From the Data Room ….

Key to COMACO’s success is its capacity to learn from its successes and mistakes to become a more enduring model for scaling up and replicating to new locations. WCS staff, working with Cornell, Duke, and Berkeley Universities, undertake this work and report on new and interesting results ‘from the data room, managed by Kabila Makanda. In this issue, we present

1) Producer group data base generates useful statistics on COMACO’s expansion

Producers who work with COMACO organize themselves into registered producer groups and undergo training in better production practices that contribute to better yields and increased conservation results. For example, most COMACO producer group members are farmers and training for these farmers focuses on soil management, while honey producer groups learn how to better manage their forest resources, poultry producer groups learn better husbandry practices that result in more meat production and less need to rely on game meat. In 2007, WCS undertook a program-wide survey to document background details for all producer group members. From these data WCS was able to estimate extent that communities are participating in COMACO for each chiefs area where COMACO operates. The results show that on average 30 to 45% of all households are now participating and benefiting from COMACO.

2) Game meat survey in Lundazi

In November 2007, WCS undertook a survey to assess the extent of illegal game meat trading that occurs in Lundazi, a township where game meat trafficking should be noticed if poaching is prevalent in nearby COMACO areas. In order to make the survey as objective as possible, WCS engaged independent people and selected people recommended by local pastors as honest and upright members in their church. Selected enumerators were screened for competency in verbal skills and undertook a training on how to administer the questionnaire. A total of 1125 households were visited, representing a stratified random sample of low to high income families.

Results show that only two percent of the respondents indicated game meat was a major source of protein. Among this sample, 80% came from low income families, suggesting a correlation between incomes and use of game meat as a source of protein. Overall, 77% of the respondents had never seen game meat sold in their neighborhood or met anyone selling game meat while 16% had encountered such an experience only once.

Times See Game Meat Traded in Month	Percentage
Never	77
Once	16
Twice	4
Three Times	2
Four and Over	1

Consistent with the low incidence of game meat sales, the figure below suggests that the trend in game meat trafficking in Lundazi is declining. 73% indicated the incidence of game meat sales was decreasing and only 6% thought the trade was increasing.

3) Cassava as a food security crop: does it mitigate food shortfalls?

Cassava requires minimal effort to cultivate and yields an important energy source through its starch-rich, digestible tuber. Its leaves are also edible and provide important vitamins. While not a primary food source, it offers a potentially important food reserve when food staples, such as maize or sorghum, become scarce or destroyed by extreme weather. COMACO has worked with over 40,000 families throughout the Luangwa Valley to introduce this crop on a large scale. Prior to COMACO only about 15% grew cassava and normally on a small scale. Since 2004, COMACO with support from World Food Program and Food and Agricultural Program, has helped plant over 10,000,000 cassava cuttings, and today approximately 80% of the households in the communities where COMACO works now grow cassava. The severe floods of 2007 gave WCS a unique opportunity to assess the importance of cassava as an emergency food source that households can maintain themselves. The results show that most household grow cassava, either directly from COMACO-supported cuttings or from COMACO growers who shared cuttings with neighbors, and cassava averted famine from the effects of floods and related crop loss for about 80% of the households sampled. Additionally, over 60% of the sampled families relied on cassava up to the harvest of their main food crop, maize.