FAO ProFile - Women farmers earn lots more beans in Zambia Women farmers earn lots more beans in Zambia Women in Zambia's remote Northern Province have banded together and found a way not only to ensure their families get a healthier diet, but also to put more money in their shallow pockets. And it all comes down to growing legume crops like cowpeas and soybean.
Planting takes place on communal plots organized by women's clubs.
The women usually spend one day a week nurturing their crops, then the rest of the week in their own fields tending the country's staple crop, maize. My family only gets meat once a month, usually chicken, so these cowpeas are a good idea for us. The scheme aims to introduce drought-resistant legumes that also return nutrients to the soil and can grow vigorously without heaps of expensive fertilizer. Legume crops are also ideally suited to the small-scale farming carried out by women like Mwansa. She and the others live on neat homesteads in the bush 50 km northwest of the small railroad town of Mpika.