World Connect

Income Generation for Vulnerable Women in Nkimechi

Year: 2018

Country: Cameroon

Project Status: Funded

Impact Sector: Economic Opportunity

Project Investment: $728.10

Project Launch: 2-21-18

This project aims to create a vibrant and sustainable livelihood for single teenage mothers and widows through integrated cassava and maize production methods to provide income. In this manner, the women can address their own poverty, malnutrition of their children, and overall food insecurity in Nkimechi Village. Specifically, it will train and support small farmers in enhancing the cassava and maize yields by using improved inputs which will increase efficiency in processing cassava roots and maize. The training on improved agricultural techniques will be conducted for three groups comprising of 40 small farmers each. Each trained farmer will in turn train 3–4 additional farmers. Themes will include soil cultivation, planting techniques, spacing, mulching, weeding, harvesting, post-harvest processing and storage for product durability and marketing.

Project Update: 7-26-18

Upon receiving high breed maize seeds and farming equipment, this income generating farming project in Southwest Cameroon began to thrive. The now 50 vulnerable women participants in Nkimechi have learned valuable, sustainable farming techniques in an effort to increase their productivity and food security. The farmers have planted cassava stems, maize seeds that double their production, and even included the addition of a local plant, egusi, for harvesting. Through selling some of their produce on the market they have managed to save 25% of their earnings to purchase additional seeds for the next planting season. Additionally, the women took the initiative to develop an auxiliary body that runs the day-to-day operations of the farm, and has ensured that all 50 participants have increased food security -two healthy meals a day- since the beginning of this project.