January 14, 2014

As we drove from Moshi, we crossed a wide plain dotted with trees. It was reminiscent of what I imagined the Serengeti might look like. Cropping (sunflowers, corn, etc.) was over for the season and the vegetation sparse and brown. The land was strewn with crop residue suggesting a bountiful harvest.

As the elevation increased, the land greened until we reached our destination at Kilema with its deep verdant valleys and narrow switchback gravel roads; the actively growing crops returned. Corn, coffee and banana predominate in this fertile area at the 5,000 foot level. The kitchen gardens sprouted 6 foot high cabbage plants and there were several beautiful flower gardens cared for by the Sisters at the Kilema Hospital.

The “farms” in the area are small – two to five acres, which is common in much of Africa. I understand that there are much longer mechanized commercial farms on the lower plains, but for here, the hoe and the wheelbarrow are the only visible farm tools.

One of Rotary’s project was to restore a furrow “ditch”, one of ten that date back hundreds of years but that fell into disrepair with the collapse of world coffee prices. These furrows lead from a river further up Kilimanjaro and the crop response to the water (from the one restored furrow) is very evident. One of our tasks was to find an index or numerical indicator of success that would demonstrate the economic response to the Rotary and community investment in irrigation.

In our inspection of the response to the renovated furrow, the President of the Rotary Club of Kilema pointed out the success of new varieties of coffee and bananas that realize their potential with the new irrigation. The new variety of coffee plant lives fro 35 years (versus 100 for the old) but provides more than twice the yield. The new banana plant produces up to 10 times that of the traditional banana tree. We expect that these new cultivars and irrigation will encourage local farmers to innovate.

The soils on Kilimanjaro are of volcanic origin and appear coarse and open, but I understand that they can become hard in very dry weather. They appear to have some organic content but still benefit from incorporated organic material. We visited a test site where the production of humus is demonstrated and the results of its incorporation shown. Indeed, organic agriculture is practiced widely and crops rotated and interplanted; there is minimal animal agriculture in the immediate area.

Better cultivars and irrigation will combine to improve the welfare of this farming community. I strongly suspect that our performance indicators will dictate restoration of the remaining nine furrows in the future.

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