Choosing a Second Village – Part 2

After the survey work was complete and we met with the leaders of each village and we heard their passionate speeches – then we had to make a decision. It was harder than I expected. First, we wanted to help them all. Second, they were all deserving. Third, how do you say, 'no'?

We shared this decision with leaders from the University of Tumaini. We need them to work with us. We couldn't commit for them. Rev. Dr. Lubawa (the Deputy Provost and one of the people I respect most in this world) and the Dean of the Business School and other leaders joined to decide. It took a week of discussion.

One of the four villages has a reputation as hard workers but they are known as laborers, not farmers. Their agricultural output is limited mostly to their own use. Therefore it's hard to invest in a for profit business when there is nothing being sold. A second specialized in tomatoes and that has more complexity and more competition so we considered it risky. That left Ihemi and Bomalang'ombe. They both made the bulk of their profits on potatoes and so that took us away from the cash crops of Ilambilole. Although we were looking for a different climate, we weren't necessarily looking for diversity in crops at this stage. But this was an interesting revelation. Areas with more rainfall took advantage of that to produce higher value products than corn. Consider, bags of potatoes are selling for twice as much or more than corn and they are growing up to 10 times the amount per acre. That's 20X the profit or more. So, the decision to move to a new climate naturally meant different crops.

I didn't want to go back to Boma' because the terrible road left me in pain. Now Ihemi, that's right on a tarred road. Seemed obvious right?

University leadership said, 'but wait'. It will be more difficult to control corruption (farmers that bypass their coop agreement and sell direct) because they are right on the paved road. Also, Ihemi is climactically and geographically closer to Ilambilole so there is a higher risk of simultaneous drought. Not only that, there is another organization working to support potato farming in the Boma' area. If we worked with Ihemi, we would be their market competitor. If we chose Boma' we could partner and strengthen the overall results.

Boma' became the choice. Ouch!

But it is so beautiful!