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  New life from a dam

  Awadalla, Hamid (Sudan, 2018-10)

  "My position in my community has given me a power to participate in different issues related to livelihood and services that needed by my community, such as discussion on water for agriculture and domestic use". Hawa Zakeria – 32 years Hawa is married with 5 children (all boys), she lives in Majdoub village about 25km in west of Elfashir the capital city of North Darfur state in Sudan. Hawa said "before the construction of Seil Meit water weir I was poor, I have not been able to produce any agricultural production for several years, due to the drought and lack of rainfall, and in addition to that water goes through deep gulls thus water cannot be spread over our farming fields. One of very important meeting that I was involved in; the meeting regarding the construction of water weir. The participants were native administration, community leaders and Practical Action. When all the partners decided to construct the water weir my role was to mobilize the local resources and as well as the mobilizing the community to participate in weir construction. Hawa said when the flood came for the first time over our fields we came out to welcome it as we usually go out to welcome Eid Al-adha". She went saying the first flood brought a lot of dead trees that we used for cooking purposes for three months, she said the project also endowed as with different skills such as extension packages that related to agriculture and animal husbandry, in the past we depend on only one crop which is Tabaco, the problem with Tabaco it is long seasonal crop that last for seven month before you get the crop ready for market, in this long season we suffer a lot we work every day, we get hungry during the day because none part of the crop is eatable. But the situation has change now; we grow different short season crops such as sorghum, sesame, watermelon, okra groundnut, these crops have helped us to fight against hunger, poverty in addition to that we have good access to market due to the crop diversification. Farmer field schools approach: I have learnt new technologies through farmer field schools, these technologies are; certified seeds, crop diversification, pest control, land preparation, appropriate timing for plantation, seed propagation, agro-process and crop harvesting techniques. These technologies have helped me a lot to increase the production both qualitatively and quantitatively. Crop diversification has helped me a lot to have a varied meal and soil conservation through cultivating the legumes. During the rainy season I used to take sweat sorghum (the stem not seeds) to the nearby markets; revenues vary between 300 -500SDG per day, I have been able to buy goats for dairy production for my children, benefiting from plant residues, other than in the past because Tobacco does not fit as animal fodder, from the revenues also I paid school fees for three of my children
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  How your support is making a difference

  Practical Action (2018-10)

  Our supporters donated over £10.7 million in 2017/18. Thanks to your generosity, millions of individuals have had the opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty and whole communities are more resilient to disease, natural disasters and climate change.
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  Haatbazar: better trading venue for farmers

  Ghimire, Narayan

  Haatbazar in Bamka has come into operation since 30 June 2018. It is still baby steps since last four months, but is gaining popularity in an unexpected way. It takes place twice a week – on Saturdays and Tuesdays, almost for the whole day after 10 AM. It is not a big trading outlet and a few poor and smallholder farmers come from about an hour’s walking distance from the surrounding with their farm produce, particularly vegetables varying from about 20 kg to 50 kg in weight and assemble together on the side of Bamka bazar to sell them. Before initiating the haatbazar, farmers used to sell their vegetables to nearby collection centres or used to visit door to door shouldering heavy loads of their goods to sell. They were not doing both of these as of their wish, but it was a compulsion.
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  Leading by example at an early age

  Badr, Adil

  Thabit, an 18-year-old girl from Tahjour, leads by example. Her house is clean and well-organised, so is her neighbourhood – kept clean from any waste and dung.
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  Helping livestock farmers in Bangladesh

  Shahnaz, Farhana

  With support from Livestock Business Centre (LBC), an independent initiative of Practical Action Consulting Bangladesh, the medical services are now within their grasp, with just a phone call, and at zero cost.

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