Diramo Boda is weeding his chili peppers. It’s his main cash crop and this year he expects a good harvest that will fetch a good price in the market. The extra cash income is most welcome. Diramo’s maize harvest is less and less every year, making it more and more difficult to feed his large family..

With one hectare of land, six cows, four goats, a horse and a donkey, Diramo Boda used to be middle class in his area. But fortune has not been smiling on him lately. Over the last few years the belg rains were late and erratic. As a result his crop was poor and his income less, so that this year he was not able to buy improved seeds and fertilizer, meaning his crops have further deteriorated. A few years back Diramo grew almost 70% of the food his family needed for the year. Now he grows only half—to fill the gap he has to buy the other half on the local market.

This year he is primarily worried about his maize harvest. He can’t complain about lack of rain. On the contrary, the rains were too heavy—washing deep gashes in earth. On some parts of his land the fertile topsoil washed away, leaving sandy soil behind. Now some of Diramo’s corn is stunted. The green harvest might be enough, but he will not grow enough maize to have a good dry maize harvest in November and December. It could happen that this year, for the first time in his life, Diramo will have to rely on food aid to feed his large family.

One of Diramo’s main sources of cash income is chilli peppers. This crop has been successful in previous years with good harvests that have fetched good prices. But the money he earned from its sale has still not been enough to feed his family. He may be forced to sell his horse cart to cover his expenses.
This year for the first time Diramo is setting up some bee hives. He expects a good honey harvest, and that will earn him a little extra cash. However, it will not be much. Diramo will have to cut down on his expenses. He’s afraid that he’ll have to pull his children out of school. “I don’t want my children to become farmers like me. My land barely provides enough for one family. And with the soil getting worse and worse every year, my children will certainly not be able to earn enough from it to take care of themselves, let alone their families. That’s why their education is so important—but I just can’t afford it right now.”