Segment 1

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Millennium Promise: Extreme Poverty Ends Here

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A Promise to Sow Seeds for the Future. Sauri, Kenya. April, 2010

HANNINGTON OWITI NYANDO [Millennium Villages Agricultural Facilitator]

A hungry country cannot be a peaceful country, cannot be a healthy country. Without food, even our lives cannot be in order. Currently, the soil is quite bare. It does not have plant food. So, automatically, after having planted with fertilizer, a farmer will have to get a bumper harvest.

EVELYN AKINYI OMONDI [Farmer, Gongo Sub-Location]

I started using fertilizer in 2007, when Millennium Villages Project brought it. Millennium Villages taught us how to plant, how to space our seeds, how to apply fertilizer, and to cover the soil. This method gives me much higher yields than I used to get before. Without fertilizer, you get nothing. If I plant here without fertilizer, my yield is only one sack. With fertilizer, I get over 15 sacks. People really want to use fertilizer now. Millennium Villages Project introduced a loan system for fertilizer. I have benefited from this loan system. I will pay back the loan. By next year, I hope to be self-sufficient. I hope to build on what I've borrowed so that next year I don't need any assistance. If I work hard, I can sell my maize to enable me to buy my own fertilizer. Millennium Villages Project has helped us. When Millennium Villages Project first came, I had no plans at all. But recently I built a house. If I work hard on the farm and in business, the way the Millennium Villages taught me, I can plan a better education for my children.

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Each Millennium Village was a hunger hotspot, and the introduction of subsidized fertilizer was a crucial priority.

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As a result, crop yields have dramatically increased, helping to reduce hunger and enabling farmers to sell surplus crops for profit.

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Many farmers have transitioned entirely from being dependent on food aid to being entirely self-sufficient.

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It costs as little as: USD$15 to provide a 25 kilogram bag of fertilizer; USD$20 to provide high-yield and disease-resistant seeds to farmers.

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Help us ensure that mothers like Evelyn have the opportunity to feed their families, educate their children, and ensure healthy and independent livelihoods.

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Millennium Promise: Extreme poverty ends here. Join us today at www.millenniumpromise.org