Namibia: Chilli Bombs to Save Northern Crops

ROSEMARY Poniso is a widow, and poor, and just a few nights ago the elephants came and ate all her tomato crop. But there is another precious crop that might save the day: chillies.
Rosemary heard about the chilli farming project from the agricultural extension office in 2008, and together with some other women went to a meeting to find out about it. The idea came from Zambia, just across the river, and was new to Namibia. The RPRP set up nurseries for chilli plants, and trained some farmers, called distributors, to grow the plants from seed. Each nursery has up to 5 000 seedlings. The distributors sell young plants to chilli farmers like Rosemary for a few cents each.
Growing the chillies was hard work at first, because they had to be watered every day, and the well was some distance away. Water had to be hauled up in buckets and carried across to the field. Two of the ten women in Rosemary's group gave up. But not Rosemary, who has learnt to cut back the chillies in winter, and to begin irrigating again after the rains. Luckily, a new water pump has been installed next to the field, and the ladies have lashed up a pipe to water the chillies.

Rosemary's group is just one of many growing chillies. One of the RPRP field officers was Tererai Msakwa, a cheerful Zimbabwean lady who is now the coordinator of the Country Pilot Programme that has taken over the project. She explains that the big hope is the export market. In the third year of the project they sold eight tonnes of wet chilli via Zambia to the USA, for use in Tabasco.
Although chillies can be dried, 'wet' chilli is more valuable for sauce production. The farmers hand pick the ripe chillies daily, and sort the best grade. Then they are mechanically crushed into a pulp and put into airtight containers. These are brought to a specially built shed and placed with salt into drums in hygienic conditions. The drums are exported to Zambia, and from there on to other buyers. If production could reach 20 tonnes a year, it would be worthwhile exporting directly to South Africa and the USA.

High hopes, but the ending of the Rural Poverty Reduction Programme funding in 2009 left the villagers wondering what would happen next, and the Country Pilot Programme has yet to revive their fortunes. First step will be the introduction of a farmers' association to run the business when donor funding dries up. The farmers' association should buy the chillies from the farmers, and market them.
That would be good news for Rosemary. At the moment her only surplus income is from crops like tomatoes, which might bring in N$2 000 a year - not much. Her first chilli harvest brought N$1 500, but that was sold dry. For wet chilli she should get N$7 500 from her small plot, and she could expand her production, provided the marketing infrastructure is there.
In the meantime another organisation, Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC) buys the dried chilli from the project. Why? To make chilli bombs! Villagers are taught by IRDNC to mix elephant dung with dried chillies. These are placed around the crop fields at night and set alight. The slow burning and pungent mixture keeps the elephants away. Rosemary hasn't been taught to do it yet, but a few chilli bombs would come in handy for protecting her tomatoes.