I think it will be interesting to see not only if they provide training in their premises but also if they can come to the community.

R

Dear all,

Just to inform you that I still did not get any information whether Guillaume visited FONDAMU as planned and if yes how it was, since he's sick.

Hope he'll get well soon, he believes he'll be able to give us the info maybe already tomorrow or so.

I wish you all a nice day.
Sonja

Let's send some warm thoughts to Guillaume.

Get well soon mon ami!

Prends soin de toi!!

Raul

Dear all,

Guillaume has recovered and I heard from him about the visit. He visited FONDAMU on Sunday and this is the summary of the talk:

- The general impression is that they are focusing on providing microfinance for their beneficiaries (they work in the larger area of Ngweshe). They sent some proposals and have been waiting to receive funds.

- They have no much expertize with the animals and training. They distribute cows and the offspring is to be given to another family; they have a vet who provides the family with some info about taking care of the cows.

- They provide some training about sustainable agriculture - soil protection, cassava multiplication, fighting with some cassava desease etc.

- They said that Guillaume should contact their management in Kinshasa to ask about partnership. Since Guillaume travels on Monday, 28, he'll take the opportunity to visit them and to talk about partnership.

- We're going to provide him with a letter that he will present, saying that Nabuur is supporting the project of Walungu.

Guys, I'd like to hear your thoughts, comments and ideas about this.

Take care,
Sonja

Goodmorning all,
Yesterday I received a friendly call from Heifer Netherlands. As you know Heifer International has already helped, since 1944, 14 million people in 128 countries with Revolving Livestock Funds. The woman I talked to,made some important remarks about our project:
1. she wondered if goats were the right animnals to start with. Goats need good food, their milk has to be properly cooled.
2. if we insist on goats, she underlined, then buy local goats. They fit better to the local circumstances and have a greater immunity system
3. considering the very low income of the people of Walungu, she suggested that we should start with chicken:
20 chicken and 2 roosters for each family. Chicken are easier to buy, feed and breed than goats
4. wether you buy goats or chicken, it is very important that the local group first builts a stable and makes sure that it is well equipped. And then, after three months you buy the animals. In this way you can experience which people are really motivated to participate, or just want to take profit
5. she is sure that there are sufficient local experts in every field of knowledge. Let us try to find them
6. Heifer projects show that the average project takes at least three years to be succesful and most cooperatives make profit after five years.
I hope this information helps.
Nico

The main ingredient not included in all this discussion is the thoughts of the villagers. Some will want chickens, some will want meat goats, some will want milk goats and some will want cattle. Some will want the neighbors to give them their eggs, milk and meat.

Some may not know what they want if they have no or little experience with them. I had assumed that most already have chickens.

If any are interested in poultry, the very best choice is Muscovy ducks. They need no housing and only a little feed. They are not a real duck. No wild animal can catch them. They return home every night to roost in a tree. They are in every country I have been in. They lay about 50 eggs per year but the cost is almost nothing.

Hello everyone,

It's great that we have an input from the people from Heifer.

The villagers have some chicken and ducks. However, they are forbiden for women (a matter of culture), and they also have some calvies (guinea pigs) but they are eaten only by very small children.

So the dairy goats seem to be a good choice, as a daily source of protein for the families.

Tha plan for now is to buy 1 or 2 dairy goats that could be found in the neighbourhood and to crossbreed them with the goats available in Walungu. So they should be capable enough to fit the environment.

I believe we are on a good track so far, and this trial (or demo) farm should be an excellent tool to see who is motivated and involved and if this is a right thing to proceed with, since the input from the villagers is crucial. After having tried this, they will know exaclty what they want, and they will be able to see what their capabilities are and what skills they miss.

I believe in the success of this project.

I think we should focus now on defining the proper shelter for the goats, and on serching for the goat keeping training.
Also I think we should decide what breeding technique to suggest them for the beginning - to buy only one male and domestic females, or to buy one pregnant doe and crossbreed her later with domestic male goats...

I'd like to know your thoughts, neighbours.
Sonja

Are these agronomic universities and centers of agronomic research providing any training? I didn't remember if we discussed this option.

The lady running a goat farm in Kenya said in an email that she was too busy traveling and she would not be able to share any information about her project with us at this moment. I have not found a copy of the Goat's manual either, so no good news today :-(

For the breeding- I would assume that the dairy gene ( if such thing exists) would be carried by the female goat ( I apologize if this sounds too dumb):-?. So may be we will need female dairy goats?

Did the community express any preference about keeping the goats in a yard or taking them to pasture?

Guillaume, did you contact the University in Rwanda?
Questions, questions...

Best regards,

Tanja

Hi everyone,

I am now back in Australia.

Getting settled with the new timing and looking forward for Walungu to take some steps forward.

Some info on Goats breeding:

http://www.allgoats.com/breeding.htm

http://www.goats4h.com/AI.html

As Sonja says, it is important to start looking for the things that could helps us move forward from the discussions, some points to look for:

- There are not unique or perfect solutions. We might always find something that could be better than any other solution

- They community have expressed they have done farming in the past and they would like to try out more farming approaches.

- A lot of things are learnt in the process with the training approach we have discussed

- As Ken says, community input is very important in every stage and we have been doing it every time we chat with Guillaume (which we have been doing 3-3 times per week).

- As Nico says, it is a good idea to combine different things. Farming diversification is key to ensure sustainability.

- The more we continue with discussions here in the forum and no action in the field, the community motivation will start decreasing.

Let's move forward and get some more actions happening in the field,

Raul

Since the village wants to farm again, I want to encourage one of more of the farmers to build a sample permanent bed for whatever they want to grow. Add a lot of organic matter by bringing it to the bed or plant a green manure crop to prove what I teach works wonderfully. I can send more info.

Hi Ken,

Thanks for this.

We are hoping the seeds arrive soon to start working with them. Guillaume is going to Kinshasa this week to check if they have arrived.

Raul

Ignore this post. I submitted in the wrong project. sorry!

Dear all,

Guillaume visited FONDAMU management in Kinshasa; their top manager Mr. Mugangu Trinto spoke to him very warmly.

This gentleman was already informed about his visit to Fondamu in Bukavu and had been waiting for his visit in Kinshasa; but he also knew about our project on nabuur.com, he found us on internet, our discussions here, and has been reading our postings. :)
So he said he would like to join us here. He has worked for UNICEF and also as a consultant for UNDP in New York. He said he would be glad to help us with our business plan as well.

I sent him an email to invite him and hope he'll join us here soon.

They also have talked about both projects, and Mr.Trinto explained that their goal is to focus on microfinancing and rotating cow project, but that they still have not found a sponsor, they have been searching for it.

Take care
Sonja

Dear All

The following links may be of help to the project-
1)

www.fao.org/

For Africa-Email: fao-raf@fao.org

.2)

www.agriterra.org
E-mail: agriterra@agriterra.org

Best regards,
Sushmita,
India

Thanks a lot Sushmita.
Welcome to Walungu.

Best regards,
Sonja