Forestry regeneration success

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.

Forestry regeneration story

Family fruit trees

Elizabeth Chiwalo and her husband Benson are a testimony to a good idea bearing fruit – the chairs and new furnishings in their home a tangible illustration of the rewards to be had from their new business venture.

Mother of five Elizabeth and her husband participated in a training course on fruit tree budding and grafting two years ago, an endeavour that has paved the way for the couple to establish a commercial tree nursery at their homestead at Chitalo village in the Balaka District of Self Help Africa’s Kalembo project.

In the past year the couple raised more than 600 grafted mangoes, 1500 avocado pears, 3000 guavas and 2200 lemons, and according to Elizabeth sold more than 1,200 of these in the local community. They raised close to €350/£300 from the enterprise to supplement the income to be made from the traditional subsistence farming activities they are engaged in.

‘This year alone and have so far managed to buy chairs for our house, and no longer have problems buying clothes for ourselves and our children’, says Elizabeth. ‘We must buy fertilizer for next season in the coming weeks, but that won’t be a problem this year’, she adds.

Self Help Africa has supported local farm families to establish eight fruit tree nurseries across the Kalembo Project area, thus enabling hundreds of rural families in the area to begin fruit growing in the area.

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.

Producing fruit

More than 150 households in six villages in the Self Help Africa supported Sustainable Rural Livelihoods programme at Simlemba in Northern Malawi have started fruit tree production, as a means of improving diet and income for their families.

A total there are 2000 assorted fruit seedlings, including mangoes, white guavas and banana were provided during the start up phase of this initiative, while five orchards where tree seedlings could be grafted were also established.

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.

Tributes

Tributes have been paid to the late Harris Mfune, Self Help Africa director in Malawi, who has died.

Director of Programmes Steve Langdon said that Harris had been a good friend and colleague to the organisation, and would be sadly missed by all who knew and worked with him.

Tributes to late Country Director

Improvement works have been completed at two schools in Malawi.

Improving schools

Improvement works at two primary schools within Self Help Africa's Masumbankhunda area based project were completed in early 2009.

Construction work on new school blocks, each with two classrooms, has been underway at Kaweche Primary School, and at Kachule Primary School in the area, in recent months. School communities in both areas are providing 25% of the total cost of the project, in the form of sand, bricks and unskilled manual labour on each project.

Further building work to improve classroom accommodation is also underway at Mbavi and Khiwikhwi Primary Schools in the Kalembo project area.

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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.

HIV counselling and testing

Positive results for HIV/AIDS were returned in 11% of people who were tested for the virus at the recently opened Mwima Health Testing and Counselling Centre in Kalembo, Malawi.

During the third quarter of this year 253 people, including 81 pregnant women were tested at the facility, which was opened in April of this year. Of this number 29 people tested positive for HIV/AIDS.

Meanwhile, 1,588 people in Kalembo attended information meetings on HIV and on gender based violence during th same period, while home based care support (HBC) training was provided to 30 carers in the area.

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.