Nelly Bassily | July 15, 2013
Welcome to Farm Radio Weekly issue 253! This week we offer you stories on Guinean farmers who are recycling nature’s bounty, Tanzanian pastoralists who have discovered the fruits of the soil, and a woman from Cameroon who sells popular indigenous vegetables at the market.
Farmers from Goloya, in southern Guinea, have teamed up with a nearby town council to recycle waste produced by a market in the city of Kindia. After removing the metal and plastics, the farmers are transforming the waste into rich fertilizer, and applying it on their fields to counter decreasing fertility caused by local mining.
The Maasai herders of Longido, northern Tanzania, faced hard times when their cattle succumbed to the long drought of 2006-9. They have since discovered a demand in the town for fresh vegetables, and a local scheme has trained them to grow food for their families and for the market. They now enjoy a source of income which is not dependent on their livestock.
In Cameroon, Mama Kathy discovered that she could make a living as a trader in local vegetables. She is now a local “bayam-sellam,” one of the women who buy the leafy vegetables that are popular in local cooking, and sell them for a profit at the city market in Douala.
Farm Radio International has two new “audio postcards” this week. From Malawi comes news of a mental health project. Depression is a widespread and serious illness among adolescents throughout the world. Through an FRI campaign, youth in Malawi and Zambia will learn how to identify depression and its symptoms, and where to get help. You can see a photo and hear the audio through this link: http://www.farmradio.org/ourblog/2013/07/04/audio-postcard-there-is-no-word-for-depression-in-chichewa/.
From Tanzania, an audio postcard links to the story of this week’s Maasai vegetable gardeners. You can put a face to the name of a woman farmer in the story at: http://www.farmradio.org/ourblog/2013/07/10/audio-postcard-gathering-stories-for-farm-radio-weekly/
We wish you a peaceful and successful week!
-the Farm Radio Weekly team