M’madi with his wife Elufe appreciating maize in their field
Environmental protection and sustainable development are intertwined. Soil erosion, land degradation and deforestation compromise all development efforts and may lead to increased levels of poverty in Malawi despite important gains in poverty reduction made in recent years.
In an effort to improve food security while also protecting the environment, United Purpose through the FCDO-funded PROSPER programme is training lead farmers in Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices.
In 2020, the programme trained 1,053 lead farmers (475 men and 578 women) in Mangochi and Balaka districts. The lead farmers then establish demonstration plots with different varieties of crops using modern farming technologies, such as using Mbeya manure instead of chemical fertilizers, and train more farmers in their respective areas on how to sustainably use their land.
M’madi, a 39 year old lead farmer married with four children from Tangwa village in Mangochi district, was one of the farmers who took part in this initiative. He attended training on Mbeya manure making in 2020 which was conducted by the programme in partnership with government stakeholders. After the training, he started putting into practice the new technologies and bore witness that Mbeya manure brings more economic benefits than the chemical fertilizer. To make Mbeya manure only small quantities of chemical fertilizer are necessary, while the other raw materials required, such as animal dung, ashes and water, are locally sourced and cheap. In addition, M’madi said that Mbeya manure also helped to conserve water in the soil and while the district experienced dry spells and most of the fields in the area were affected, his field was not affected and was still holding moisture.
M’madi’s trial for use of Mbeya manure
During this farming season, he produced four bags of Mbeya manure (weighing 50kgs each) which he used for his field.
M’madi is proud of his crop stand as it looks good with big cobs which gives him hope that he is going to have high yield in this 2020/2021 farming season. M’madi said he was expecting to harvest more than 30 bags of maize weighing 50kgs each from a one-acre land. This is something he has never achieved before. M’madi added that the 30 bags that he was expecting to harvest this year would be enough for him and his family throughout the year until the next farming season. In previous years, he managed to produce only 10bags of maize on the same piece of land and those lasted for less than six months.
M’madi is encouraging farmers within his community to start making and using Mbeya manure. He is conducting field days to showcase the results from the Mbeya manure on his demonstration plot and encourage adoption by other households.
Story by Owen Mzee Stima Banda, Field Facilitator United Purpose. Informed consent was obtained from the project participants for the publication of these images in accordance with UP’s safeguarding policy.