a 48-year-old Rexina Sanga

A 48-year-old Rexina Sanga has been a widow since 2004 when her husband tragically passed away leaving her with a mountainous task of raising their four children alone. With no employment for her in the village, Rexina has been relying on farming to raise her children. Although three of those children now are grown up and have families of their own, Rexina says she knows very well that they were not raised in the way she would have liked. “I did not give them enough and nutritious food, I could not manage to send them to school because I did not have money to pay for their tuition fee, and in the rainy season they could abscond classes to help me in the fields because I could not manage on my own,” she states.

This was the case because farming was unproductive for her and the entire community. For a community where irrigation is unavailable, people have to rely on rain-fed agriculture to grow their crops. With rains falling from December to April, and oftentimes characterized by dry spells and droughts, most people are not able to produce enough to feed their households or earn money. “You would work hard throughout the farming season only to get a handful of a harvest,” she added. She continues, “life was difficult and every year my food would last about five months after harvesting. We were not able to eat three times a day, we usually ate once in a day in the evening.”

Fortunately, there was to be light at the end of the tunnel for Rexina when FOCUS in partnership with Rise Against Hunger (RAH) started implementing the Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience Project in her community in the year 2019. She was chosen as a Lead Farmer by the community, and was tasked with the responsibility of training and organizing nine Follower Farmers under her jurisdiction. “People saw my hard-working spirit in the fields as a single parent and chose me to be a Lead Farmer. When I look back, I am very grateful because my life has changed. I wasn’t able to have food throughout the year, my food usually lasted three to six months after harvest, meaning for another six months I had no food at home, “Rexina recalls. In 2019 Rexina and her colleagues received training on climate smart agriculture technologies, and received maize and soya been seed to plant in their fields. Since then she has been using pit planting and manure for her crops which have brought about a significant change to her household. Before she received the trainings, her highest harvest was about 432 kilograms, she never reached even half a ton. Now the story has drastically changed over the years. This year, she harvested 4, 880 kilograms of white maize from 2.5 acres of land, 640 kilograms of orange maize from 0.25 acres, and 180 kilograms of soya beans. She attributes this bumper harvest to the technologies she learned from the project and the improved seed she also received from the project.

She sold 1, 060 kilograms of maize at K650/kg, fetching about K700,000. With this money she bought 18 iron sheets (valued at K189,000), timber for K120,000, nails for K42,000, and K85, 000 labour costs. She used these to roof her house which hitherto was grass thatched. “For over twenty years it has been impossible to roof my house because I had no means of earning enough money to buy all the required materials. If I couldn’t feed my family adequately, how could have I managed to roof my house? Now my dreams have been accomplished, thanks to this project. The grass roof was always leaking in the rainy season, we had buckets all over the house under holes to contain rain water from interrupting the house. Also, it rots every year and needs replacing, which is very labourious and inconveniencing. But look now, I have iron sheets above my head and the rainy season will not be a nightmare anymore. I will be sleeping peacefully on a full stomach, for now I have a properly roofed house and food that is more than enough for my household,” explains a relieved Rexina, affording a grin on her face.