Malawi Chingale program 1900-3002
Trip notes: Feb. 20, 2009
Excerpts from notes by Bev Abma
Reference: US$1 = 143 Malawi Kwacha (K)
In January, Bev Steege of the Fredericksburg, IA growing project, Dawn Bushouse of Fremont, MI and I (Bev Abma) traveled with George Ntambo, Executive Director of the Chingale Neno Recovery and Development Program
We left for the Chingale area at 7:30 a.m. one morning. Clouds loomed several times during the day but we did not get rained on, making it a wonderfully pleasant day with no worries of getting in or out of the area.
An average family in this context is seven – five children and two adults. Such a family generally needs one 50 kg. bag of maize per month if there are other complementary foods available; however, if not, the family may need up to 15 bags per year.
Since 2007, farmers and contact farmers have been given a package of 50 kg. each of basal (NPK – nitrogen, potassium and potash) and top dressing (nitrogen only) along with 10 kg. of hybrid maize seeds to encourage them to cultivate larger areas. Subsidized fertilizer sells for 800K per bag while regularly at 11,000 K per bag.
This is expected to produce 20 to 30 bags of maize for food with enough to sell to buy inputs the following year. After harvesting, participants are required to return one 50 kg. bag of maize which is distributed to the needy in the community identified by the Joint Recovery and Development Committee (JRC) along with the village committees; the needy are those who have no food, cannot afford food, and have no capacity to utilize agricultural resources. Soy was distributed in bags of 20 kg. to 500 people.
The Joint Recovery Committee (JRC) is made up of people elected by the communities (12 women and eight men) with a staff of a General Secretary (George) and Program Director (Joseph). Although there are 193 villages under JRC jurisdiction, it is impossible with two staff to reach them all so they have focused on three geographical areas. Participants are those vulnerable people who are able to utilize resources and are not already part of another committee as “one cannot serve two masters.” Organizations do share boundaries and the government monitors to see that organizations are implementing what they say they are doing in monthly meetings.
We walked to George’s demonstration garden, planted on November 27, where he teaches the Sasakawa method:
- Soil is prepared in ridges in May to allow time for the maize to decompose in the new ridge made between the rows of the previous crop.
- One plant per hole in specifically spaced rows.
- Basal dressing is applied prior, with planting, or with sprouting.
- Top dressing is applied 21 days after sprouting.
About half of the farmers trained have adopted at least some aspect of the practice and there are some other imitators in the various communities. Some people find the planting very labor intensive because of the precision and closer spacing required.
Generally a two cob maize variety is used so people can eat one cob fresh and harvest the other for grain. All of the people we spoke to were consistent in selling the grain from their harvest to buy new seed and inputs for the next year.
Harvest is in May while the cow peas and pumpkins often intercropped with the maize may be present longer. Winter cropping is done in different areas of dambo (soft moist soil) closer to water supplies.
We visited several individuals and families:
- George’s wife and daughter Florence (a nursing student and one of 11 children) were in the field that the family works, along with some hired casual labor and George during his vacation. The test plot shows a single hybrid variety both with and without fertilizer.
- Harry James with his wife and three children works his land with casual labor that he pays in-kind. He has two hectares which he hopes to enlarge further.
- Fillimon, the board chair, has a large farm right next to his home. He explained that with the first weeding the size of the ridges is increased and with the second weeding the ridges are either increased or the maize banked depending on the amount of water available. If it is really wet, the termites will more readily attack if the crop has been banked.
- Gertrude is a mother with two young children who works her farm with casual labor for in-kind payment. Her dreams for the future include a “better house with a roof that doesn’t leak.”
- Esnat has four children and is a member of the JRC. She planted beans on Dec. 23 and hopes to harvest in April. She utilizes soy with maize as porridge for her family and also roasts it to eat. Her plan is to keep seed for planting, eat some and sell some; the money will be used for other family needs including helping her look better (fatter). Fostino is the chair of the JRC and has a goal of being independent of aid. He explained the NGOs help the orphans in the community as they can.
We attended the harvest redistribution of 29 bags to 58 needy people in the community. The last place we visited was a goat group where the first group of women had received their goats about two months ago. Both first and second groups were selected at the same time and a lottery system was used to decide who would be in each group. Participants receive two goats and must pass on the first two offspring. Dreams as a result of having goats (used for meat, not milk) include being able to pay school fees, having respectable homes and being able to buy food in times of need.
We were greeted in this place by singing and dancing. There were many children – making the statistic of 50% of Malawi’s population being under 15 years of age seem on the low side.
The following day we traveled to Neno: the bridge had been destroyed by flooding so we traveled about the last km. on foot to visit the maize field of Salome who is the vice president of the board and a contact farmer. She has four brothers who help her in the field although she does about three-fourths of the work on her two to three hectare plot. She is responsible for training 50 local farmers with another contact farmer to reinforce the training they have been given. Her mother has also adopted single seed per hole planting in her own garden. They take their grain for sale to the government ADMARC facility about 2.5 km. away and have cats to keep the rat population down.
The 28 bags of pay forward maize was stored in Salome’s mother’s house which was the safest place to store it. As the men began carrying out the bags we heard much banging and discovered they were killing the rats who were dining on the grain. Joseph shared how challenging it is to get rid of the rats. Once after asking his wife why the bag of maize was going down so fast, they discovered they had a rat infestation. When they treated them with poison there were than a dozen dead the first day. Soon they began to have an odor and babies who’d lost their mothers dropped from the ceiling for a total of about 50. In discussing ways to deal with rats they shared that there is also a wire trap available that traps the rat once it enters; however rats will not enter one that has already had another rat in it.
In total, 400 contact farmers received inputs in 2007 in four areas reaching 3600 participant households with training. Of these, about half have adopted some aspects of the training while about a quarter (900) are expected to have enough harvest in the coming year to purchase their own inputs for the following year. There were 117 bags (50 Kg. each) were recovered from the farmers following the last harvest. The distribution today was the last with the first having been done early in December to meet disaster needs resulting from flooding.
As this program looks to the coming year, an additional 200 contact farmers will be added; 50 of the current ones will be considered competent enough to no longer have need of the program.
We left with much gratitude for the most gracious hospitality shown us wherever we visited.