Success Story

Protecting and Regenerating the Soils of Ihamizua

The Centro de Formacao Agro-Pecuaria de Siloe is an agricultural training center located in Ihamizua, about 10 miles from Beira, Mozambique.  The center has a strong focus on social and environmental responsibility and trains youth in vegetable production, entrepreneurship, and small livestock and poultry production. Each year, 25 youth graduate from the center’s training on environmentally minded horticulture practices, including organic cultivation methods, integrated pest management and basic composting. In addition to youth education, the center produces food for a local orphanage for about 100 children, and sells the surplus vegetables and chickens for revenue to help sustain the organization.

Despite its success, Centro de Formacao Agro-Pecuaria de Siloe continued to look for ways to increase its social and environmental impact in the community. USAID’s Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Program, implemented by CNFA in Southern Africa, visited the center to explore ways the F2F program could strengthen one of the center’s key natural resources – the soil. CNFA fielded Ms. Matilde D’Urzo, a soil fertility expert who had previously volunteered with CNFA in Mozambique, to train the center on cost-effective and sustainable strategies to improve soil quality. Ms. D’Urzo provided the center with trainings on how to prepare compost and organic fertilizers, how to apply mulch to vegetable beds and how to increase production through the intensification and diversification of crops (soil management).

40,000

Volunteer days spent on assignment

$44.2 million

Leveraged in volunteer time, host contributions and host time

2,700

Volunteers fielded by CNFA F2F in 21 countries

Farmer to Farmer

CNFA has been operating the Southern Africa Farmer-to-Farmer program since 2008, focusing on horticulture and legume value chains in Angola, Malawi, and Mozambique. Our volunteers work with agribusinesses, extension agencies, cooperatives, and farmers to provide their expertise on topics including crop production, post-harvest handling and marketing of seeds, cooperative and association development, business plan development, and financial management.

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