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Nabahya Food Institute (NFI) Hub:

Uvira, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)​

Nabayha Food Institute women
Innovative agriculture

Nabahya Food Institute (NFI) brings local farmers to work in cooperatives, mitigating the cycle of poverty, starvation, and climate change. NFI work promotes access to clean energy and resilient food systems with a commitment to tackling the dual challenge of increasing food production while protecting natural resources and the environment.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has the largest number of people in urgent need of food security assistance. According to the FAO and WFP report published on April 6, 2021, around 27.3 million people suffer from acute food insecurity in the DRC. These people need emergency intervention according to the analysis of the Integrated Classification Framework of Acute Food Insecurity. However, the DRC is an agricultural country with several thousand hectares of arable land which, if harnessed, could feed all of Africa. Current food systems do not bring together the actors involved in the food production industry as they lack appropriate knowledge on best agricultural practices which leads to deadly famine, severe poverty and climate change.

NFI follows a holistic approach for natural resources management, regenerative agriculture, clean energy, reforestation and conservation, and rural women empowerment. At the core of its mission is the unique approach to addressing the dual challenge of producing food while healing the planet. NFI is changing what is done in the food systems by increasing food production while mitigating climate change. NFI engages in the training of rural community farmers on Climate Resilient Food Systems and Permaculture practices to preserve soil biodiversity and forest ecosystems. This approach has a potential to expand globally.

Food production is about working with nature’s pattern, using the energy given by nature as efficiently as possible to create an endless biological recycling system where every output is an input to the next step in nature’s biological cycle for advancing positive social, environmental and economic outcomes among local communities. This creates a symbiotic relationship between sun, air, soil, water, plants and animals. We are deeply committed to breaking the brink of starvation while protecting the planet. NFI produces briquettes from crop residues, biomass, palm shells, coconut shells, and maize stalks, which are carbonized, mixed with a liquid binder, and compressed into briquettes.

To achieve a circular economy, NFI buys raw materials from small-scale farmers, who are in turn paid in either cash or briquettes. In the DRC, through NFI, briquettes are becoming a common way to heat and cook. NFI’s product reduces household cooking energy expenses, boosts food productivity, avoids air pollution, protects natural resources and the environment, empowers women, and helps consumers save time and money. Moreover, NFI product also helps enhance farmers’ yields through the production of bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides.

In the eastern part of the DRC where NFI operates, most small-scale farmers and those who use briquettes are women. To educate and empower these women, NFI has set up Farmer-Field Schools. Currently, the education process focuses on recycling and intercropping, to avoid dependence on chemical fertilizers, protect the local environment, and increase food yields. NFI does public demonstrations of the product and organizes campaigns to popularize briquettes as a sustainable cooking energy to replace charcoal, save trees and improve the livelihoods of small farmers in the DRC. With the briquettes, women are trained to mix the ashes with human urine, manure, tithonia diversifolia and biochar to create their own bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides. This boosts crop yields at around 150 percent (p ≤ 0.05), compared to local agricultural practice (soil without biochar) at 60.4 percent. NFI farmers follow an intercropping approach, an age-old practice of growing two or more crops together, by using fodder trees and fruit trees. The organization focuses on tree species which are native to the DRC and deposit abundant quantities of organic fertilizer, thereby increasing yields, as leaves and pods fall onto the food crops and release nutrients. Native trees also provide forage for livestock and bees.

Regenerative Agriculture

Clean   Energy

Reforestation and Conservation

Rural Women Empowerment

Through NFI, the majority of small scale farmers have begun working in cooperatives, hence strengthening their Food Sovereignty, Regenerative Agriculture, and Ecosystem Restoration. In the areas where NFI works, briquettes are becoming a common way to heat and cook. As one of the South-Kivu-based briquette production organizations that use agricultural waste as raw material, NFI has shown a remarkable ability to utilize resources to achieve its goals effectively with capacity to execute and innovate, bringing new solutions and approaches to holistic natural resource management. Since May 2023, a high impact was recorded. According to our surveys: 72,000 end-users were reached by NFI's activities. 54,000 end-users have declared that they have improved their income because of using NFI innovation. 460 tons of briquettes have been produced and distributed. More than 937 tCo2e has been saved. About 4,687,000 kWh of energy have been saved. 50 community awareness campaigns were conducted on site urging the population to use briquettes instead of firewood or charcoal. 10 Farmer Field Schools were installed to teach farmer cooperatives the techniques of using Bio-fertilizers and Bio-pesticides to increase crops’ yields. More than 575 tons of raw materials was purchased from small-scale farmers, hence creating a win-win situation. 12,000 hectares under agricultural management were improved because of this innovation. More than 170 hectares were restored by planting native trees.

NFI uses an inclusive approach in the implementation of its activities. The team, led by Guillain Nabahya, is composed of dedicated and skilled individuals who are deeply committed to the mission. NFI's team has shown exceptional ability in project management, consistently completing projects on time and within budget. NFI regularly monitors the project activities on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis to verify the proper implementation to meet the project objectives. Informative reports are regularly provided in accordance with NFI or donor’s guidelines. Monitoring includes continuous assessment of project progress towards achievement of the specific objectives and a quick response to community’s feedback so that the team can constantly improve. NFI compares progress of activities and outputs within the project plan. For this to be effective, NFI uses Project Management tools: - Quality control tools, - Activities Monitoring tools, - Activities reports and timelines tools. For each activity, NFI assesses the context and justification of the activity, objectives of the activity, expected results, presentation of the area, methodology of the activity, presentation of the team to carry the activity, chronogram of the activity, logistical and financial needs, activities carried out, results achieved, interpretation of results, and means of verification.

 

Under the supervision of the MEL officer, information is collected through existing tools designed by NFI using individual interviews (household surveys), focus group interviews, interviews with key informants within the community, collecting success stories, testimonials and community feedback. Key Performance Indicators are monitored using the Indicator Performance Monitoring Tool (IPMT) which is populated as an indicator is achieved. The NFI team carries out field visits for data verification to confirm the data collected on site are accurate and reports on the project implementation issues. At the end of each activity, a beneficiary satisfaction survey is conducted. The data collection and quality control tools are individual and collective survey questionnaires which are analyzed and processed using an Excel matrix to measure the results achieved and the changes and the impact on the beneficiaries. Success is defined through the changes and results obtained during and after the project and verified by the improvement of knowledge, attitudes and good practices put in place by the beneficiaries of the project in the short, medium and long term as well as the improvement of their living conditions.

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