The World Women’s Observatory (WWO) has praised the Congregation of Teresian Sisters in Malawi for their significant contributions to women’s empowerment through skills development.

During a visit to Lilongwe, WWO Office Director Adela Gonzalez, from Rome, Italy, expressed her organization’s appreciation. The visit aimed to acknowledge the diverse initiatives and activities the Teresian Sisters are implementing with women’s groups across all of Malawi’s dioceses.

Gonzalez highlighted the impact of the sisters’ work, emphasizing its role in fostering women’s self-reliance and promoting environmental conservation. “I can say that it is just amazing. I have been listening to the women, and the first thing I have seen is a passion for the work, a passion to help the community and their families. I have been traveling in Africa, and this is the first time I have seen women, together with sisters, preparing charcoal in a natural way without cutting trees,” Gonzalez stated.

Sister Teresa Mulenga, Programs Coordinator for the Congregation of Teresian Sisters, acknowledged the WWO’s visit as a source of motivation. “Our approach is holistic, and we are following the charism of the Teresian Sisters, where liberation is not just one-sided. We liberate people from different forms of slavery, including physical and spiritual aspects, and that’s what our founder has guided us to do,” Sister Mulenga explained, emphasizing the commitment to expanding training programs to liberate more women.

Martha Guga Kaukonde, a beneficiary from Limbe Cathedral in the Archdiocese of Blantyre, shared her personal experience, noting the positive impact on her family’s well-being. “My family status has improved through the various trainings and skills provided by the Teresian Sisters,” she said.

The Teresian Sisters provide practical skills training, including soap and petroleum jelly production, and environmentally friendly charcoal making from recycled materials like cartons and maize cobs, all aimed at enhancing the livelihoods of women and promoting environmental stewardship.

By Titus Jata Phiri

The Deputy Director of Agriculture Extension and Services in the Ministry of Agriculture, Kenneth Chaula, has applauded the Center for Agriculture Transformation (CAT) for its role in helping the country realize the Malawi 2063 vision on agricultural productivity and commercialization.

Chaula made this statement in Mponela, Dowa District, during a three-day Training of Trainers on Access to Agricultural Technologies, Finance, and Markets, organized by CAT for 80 field officers.

According to Chaula, the Ministry expects those trained in various skills related to Agricultural Technologies, Finance, and Markets to build the capacity of lead farmers in the field.

“Farmers should produce for the market, but first they must conduct market research to understand what buyers want. This skill has been gained during the training, and they will engage in collective production and collective marketing,” Chaula said.

CAT’s Director of Market Systems, Cuthbert Lunduka, mentioned that the training aimed to equip farmers with knowledge on accessing different technologies and markets to improve their productivity.

“For the last five years, we have been promoting diversification and the adoption of various improved technologies and innovations. We realized that this alone might not be sufficient to support farmers in adopting and commercializing different value chains, which is why we initiated this training to add more skills for them,” Lunduka explained.

One of the trainees, Esinta Ketulo from Msitu Mchinji EPA, described the training as an eye-opener, stating that it helped them learn various agricultural technologies that they will, in turn, teach to different farmers in their areas.

Twenty thousand farmers from five districts are expected to benefit from this training.

By Titus Jata Phiri

The Centre for Environmental Policy and Advocacy (CEPA) has urged the public to make good use of urban waste by turning them into compost manure for agricultural use.

Through a project “promoting organic systems of soil improvement to build a resting economy possible project”, CEPA is working with 1000 smallholder farmers in Lilongwe and Blantyre City councils on how they can make thermophilic compost manure using the urban waste as a way of addressing both environmental and agricultural challenges.

According to project coordinator, Tamala Makata, they developed the project to take part in addressing the challenges of soil degradation in the country by improving soil health through the use of compost manure.

“You might wish to agree with me that almost 80% of the waste that is generated in the urban cities is organic. We took advantage of that to make sure that we are turning this urban organic waste into compost that can be used for crop productivity but also to restore the soils in Malawi,” said Makata.

Makata cited that, the 3-year project has received tremendous support by both local farmers and the two city councils as it is cost effective to farmers and a game changer as far as keeping the cities clean is concerned.

She also mentioned that the project intends to ensure that people are having improved food harvest and improved soil fertility as well as farmers benefiting from the compost manure sells.

“So, we are basically looking at a situation where the soils can be able to support crop but also the smallholder farmers are able to benefit from the interventions, but also have enough food throughout the year,” she added.

Gospel for All Compost Manure manager from Traditional Authority Njewa in Lilongwe, Korrinto Saddon praised the significant outcome of the compost manure since they started using in their respective farms.

“Compost manure is very important to our health because it has no chemicals that are hazardous to our soils, it acts as a vaccine to our soils because in compost manure they’re some microorganisms which stay active for about 5 to 7 years, so it’s very important for our soil health and plant nutrition,” said Saddon.

“The government should bring awareness to farmers on the importance of compost manure, and the government should also be working to promote soil health and plant nutrition,” he added.

The use of compost manure is said to be crucial in restoring the country’s soil fertility especially at the time Malawi is experiencing economic hardships and the impacts of climate change

By Lester Mhone

The Vice President and Country Director of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, Dr. Candida Nakhumwa says farmers across the country (Malawi) are responding well in-terms of diversifying from relying on Tobacco only as a cash crop to other alternative value chains.

Dr. Nakhumwa made the remarks on Wednesday, 24 April 2024 at NRC – CAT Smart Farm during a farmer field day which was organized by the Centre for Agricultural Transformation (CAT) under the theme “Smallholder Farmers Crop Diversification Key for Mitigating Climate Change Shocks.”

Dr. Nakhumwa says they are overwhelmed with the response from farmers after they started working with CAT (five years ago), having seen a lot of farmers diversifying to other alternative crops like Soyabeans, Groundnuts, Cassava just to mention a few.

“You know, farmers are rational human beings. They can see the changes that are happening out there. They know that the market for tobacco is affected. They know that climate is changing. And all they need is a little bit of support in terms of knowledge, but also information as to what is it that we can do. And through the CAT, we are excited to answer your question that there’s a lot of change that we’ve seen that farmers are actually adopting. Behind me, you can see that there is a banana crop, a very good banana crop. In the past, people used to think you can only grow bananas, maybe along (districts of) Thyolo, Mulanje, or Nkhatabay in the Northern Region (of Malawi). But now it’s exciting to see farmers in Central Region growing bananas,” Dr. Nakhumwa explained.

She added by commending CAT for promoting both improved productivity, value addition as well as linking farmers to readily available markets.

“Farmers will always want to ask, if I grow bananas, for example, do I have a readily available market for this? And we want them to be introduced to those markets. And in doing that, they are encouraged to actually diversify. Farmers want to be assured that there is a readily available market for what they are producing. So, the response has been very good, and I’m happy that that’s also in line with what, you know, we’ve stipulated on our own in Malawi 2063,” She added.

The Smoke Free World Vice President and Country director expressed her optimism that crop diversification is also a key to mitigating the impact of climate change.

In his remarks, CAT Executive Director, Macleod Nkhoma re-affirmed their continued commitment in ensuring that farmers are equipped with new technologies that will help them increase production, as well as start earning profits through farming business.

Among others, Nkhoma thanked the Foundation for a Smoke Free World through the Agricultural Transformation Initiative (ATI) for their continued support towards the program’s, CAT is undertaking in the country.

The Farmer Field Day brought together various lead farmers across the country, government officials as well as private partners to appreciate different technologies available at NRC – CAT smart farm.

By Lester Mhone