Hi! I am Yokateme Tii-kuzu.
I’m born to feed people. Suppose I’m not doing it. I’m wasting my life.
I dropped out of my Master’s because I felt I was being selfish, doing something that only benefits me. My MSc became like a burden. I came back to DRC to farm and feed people.
My company is MabeleAgric. It is three years old now, and we grew from 2 to 10 people. MabeleAgric has one goal: feed people and save the planet.
We believe that vegetable production is the best way to feed the hungry. We mainly produce indigenous African leafy legumes (Malabar Spinach & African Nightshade) because they are cheap and accessible to those without solid capital. We implement a consistent production system with no supply shortage to ensure that we counter price variations and maintain stable supply.
If Africa has to become an agriculture powerhouse, it must be through organic production! Thus, MabeleAgric uses agroecological farming to contribute to a sustainable food system. We apply circular farming by mixing poultry and vegetable production, growing food organically, Hiring & training local indigenous communities, improving livelihoods, feeding people, and minimizing damage to the planet.
So far, MabeleAgric has worked on about 4 ha, produced 8 different legumes, worked with about 5 smallholders and had a total yield of 60T.
We have encountered and are still experiencing many obstacles, from technical difficulties to logistics and personnel.
- It costs us 180$ per sample to run soil analysis in DRC. We will never do it.
- Our water pump kept breaking down every two weeks & this caused low yields in our tomato project.
- Lack of transport got us wasting lots of products while we were in Plateau des Bateke.
- We have limited knowledge about pests & diseases and can’t really put in place the right IPM.
- Limited capital can only allow us to run small-size projects.
We would really love to be supported with a water pump & other equipment, transportation and capital to move us forward.
Despite that, MabeleAgric aims to keep on improving and plans even to get better. In fact, we plan to work on our supply chains. MabeleAgric and the whole food system must become sovereign and resilient. We are setting our eyes on local production & distribution of seeds, bio-pesticides and bio-fertilizers.
Plus, on training and disseminating knowledge on agroecological practice with limited agrochemical inputs. Smallholders vegetables farmers have been fed the conventional farming system, but they do not have the financial and logistical resources to practice it. Thus, many smallholders vegetable producers end up with unsuccessful projects.
To solve that ;
We help them first improve their production techniques by relying more on cost-effective organic practices.
Then, help them with project planning to ensure they don’t produce during peak season where competition is high and prices low.
The SDG’s we are part of solving are:
SDG 1 – No Poverty
SDG 2 – Zero Hunger
SDG 3 – Good Health & Wellbeing
SDG 8 – Decent Work & Economic Growth
SDG 11 – Sustainable Cities & Communities
SDG 13 – Climate Action
The smiles we see on people’s faces are enough to tell the difference in their lives. We are touched when we remember the tale of one of the farmer workers here. His dream was to join University, and he always told me of that. With every payment we gave him, he saved and saved. Today, he took a break from MabeleAgric because he joined University, his dream.
It’s crazy how we could see the problems but not be able to point out the opportunities. We all see that Africa is not self-sufficient in terms of food. However, we are unable to point out that this is an opportunity. An opportunity to feed people! So I want to create a model that people can follow and become successful in agriculture.
I hate stereotypes as well. Like in the DRC, where people would say, “nothing can come out of DRC or Africa,” “you better go live in Europe cause there, you will succeed.” I wanted to prove that if I take my knowledge, passion back to my country and even the village, I could create something that would show the Africans that Africa is the place to be!
This is Adaptation.
This is sustainability.
Viva MabeleAgric.
To see more of MabelAgric, click this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0KlsbaouW6M#.
Got an Adaptation Story, you would love to share;
adaptationthinktank@iaasworld.org
