Netting fishery benefits

Members of Kampasule Fish Farming Club are benefiting on the double from their innovative fish breeding programme.

For the 14 strong group, who each have small fish ponds on their farms at Kampasule village in the Kalembo project area in Southern Malawi are reaping the dividends not just from the sale of tilapia to a local fish processing company, they have also started to harvest tomatoes, leaf vegetables, bananas and sugar cane from horticultural activities being undertaken in the vicinity of their ponds.

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Overcoming disability

Jango Assan is living testimony that disability and inability are two very different things.

Unable to walk and confined to a wheelchair for much of the time, Jango is nonetheless enjoying stewardship of a successful small-farm that he has turned into a profitable family enterprise.

The 38-year-old farmer and father of four from Chikoko village in Self Help Africa’s Kalembo Project area recently built himself a new tin-roofed house with the proceeds of his labour.

He attributes his success to a combination of hard work, and the support and assistance he received when he joined a local farmers group in Kalembo. Group members received technical support and training from Self Help Africa, and from there it was just a case of putting that knowledge into practice, says Jango.

He recently harvested 350kg of shelled maize from a quarter-acre field he had planted with the crop, and had fertilised with nothing other than the organic manure. ‘My costs were very low because I didn’t need to buy fertiliser, and I received more than €100 from the sale of maize’, he says.

Allied to that he is producing cassava on the farm, and is confident that it too will be a profitable undertaking. He has also used his cassava cuttings to plant a living fence, which is protecting his crops from grazing animals.

Jango Assan recently harvested 28 sacks of cassava, which he used part for home consumption and the other was sold for more than €120.

Jersey support

The Jersey Overseas Aid Commission is to lend its backing to a project that will reduce poverty and support the needs of more than 1,200 people living with HIV/AIDS in Northern Malawi.

The initiative is part of the Lupembe HIV Project in Karonga District, and includes the establishment of three mobile testing centres, recruitment and training of nine volunteer counsellors, development of a community outreach programme, and provision of a range of practical supports to those living with HIV and AIDS.

The Jersey Overseas Aid Commission has approved close to €35,000 (£31,365) for the project.

HIV response

Integrating appropriate responses to the challenges that African communities face from HIV/AIDS is central to Self Help Africa’s rural development work in Malawi, where one in 14 people is living with the virus.

Malawi has one of the highest HIV levels in the world.

Self Help Africa’s Masumbankhunda rural development programme has in recent months carried out a broad range of HIV/AIDS focussed activities, including community education meetings, support for voluntary counselling and testing programmes, organisation of youth awareness initiatives, and the provision of practical support for the families of those who are living with the condition.

More than 1,580 people attended awareness raising meetings that were conducted in ten villages in the project area during the past three months, while a further 24 youth workers were trained in support for a range of HIV mainstreaming and life stills activities targeted at young people.

The project is currently working on a plan to train 80 people living with HIV/AIDS in the creation of herb gardens where they could produce both medicinal plants, and also other crops which could be grown and sold for profit.

Four herbal gardens were established in the latest quarter, with Artemisia, AloeVera, Asthma Weed, Okra and Malva amongst the crops being grown. At the same time 20 young men living with the virus took part in a ‘positive living’ course organised by Self Help Africa.

Clean water

The construction of four shallow wells in the Kalembo project area has provided over 200 local households (1,500 people) with clean sources of drinking water.

The wells were dug at Miuma, Chiundu, Mkweta and Msuwo, and hand treadle pumps installed.

A further eight shallow wells are set to be constructed this year.

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Presidential visit

Malawi’s President Dr Bingu wa Mutharika visited the FAIR presentation during the recent National Agricultural Fair in Blantyre.

With an emphasis this year on “The role of agriculture in economic development”, the annual trade fair attracted thousands of visitors.

The President Dr Bingu wa Mutharika paid a brief visit to the display, and in his speech at the event spoke of the vital role that agriculture had to play in future economic development in Malawi. He said that he was heartned to see so many commodities of Malawi origin. 'As a nation we are blessed with natural resources to enable us remain food secure once sustainably utilized', he said.

Manure promotion reaps dividends

Malawi’s FAIR programme intensified its work on the promotion of manure use in small-scale farming, with a series of showcasing initiatives, late last year.

A large attendance of rural farmers attended a presentation organized by FAIR to demonstrate the positive impacts of manure for small-scale farmers, and this event was so successful that FAIR and its LOMADEF partners in Northern Malawi were subsequently invited by the Ministry of Agriculture to mount a similar demonstration at a Trade Fair in the capital, Blantyre. FAIR and LOMADEF were to be given their own space at the event - and demonstrated types of manure, its management and production, and the crops which were being produced with the use of manure. Statistical evidence to underline the value of manure and other sustainable agricultural practices was also a feature of the presentations.

The recent FAIR initiatives to promote the use of manure followed calls from Malawi’s Agriculture Ministry for farmers to intensify their use of manure, in light of spiraling fertilizer costs which have seen prices more than double in the past year alone. FAIR is also participating in a task force that has been created to promote manure use in the country. Its partners in this initiative include the Ministry of Agriculture, Farmers Union, Action Aid, Africa Farm Radio and others.

Forestry regeneration

A forestry regeneration project being undertaken in Northern Malawi is a testimony to the benefits to be gained when communities are supported to work together to a common goal.

For as a direct result of the local conservation scheme dozens of householders are now earning an income from the production and sale of medicinal plants and other non-timber forest products, while many more are using the restored forest as a habitat to rear colonies of bees and harvest honey.

Read about forestry regeneration

Soil & water conservation

A range of soil and water conservation measures are being effectively employed by farmers participating in the Simlemba Community Initiative for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods in Northern Malawi, a final evaluation of the project has reported.

Farmers in 22 villages have been using a range of conservation measures, including box ridging, marker ridges and the planting of vetiver grass (pictured above). Several vetiver nurseries have also been established in the Simlemba area.