Food Works

Comm: "As 600 million celebrated the millenium nearly 800 million went hungry. Each year the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, dedicates one day to raising awareness of food issues. This 'Hands On' special coincides with World Food Day and follows a few of FAO's most successful projects - proving that low cost solutions can reduce hunger and malnutrition."

Radio Lang An Le, Vietnam

Comm: "Broadcasting from a community radio station in the Red River valley retired war veteran Khiem Van Nguyen encourages the villagers of Quang Le/LANG AN LE commune to spend less time cultivating rice and more time cultivating vegetables.

"Although Viet Nam is the world's third largest rice exporter, the children living in the country's Red River valley face malnutrition."

Doctor Hien Van Phan: "The children with malnutrition were underweight for their age, had little fat under their skin and their hair was thin and used to fall out easily."

Chris Landon Lane, FAO: "The government of Vietnam was coming out of a period of strife and needed to focus on economic production for export so they encouraged people to grow rice. They grew rice at the expense of other kind of foods and crops that they could grow and used to grow traditionally. However, there were still a small amount of people who had gardens and it was found that home gardens provided up to 50% of food consumed within the household."

Comm: "Convincing people to return to vegetable gardening demanded an army of volunteers. Thienh Thi Vu was chosen by the villagers to spread the message that veg are good for you.

"Every six months she attends courses where Doctor Hien Van Phan gives them practical advice. But Thienh Thi Vu's success lies in a hands on approach to the problem which targets mothers as the main providers of food.

"She makes house to house visits. And one of her regular stops is Nga Thi Tran who has four children. Although Nga Thi Tran has always grown vegetables she didn't realise it was necessary to grow a variety. Nor did she realise that veg were as good for people as for pigs!"

Nga Thi Tran: "I've been gardening for a long time but in the past I mainly grew plants for pigs and let the rest of the garden run wild. Since the project we've learned which plants are valuable and which are useful to feed our family and children."

Comm: "Growing a range of vegetables meant getting new seeds. At first FAO gave each family 4 US dollars a year for seeds. Now they are self sufficient."

Nga Thi Tran: "The seeds which the project introduced were useful but now I keep seed for the next season myself. I select what is good and get rid of what doesn't grow well."

Comm: "Checking the vegetable gardens is just one of Thienh Thi Vu's tasks the others include cookery demonstrations where she explains the importance of nutrition to the mothers."

Thienh Thi Vu: "In nutrition the most important time for a child is when they are under five especially from nought to three years old. When they are little it's easy for them to become malnourished so we need to ensure that the children eat better to get enough nutrition."

Comm; "Thienh's final job is a monthly weigh in to check how the children are doing."

Thienh Thi Vu: "It was difficult to teach people but many mothers were ashamed that their children were suffering so we persuaded them that they should weigh them and learn what to do. After the project there was only one child suffering from malnutrition all the rest of them gained weight."

Comm: "Thien's not the only one who's noticed the improvement."

Nga Thi Tran: "Before the project the youngest children were suffering from malnutrition but after the project the children benefited and the whole family's health has improved."

The Knowledge, Tanzania

Comm: "Since 1994 over a hundred thousand of refugees have fled into Tanzania to escape the civil war in neighbouring Burundi. Many come here to Mtabila camp in Kigoma. It may not look too bad but around 55,000 people are staying within these small huts with nothing to do and almost nothing to live on."

Hatungimana Clotilde: "When we came to the camp as refugees we were exhausted as we'd come by foot and were in a terrible condition."

Comm: "The refugees were receiving emergency rations but many remained undernourished. FAO recognised the need for a hands on rather than hand out approach and appealed for agricultural supplies seeds, hoes and watering cans. The Swedish government answered the call for help."

John Snell: "The project was to provide emergency assistance in the form of vegetable seeds and implements with the three objectives of improving the nutritional status of the refugees providing income generation and providing the refugees with improved vegetable gardening techniques which could be replicated when they were repatriated home."

Comm: "Vegetables were selected for their nutritional content. Amaranthus for iron; chinese cabbage and tomatoes for vitamin A and Vitamin C; and Okra for calcium. All had to fast growing varieties which were suitable for the local environment - the refugees needed nourishment fast.

"Most of the refugees were small scale farmers but there were others who had no experience of farming at all. It was the traditional handlers of food the women - who were targeted.

"After distributing the first batch of seeds the refugees were taught about intercropping, crop rotation, composting, seed propagation/cultivation and the importance of organic pesticides."

Guiseppe De Bac: "The introduction of neem trees has been a very successful approach because they are using the leaves of the neem and are pounding them adding water, boiling this water together with onion and garlic and then spraying the solution on the plants in a simple way this is a solution that repels the insect and so the incidence of the pest would decrease rapidly."

Comm: "Already, the women are impressed with the results."

Hatungimana Clotilde: "When we arrived here many people had anaemia, especially the pregnant women, but now that we've started to grow vegetables the anaemia has been reduced and we are feeling much better."

Comm: "The scheme is now even more important. Food rations were recently cut by a third."

john Snell: "Recently World Food Programme has had to cut the daily rations down to 60% owing to the fact that they have not got pledges for additional food. Therefore the assistance that we provided is now having a more positive impact than before when it was marginal now it is helping to augment their rations quite substantially."

Comm: "In the three months July and September 2000 total harvest was enough to feed 2000 people in the camp. The gardeners consume around 70% of their crops and what is left over is sold for a small fee in the camp market.

"Aid workers reckon the lessons from this camp can be applied elsewhere."

Guiseppe de Bac: "We really will be able to have a similar project replicated within the region and in order to achieve result in a very short time."

Comm: "The refugees believe that the knowledge they've gained will be useful wherever they go."

Clotilde: "What I think about this gardening is that if God helps us to return to our homeland or, even if we have to go somewhere else, the knowledge will help us to survive."

Shortage to Surplus, Honduras

Comm: "When hurricane Mitch hit Honduras in November 1998 thousands died, over 700 000 were left homeless and more than 330 million dollars worth of damage were caused. people died. Much of the fertile land was washed away. But one corner emerged virtually unscathed.

"Although the hurricane passed directly through Lempira Sur local farmers and most of their crops survived. Not only did the farmers survive they were able to send urgently needed grain supplies to other parts of the country. What was unusual was that Lempira Sur was the poorest region in Honduras and only three years earlier suffered frequent food shortages. How did they transform their land?

"For most of Lempira's population of 120,000 slash and burn was how they survived. But years of this approach had damaged the soil and created widespread erosion. Faced with the prospect of long term food aid FAO, the Dutch and Honduran governments designed a project which aimed to turn a deficit into a surplus within 3 years.

"Based on a revival of traditional farming techniques the project introduced a three level vertical system. The tallest trees are the valuable species. They mustn't be touched. The next level is those which are pollarded or chopped regularly. Their branches can be used for firewood. And beneath them staple crops can be grown. Anything left after harvesting can be fed to cattle. Young extension workers learn various conservation techniques.

"The advantages are multiple, the mulch absorbs the rain reducing run off and erosion and extending the growing season by twenty days very important in regions of irregular rainfall. The trees act as anchors holding the top soil and preventin landslides. The pruned material serves both as mulch and firewood. The fields retain their fertility and so the farmers do not have to search for new land.

"Since the farmers now work together they can plan how to use the land, how to manage the watershed and how to reforest the slopes.

"Abraham Canales coffee harvest has doubled. He uses the waste from the coffee to make an organic fertiliser.

"First the coffee bean is dried and the husk removed. Then it's washed and dried again before being processed. The bean goes one way the waste the other. It ends up in the clutches of the Californian earthworm which degrades the material into the perfect organic fertiliser."

Abraham Canales: "The project has taught me a lot mainly how to prepare the land for agriculture the system uses terraces to better conserve humidity in the soil. Here we don't use chemical fertilisers only organic ones."

Comm: "With increased supplies of grain, safe storage was essential and silos were introduced.

"The silo is 6 foot tall and has a 3 foot in diameter. It takes two days to make from 5and 1/2 sheets of galvanized zinc and 1 pound of tin and costs the buyer 40 $US."

Maria Amparo: "The silos are a great thing because the grains are stored undercover because in the attic or beetles can eat it. We have learned that in the silos grain is preserved much better so that we don't lose it."

Comm: "As one of the main causes of deforestation cutting the amount of wood needed for cooking was also important. So local women learned how to build new stoves."

Teodora Enriquez: "Before with the old stoves we had to burn lots of wood. Now we use much less wood so we are cutting down fewer trees. The smoke goes up the stove pipe and this helps to reduce illness in the family."

Ian Cherret, FAO: "The people from Lempira Sur are interested in adopting these new technologies which help to reduce their extreme poverty. Before they couldn't produce enough to eat but now they have a surplus."

A Jab in Time, Vietnam

Comm: "Just 30 kilometres from Ha Long Bay - one of Viet Nam's most popular tourist destinations - illegal logging is threatening the Yen Lap reservoir. The reservoir provides water for 160 000 people living in the valley below and helps irrigate thousands of hectares of rice growing. If the logging isn't stopped the water flow will slow to a trickle in the dry season and cause flooding during the monsoon. Some villagers have already suffered from floods."

Zan Thi Nguyen: "We once had flooding here and it swept away my pigs and chickens."

Comm: "With few means to earn money local people - desperate for income - cut down the forests. Clearly, the only way to prevent the logging is to help people find new ways to make a living."

"Dong Van Ly is a member of the forestry committee which tries to stop the illegal logging. But his role as paravet is equally important. If people can breed healthy animals for food and cash there's less chance that villagers will resort to logging."

Dong Van Ly: "When the project began I went on a 10 day training course and learned how to give treatment to animals. Of course, once people develop their animal farming and their economic situation improves they will abandon the cutting wood from the forest."

Comm: "Dong Van Ly is never sure how often he'll be called out. But he's always on standby with his bag of medicines. Sinh Van Troung is worried about his buffalo so Dong Van Ly agrees to carry out a quick check. Fearing foot and mouth disease he gives Sinh Van Truong medicine to mix with the cattle feed. Sinh Van Truong is happy to pay for the treatment - his animals are an insurance policy he can cash in for emergencies.

"Sinh Van Truong isn't just dependent on livestock. He also earns money from beekeeping. He's not afraid of the bees as he used to collect honey from their hives in the forest. He too has benefited from the project. It taught him how to make the hives and mass produce the honey when its in season. If he had to buy the box it would cost around 5 US dollars and the collector just over 1 $US. The honey spinner costs 25 $US.

"A skilled beekeeper like Sinh van Truong can soon recover the costs. Each litre sells for 5 $US and he now earns an extra 250 $US each year. With up to 20 hives Sinh Van Truong's honey is the best in the business. So what's his trick?"

Sinh Van Truong: "My honey is best because I let the bees work naturally. I just check that they don't fly away and leave them to get all their food from the forest and bring their honey to me. I don't force them to work."

Comm: "Across the valley Dong is busy visiting another farmer, Zan Thi Nguyen who's worried about her chicken. He decides to give it a quick jab.

"But her real passion is her pigs."

Zan Thi Nguyen: "The reason I breed pigs is that the waste can be used for fertiliser and that they are more profitable than other animals."

Comm: "Like Sinh, Zan has another source of income just in case - tofu making."

"Zan Thi Nguyen decided to make tofu as the waste could be used to feed her pigs. It's a long process - soaking the beans for five hours, processing them through a machine which costs 30 $US, boiling the mixture for a further hour, adding sour water to make it solid and finally pressing the residue into that familiar tofu shape.

"It's hard to believe that the enterprising Zan Thi Nguyen couldn't make money. But she's adamant that without the projects advice on the most productive pigs and a loan for her tofu equipment she may well be cutting trees."

Zan Thi Nguyen: "If the project hadn't started then I would go to the forest and cut wood because there's no other way to earn money other than from wood."

Comm: "Thanks to the project the paravet is also earning a little extra."

Dong Van Ly: "Working as a paravet helps me increase my income but not by much. But I have to do this work as I love it and as it relieves other people."

Safe Saving, Madagascar

Comm: "Food security usually depends on a good harvest, but when it fails savings are a way to make sure people survive.

"Savings can take many forms. For the Maasai saving is made in cattle and precious items. Both are kept close at hand. But most people however keep money at home. And since many homes lack security savings are extremely vulnerable."

Joachim Ngallo: "People kept their money at home or under their beds, some even their money in their pockets and many of them had their money stolen by the thieves."

Comm: "The obvious savings solution is to deposit your cash in a conventional bank. For people living in remote regions of Africa or even in small villages getting to a bank is a logistic nightmare. Even when you arrive the system is daunting. You may not have enough money to open an account."

Paradise Nkini, Tanzania Postal Bank: "Sometimes because of their business they can't go to a big bank because even the big banks the amount is so high to them or the minimum balance to repay at a bank is so bit."

Comm: "Safe saving doesn't need to be restricted to traditional banking institutions. Most organised groups can set up a savings scheme so long as they follow certain rules. This 'Hands On' reveals two very different initiatives: one small, one big. Both follow the same basic principles: trust and openess; safe keeping; and sound institutional structures.

"In Toamasina, Madagascar a local bank has been set up in the middle of the stall owners. Buried in the market the building may look humble. But it offers a unique service to people who are too busy to get to the bank themselves in the form of Madame Berthe Rasroanadreny. Every day she charges round taking deposits from the other small traders who are eagerly awaiting her call."

Madame Berthe: "The people are happy now because instead of spending their money on things they don't really need they put it in the bank."

Comm: "There's no queuing and no lost time. They trust Madame Berthe because she herself is a stall owner. Trust and openess are key if a local bank is going to succeed and persuade people to part with their hard earned cash."

Carbon seller: "Yes there is an advantage in putting your money in the bank because there the money is safe. Not like before when extra money was invested in the purchase of animal because if they died your capital was finished."

Comm: "To create financial services which are solid and lasting takes time but as the development agency, Pride, in Tanzania has shown it can be done. It has set up a combined savings and credit scheme with 22 branches and 24,000 members. Each member is already running a small business and they join in groups of five so that if one person wants to apply for credit the others guarantee her."

James Obama, Pride Tanzania: "According to our model we ask members to come in group of five and these five must be people who know each other and this is for guaranteeing purposes and they must not come from the same family. So far we have a 100% repayment rate on time repayment is a 100% since we started."

Comm: "Safe savings and credit isn't just a back up for times when food runs short. They can also be used to generate income through growing a successful business."

Mary Methi: "The loan has really helped me first of all I had 50,000 shillings and at that time I couldn't prepare meals in bulk but the loan has helped me to increase the volume of my business. Then I took another second loan of 100,000 shillings and that has helped to further improve my life. Right now I can send my kids to school buy school uniforms and use it for my home."