The clanking of a blacksmith’s hammer echoes through the bush at the entrance to Makwatata’s gardens, 1.5km from the village. Blackson Newali is sitting in the shade of a mango tree at the edge of his farm, hammering scrap metal into hoes to sell to the local farmers.

“When I was twenty years old, I began working as an assistant to a welder in a garage in Ndola city,” he says. “I trained as an apprentice, and worked my way up in the garage. But when I had a family, I wanted to move back to my village, so after ten years, I came back to Makwatata to be a farmer again.”

Blackson and his wife Royce Ngoma grow cassava, bananas, cotton, maize, sunflowers, groundnuts and mangoes on their farm. They now have ten children, ranging in age from six months to 18 years.

“The income we were receiving from selling our produce was not enough to sustain our family, so I taught myself how to make hoes from the metal I can find for free in dustbins in Chipata town,” says Blackson. “Almost everyone in Makwatata is a farmer, so I have no problem marketing my product.”

Almost everyone in Makwatata is a farmer, so I have no problem marketing my product

Blackson sells each hoe for 20,000Kw (€3). He is the only blacksmith in the area, and as each hoe head needs to be replaced once a year, he does a good trade with farmers from Makwatata and other surrounding villages. He sells about 120 hoes every month.

“Everyone knows I am here making hoes, so they come to me if they want to buy one,” he says. “I also go to town a couple of times a month and set up on the side of the road.”

The hoes are made completely by hand, but Blackson says that ideally, they would be welded. “If I had electricity, I would be able to weld them and make stronger, more polished looking hoes, but electricity is just too expensive. I hope to be able to buy a small solar panel in the future.”