Organic Farm
June 21, 2010
The Tiny Tim and Friends Organic Farm had its first big harvest last Saturday and it was a voluntary event. 30 recipients of TTF assistance and everyone at the farm, including Dr. Tim, converged on the field to harvest pigeon peas, planted by Garrett Olsen and financed by donations from Guido Radtke in Germany.
It was a lovely, cool day and work started at 09:00 and ended in the late afternoon as it started to get dark.
Lunch was provided by the Kachele Woman’s Group, who later came into the field to help harvest. Our own Muzu provided the water in the field and a good portion of the entertainment, as well, and Phridae was the photographer.
Pigeon pea is a nutritious bean which comes from the bushes and needs to be harvest every three or four months. These particular bushes continue to produce beans for up to three years, so they were an excellent investment.
It was lovely for so many people to turn up to help. Each was given a set of sheets and some baby clothes which come from UK as small gift for their help. Besides lunch, we also provide $3 transportation allowance per family. The income generated by pigeon pea production doesn’t match the expense of harvesting them, but it is important for our families to feel as though they are giving back and helping out with TTF. And to that end, the day was invaluable. It was also quite a lot of fun.
Dr. Tim
Tiny Tim and Friends Farm
My name is Garrett Olson. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Zambia from 2004-2006 working with subsistence and emergent farmers in the bush of Eastern Province. Part of my experience in Zambia was working on my master’s degree in International Conservation and Development and my thesis was on forestry and agricultural programs aimed at poverty reduction. This is what sparked my interest in tropical agriculture. I currently work seasonally for the United States Forest Service in Montana and met Dr. Tim when he came to Montana to speak on HIV and AIDS in Zambia. Three weeks later I was in Zambia again helping to get the TT&F farm up and running.
The farm is approximately 8 acres and when I arrived in mid-October 2008 all that I found were two hoes and an empty reservoir with a booster pump in dire need of repair. Since then we have cultivated three acres and are currently preparing a fourth. We have planted corn, peanuts, soy beans, cow peas, and sorghum. All of which are prime ingredients in weaning foods for children born to HIV positive mothers thanks to the efforts of the TT&F program. They are also ingredients in chicken feed since we have interests in poultry production here at the farm for added income generation. In addition, we have planted sunhemp and pigeon peas, which are wonderful agroforestry species aimed at improving and maintaining soil fertility.
Renovations to the reservoir and booster pump have been expensive, but they will allow the farm to do dry season farming and gardening. We are currently in the rainy season, but the addition of an irrigation system will allow the farm to plant three times a year versus just one in the rainy season; with proper crop rotation, of course. Although it is expensive now to establish an irrigation system, it offers great potential for income generation year-round especially when demand for corn and vegetables increases in the dry months in Zambia. In addition, we hope to develop the farm in a way to achieve organic status. The markets for organic produce are bountiful and not presently saturated so this would also generate added revenues from the more lucrative organic market.
Simply put, our current goal is to pay off our debts and generate income for the farm and the TT&F organization. As mentioned, starting a farm from very little is a costly enterprise and agriculture can be risky. However, we feel that it is paramount to start a fully functioning farm that would maintain profitability, expansion of uncultivated land on the farm, provide employment and training to TT&F patients, and allow for investment in secondary income generation projects such as poultry and mushroom production. Tantamount to that is to help support and expand TT&F programs especially in these uncertain economic times where donor monies have declined significantly.
Current challenges are completing the irrigation system, maintaining our current crop for harvest, and paying off our loans so that at the end of the rainy season we can have enough profits remaining to reinvest in the farm for dry season vegetable production and supporting the efforts of TT&F programs.
If you are interested in helping the Farm Project with a specific donation earmarked for the farm development, this can be done through the Get Involved tab on this website.
Garrett Chosembezezesa Olson
January, 2009
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The next day
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Childcare on the Farm
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Women from TTF Women’s Group working on farm
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