FIGHTING HUNGER THROUGH KITCHEN GARDENS

By Joseph Scott, Communications and Policy Coordinator, CARE South Sudan

It’s Thursday afternoon in ‘Addis Ababa’ village, located a few kilometres from Torit town in South Sudan. Despite the sweltering heat, many farmers from the village can be seen working in their fields.

Rebecca Ayol, 37, is one of the farmers from Addis Ababa village.  She has just returned from her farm where she had gone to harvest tomatoes. Upon reaching home, Rebecca goes straight to check on her four-year-old son who is sleeping. The young boy has been ill for some time.

“He has been suffering from malnutrition,” says Rebecca a mother of four. “However, his condition is improving after I took him to the hospital for treatment.”

Supporting farmers to defeat hunger

Rebecca’s family is one of the many in the village with a child suffering from malnutrition. She didn’t have enough food to feed her family. As a peasant farmer, Rebecca survived by growing millet in the family garden through rain fed agriculture, which meant planting only once a year. However, long dry spells and attacks by pests on her crops lowered her harvest.

But today, Rebecca’s life has changed for the better. She is one of the farmers supported by CARE in Torit, through a Dutch Government funded programme, to improve food security in her home.  The project aims to reach 43,000 farmers with farming tools, seeds for cereals and vegetables, training in modern agricultural practices and small livestock.

“I used to brew beer to sell so that I could get money to buy food so that I can feed my children but it wasn’t working. The ingredients were so expensive and I barely got a profit,” says Rebecca.

She adds, “I was finding it difficult to feed my kids. Luckily, I was selected by the village development committee to be part of the project. This was the happiest day of my life.”

CARE trained Rebecca and other farmers benefiting from the project in modern farming methods at the village’s farmer field school. The farmers were also supported with a starter pack of seeds and farm tools such as hoes and treadle pumps for irrigation, to start kitchen gardens.

“My first harvest was three months ago.  I had lots of tomatoes and eggplants, which I sold to vegetable vendors at the main market,” says Rebecca. “I used some of the money to buy food and kept some to pay school fees for my children.”

Safe from malnutrition

Rebecca is now confident that she now has the skills and means to grow enough food to support her family, “I now have enough food to feed my children,” she says. “I am now following the advice I was given by health staff and will use the same food I am producing to make sure that my children are always healthy.”

With support from CARE, Rebecca has also started planting sesame, which has a high oil content, in her kitchen garden so that her children can have access to food with natural fat. She also sells some for an income.

Life changing experience

“I am currently busy with my second harvest of sesame and tomatoes and it’s better than the last one,” says Rebecca. “I can see a big change in my life. I never used to have food surplus in my house. Now I can produce different crops for food and sell some to get money to buy other basics.”