12 Years of BCP: Our 2023 Impact Report

“I have lived here for the past 23 years, and we based our farming on the knowledge of our parents, passed down to us. The way that they would plough was by gathering shrubs and burning them. When the rain came after burning we would plant our seeds. But we found that the yield was just not good enough, with very little grain produced; only managing to harvest about five buckets of grain from one hectare. We have always been faced with hunger as a result, even after my parents passed away. But since I joined the BCP Lead Farmer program and we learned how to apply the methods of climate-smart agriculture to our farming, I am able to harvest 30 sacks of grain from just one hectare. Which means there is no hunger in my household. When times were tough, in my parent’s time we would be starving, we would not know when next we could eat, and the children were not able to go to school – But now they are able. We can have breakfast, lunch, and supper and even afford luxuries like soft drinks. As a BCP (BioCarbon Partners) Lead Farmer I have 25 Follower farmers, who I have taught the modern and conservation way of farming. At first, they even thought my yields might be from witchcraft from how abnormal my high yields seemed in comparison to the traditional methods we used, but I asked them to follow me and how I farmed, and now they no longer suffer from hunger either” ~ Veronica Banda.