Tag Archives: farmers

Female Farmer Succeeds Through Training

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Story by John Allen | External Relations Specialist | Heifer South Africa

Constance Masala, her husband and two children live in Musunda village, South Africa. For several years, their village suffered from a serious drought and the family survived month to month on a meager government grant.

A couple years after joining the Khongode Project in 2009, the family received five goats and livestock training from Heifer South Africa. During Heifer’s training, Constance studied basic veterinary care and also trained her children to detect when the animals have fallen ill. Now she can correctly identify common diseases, properly measure medications, vaccinate livestock against diseases and assist during problematic births. She also learned how to protect her goats from baboons and jackals, which plague the village.

Goats, training

Through Heifer’s training, Constance Masala and her children have learned how to properly care for their goats. Photo courtesy of Heifer South Africa

Constance has successfully reared eight more goats from her original five, which have brought joy to the Masala family and other impoverished families through Passing on the Gift® (POG). During a June 14, 2012 POG ceremony, Constance passed on a pregnant goat to project participant Gladys Munzhelele, which allowed Gladys to start a small-scale farming business.

“Our lives have changed,” Constance said. “Every morning my husband and I and the kids go to the kraal to check if the goats slept well.”

This Mother’s Day, help women like Constance improve their livelihoods and provide for their families. Give your mother a gift of purpose and impact. Gift Different. Give Heifer.

This Mother's Day. Gift Different. Give Heifer. Photo courtesy of Heifer International

This Mother’s Day. Gift Different. Give Heifer. Photo courtesy of Heifer International

Learn how you can help Pass on the Gift®

Support Women Worldwide on Mother’s Day

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In Spitak, in the Lori region of Armenia, lives Irina Dallaqyan, a 37-year-old widow and mother to three sons. The family has lived in temporary housing since 1988 when an earthquake left them homeless. A local farm provided Irina with work as a dairy maid, but her position only paid an inadequate $140 a month.

Mother's Day

Irina with her sons, Arayik (left) and Vladimir, at their home in Spitak, Lori region, Armenia. Photo by Aram Petrosyan, Program Coordinator, Heifer Armenia

Irina’s neighbor told her about Heifer International’s work with Spitak Farmers Association and she made a request to become a recipient in the next Passing on the Gift® ceremony.

“I received two pigs from the project, [but] because my family lives in a temporary shelter, we have no barn,” Irina said.

The Heifer project, Agricultural Development Project in Spitak and Lernantsk Communities, helps farmers house their animals together and share the work and income generated from the joint farming.

“One of my pigs delivered eight piglets, and the other delivered nine,” Irina said. “I sold 10 piglets out of 17 and generated 180,000 Armenian drams (about $430). The money I saved from the sales of the piglets was directed to purchase feed for the animals. The rest, seven piglets, I kept to enlarge my farm.”

Through Heifer’s work, Irina found the support she needed and looks forward to future success.

This Mother’s Day you can support women worldwide with gift ideas from Heifer and give your mom something that truly makes a difference. Your gift can support impoverished mothers with training, livestock and clean water, which will help them rise out of poverty and become self-reliant.

This Mother's Day. Gift Different. Give Heifer. Photo courtesy of Heifer International

This Mother’s Day. Gift Different. Give Heifer. Photo courtesy of Heifer International

You can help Heifer support mothers worldwide.

From the Field: Sharing the Burden

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This weekly post shines a light on a handful of stories from Heifer.org’s “From the Field”From the Field section.

Granny and Narek

Granny Siranush and grandson Narek at their home in Chinar, Armenia. Photo by Aram Petrosyan, Program Coordinator, Heifer Armenia

Springtime often evokes thoughts of baby animals, beautiful flowers and warm sunshine. But for the Voskanyan family of Chinar, Armenia, it is the most dangerous season. Cultivating their fields is dangerous work because Azeri snipers may at any moment break the cease-fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Daily routines, like taking their children to school, are also done with fearful hearts. In 2011, the family became Heifer International participants and received a pregnant heifer through Passing on the Gift®. The cow has lightened the family’s burden by providing milk to make butter and sour cream.

Philippine dairy farmers must have passion, patience and perseverance to succeed, because poor nutrition and disease can easily rob farmers of their prized cows. More than 100 potential partner families of Heifer Southern Philippines recently visited successful dairy farms to learn about the industry. These learning opportunities activated participants with the knowledge to become businessmen and women of great potential. They quickly realized that, “There is daily money in milk.”

Africa Presidential Initiative Launch

Heifer Malawi participated in the Presidential Initiative Launch on April 4, 2013. Photo courtesy of Heifer Malawi

Heifer continually works with partners to mobilize projects that will positively impact participants like the Voskanyan family and smallholder farmers. On April 4, 2013, Heifer Malawi showcased Heifer’s work in the Dairy Value Chain Project at the Presidential Initiative Launch in Africa. The event launched two projects, Two Crops per Year and One Cow per Family, which aim to strengthen irrigation and engage farmers in dairy production. Heifer Malawi Country Director Petronella Halwiindi said it was an excellent opportunity to share Heifer’s role and represent all its major players.

 Learn how you can impact families worldwide

 

Heifer International Alpaca Breeders Win Awards at Festival in Peru

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Heifer International Peru

Photo by Dave Anderson, Courtesy of Heifer International

Alpaca breeders gathered to show their livestock and sell their woolen goods at the first-ever Paqocha Raymi Alpaca Festival in October 2012. Two breeders involved in Heifer’s Alpaca Biodiversity in High Andean Communities project won awards for the high caliber of their animals. One of the awards was fourth place in an international alpaca contest. The recovery of the colored alpaca is one of the project’s components, and participants are working to improve and reestablish the value and breeding of colored alpacas.

Universal Children’s Day: Young Dreams for Poultry Business

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In celebration of Universal Children’s Day we highlight a young participant of Heifer Armenia.

Story by Anna Arakelyan | Business Educator | Development Principles NGO

Universal Children's Day: Young Rudik holds a chicken from his poultry farm, a business he created through a YES! Youth Club affiliated with Heifer International Armenia.

Young Rudik holds a chicken from his poultry farm. Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

Rudik Simonyan studies business as a member of Heifer’s YES! Youth Club in Mets Sariar, a community in the Shirak region of Armenia. Within the framework of the Young Agriculturists Network of Armenia (YANOA) project, 12-year-old Rudik received a small seed grant to start his own poultry business, in which he practices the skills and knowledge he learned during lessons at the club.

Rudik established a small chicken farm, which he named Tchoutik, the Armenian word for chicken. He bought eight hens and a rooster, as well as barley and vitamins. A few months later, he sold six of the hens’ chicks, and earned AMD 12,000, or about $30. He used part of the money to buy more feed for his poultry and passed the rest on to another student in his club.

Universal Children's Day: Rudik shows off his poultry farm in Armenia, which he started through a Heifer International project.

Rudik shows off his poultry farm. Photo courtesy of Heifer International.

Rudik’s father died several years ago, so he considers himself the “man” of his family, which includes his mother and sister. He plans to build on his current poultry business to make it larger and very successful so that he can take excellent care of his family. Rudik wants to be able to provide his mother and sister with every necessary comfort for a happy life. His biggest dream is to save the money he earns from his business to buy them a beautiful new house.

Heifer Inspires Rural Youth to Stay Put

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The migration of young people from rural areas to urban in the hope of a better future is common worldwide. This is understandable in many ways, but it can have negative effects overall (urban slums; overloaded urban infrastructure; and an absence of young rural innovators, farmers, caretakers, etc.) What we’ve often seen in our work, however, is that young people engaged in Heifer projects often choose to stay in their rural communities. Doing so allows them to not only remain with their families, but also give back to the community that helped raise them. Clara Alanya of Peru is a great example of this phenomenon.

Clara Alanya is a young leader who has made a difference in her community. Her view of rural life and devotion to her work have enabled her to rise above the exclusion and chauvinism still common in the small farming community of Buenos Aires in Huancavelica, the poorest region in Peru.

Clara grew up in a family that imbued its members with strong values. The oldest of five children, Clara says she felt it was her responsibility to set a good example for her siblings.

When she was 19, her father took her to all the training workshops that the Peruvian Social Studies Center organized in their community. In those workshops, Clara began to think about the potential for development in her community and the possibilities for emphasizing local production and strengthening rural community organizations.

Certain that happiness and success are not to be found only in large cities, she decided to stay and take advantage of all the workshops offered in her community, unlike many young people who migrate to work outside their communities, scorning rural life.

“I went to all the workshops about how to build improved stoves, raise guinea pigs, keep a family garden and raise chickens, and my family and I made changes to our house to make it a healthy home. Now I know all about how to build an improved stove. My neighbors ask me to teach them, and I do it with pleasure.

At such a young age, however, it wasn’t easy to convince others to recognize her leadership. She had to persevere, participating in community assemblies, before she was respected as an outstanding young member of the community.

In 2010, she began participating in a Heifer project called Training Communities to Exercise their Rights to Natural Resources. Clara and other promoters from 40 rural communities received training on legal issues, developing skills for defending rights related to land ownership, water use, food security and climate change.

Clara now shares her knowledge voluntarily, facilitating workshops in her community and neighboring communities.

“I used to be afraid to talk in front of a group, but I lost my fear little by little, thanks to the training workshops. I’ve gained more confidence with the Heifer project, because the facilitators trust me. Now when older people say, ‘Why is she going to teach us? She’s so young!’ I don’t even resent it, because many people do support me and I show them everything I’ve learned.

Clara’s family has also become an example tot he entire community, confronting poverty with perseverance, understanding, and above all, family unity.

“What we do in my family is talk things over. My parents don’t make any decisions without consulting all the members of the family. That way we all agree, and we support each other in everything.

Now 23, Clara is a young woman with many dreams, who is committed to working for her community. She has shown that the most important step toward progress is to shake off the lethargy brought on by conformity and hopelessness, and envision a better future.

Yes! Invest in Agricultural Research to Feed the World

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Photo by Dave Anderson
Isaya and Restituta Mlewa at their Tanzanian organic farm.

Bill Gates’ 2012 annual letter “is an argument for making the choice to keep on helping extremely poor people build self-sufficiency.”

In an interview with the U.K.’s MSN news, Gates explains that his hope for the letter is that it “helps people connect to the choice we all have to make. Relatively small investments changed the future for hundreds of millions of small farm families. The choice now is this: Do we continue those investments so that the 1 billion people who remain poor benefit? Or do we tolerate a world in which one in seven people is undernourished, stunted and in danger of starving to death?

“In times of tight budgets, we have to pick our priorities,” Gates continues. “It’s clear that in this particular time, we’re in danger of deciding that aid to the poorest is not one of them. I am confident, however, that if people understand what their aid has already accomplished—and its potential to accomplish so much more—they’ll insist on doing more, not less. That is why I wrote my letter.”

At Heifer, our supporters, donors, staff members and participants around the world say Amen! and pass the tomatoes to spreading the gospel on how small investments (in our case heifers, goats, bees or tree seedlings), can stop hunger in the short-term and create sustainable income in the long-term. Every day we see investments in small farm families empower them beyond subsistence to create a chain of self-sufficiency that lifts up entire communities.

Heifer works with the Gates Foundation on the East Africa Dairy Development project that not only connects dairy farmers to markets, but links public and private interests including banks and investors, to create a growing local economy based on agriculture.

In his letter, Gates emphasizes not only innovations in agricultural production, but also in creative partnerships to better feed the world. “I am excited because innovative partnerships that capitalize on the comparative advantages of all these players can accelerate progress, speeding the transition beyond aid for many poor countries.”

Heifer shares similar goals with the Gates Foundation, including a focus on investing in women, preserving land for future generations and developing innovations in the field that engage the people we are trying to help in making the best decisions for their land, culture, sustainability and environment.

Isaya and Restituta Mlewa, shown above, and featured in this World Ark magazine article, are proof that participants have innovations of their own to add. From the gift of one dairy cow and Heifer training in dairy and organic farming, the couple came up with their own systems using animal and plant waste that are now an example for the thousands of farmers they have trained across Africa.

In Nepal, the Heifer project community of Shaktikhor, through a Farmer Field School, did their own research into feed varieties and care that improved the health and increased the weight of goats throughout the community. Their innovations were shared and picked up by other Heifer project communities in Nepal.

At a panel discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland today, Gates said “innovations in crop science, access to information for farmers and new models of cooperation between governments and private enterprises are some of the developments that can improve global food security,” he said. “I believe the opportunity to double or even triple (food) productivity is there.”

Join the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Heifer International in promoting the value of investments in agriculture around the world to end hunger and poverty.

Clinton School Student Shows Ugandan Kids What Farming’s All About

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Shamim Okolloh is a Clinton School of Public Service student who recently returned from Uganda, having spent five months there for her capstone project. During her time there, Shamim developed a program to bring high school students studying agriculture out of the classroom and into the field. By visiting Heifer project farms, these students had the chance to see farming in action. Doing so changed their views from believing farming was unprofitable and for old people to seeing agriculture as a sustainable future. I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by Shamim, and she has allowed us to share a part of it here.

Shamim returns soon to evaluate her work, and we look forward to seeing more of what she can offer. Read past posts about Shamim here.

Heifer Project Brings Prosperity and Peace to Malawi

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While preparing to receive dairy cattle, Heifer project participants were made fun of by doubting neighbors. Two years later, these successful farmers foster peace and share knowledge with those who mocked them.

How to Choose Coffee with a Conscience

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The next time you buy coffee, make sure you are environmentally aware about where you coffee comes from. The words Fair Trade, Shade-Grown, and Organic are just a couple of buzzwords that are now being used to describe your cup-of-joe.

Haven’t heard of these words? Here is what they mean:

What’s shade-grown coffee?

  • “Shade-grown” generally describes coffee grown under a canopy of diverse species of shade trees, often on small farms using traditional techniques.
  • Shade-grown coffee, in contrast to sun-grown or “technified” coffee, provides food and shelter for songbirds, as well as other animals and plants.
  • Shade trees also provide natural mulch, which reduces the need for chemical fertilizers. Up to 40 species of trees can be found on traditionally managed shade coffee plantations; these trees protect the coffee plants that grow beneath them from rain and sun, help maintain soil quality, reduce the need for weeding and aid in pest control. Organic matter from the shade trees reduces erosion, contributes nutrients to the soil, and prevents metal toxicities.
  • As rainforests disappear, shade coffee farms offer one of the last places for birds to feed and rest in many tropical regions. In addition to birds, shade coffee plantations provide habitat for orchids, insects, mammals (such as bats), reptiles, and amphibians.

What’s organic coffee?

  • Organic coffee growing strives for a balance with nature, using methods and materials which are of low impact to the environment.
  • Organic farming replenishes and maintains soil fertility, eliminates the use of toxic chemical pesticides and fertilizers, and builds a biologically diverse agriculture. In a natural ecosystem, nature constantly works to correct imbalances. Organic farmers do the same by selecting the most environmentally friendly solutions to the pest and disease problems that affect their crops.
  • When a grower or processor is certified organic, a public or private organization verifies that it meets or exceeds standards defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

What is fair trade coffee?

  • Certified Fair Trade coffee has been traded and sold according to international fair trade criteria, which includes:
    • Farmers are guaranteed a minimum price for their coffee. If world price rises above this floor price, farmers will be paid a small premium above market price.
    • Coffee importers provide credit to farmers against future sales.
    • Importers and roasters agree to develop direct, long-term trade relationships with producer groups, cutting out middlemen (or “coyotes”) and bringing greater commercial stability to an extremely unstable market.
  • The fair trade movement is based on the idea that producers in developing countries are capable of achieving economic success provided they receive fair prices in international markets for what they produce.
Learn more about organic, shade-grown and/or Fair Trade coffee at

Watch about Heifer’s work with small-holder farmers here: