BERDO's activities

The following are a examples of some of the activities BERDO does within the Agriculture and Natural Resource Management department. Above is Mr. Zulu giving instruction to a BERDO member about growing Blue Gum trees.

The above picture is of Mr. Zulu and BERDO's fruit tree grafting specialist. They are inspecting the new seedlings for mango trees. One of BERDO's main activity is helping communities establish tree nurseries. Over 3 million trees have been planted through BERDO's projects. A single community nursery can raise 10,000 seedlings a year. Fruit trees are especially good as they provide the community with a source of income that might have other wise come from chopping down the tree for firewood and charcoal.


Revolving livestock loans are another of BERDO's activities. The animals provide households with food and income. The picture is showing the pen that must be constructed to receive a goat loan. The pen is actually on stilts above the ground to keep it cleaner. Once the animals breed the loan is repaid in offspring, which are then transferred to another household. BERDO does these type of programs with goats, pigs, and guinea fowl. One challenge to the animal loans is sometimes people will hide offspring or report that the animals died, so they do not have to repay the loan. Over all it seems to be successful program. We visited one women who received a pig loan seven years ago and is still successful raising pigs on her own.


Compost making is a popular activities that BERDO trains village members in. There has been a lot of positive feed back from communities that they feel confident in making compost and have noticed the difference it makes in their field. The picture about is a group of people from Sharpvale who have just participated in a demonstration of how to make compost. The brown mound in front of them is the compost heap. It is made by layering plant refuse, livestock droppings, and ash, soaked in water and covering in mud (to prevent damage by animals).


BERDO sometimes holds demonstrations for communities in regards to available technologies in agriculture and food processing. The above picture is on a device that separates the maize kernel from the cob; a job that is often done by hand. It was designed by a Malawian engineer and constructed of materials found locally. It was fun to see the old women get really excited about it and show off how fast they could turn the handle. Other technologies that were demonstrated that day was a peanut sheller made of wood, a device for mixing chemicals into the maize for storage, an press to make oil from nuts, and an oven. All these technologies were constructed locally, made to last, run on human power, and focused on the needs of the people.