Hand pumps

A series of hand pumps ready for irrigation.

Food security training at Chifuchambewa

What is food security? Well, if you ask "what's for dinner?", and what you mean is "should we eat spaghetti or rice?"; "lamb or fish?"; "potatoes: baked or mashed?", then you have food security. But if "what's for dinner?" means "where will we find our next meal?", that's food insecurity. 

There are food insecure people all over the world. That is except perhaps in Antarctic. I would imagine that at scientific bases in Antarctic no one is worried about what to eat. Even if there is a disaster that cuts them off from resupply, surely there is a back up pantry that lasts a few months or more. What's the point of all this? It takes so much planning and preparation to live on the frozen continent that the crews who make the journey come prepared with enough food. That's what food security requires: so much planning and preparation.

When teaching farmers about food security in their household, we ask them to imagine they are planning a journey. What would they need to bring? Enough food or money to last them the entire length of the stay. Well, its the same when you are staying at home. You need to plan for each day, month, year so that you have enough food to get you through. You need enough for everyday life, and for emergencies. You need seeds to plant and replenish reserves before they are depleted.

Farmers at Chifuchambewa came in large numbers to discuss food security and pick up some new tools to help them plan for the future. This community produces enough to be food secure, but the food is not available at the right time. This can all change in just a single season if farmers reserve food for lean months.

Nasala onion nursery

Last year we started working with farmers at Nasala, Lilongwe. We identified this group through NAPHAM, which is an organization that supports and advocates for people living with HIV and AIDS. One of our founding ideas at AWP is that people with AIDS need better nutrition to allow them to continue on powerful ARV medication, stay healthy, and support their families.

Our program last year at Nasala was a minimal training, a testing of the water so to speak. This year we ramped it up by including more members and training them a various locations closer to their homes. Being close to home is a big help for some members whose health would be effected by long walks.

On Friday last week we conducted nursery establishment trainings. Effective nursery establishment allows the farmers to 1) achieve high germination rates, 2) estimate seed population and scale the gardens appropriately, 3) share seedlings evenly among 5 or more farmers. Basically, we use good nursery practices to avoid wasting money on seeds and wasting labour on oversized gardens.

As the photos show, most of the farmers in this group are women, many of them widows. Men in the community are reluctant to participate in programs designed to support people with HIV and AIDS.

Expanding to the River

Currently, farmers at Chifuchambewa in Salima rely on wellsprings to supply irrigation water. The wells produce a fixed amount of water per day, which limits the acreage that can be irrigated. However, the men in this photo are making plans to use the Lipimbi river for irrigation for the first time this year

In the dry season, the river clears up and the volume reduces to a modest flow rate. The challenge these farmers face is how to lift the water 6 to 10 meters up the steep banks.

First maize of the year

Last month, I blogged a few photos of maize gardens our farmers planted ahead of the rains. The time has come.

Earlier this month, farmers at Mziza began harvesting maize from the river banks. As we had hoped, this maize arrives in time to stave off hunger during the leanest months of the year. It's hard for us to image just what it means to a farmer's family to harvest at this time. But if they can go through these months without skipping a meal, they have achieved something great in their lives. It is the first step in assuring food security and good nutrition to this community throughout 2014.

Even farmers who didn't plant early will benefit from this harvest. Maize prices have dropped by 40% in the last month, down to US$0.11 per pound from a peak of US$0.18. This means that you will get almost 65% more maize for your buck this month. If for example, a farmer sells a chicken for US$4.00, he can now buy 36 pounds of maize, rather than just 22 pounds. A difference of 14 pounds means an extra 1-2 days of food for a family.

Teamwork and unity among farmers

 We held one of our favorite trainings earlier this week in Chifuchambewa, Salima. No community is immune to conflicts, jealousy, and disorganization. Every year we take new farmers through a leadership, conflict resolution, and teamwork training. If you gauged the impact of a training by how heated the discussion gets, most of our agricultural trainings would look pretty dull. People are quiet - learning for sure, but quiet. Not on this subject, not at all.

 For some reason, this topic sparks passion in the community. Discussion is lively. But what we find is that everyone knows their community is broken, relationships are weakest when teamwork is most needed. Jealousy comes from even close friends, at times when congratulations and reinforcement are most due. And everyone knows it's all wrong.

But what can we do about it? they ask. Usually, good answers, good solutions emerge from within the group. Simply bringing up the topic generates excellent ideas. We are just there to provide tools that help the community put their ideas into practice.

After the discussions, the club shared a meal together, which is an expression of unity in this culture. New irrigation farmers learn from the beginning that going it alone does not work most of the time. We expect the ideas that sprang up in this meeting are will grow in practice.

Learning about organic compost, Chibanzi

 Chibanzi Village is home to our second oldest project site, and hometown to our Irrigation Coordinator, Blessings Malamba (pictured in NASA T-shirt). The village is 50 miles from the Capital Lilongwe, 10 miles from the nearest town in Dowa District.

This week farmers were being trained in compost making. Compost reduces the need for chemical fertilizers. Fertilizers are a petroleum product, made from the crude oil. This means their price is linked to global fuel prices. By using organic compost, farmers can grow high quality produce, at or near the yield expected with expensive fertilizers - at a fraction of the cost. Compost only costs your effort to collect manure and organic matter for decomposing.

Later in the day, farmers received their first inputs for the 2014 irrigation season: onions. Just like Mziza, these farmers want an early start. They should harvest as much as 6 metric tonnes of fresh onions. At prices up to US$0.50 per kilo, they might net anywhere from US$1,000 to US$3,000.

For comparison, Malawi's per capita GDP is US$260 per year.