Your gift in action - Oxfam Unwrapped
Congratulations, someone thinks you are so amazing that they have got you an Oxfam Unwrapped gift.
Did you know...
The largest seed in the world is the double coconut. It can measure up to 50cm (1.6ft) around the middle! Coconuts have a fibrous coating and an air space inside them, because they need to be able to float to a new home. Some coconuts have floated 2,000km over the sea before they find dry land!
Now that you have your gift, we can give the real thing to the people who need it most!
Poor farmers need to make the best use of every bit of whatever agricultural land and resources they have. So producing seeds for sale makes sound sense – plus they need less water than growing veg. This gift will help farmers grow and sell more of the little earners.
Mehnatobod village in Tajikistan, used to be a prosperous region famous for wine growing, but today, of the 4,000 people who live here, many have to go to Russia to find work. It’s often difficult for people to make ends meet and sometimes to feed their families.
One resident, Ubaidullo Nozimov, is helping to lead something of a local small-scale growing revolution thanks to Oxfam agricultural training, some fertiliser and a few bags of faster-growing, high-yield seeds.
Ubaidullo reflects on the situation: “Many people here can't afford to buy them themselves, or the seeds that they do buy are poor quality. These people also struggle to find the money to buy vegetables at the market, so if they can grow their own it means they are able to save a bit of money and keep some seed stock for replanting next season.”
"I've already harvested the beans and carrots we were given by Oxfam and we saved them for the family to eat. The onions, pumpkins and cucumbers we have decided to take to market. The seeds we all received from Oxfam grow faster than local varieties and when you harvest them you get a better yield."
It means that now families have enough to eat, plenty to plant for next season, and lots of vegetables – and seeds – to sell.
