Southern Africa by Air, Land, and Sea on a Budget

by: BorderJumpers

Wed Apr 14, 2010 at 10:11:10 AM EDT

If you haven't seen our 1,000 words about each country series, you can read more about Johannesburg, Durban, Mozambique, and Botswana. In the coming weeks, we'll write 1,000 word diaries about Cape Town and Pretoria.

From the United States, the best point of entry is the Johannesburg airport, which runs direct flights from Dulles (DC) and JFK in New York (via Dakar, Senegal). You can find flights as low as $1,100USD round trip per person round trip on South African Airways. Just like Nairobi, people will try to scare you about Johannesburg. Yes, crime is a real problem - but don't let that stop you from seeing this incredible city.

After a terrific meeting with Africa Harvest, we spent a half-day visiting the Apartheid Museum. This is an unforgettable stop and deserves a solid four hours to really absorb the incredible multi-media exhibitions. Also, check out Soweto, one of the most infamous ghettos in the world. If you can, take a small group tour by bicycle or by foot. We were rapt as we absorbed and listened to the incredible stories of struggle, including the amazing student revolts against Apartheid. On the fun side, the SAB beer museum is a must-do experience.  We loved it so much we even blogged about it.  

Helping Conserve Wildlife-and Agriculture-in Mozambique

by: BorderJumpers

Tue Feb 09, 2010 at 10:24:42 AM EST

Madyo Couto has a tough job. He works under the Mozambique Ministry of Tourism to help manage the country's Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs). These areas were initially established to help conserve and protect wildlife, but they're now evolving to include other uses of land that aren't specifically for conservation.

Madyo explained that in addition to linking the communities that live near or in conservation areas to the private sector to build lodges and other services for tourists, they're also helping farmers establish honey projects to generate income. In many of national parks and other conservation areas, farmers resort to poaching and hunting wildlife to earn money. Establishing alternative-and profitable-sources of income is vital to protecting both agriculture and biodiversity in the TFCAs.

Stay tuned for more blogs about the links between wildlife conservation and agriculture.

Presribing Improved Nutrition to Combat HIV/AIDS in Africa

by: BorderJumpers

Fri Feb 05, 2010 at 09:47:11 AM EST

Everywhere I travel in Africa, there's increasing acknowledgement about the importance of nutrition when it comes to treating HIV/AIDS.  Many retroviral and HIV/AIDS drugs don't work if patients aren't getting enough vitamins and nutrients in their diets or accumulating enough body fat.

According to Dr. Rosa Costa, Director of the Kyeema Foundation in Mozambique, many farmers are often too sick to grow crops, but "chickens are easy."

The International Rural Poultry Center of the  Kyeema Foundation  and the  International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics  are working with farmers-most of them women-to raise chickens on their farms. Because women are often the primary caregivers for family members with HIV/AIDS, they need easy, low-cost sources of both food and income.

Unlike many crops, raising free-range birds can require few outside inputs and very little maintenance from farmers. Birds can forage for insects and eat kitchen scraps, instead of expensive grains. They provide not only meat and eggs for household use and income, but also pest control and manure for fertilizer.

Breeding Respect for Indigenous Seeds

by: BorderJumpers

Wed Feb 03, 2010 at 11:04:22 AM EST

Jessica Milgroom isn't your typical graduate student. Rather than spending her days in the library of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, her research is done in the field-literally. Since 2006, Jessica has been working with farming communities living inside Limpopo National Park, in southern Mozambique.

When the park was established in 2001, it was essentially "parked on top of 27,000 people," says Jessica. Some 7,000 of the residents needed to be resettled to other areas, including within the park, which affected their access to food and farmland. Jessica's job is to see what can be done to improve resettlement food security.

But rather than simply recommending intensified agriculture in the park to make better use of less land, Jessica worked with the local community to collect and identify local seed varieties. One of the major problems in Mozambique, as well as other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, is the lack of seed. As a result, farmers are forced to buy low-quality seed because nothing else is available.

In addition to identifying and collecting seeds, Jessica is working with a farmer's association on seed trials, testing varieties to see what people like best. In addition, farmers are learning how to purify and store seeds (see Innovation of the Week: Investing in Better Food Storage in Africa).

Weevils, the farmers tell Jessica, are worse than ever, destroying both the seed and crops they store in traditional open-air, granaries. But the farmers are now building newer granaries that are more tightly sealed and help prevent not only weevils but also mold and aflatoxins from damaging crops.

Today, farmers and breeders alike have a greater respect for Mozambique's indigenous seed varieties. According to Jessica, one of the biggest accomplishments of the project has been getting breeders and farmers to talk to each other. "It's been interesting for both groups," says Jessica, "and it needs to be a regular discussion" between them.