Linda and Martha’s story
Linda has been a member of Siamucaala Community School’s Enterprise Committee since May 2021. When she first joined the committee she was already very involved in helping her mother Martha on their farm. Every harvesting season Linda would work in the field with her mother and sisters to collect their crops. However, they were often a bit sad when harvesting as they knew they would have to sell most of it quickly or it would rot or become eaten by weasels in the hot temperature of the Zambezi Valley. During her lessons with the Enterprise Committee, Linda began thinking about how her family might be able to start marketing their products differently. Linda learnt how to calculate the true cost of their vegetables and maize by adding in all of the activities that took place whilst farming. Martha, Linda’s mother became interested in finding a better price for their crops once she heard from Linda how they could work out the cost of production. They were particularly surprised to see how much tomatoes actually cost them to grow when they used chemicals compared to organic farming! After they saw this, they started trialing a portion of their farm using only organic methods.
Linda decided to speak to Sunny, School Club Zambia’s Programme Manager about different places that they could sell their vegetables and maize during one of his home visits to the farm. Sunny explained to Linda and Martha that if they sold their tomatoes in the local town of Maamba, they could get a much better price than selling off the local village road. Sunny also explained about the use of the purdue bags which could be bought at Siaamacaala’s Agricultural Hub Shop and that could prevent weavels from attacking their maize. The purdue bags could keep the maize safe for up to 24 months and they could sell the maize when the price was better, rather than just before it began to rot. The family have also been using the new hammer mill at the school (pictured above) to grind maize as they need it for their own use.
Linda said “I am so happy of the knowledge in business and marketing that I learnt from the Enterprise Committee. I am pleased that I can now help my family to market our products in new ways and that we are making more money. This money is now being used to make sure me and my sisters can finish school which makes us very happy."
