When Life Hands You Lemons … Plant Cowpeas!
Growing cowpeas, a nitrogen-fixing legume, is helping Lyya achieve a few important goals: improve soil quality, bring in some income during the time of year when no other money is coming in, and pay for her daughter’s schooling.
Lyya’s dream had been to pursue higher education after her high-school graduation, but when her family’s financial downturn meant they couldn’t pay for her to go to university, she got married instead. Now with three young children, she spends her time looking after her children and household and taking care of her family’s farm.
Her little farm is pretty typical in the community, two-and-a-half steep acres of rice for home consumption, with plots of cassava and cashews for sale. The soil had not been enriched with fertilizers or protected from erosion by terracing or other means. So, after many years of use, soil quality was deteriorating and yields declining.
Starting with 9 lbs. of seed provided by World Hope International, Lyya was able to harvest 110 lbs. of beans after her first planting. She sold 65 lbs. and kept 45 to replant next year. The plants fix nitrogen in the soil while they are growing and when the seedpods are emptied, they can be returned to the field to add organic matter, further improving the land.
The income from the sale of the beans comes at an important time in the rainy season when there is no other income from the farm. She’s used the money to buy food and staples and to pay her daughter’s school fees. Lyya longs to give her daughter more opportunities in education than she herself had. Growing cowpeas will help make that happen.
Cambodia Mondulkiri Program
Led by World Hope International