The incubées describe their experience (Part 2)

Four of the twenty incubées from the project received their plots in Mongata, a little further east of Ibi, on a field bought by the ISAV. These four young entrepreneurs share their impressions in this update.

Emmanuel Mwanangulu

“For now, we haven’t touched what we were expecting yet. The intercroppings on which we were cropping failed to give a proper yield. The cassava should be more rewarding. In terms of field work, it’s going pretty well (...) We have to be careful with the weeding, because of intercropping. We had to hold meetings with the workers to plan the weeding. It works pretty well. (...) At the ISAV, I was really good with theory and practice on small surfaces.  With the project, I learned how to work on and manage hectares, and not just small patches with annuals and perennials.”

Jeancy Peta

"It is, more than anything, the field experience. Experience in management and also in facilitating communication with the peasants. (...) We were well prepared for what was awaiting us on the field. (...) [We learned] to negotiate with peasants. How to understand peasants, to know their milieu… (…) I would say that it’s going to get better. It will allow us to dare create our own small businesses.”

Bernard Ngudiankama

“This allowed new engineers to be in contact with practices on the field. In practice, we didn’t know, for example, what 2000 hectares were like. The unemployment rate is high. This will allow us to be entrepreneurs, to work. (...) It is difficult to adapt, the conditions weren’t all there. There are some technical aspects for which we hadn’t had training. (...) We should have a system to be able to communication and share with partners elsewhere. (...) I learned to calculate production costs with all the parameters, the material, durable life, amortization... (...) The little I will receive will help me create my own enterprise. A suggestion: After the incubator is over, we should do a follow-up with all the engineers.”

Fils Bonzenga

"We hope to have something good with the cassava. We are trained, and with all the training, it will help us launch our own enterprises. (...) There were failures with the niebe, there wasn’t enough people to do all the work. (...) The accounting, the profitability costs for crops, taking into account all those factors… is required knowledge for us. Agroforestry is a good system, especially with the fruit trees. (...) We hope it will go well. We just have to hope. The agricultural sector holds promises."