Foundations for Farming makes it into the mines
First Quantum Minerals Ltd. is a rapidly growing mining and metals company currently operating two mines and developing five projects worldwide. To counter some of the negative impacts of mining, mining companies seek to benefit local communities in many ways. One of First Quantum’s mines is in the Copperbelt of Zambia, in a place called Solwezi and excitingly, they came to Harare’s Centre of Excellence to be trained in Foundations for Farming so that they can role out conservation farming in Solwezi as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility programme. You may remember this letter appearing on our website, which was their response to our training. Since then a number of people from Harare’s Centre of Excellence have visited First Quantum in Solwezi to see how they have been doing.
Solwezi is a very interesting place, with it being at the heart of the Copperbelt, many people flood there with the hope of being able to get a job at the mines. However, even with the massive work forces employed by the mines, there is no where near enough jobs to go around. As a result, as you drive through Solwezi you will see a very chaotic sea of faces, the vast majority of them unemployed, resorting to prostitution, theft, or illegal businesses to survive. Teaching them to grow food will hopefully have a massive impact on this area.
On their return from Harare, the team from First Quantum planted some maize in their office car park, as a shining light to the many people that walk past. They told us that they’d had many strange looks as they planted because the ground in the car park was so dreadful it was crazy for anyone to expect anything to grow there. But we can testify that their small car park plot looks amazingly healthy, and hopefully people that are passing by are taking note of that.
Guy Hammond, who leads the conservation farming initiative in First Quantum works in a team of four, and between them they train and mentor 300 farmers. They visit the farmers on a regular basis to give them extra training and encouragement for the work they are doing, and are teaching them how to grow maize and soya beans. The farmers themselves have amazingly high standards of farming under the tutelage of Guy and his team, and though it is their first season doing Foundations for Farming, and it is very early days, we have been pleased to see their progress so far and see massive potential in their fields.
Alongside the training of the 300 farmers around the mines, Guy has been presenting conservation farming training for a local TV station on a weekly basis. The TV crew comes to a local school where First Quantum have been teaching and growing some crops, and they film Guy giving a relevant training for the time of year. The recording is then edited and shown on TV a few days later. While we visited, the TV crew came out with us to visit some of the 300 farmers, and it was great to see the excitement of the farmers as they told their testimony on TV!
The Copperbelt area receives a lot of rain and this is both a blessing and a curse for farmers. It is a blessing because most crops and vegetables grow very well, but it also means weeds also grow very quickly! If farmers are not faithful with weeding all year round it has a big impact on their crop yields. Many fields that we saw that weren’t practicing Foundations for Farming had weeds as big, if not bigger, than the crops themselves. Comparing the fields you can see a massive difference in their crops to the crops of those who are following Foundations for Farming teaching.
Overall, it was encouraging to visit some of the farmers to see and hear of the impact that First Quantum and the Foundations for Farming teaching has had on their lives, and we pray that the word will spread that farming is a great way to support your family, and that one does not need to turn to theft or prostitution to survive. We are also trusting God to establish and build His church in Solwezi to bring the hope of Jesus in place where there is a lot of suffering and poverty.
