Jeffrey Chimenya could not imagine that agriculture could one day allow him to own a decent home and have a thriving milk supplying business. Farming meant subsistence for Jeffrey; it didn’t mean success. Yet today, four years after joining the Nyadanawo Farmer Field School (FFS), Jeffrey says that his dreams...

Small-scale farmers in low- and middle-income countries face vastly different realities, which translate into diverse challenges and opportunities. Some businesses, governments and development agencies have been promoting smallholder inclusion in global value chains and smallholder commercialisation as an essential part of addressing challenges and creating opportunities. This is happening against...

Agri-innovations are mostly delivered to farmers through private and public sector-led institutions around the world, with various degrees of success in Malawi. These distribution systems, on the other hand, do not meet everyone's production and productivity needs, particularly those of smallholder farmers. Alternative gap-filling systems are therefore required. Over the...

Tea production accounts for 9%  of Malawi’s foreign exchange earnings and is a major employer, but smallholder farmers are struggling. While those in neighbouring Kenya are adding value to their tea crop for their own benefit, Malawi’s smallholder farmers — the majority of whom are women — gain far less...

MONGABAY's Charles Mpaka authored an excellent piece on Malawi's 3.3 million smallholder farming families, which comprise the country's economic backbone, yet many are underprivileged and facing food scarcity. Agroecology has proven to be a lifeline for some farmers, enabling them to increase yields and revenue while lowering the usage of...

Learn more about the project 'Revitalising agricultural clusters and ulimi wa m’ndandanda through farmer field schools in Malawi'. This project is part of the wider European Union (EU)-funded KULIMA programme, a five year programme that is being implemented between May 2017 and June 2022 with the aim of achieving improved...

Malawi’s many smallholders rely heavily on rainfed, low-input subsistence farming to meet their food needs. Yet for most rural Malawian households, subsistence agriculture cannot consistently produce enough food to ward off hunger. Nor can they rely on the country’s weak markets to buy additional food they may require or to...

According to a new study, rising temperatures and decreased rainfall in eight Southern and East African countries are likely to reduce the production of vital food crops in the region by 2050. The International Fund for Agricultural Development has issued the scientists' report, which covers Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda,...

The impact of COVID 19 on food security in Africa has been among the most widely discussed subjects since the first cases of COVID-19 in Africa broke in February 2020. Most of the narratives were alarming. The headlines put Africa at the brink of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis caused by...

Adaptation to climate stress is an unprecedented challenge facing cropping systems. Most adaptation assessments focus on how adaptation options affect yields of a single crop under different weather or climate conditions. Yet, cropping systems often comprise more than one crop, and holistic assessments should consider all crops grown in a...

Two new studies published by the Agriculture Policy Research in Africa (APRA) collaboration present a bleak picture of Malawi's smallholder farmers' future. This article builds on the results of APRA Working Papers to better understand the realities of smallholder farming in Malawi and what the future holds for those who...

Cette technologie décrit méthodiquement comment faire une ruche à barre supérieures (modèle du Kenya). Une ruche à barres supérieures, (ou une ruche à barres mobiles) est une caisse rectangulaire couverte avec des barres d’une largeur fixées. Les abeilles commenceront la construction de leurs rayons à partir du centre des barres...

This technology describes step by step how to make a top bar hive (Kenyan model). A top bar hive, or moveable comb hive, is a rectangle box covered with bars of a fixed width. Bees will build their combs from the centre of the top bar, hanging down. To attract...

In this video we will learn how to recognise Newcastle disease, and the signs, causes, prevention, control and management of this devastating disease.

Dans cette vidéo, nous allons apprendre à reconnaître la maladie de Newcastle, et les signes, les causes, les moyens de prévention, de contrôle et de gestion de cette maladie dévastatrice.

Not only is fish an important part of nutrition in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), but it is also a major–and unrecognized–element of trade. Fish and fish products are a primary source of protein and essential nutrients in the human diet. Various fish and other aquatic species are available from...

Measures that empower young agri-entrepreneurs should be a key component of a sustainable development-centred investment promotion strategy. The very realization of future generations’ food security, the sustainable transformation of food systems and the combat against unemployment and distress migration all depend upon the successful implementation of strategies that make the...

While listening to a recent broadcast on Belgium’s Radio 1 about the magic lantern and the “lanternists” who entertained paying audiences, I realised that some developments we think off as highly innovative may also be seen as a modification of something that existed hundreds of years ago.  The magic lantern projected...

As supplementary technology in evergreen agriculture, agroforestry technology will focus on the concept of simultaneous intercropping of proven fertilizer trees in replenishing soil fertility and increasing crop yields. Simultaneous intercropping is an agroforestry technique whereby nitrogen fixing woody trees are simultaneously grown with annual crops on the same piece of...

Evergreen Agriculture is a combination of conservation agriculture and agroforestry practices within the same spatial and temporal dimensions. In other circles, evergreen agriculture is referred to as agroforestry based conservation agriculture or Conservation Agriculture With Trees (CAWT). Evergreen agriculture is being tested by The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in conjunction...