After working with the local villagers and living in the villages, we have seen for ourselves the difficulties the Rural farmers experience each day. They have plenty of land, and they work the land from sunrise to sunset. But because they do not have sufficient tools, Seed and fertilizers, they cannot produce enough food for themselves. Even in some town markets, the quality of food is not good, and scarce.
Many villages are small and the villagers cannot farm the small plots of existing land. They own large amounts of land, but because it has been dormant for a long time, and they just do not have the physical strength, or the means to develope it.
The effects of Malnutrition kill many children before they reach 5 years old. We asked the Chiefs, elders, and both the men and woman that live in rural villages in Kaduna and Kebbe states, Nigeria, How we could help them. 95% said the needed a machine that could plow their fields and break up the Hard ground. These people have many urgent needs, yet They see the need to grow good quality food. The Abundant Harvest Program was devised to meet the urgent needs of Ungwa/Fada village and surrounding villages.
But as we have seen almost every village close to them, face similar challenges. The Abundant Harvest Project will benefit the lives of thousand or extreme poverty families throughout the whole area.
When deciding which villages that needed help the most, we took into consideration the following facts.
1. The Level of Sickness and Disease within the villages.
2. The condition of the land, and its soil condition.
3. The Number of villagers within the villages.
4. The number of able bodied villagers that can work the land.
5. Any tools and equipment they already had.
6. Access to water for irrigation.
7. Any current help and assistance from Government. NGO's and other volunteer organizations.
In all 20 villages we found extremely high numbers of children that have, or are in the early process of suffering from a disease called Rickets. This causes the hips, pelvis, upper and lower legs to bow, ether outwards or inwards. Children are in terrible pain, and greatly restricted in doing daily chores. In many tribes, children with disabilities are often given little attention. But here in Kaduna State and Kebbe state they love the disabled children as much as able bodied children. Rickets is caused by lack of Vitamin [D]. lack of good high protein food and and Vitamins, lead to stunted growth and other diseases.
The Profits will be put into building a new school, and medical center, that will serve all the nearby village children.
We will be plowing their fields, plus re-using fields that have been dormant for several years. By Plowing and then using a Power harrow to break up the ground, farmers will be able to plant new seeds, and grow varied crops. AS Part of the project, In turn each village will allow us to use 2 acre, that's 40 acres in all for high value crops.
The high value crops will be sold to cover the Running costs of the Project. Example: Tractor and Machinery maintenance, Fuel and Oil, Full time Machinery operator, plus there will profits left over. As this is a new project, we cannot accurately calculate the cost yet, but we have estimated the cost based on fuel, Labor, machinery maintenance and looking at similar projects in other Developing countries. Not only will villagers grow abundant Harvests, and excess crops to sell. disease will be greatly reduced. The profits will also pay to have a new deep bore well in each village.
We also will be using the local river as the source of irrigation, to the fields. [Were possible].
To See The Abundant harvest Project in Detail, Please visit Philadelphia Mission farming project [See Menu]
Remember, event penny you donate goes to help these extreme poor. We at Philadelphia Mission are not salaried and all charity expenses and overheads is covered by our volunteers and some good friends. Our overheads are very low.
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