associated with this cultivation practice.
Presentation of the micro-project
Technique for setting up a nursery
Technique for preparing growing systems in bags, tyres, jars, etc. (group exercise),
Objective 2.
Acquire on the first day the basics of setting up a nursery on soil or substrate.
Objective 3.
Acquire theoretical and practical knowledge of how to set up a micro-gardening system in a group exercise.
Module 2
Objective 4
To be able to build a micro-gardening system individually.
Objective 5
Know how to choose and prepare a solid substrate (washing and mixing the components).
Types of substrate and preparation of solid substrate (washing rice husks, groundnut hulls, compost, sludge and cleaning laterite, etc.).
Theory of solid substrates and choice of solid substrates to use.
Module 3
Objective 6
Be able to transplant on solid substrate
Be able to carry out direct seeding on solid substrate.
Be familiar with solid substrate maintenance techniques.
Know how to make field tools.
Objective 7.
Be able to transplant on solid substrate and especially on all sides of the bag.
Objective 8.
Be able to carry out direct seeding on solid substrate.
Know how to prepare micro-gardening growing systems (holes in bags, bottles, cutting tyres, etc.).
Theoretical knowledge of fertilisation on solid substrates.
Objective 9
Learn maintenance techniques for solid substrates.
Module iv
Objective 10
Know how to prepare a growing tray on a liquid substrate (fill the tray with water, cut and perforate the polystyrene).
Objective 11
Theoretical knowledge of fertilisation (feeding) on solid and liquid substrates.
Module v
Objective 12
Know how to make support tools and define protection methods against the various threats to the micro-garden.
Objective 13
To be able to define protection measures against the various threats to the micro-garden.
Objective 14.
To be able to put into theory and practice the various lessons learned from the five (5) modules.
The objectives listed above may be modified depending on the time available.
To the training, which may vary according to the constraints encountered by the trainers. These constraints may be linked to a lack of equipment or training materials. If this is the case, trainers are obliged to eliminate some practical lessons.
Organisational tasks
These basically consist of scheduling the training sessions, organising the beneficiaries into teams and arranging the space on the work floor.
Assessing the trainers.
The programme
As an indication, the programme can be established as follows:
Start time: 9 a.m.
Break: 4 pm
Break: 1 - 2 pm
Length of course: four (4) days, Monday to Friday
Learn all the subtleties of container growing so you can get the most out of it.
LESSONS
1) Why grow in containers
2) Container and pot crop planning
3) Types of container
4) Growing substrates
5) Maintenance and irrigation
6) Choosing substrates
7) Choice of crops
8) Fertilisation and protection
9) Crop maintenance
10) Harvesting
11) End of season
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