Promoting Beans

As a response to ADRA's rural Magazine, “Actividade Rural”, three communities started a pilot experience with beans production.

Small farmer signing a contract and taking ownership over the intervention

“Actividade Rural” is a quarterly, high quality, glossy magazine, published since June 2004, with its main objective the promotion of the exchange of information between small farmers in the rural communities of Sao Tome and Principe. This intervention is completed by a National Radio program and provides field technical support to small farmers. This intervention is financed by ADRA Canada (http://www.adra.ca/).

The interest created in several small farmers, as a response to articles published in magazine Number 7, led ADRA to choose 3 neighbor communities to be supported (Plancas Primeira, Plancas Segunda and Santa Luzia) with around 25 Kg of been seeds. This will cover a total cultivated area of 4 hectares with a potential production of 1.5 Tones of beans. The actual price of beans is around USD 1.9 per kilogram, having an attractive potential income for the farmers involved. If this experience is well succeeded it will be enlarged in amount of support and in number of communities involved.

The most recent magazine, covering the months of April to June 2007, promotes and teaches techniques to improve the cultures of avocado and peanut; equally are promoted the use of vitamin A, the protection of the environment and apiculture. In the first quarter of 2007, 94 workshops were held and 24 communities benefited from technical expertise, over 1800 persons participated in the ADRA program during that quarter.