MALANJE, EAST ANGOLA – Greetings from the Quéssua Mission in East Angola. I have worked for 10 years here as the agriculturist for the United Methodist Quéssua Agriculture Center. Though this site with its church, schools, hospital and farm was torn down to the ground during three decades of war that finally ended in 2002, we are rebuilding all aspects of the mission – with help from many partners, including Global Ministries.

My particular passion and calling from God is to continue to develop a productive and sustainable farm that also sustains the community. I am thankful to God for keeping me strong and committed to this ministry. I believe that God calls us together to the mission of serving the most vulnerable in our communities. To this end, we completed a large new chicken coop this year to ramp up our egg production.

The main goal of the project is to raise chickens for eggs to support malnourished children in the villages and contribute to the Sunday school children’s meal. This will provide extra protein and nutrients to the healthy meal, including produce from the farm, that is diligently prepared under the direction of missionary partners who lead the children’s meal mission in Quéssua. This is a challenging goal when between 600 to 800 village children are fed each Saturday and Sunday. Just a year ago, we served 400 to 600, so the need and our project has multiplied.

Chronic poverty contributes to a high rate of perpetually undernourished children. Most Quéssua village households can only manage to provide one meal per day. Toddlers are particularly vulnerable, and most children attend school with no breakfast. Some often go without eating a meal for a day or more. Imagine going to school with no breakfast, snack or the hope of lunch. These weekly meals are very impactful for the children, so we are doing our best to keep up with the demand.

Villagers also come to the farm to purchase eggs; two, three or five eggs at a time, with which they make an affordable, tasty, nutritious sauce that serves as a protein rich meal for the whole family. Eggs replace the usual dried fish sauce which many families can no longer afford. Families have their own unique recipes for using the eggs. We thank God that we can provide them to people at an affordable price.

The demand for eggs has grown, making us contemplate the need for increasing our production. The challenge that we are facing to accomplish this is the availability of chicken feed. The cost has increased with the deteriorating economy. We pray and believe that with God’s blessing and wider church support for our projects, we will keep moving forward.

East Angola Episcopal Area is participating in the Yambasu Agriculture Initiative and has received a food security grant from Global Ministries to increase income levels of smallholder farmers through agriculture, specifically through maize (corn) and pig production. Quéssua agriculture is a project site for this work. A new piggery was constructed a couple years ago, and pig production is well underway.

The village communities we serve receive vegetable seeds from the Quéssua farm each planting season and we follow up with them on methods to successfully cultivate these. Sometimes one or two of the communities have disappointing seed beds resulting in poor harvests, so, we decided to plant the seeds in a farm nursery and once the seedlings are ready, community members come to receive seedlings to transplant into their individual gardens.

This was a positive and productive experience and hopefully a learning one. The community spirit of the people, singing together as they arrive with their leader to receive their seedlings, is heartwarming and gratifying. During a visit to one of the gardens we were thrilled to see villagers preparing harvested vegetables for sale.

We also still provide seeds to communities along with training and tools. The happiness on the peoples’ faces while receiving the seedlings gives us a sign that they really needed them. They cannot afford to buy the seeds, yet they need the vegetables for their own consumption and the quantities they are given will help them have some extra produce to sell, enabling the purchase of other needed items for their families.

Agriculture is an important mission at Quéssua. In addition to providing meals for children and seeds and seedlings for nearby villages, the agriculture center also undergirds the whole mission, supplying produce, animals, eggs and peanuts to the schools, theological center and hospital. “For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” (Romans 12:4-5). Thank you to all who support this ministry with prayer, gifts and service.

Kutela Katembo Dieudonne, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has served as a United Methodist missionary at Quéssua since 2014. He is married to Fatuma Nana Katembo, who is also a missionary serving as agriculture technician in the West Angola Episcopal Area. They have five children. 

Global Missionaries

Global Ministries missionaries are a tangible connection between The United Methodist Church and mission. Through denominational or ecumenical ministries, missionaries bear witness to God’s presence all around the world. They are called by God and sent out to serve by the church, usually placed in a new cultural context beyond their country of origin. Missionaries engage in ministry that is defined by mutuality and partnership, seeking to expand the mission of God already present and active in people and places. Explore the work of Global Ministries missionaries.

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KINDU, EAST CONGO, DRC – My family and our church family is truly filled with optimism and renewed energy this year. My wife, Chido, and I are incredibly blessed with the arrival of our healthy baby girl. She brings us immense hope, strength and a deepened sense of responsibility. This same energy fuels our missionary work in the East Congo region.

Initiatives like ours play a vital role in rural development. Despite facing numerous challenges establishing the groundbreaking Yambasu Agriculture project in a marginalized region of Eastern Congo, we’re starting to see positive results. Our market gardening project focusing on vegetables like eggplants, tomatoes, peppers and green mealies (young, green corn cobs) has begun to bear fruit, and the harvest was successfully sold at the market. We’ve also had our first successful farrowing with our sows.

Looking ahead, we’re excited to increase our livestock population, strengthen our farm infrastructure and modernize our production technologies in a way that’s both robust and sustainable. These developments bring a thrilling sense of anticipation as we look forward to continued growth.

As we approach the end of Lent and enter Holy Week, we want to uplift your spirits and remind you of the significance of this period. Remember, even when we feel weak, our Lord grants us renewed strength.

In February 2023, the Yambasu Agriculture Initiative project steering committee journeyed from Kindu to Okasa and Penesula, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), to start maize harvesting on 26 hectares (about 64 acres) of land. The maize seeds used were the local Samaru open-pollinated variety obtained from SENASEM, a government institution.

Notably, local farmers in this pristine tropical biome seldom utilize hybrid seed maize and conventional farming practices. Our focus remains on promoting enhanced crop production methods while upholding a harmonious blend of ecological sustainability and food output.

Though I am the missionary working with the episcopal area, Richard Okoko is the East Congo Yambasu Initiative coordinator. We work together in all aspects of the program.

After receiving the Yambasu Agriculture Initiative grant, we were able to purchase a Case IH Farmall JXM75 tractor, a three-disc plough, a 20-disc harrow and a five-ton trailer. The tractor and its implements have a significant operating cost in a rural and remote setting like Maniema. However, we have a significant edge over most farmers who do not have these tools. Over 90% of farmers in this region practice subsistence farming with simple tools like machetes for forest clearing and hoes for digging.

I keep in mind always the words of Zechariah 8:12-13, “The seed will grow well, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will produce its crops, and the heavens will drop their dew. I will give all these things as an inheritance to the remnant of this people. Just as you, Judah and Israel, have been a curse[a] among the nations, so I will save you, and you will be a blessing. Do not be afraid, but let your hands be strong.” (NIV)

In July 2023, over 4,000 survivors of war in Eastern Congo received emergency relief supplies provided by the Disaster Management Office, under the leadership of Mr. Jean Tshomba, supported by the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). Bishop Gabriel Unda oversaw the distribution of food supplies in Rutshuru, Masisi and Goma during the annual conference session.

In addition to UMCOR, East Congo also partners with CONNEXIO, the Swiss-based UMC-related mission and development agency. I collaborated with Jean Paul Dietrich of CONNEXIO, a colleague United Methodist missionary, to provide support for a project in Maniema province. I offered technical expertise to help the beneficiaries of the food security efforts in Okasa and Kesanga build their agricultural capacity. This includes help with navigating the market and organizing support groups.

The only way we had to transport the seeds and herbicides, machetes, boots, raincoats, hoes, picks and pitch forks, among other things, was to load them all up on our motorcycles. We were a sight. Mostly young people from two communities received seed inputs and training.

Another partner in our Methodist family, Hong Kong Methodist Church, helped to rehabilitate a borehole with the UMC Lokole Mission Station in Kindu, which had been dysfunctional for 6 months. Rey Oliver Fabros and the Hong Kong Methodist Sunday School helped to raise funds to fix the leaky pipes and galvanized metal reservoir. This borehole serves numerous buildings, including the Maman Lynn training centre, which provides support for women who have experienced violence and abuse, an orphanage, offices and surrounding households.

In this community, over 200,000 people access water by fetching it from community boreholes. These community wells are vitally important for clean, potable drinking water, but they are also places where lots of human interaction takes place every day. This may well be where young adults meet their future spouses, where friends exchange news and extended families share updates on relatives.

Young girls are still the main water gatherers in most families here, and the large jerry cans of water they carry on their backs are heavy burdens they endure several times a day. Few here are privileged to have tap water in their homes.

As we experience the dark days of the cross and Good Friday, we remember that Christ rises again on Easter Sunday, and God overcomes the darkness, even in death. We are assured that what we do here in East Congo is a part of God’s plan to bring new life and renewal to people who face numerous challenges, including conflict, poverty, displacement and violence.

Through sustainable agricultural practices, such as cultivating crops and raising livestock like pigs, poultry, and rabbits using locally available resources, our work fosters capacity-building among local leaders. I believe that serving with God’s people in missio Dei is a profound calling that requires nurturing and cultivating what belongs to God, ensuring growth and fruitfulness.

Edmund Melusi Makowa, from Zimbabwe, earned a Master of Science Honors degree in sustainable agriculture and food security at the Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, as well as a Bachelor of Science Honors degree in crop science at the University of Zimbabwe. He served for two years as a Global Mission Fellow with the Community Health and Agriculture Development (CHAD) in Cambodia.

Global Missionaries
Global Ministries missionaries are a tangible connection between The United Methodist Church and mission. Through denominational or ecumenical ministries, missionaries bear witness to God’s presence all around the world. They are called by God and sent out to serve by the church, usually placed in a new cultural context beyond their country of origin. Missionaries engage in ministry that is defined by mutuality and partnership, seeking to expand the mission of God already present and active in people and places. Explore the work of Global Ministries missionaries.

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I have seen and testified that this one is God’s son.

John 1:34 (CEB)

WEST ANGOLA – This verse in John has helped me understand the journey of the Bomjesus community and myself as a missionary. The Bomjesus community is full of small-scale farmers and almost every family survives through subsistent farming, though they lack essential seeds, farming supplies and training to learn new farming techniques. They used to manage what was on their lands by doing the same archaic farming practices, each family on their own, without working to improve their community.

In Bomjesus, I find talented, fast learners; women who are open to any good thing that can help them improve their community life, but they did not think about that until God placed me in their midst to help them use their hidden talents for everyone’s benefit.

The women here taught me that when people of God come together and seek God’s help, the impact can be big and positive. These women received some grant money and instead of buying food and seeds, I advised them to buy land to start producing, but in my heart, I admit my intention was to alleviate my own workload. If they were all farming plots on the same land, I could teach them there and distribute farm inputs in one place instead of going from one field to the next, over and over again, never sufficiently meeting every family’s needs. I thought to bring them together to help myself, not knowing that God had this plan all along.

A community in which each family produced enough for itself is now producing together enough for their whole community. We provide for malnourished children and some of the elderly residents. Then women with hidden talents started to come forward. They wanted to contribute. Currently we have women learning how to sew clothes.

Despite their denominational differences, they pray together. They are learning to make different things – like tomato paste and groundnuts to sell to further improve their community.

I was amazed by the way the Bomjesus women came together in the light of God’s grace. I see and testify to God’s love and faithfulness every day through his son, Jesus Christ who in the cross took all our burden and set us free. The situation of the Bomjesus women is far better now, thanks to the support of generous people, the helpers that God had prepared for them.

When people work together, and in the process come to trust God, their lives will never be the same. They will change positively and people around them will see and testify how God is good and faithful.

Nana Fatuma Katembo is serving as an agricultural technician missionary in the West Angola Annual Conference. She began her service in 2016. Her husband, Dieudonne Kutela Katembo, is an agricultural missionary in East Angola. They have five children.

Global Missionaries

Global Ministries missionaries are a tangible connection between The United Methodist Church and mission. Through denominational or ecumenical ministries, missionaries bear witness to God’s presence all around the world. They are called by God and sent out to serve by the church, usually placed in a new cultural context beyond their country of origin. Missionaries engage in ministry that is defined by mutuality and partnership, seeking to expand the mission of God already present and active in people and places.

Support the ministries of missionaries working around the world.

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ATLANTA – The Yambasu Agriculture Initiative (YAI), Global Ministries’ innovative program that helps African central conferences transform their land resources to support church programs and communities, completes its third year of operation in October. Nineteen annual conferences are currently involved in different phases of projects as they discover what works best in their regional areas. Enterprises including cash crops and new vegetable varieties, animal raising, fish farms, honey production and seed banks have met with measurable success across the continent.

Global Ministries supports these commercial and community farming activities with the goal of enhancing food security, increasing household incomes and promoting revenue at the annual conference level.

With severe grain shortages looming again this year as a result of the war in Ukraine and other swings in the global food market, the need to increase agriculture production and find reliable ways to ensure food security in Africa is stronger than ever. YAI is helping United Methodists make substantial progress to support local communities at just the right time in places that have faced hunger for far too long.

As each annual conference taps its own expertise and gains support and new ideas from YAI training, they develop agriculture ministries that best suit their context, producing a great variety of pursuits in different countries and environments.

Conferences produce both cash crops and staples for generating income and addressing food insecurity needs at the household level. Demand is high across the African continent for corn, rice and cassava as key staple crops in most African countries.

Sierra Leone and Nigeria conferences have both invested in increased rice production. The Central Nigeria Conference ventured into dry season rice production, extending a harvest into a time of year when few producers have a new crop ready. Ezekiel Nyangani, the YAI team leader in Central Nigeria, says: “the cycle will continue into the rainy season so that rice production, which is the staple food for many Nigerians, will continue all year round.”

While conference teams invest in seeds and tools, a big investment that significantly increases production is heavy machinery for plowing, cultivating, harvesting and grain milling. They start out renting for the conference projects and extend their reach to nearby community farmers. Eventually, as the harvests yield income, many will buy industrial farm equipment.

Four mission farms in Zimbabwe (Nyadire, Hanwa, Old Mutare and Mutambara) are expanding corn production. The Rev. Lancelot Mukundu, at the Nyadire Mission farm, said they hadn’t harvested a corn crop since 2018. “Today, we are proud to announce that 18.5 hectares is under maize production while two hectares (2.47 acres) is under sugar beans,” he said.

In Mozambique, the South Mozambique Conference established a new project for cassava production. The conference has set aside acreage for this cash crop but has also extended training, tools and seedlings to community members.

Luisa Chiquede, one of the local project beneficiaries, offered: “I used to grow my cassava using old agricultural practices. The seed from the project has increased my production. I can see a huge difference now.”

Plant cultivation and harvests are possible in their seasons, but animals can be raised all year long. A number of conference teams concentrate on animal and fish raising in addition to agriculture to increase livelihoods and nutrition in targeted communities.

Zimbabwe conference farms are investing in chicken production, a favorite among farmers with smaller land holdings in the area. Chickens, pigs and rabbits are also being raised through the YAI project at Quéssua, East Angola.

United Methodists in Côte d’Ivoire attended a YAI training held at the Songhai Center in Benin and developed a tilapia fish farming project, concentrating on 15 ponds. “We were taught natural fish farming skills and how we can improve our productivity by controlling the physio-chemical parameters of the pond water.”

Farmers and conference supervisors in North Katanga also gathered inspiration at the Songhai Center. They returned home from the training and used part of their YAI grant for egg incubators. “We were amazed at the way the Songhai Center set up their chicken farm and how they produce their feed,” noted Alex Ilunga Kibombe, a North Katanga supervisor.

The Nigeria Northeast Conference is working on a cattle-fattening project.

Liberia has a well-developed beekeeping and honey production economy. In addition to poultry and pig farming, the Liberia Conference is scaling up honey production and investing in durable hives for beekeepers. The Rev. Joseph Theoway, the Liberia YAI coordinator, said they have been able to pay technical staff and meet their agreement of 10% harvest profit for local churches.

“After this phase of the project, we will not be relying on Global Ministries’ money any longer to continue,” noted Theoway. “We will use funds from the sales to sustain the enterprise.”

Two conference farms, Kamisamba in North Katanga, DRC, and Quéssua mission in East Angola, have invested in seed production. Both are in rather remote areas and have agricultural missionaries present to oversee operations. Their seed banks give farmers an option of seeds that are less costly and available locally and specifically developed for the regions they will be farming.

The Northeast Nigeria Conference is reinvesting some of the proceeds from rice sales to develop its own rice milling enterprise.

Since YAI offers business practice and industry training to all conferences, the UMC expects that as the years pass, central conferences will invest more of their own proceeds and the need for outside grants will eventually diminish.   

Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries and UMCOR with quotes gathered by Phileas Jusu in Sierra Leone.

The Yambasu Agriculture Initiative

The Yambasu Agriculture Initiative was launched by Global Ministries in 2020 in honor of the legacy of Bishop John K. Yambasu. The program works toward the realization of the vision shared by the late bishop that the African church can be made self-sustaining if its resources, both land and human, are optimized through agriculture. Through the provision of grants and training, YAI mobilizes existing land and human resources within the church; improves community livelihoods and food security long-term; and builds capacity in annual conferences toward long-term financial solvency.

Support food security and agricultural sustainability in Africa.

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By Phileas Jusu
May 17, 2023 | FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE

A key component of the Yambasu Agriculture Initiative is reinvestment in the business – designating a significant share of revenue to increase production and profits for the next season. But the ways of reinvesting Yambasu Initiative profits back into conference production to build up the agribusiness toward self-sustainability are as varied as the many types of crops and livestock that conference leaders decide to cultivate in their regions.

For example, the East Angola Conference Yambasu Agriculture Initiative (YAI) project will cultivate 20 hectares (49 acres) next planting season after a harvest of maize on 10 hectares in the 2023 farming season. The decision follows a bumper harvest and a successful marketing season after 33 tons of the harvested maize was sold to Carrinhos, a local company that produces corn meal.

“Carrinhos is buying all our maize owing to the quality of corn we produced,” said Gilberto Joâo Augusto Guedes, YAI East Angola Monitoring and Evaluation officer. “They have entered into a partnership with us to buy all the corn we produce. We’re now gearing up to cultivate 20 hectares in the next planting season. All the maize harvested from our farm in the future will be sold to Carrinhos, which praised the quality of our corn.”

Upscaling the production of maize, one of Angola’s staple foods, is a key objective of YAI in East Africa. “With the proceeds from the sale, we will cultivate the 20 hectares in the province of Malanje at the Methodist Mission of Quéssua, because it is a place with vast fields for the production of corn and other crops,” Guedes continued, adding that the funds from the sale of the next season will support the conference in the payment of subsidies to pastors in remote areas as well as help the communities in the various agricultural project areas.  

East Nigeria Conference YAI is currently busy with another kind of bumper harvest after a successful project in dry season rice farming on 10 hectares of land. This particular type of rice farming involves drilling boreholes and using the water to irrigate the farmland during a normally no-rice-production season when the land is completely dry and disintegrating into flakes of soil. The success means the team can now plant rice all-year round.

“We want to make North East Conference a rice-milling industry. We will mill our own rice as well as offer milling services to other community farmers to generate revenue,” East Nigeria YAI project coordinator, Dr. Ephraim Ibrahim Jen, said.

About 500 bags of rice are expected to be harvested and a good proportion of it will be reinvested back into the project as seed rice when the farm is expanded from 10 to 20 hectares.

This is in addition to an on-going cattle fattening project that the East Nigeria YAI has undertaken. The Initiative buys lean cattle, fattens them and sells them later at higher prices. The first sales are expected in July.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, reinvestment in a seed multiplication project has expanded from Kamisamba farm – where the production of the first set of viable seeds were developed – to three other farms in three other districts.

“After the 2022 harvest on Kamisamba Farm, we had enough seeds to expand the project,” noted Lorraine Charinda, a Global Missionary with Global Ministries and YAI’s project coordinator in the D.R. Congo. “Having succeeded with the seed multiplication project in Kamisamba, we wanted to go to four other districts with 80 beneficiary farmers. One district resisted, so, we managed to do with three districts. We distributed one ton of maize seeds each to three farms in three districts. They went ahead to farm using our seeds as we used 125kg of the maize harvest as seeds to continue with the initial project at Kamisamba farm.”

Liberia’s YAI farmers are now inspecting beehives that have been colonized and fully capped for harvest. “When we harvest, we sell the honey and wait again for the hives to recolonize. Recolonization will continue for up to four years because our beehives are durable,” the Rev Joseph Theoway, Liberia’s YAI project coordinator, noted. Proceeds will be used to create more hives as reinvestment.

“In addition, we use proceeds to pay and retain the technical staff who are the key drivers of our project. After this phase of the project, we will not be relying on Global Ministries’ money any longer to continue. We will use funds from the sales to sustain the enterprise. Part of the proceeds will also be used to empower the ministries of the Liberia Annual Conference,” he said, further explaining the stipulations agreed with the farmers. “When the harvest is done, we have certain percentages going to them for their labor and upkeep, some percentage is agreed to go for reinvestment while 10% of the harvest profit goes to the local church,” he said.

A similar agreement is in place for the poultry and piggery projects in Liberia. A certain percentage goes to the groups that are used as entry points; another goes to their local congregations and a certain percentage is retained for reinvestment.

“We are marketing chickens now. We sell both live and processed chicken depending on the customer’s choice,” Theoway explained.

As in Angola, YAI Liberia has secured a ready market for farm products. A middle man recently agreed with the director to buy all the YAI chickens at wholesale price. He retails it at the local market.

The YAI project in South Mozambique made a profit of $3,748 in the 2023 farming season after selling cassava cuttings to cassava farmers, Luis Bento Gomes Nhampossa, the project’s Agro-Livestock technician says. The project involves cultivating large fields of cassava and making income from both tubers and stem cuttings that are sold to farmers who do not have stems to start production on their own land.

Whether upscaling bumper crops, producing better seed or root stock, cultivating honey or raising additional livestock, the annual conferences involved in YAI have embraced the concept and practice of reinvestment as they enter new phases of their projects. The initial investments of United Methodist funds from Global Ministries are by and large being carefully managed and reinvested toward the overall goal of self-sustainability.

Phileas Jusu is the director of communications for the Sierra Leone Annual Conference.

The Yambasu Agriculture Initiative

The Yambasu Agriculture Initiative was launched by Global Ministries in 2020, renaming an earlier agriculture program in honor of the legacy of Bishop John K. Yambasu. The program works toward the realization of the vision shared by the late bishop that the African church can be made self-sustaining if its resources, both land and human, are optimized through agriculture. Through the provision of grants and training, YAI mobilizes existing land and human resources within the church; improves community livelihoods and food security long-term; and builds capacity in annual conferences toward long-term financial solvency.

Support food security and agricultural sustainability in Africa.

The post Reinvestment in Yambasu Initiative projects leads to growth appeared first on Global Ministries.

Global Ministries’ board of directors approved a $5 million allocation to undergird the work of the Yambasu Agriculture Initiative (YAI) in 2023. The funds come from various sources of undesignated monies that could be used for this purpose. Specific grants for African annual conferences will be approved throughout the year.

The importance of this initiative to African United Methodists can be understood by tracking the results of improved agricultural and livestock production and better business practices. Targeted training and hands-on experience give farmers concrete ways to move forward. Higher yields, healthier produce and less expensive and environmentally friendly techniques have been realized. The results have a multiplying effect across communities.

“Our project serves nine communities with more than 400 families,” YAI’s East Angola Monitoring and Evaluation officer, Gilberto Joâo Augusto Guedes, said in a recent interview.  “Some communities are far away and difficult to access, preventing various services from reaching them. With YAI support, it has been possible to provide seeds, agrotechnology, and monitoring and evaluation skills.”

YAI’s intervention into the subsistence farming lives of East Angolan communities has kick-started the process for some level of economic liberation because family needs are being met through agribusiness. “Through techniques taught, the farmers have realized that they can make their own fertilizers using local materials, thereby increasing production while minimizing cost. Through the sale of farm produce, they can pay school fees for their children and improve their living conditions, including housing,” Guedes said.

One of YAI’s investments in the current farming year in the Zimbabwe West Annual Conference is 20 hectares (49.5 acres) of maize cultivation at Nyadire Mission Farm and seven hectares on Hanwa farm. A bumper harvest is expected, Morgan Jeranyama, the YAI National Project Consultant in Zimbabwe, said in a recent interview.

Part of the proceeds will be reinvested as chicken feed for the YAI poultry project in Nyadire while the rest will be processed into mealie meal to be sold to the Home of Hope orphanage school, Jeranyama said.  “The church farms are hubs for training and learning for surrounding farmers in both crop and livestock production. We are going to hold a field day at the mission farm where best practices will be shared using the current crop at Nyadire farm. With support from Irvine’s Chickens, our partner, farmers are being identified for a poultry out-grower scheme. The farmers will benefit from receiving chicks and feed. They will then bring their mature chickens either to the abbatoir at Nyadire farm for processing or for organized marketing to be coordinated by the YAI project,” he said.

In Liberia, YAI works through United Methodist churches in the communities, using church sites as entry points for farmer-based organizations – a group of farmers in the church that come together to raise livestock. YAI’s Liberia project manager, the Rev. Joseph Theoway, said. “We are raising livestock in three communities. The St. Luke UMC group is chicken farming; the farmer organization at St. John UMC has a piggery; St. James UMC in Upper White Plains is beekeeping – all in the Montserrado County.”

The St. John UMC piggery project, Theoway said, started with four animals – three females and one male. Now, they have 35. “The pigs will be on the market in the next three months. The money they bring in will help farmers meet their families’ needs. Part of it will, of course, be ploughed back into the business as reinvestment while the rest will remain with the farmer groups,” he explained, emphasizing that the Liberia YAI team has a marketing officer whose job is to facilitate marketing opportunities and ensure farmers get best value for products.

St. James UMC beekeeping project now has up to 50 beehives, he said. “Many of the beehives have been colonized while a few more are waiting to be fully colonized. We expect to start harvesting by May 2023.” The farmers initially did not have any knowledge in beekeeping, but they learned from the YAI team.

In Kamina, DR Congo, YAI is focusing on supporting farmers by producing quality seeds that were previously a challenge to get. Some farmers chose maize, some soybeans, while others chose rice. Lorraine Charinda, Global Ministries’ agriculture missionary and YAI’s project coordinator in the Congo, said.

YAI did a baseline survey to identify beneficiaries – target beneficiaries were those who had a place to farm and who were ready to accept the YAI conditions. YAI expected a 15% return after harvest. Some did not like the conditions. Others loved it. “So, we did the baseline survey to get the right figures,” Charinda said. “Then we gave them the inputs – fertilizers, seeds, hoes, insecticides, pesticides. They started their production. The seeds produced on our Kamisamba Farm had 98% germination rate after they were tested and certified,” she said, adding that the farming communities were happy that they were able to get the seeds nearby because they would normally go to neighboring countries – the closest one about 800 km (497 miles) away.

“We started with low prices as a marketing strategy to attract customers. Even though we’ve increased the prices a bit now, people are happy that they can still get the seeds locally instead of having to travel for thousands of miles to get seeds at higher prices when they are not sure that germination and harvest would be as high as they would expect. Some of the seeds bought in neighboring countries do not meet the climatic conditions in the DR Congo. Ours are produced locally and suit the soil and climate conditions,” she said.

Owing to the success rate, the seed multiplication project has expanded from Kamisamba Farm to four other farms in four different districts, where they are producing seeds of different crops.

Although the initial investment by Global Ministries through grants is significant, once YAI projects are up and running, the farming enterprises have great capacity to become self-sustaining over time. This is a primary goal for the program and early indicators suggest it can be reached. 

Phileas Jusu is the director of communications for the Sierra Leone Annual Conference.

The Yambasu Agriculture Initiative

The Bishop K. Yambasu Agriculture Initiative was launched by Global Ministries in 2020, renaming an earlier agriculture program in honor of the legacy of Bishop John K. Yambasu. The program works toward the realization of the vision shared by the late bishop that the African church can be made self-sustaining if its resources, both land and human, are optimized through agriculture. Through the provision of grants and training, YAI mobilizes existing land and human resources within the church; improves community livelihoods and food security long-term; and builds capacity in annual conferences toward long-term financial solvency.

Support food security and agricultural sustainability in Africa.

The post YAI transforms lives and gives hope to farming communities in Africa appeared first on Global Ministries.

Yambasu Agriculture Initiative (YAI) farmers from 15 annual conferences across Africa, who recently trained in Porto Novo, Benin, are realizing tremendous change and results in their farming skills upon returning home. Several examples of both small and more robust changes enacted by five initiative participants follow. Even small changes yield encouraging results.

The General Board of Global Ministries provided funding for a fish farming project for an annual conference in Côte d’Ivoire.

“The first phase of the project for Tilapia Fish Farming Enterprise in Gouagonoupleu in Man Mission District included the creation and implementation of 15 ponds with a capacity of about 3000 fish each,” said Simon Nathan Koffi, YAI Cote D’Ivoire project manager. “Songhai training helped us to have a better understanding of the stages of fish production and especially the rational management of fish feed. We were taught natural fish farming skills and how we can improve our productivity by controlling the physio-chemical parameters of the pond water.”

Koffi’s fish farming tuition is paying off as the fish farm project smoothly gets underway. As he monitors the growth of the fish, everything seems to be working well and he expects a bumper harvest in April. 

In Kamina, North Katanga Conference in the DR Congo, the farm supervisor, Alex Ilunga Kibombe, says his team is using the Songhai Center knowledge sparingly.

“After Songhai, we evaluated the activities we were doing compared to the methods being used at Songhai Center. We agreed that Songhai is a model that we would want to use,” he explained. Integrating the Songhai model will be done in phases, Kibombe said.  

“The Songhai training really pushed us to increase the level of farming that we are implementing right now and to learn some new strategies,” he said. “In the animal department, we were amazed at the way the Songhai Center set up their chicken farm and how they produce their feed. We thought this was something that we could do to increase our farm margins by minimizing cost of feed.”

Kibombe says there is a shortage of broilers in his episcopal area in the rainy season. Hence the price goes up threefold. “So, we thought this could be the opportunity to take advantage of the demand. We bought egg incubators. We will be using them to hatch the eggs and multiply our production rate,” he said.

Based on their training in Songhai, Kibombe’s team is assessing how to transition from using chemical fertilizers to organic fertilizers. “We bought organic fertilizers from Zambia. We have started our vegetable production site where we are using the organic fertilizers. We are having success because we finished the nursery in time; now we are transplanting it. The vegetables are growing well,” he says. With time, he is hopeful they will be able to produce their own organic fertilizers.

“With funding from Global Ministries, we recently bought a tractor, a plow and harrow, which increased our production. Last year, we did only six hectares (14.8 acres). This year, we tripled that to 18 hectares. And because we started seed production, we have clients who bought our seed. It is inspiring us now to do other varieties. We are marketing the seeds and having more clients and more contracts,” he confirmed.

In Northeast Nigeria, Ephraim Ibrahim Jen and team are stocking up locally-produced animal feed in preparation for cattle raising.

“We are making use of the knowledge we got from Songhai especially in rice production. We are doing irrigation like what we saw in Songhai; only that we do not have much organic manure since we do not yet have animals to produce what we need on the farms at the moment,” he said. The ongoing elections and the redenomination of the Nigerian currency is affecting the farm work because cash withdrawal from the banks are restricted at this time.

In the Central Nigeria Annual Conference, the YAI team, led by Ezekiel Nyangani, is doing dry season rice production on 10 hectares of land, which Nyangani says is by far better with expected high yields. “The cycle will continue into the rainy season so that rice production, which is the staple food for many Nigerians, will continue all year round. The main challenge though remains the high cost of fuel used for pumping water during irrigation. Fuel cost is now three times more than the cost budgeted in the project,” he said. “This undermines the profit margin at the end of the farming year.”

In East Angola, Gilbert João Augusto says his annual conference has the objectives of raising pigs and ensuring food security, which is linked with teaching community farmers new methods of growing and planting maize. “The training in Songhai helped to increase the food production skills of our local communities. Upon our return, we taught them new cultivation techniques and the use of organic matter, which is less expensive and most times free,” he said. “Hence, communities are producing and marketing more food and they can now meet more of their family needs.”

The project sells the maize from the farms as they continue to distribute animals to community farmers for use in their respective farm projects as well as sell the pigs, which will help them gain financial autonomy. “Harvesting maize by hand is taking a lot of time with just a few workers available,” Augusto says.

“Animal husbandry has been identified as a potential for revenue generation for YAI Sierra Leone. We are increasingly adapting our animal rearing skills to technical skills learned at Songhai,” YAI project coordinator in Sierra Leone, the Rev. Solomon Rogers, noted.

“We learned that fattening pigs without control, for instance, dampens customers’ spirit. Adding certain herbs to pigs’ feed, as we learned from Songhai, has been successful in producing lean meat, which has increased the demand for our meat from customers,” Rogers confirmed.

The workshop offerings and practical experience that farmers and church leaders received through the Songhai training helped each of these YAI participants choose different aspects of agriculture and animal raising techniques to fit their contexts and levels of production; yet all of them have made progress in their current agribusiness practice by incorporating new methods in their farm management. This has encouraged annual conferences to try new techniques to improve their production and invest in their own development, a key goal of the Yambasu Agriculture Initiative.

Phileas Jusu is the director of communications for the Sierra Leone Annual Conference.

The Yambasu Agriculture Initiative

The Yambasu Agriculture Initiative was launched by Global Ministries in 2020, renaming an earlier agriculture program in honor of the legacy of Bishop John K. Yambasu. The program works toward the realization of the vision shared by the late bishop that the African church can be made self-sustaining if its resources, both land and human, are optimized through agriculture. Through the provision of grants and training, YAI mobilizes existing land and human resources within the church; improves community livelihoods and food security long-term; and builds capacity in annual conferences toward long-term financial solvency.

Support food security and agricultural sustainability in Africa.

The post Songhai training ignites new drive in Yambasu Agriculture Initiative farmers appeared first on Global Ministries.

Along the coast of southern Mozambique, beautiful and visible changes are taking place. Where once the land was wild and idle, 75 acres of land owned by the Mozambique United Methodist Church have been put into production and now yield fruits in their harvest seasons.

In Inhambane province, the Massinga area includes five districts of the UMC with a total of 30 parishes. Two churches are within the city of Massinga, but the rest are found in rural areas. Although the church facilities are small, they have land.

In the Massinga South and Anhane districts, a total of 12.3 acres of different kinds of vegetables have been cultivated and harvested on church land. Another 62 acres in the districts yield cassava, a cash crop, which will provide income for the church and the people cultivating the land. An additional 12 acres in Chilacua District has already yielded enough vegetables to bring in U.S. $1,100 for this first pilot project.

Anhane District now has a farm with 25 pigs, which have multiplied their families with 60 piglets running through a newly fenced-in yard. In Massinga North District, a small herd of 12 cattle have a home on some wide-open church land, enough for grazing and room to grow.

And fruit trees are taking root at churches across 12 acres of the Massinga area. Soon they will yield their fruits too. All of these changes are the fruits of the first Yambasu Agriculture Initiative pilot program cultivated in the Mozambique South Annual Conference.

Over the last two years, the initiative has awarded grants to 15 United Methodist annual conferences in Africa, with grants to three new conferences beginning this year. Conferences participating in the initiative include: Sierra Leone, Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, DRC (South, Central, North Katanga and East episcopal areas), Angola (East and West), Zimbabwe, (East and West) Mozambique (South and North) and Nigeria (Central and North East).

Blair Moses Kamanga, a missionary serving the Mozambique North Annual Conference, was the technical advisor for the pilot project. It has provided valuable information as the conference evaluates the next steps in agriculture production.

According to Dr. Kepifri Lakoh, the director of the Yambasu Agriculture Initiative, the initiative allows Global Ministries to accompany annual conferences as they build their capacities and develop sustainable revenue streams through agriculture. He describes two main goals for the initiative: financial sustainability for annual conferences and an increase in food security at the community level.

“We have a moral obligation to support the communities,” Lakoh noted. “The grants we issue are not only about microenterprises at the conference level. We also develop interventions that produce locally and increase the level of food security and income at the household level.”

To meet the challenge of helping conference leaders and farmers manage projects more effectively and increase their creativity to explore innovative ideas, the Yambasu Initiative recently held a six-week training session at the Songhai Center in Porto Novo, Benin. Sessions were held in English, French and Portuguese for two weeks each.

The Yambasu Agriculture Initiative was the first major project launched by Roland Fernandes as he became general secretary of Global Ministries in 2020. “The initiative seeks to utilize African resources, both land and human expertise, to develop sustainable revenue streams through agriculture for the growth of the church,” Fernandes said in his message shared at the Benin training event.

“Key to the initiative are: 1. conference ownership, 2. sustainability and 3) indigenous solutions (African solutions for African problems),” he said. “I would like to state that it is my commitment to the continuing realization of this vision; walking alongside bishops and other church leaders on the African Continent.”

Mozambique sent two missionaries, Kamanga and John Nday, who works in Cambine, and eight more staff members to the training in Benin. Lakoh is hopeful that this high-level training will help them dream bigger and assure them of what they can do. But training happens at all levels of the initiative.

The Massinga pilot trained 90 church and community leaders from 30 groups in various aspects of agriculture production. These 90 were trained to be facilitators in their communities. Currently they have passed on their knowledge to about 900 other farmers, for a total of 1,000 trained in one year. Participating farmers received seeds and farming tools in addition to training.

Luisa Chiquede is one of the project beneficiaries from the Anhane community. “I used to grow my cassava using old agricultural practices. The seed from the project has increased my production. I can see the huge difference now.”

“We have already started addressing hunger problems and income generation through the sale of cassava and groundnuts,” she said. “I am making cassava flour to sell at market.

“I think this project is also a catalyst for others. When people see us busy harvesting and working in our fields, they ask us how they can be involved.”

The Mozambique Episcopal Area will implement two more grants in 2023. One will provide a phase two program for Mozambique South Conference to continue to develop the Massinga projects. The second grant will begin a project in Mozambique North Conference in two UMC districts, Gondola and Macate.

Leaders working in Massinga identified several gaps that are currently being addressed during the project’s second phase. These include better irrigation methods, additional cassava processing machines, farm machinery to till and harvest the land, storage for harvested crops and feed, and a general need to scale-up cassava, piggery, cattle and chicken production.

The North Mozambique Conference’s new project aims at improving sustainable income for the church, livelihoods for farmers, food and nutrition security for communities and climate resilience in general. In addition to vegetable production, the North Conference will be investing in bananas, plantains and poultry production.

Fernandes confirmed Global Ministries ongoing support for the Yambasu Initiative. “From the agriculture conference in South Africa in 2019 to the launching of the Yambasu Agriculture Initiative in 2020 and the recent training of agriculture experts from different parts of Africa at the Songhai Center in Benin, the Holy Spirit continues to lead us in this path toward building the foundations that are needed to realize this initiative’s vision.”

Christie R. House is a consultant writer and editor with Global Ministries and UMCOR.

The Yambasu Agriculture Initiative

The Yambasu Agriculture Initiative (YAI) was launched by Global Ministries in 2020, renaming an earlier agriculture program in honor of the legacy of Bishop John K. Yambasu, who died in a car accident that year. The program works toward the realization of the vision shared by the late bishop that the African church can be made self-sustaining if its resources, both land and human, are optimized through agriculture. Through the provision of grants and training, YAI mobilizes existing land and human resources within the church; improves community livelihoods and food security long-term; and builds capacity in annual conferences toward long-term financial solvency.

Support food security and agricultural sustainability in Africa.

The post Yambasu Agriculture Initiative takes root in Mozambique appeared first on Global Ministries.