“Hunger Months” Are a Thing of the Past
As the successful Mozambique Garden program winds to a close, families have more food and better nutrition during “hunger months” – the period between when stored food is eaten and the next harvest. Community members testified how much the program has helped them survive – and flourish! – through the off season, and expressed their gratitude to all.
After traditional crops of corn, beans, cassava and peanuts were harvested, no one used to plant anything during the cool, dry months of June, July and August because of lack of rain. People depended on their dwindling stores of grain, and often lost livestock during that period because they couldn’t feed or water them.
But with our support, families now plant and irrigate vegetable gardens on communal plots of land arranged around community wells. They use abundant cattle manure to enrich the sandy soil and increase the nutritive value of the vegetables they grow. Where they used to get by during the off season on one meal a day of a cassava or maize porridge called xima (pronounced “shima”), they can now count on having two or three meals a day during that time. Their cassava or grain stores last longer when they mix their xima with tasty cassava leaves, cabbage, tomato and onion, and their health and energy improves.
A final survey indicates that 85% of families now grow enough to sell some of their crops or produce for income. Almost 83% said they have been able to save money to buy seeds for the next crop season and purchase household staples and needed medicines.
An interesting observation is that, while all participants now fertilize their gardens with manure from the area’s cattle, 78% of them had never used it on their crops prior to receiving instruction. They all said they would continue to fertilize row crops and gardens with manure.
Photo caption: Lush gardens fertilized with the area’s abundant manure
Mozambique Garden Program
Led by World Hope International
16 communities, 1,455 households, 8,730 individuals