Rural women transforming landscapes, social norms and livelihoods through integrated food and energy systems in the Miombo-Mopane woodlands of Malawi

Agnes Libanda is a 32-year-old female farmer from the Mukhalala village in Mulanje. She is a mother of four and a member of the Mapasa Farmer Field School.  On a typical day, Agnes prepares her children for school, goes to the farm and comes back to prepare food for her family. Like most mothers in the community, she relies on farming to feed her family and surrounding forests to find fuelwood for cooking. 

Initially, she used to split her piece of land into 2 plots, one for maize and one for other crops. After attending a Farmer Field School, Agnes started intercropping maize and pigeon pea after learning of the nitrogen fixing capabilities of pigeon peas. She explained that, thanks to this new approach, she harvests more food from the same plot now that she is maximizing space and pointed out that the soil has noticeably improved. “It has become harder to afford the required amount of fertilizer to apply to maize, but after a few years of intercropping maize with pigeon peas, my field needs less and less fertilizer” says Agnes. Abigail explained that apart from fixing nitrogen in the soils, every part of the plant is useful. “We eat the peas, use the stalk for firewood and use the leaves as a natural mulch, which eventually decomposes to become manure". 

Deforestation has made firewood for cooking a scarce resource in the village. Nonetheless, as a wife and mother of four, Agnes needs a constant supply of firewood to cook for her family. “It is my duty as a woman to fetch firewood. Normally we would travel several kilometers to look for firewood in surrounding forests, most of which are protected. Sometimes guards would catch us and detain us for a whole day”. In between fetching firewood and taking care of her family she rarely has time to rest or pursue personal interests. 

For Agnes and a lot of other women in her area, using pigeon pea stalks as firewood reduces the distance they have to travel to fetch firewood. In addition, pigeon pea stalks burn slowly and go a long way. “Once we harvest pigeon peas and cut the stalks, we use them for firewood for several months. We only fetch firewood from the forest to supplement”.

Locally developed and adapted practices and technology – Presenting the Integrated Food and Energy System

This innovative, community-invented, drought-resilient approach that Agnes refers to in her story is called an Integrated Food and Energy System (IFES). Increased adoption of IFES has the potential to substantially reduce over-reliance on forests or firewood and overreliance on inorganic fertilizers. Using pigeon pea stalks for firewood frees the time of women and girls, who otherwise must travel several kilometers to fetch firewood. This way, they can spend more time on other productive activities such as school and income generating activities. 

The IFES is strengthening the resilience of the Miombo-Mopane landscapes while sustaining local livelihoods, and providing food, energy, and nutrition security.

As a drought tolerant legume, pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan Millsp.) can be intercropped with staple food crops (e.g. maize) in rain-fed farming systems, hence improving on-farm diversification and reducing the risk of crop failure. In this context, the nitrogen fixing grain legume reduces fertilizer needs (and associated costs for farmers) while increasing the yield of maize and providing an additional food crop, hence contributing to food and nutrition security. Pigeon pea stems provide cooking fuel material which is easy to chop and dry. This provides conveniently sized fuel from one’s own land for cooking and heating, thereby reducing dependency on collecting firewood from forests and the time spent on this task. This particularly benefits women and girls who are primarily responsible for the collection. The integration of pigeon pea varieties with high yielding biomass improves soil cover and moisture retention and reduces nutrient loss. Moreover, the deep rooting system of the crop enables soil stabilization, improves soil structure, and reduces soil loss in times of floods.

IFES contributes to boosting productivity with diversified, increased, and stable income, which can provide incentives for upscaling related investments in Malawi. Incentives already expressed by farmers where IFES is well established include (i) Energy security, (ii) Improved soil fertility and crop yields, (iii) Improved land use efficiency (iv) Additional income and improved nutrition through pigeon pea, and (v) Contribution to environmental and biodiversity conservation.

Rural livelihoods and gender equality strategies

In the context where Agnes lives, women play a crucial role in crop production, with 54% of agricultural activities undertaken equally by both men and women, and 33% mainly managed by women. Crop production is the primary source of income for cooperative members, and a significant number of women are actively involved in activities such as crop production, irrigated horticulture, irrigation management, harvesting, post-harvest processes, produce processing, and product sales. Their contributions extend beyond production to management, quality control, and marketing. Women's active participation is vital for community development, economic empowerment, and biodiversity conservation, as their unique knowledge and skills support the development and implementation of effective drought coping strategies. 

How is FAO working with Rural Women like Agnes to upscale this good practice? 

IFES is one of the 11 core themes that the GEF-7 Sustainable Forest Management Impact Program on Dryland Sustainable Landscapes (DSL-IP) has identified as key evidence-based good practice in addressing common management challenges across dryland landscapes for better livelihoods, better production and better environment and better nutrition. 

The DSL-IP is working with Forest and Farm Producer Organizations, who are key agents of transformative change towards sustainable and resilient Miombo and Mopane landscapes. 

Under the DSL-IP, through cereal-legume intercropping, Malawi is catalysing the upscaling of key Sustainable Land Management (SLM) actions at household/farm level to address the decline of agricultural productivity. 

To scale up the IFES to other project areas where it is not yet applied and to harness women's specific knowledge of drought resilience and biodiversity conservation, FAO supported the Malawi child project to conduct a comprehensive assessment-to-action methodology, comprising of the Sustainable Landscape Production Framework (SLPF) and the Integrated Landscape Assessment Methodology (ILAM). This methodology integrates data from all levels, including geospatial, landscape, and household level data, providing a holistic view of dynamics on the ground. It supports the tailoring of interventions for the implementation of the SLPF, which encompasses three FAO flagship programs and approaches: Community Seedbanks, Forest and Farm Facilities and Farmer Field Schools. By leveraging this multi-level data, the needs of farmers are more accurately addressed within the SLPF, and interventions are aligned to be relevant and impactful. 

The results of household level assessments carried out as part of the ILAM for instance revealed that women often had limited access to training programs and capacity-building opportunities in sustainable land management practices. As a result, the project introduced tailored training for women to build their skills in sustainable agriculture and production techniques. Recognizing that restricted access to financial services hinders women's economic activities, the program also provided financial literacy training and business development support for cooperative women, youth and men members.

Access to land emerged as a critical factor for implementing intercropping and other sustainable land management practices. Although most cooperative members perceive their land tenure as secure, there is variability in land size and use, with limited land area available to women, which could hinder the adoption of certain land management practices. To support women’s land rights, the project linked informal women's groups and communities to regional and global networks, as well as NGOs focused on land rights, to strengthen advocacy efforts and provide legal support for gender-responsive policy changes.

In decision-making processes, 43 percent of households in the Miombo area are headed by women, often due to the migration of male family members. The fact that women and female-led households are already actively engaged in the practices linked to the IFES showcases the potential for empowering women through the upscaling of this system. The project actively strengthens women's participation in decision-making at the community level and within cooperative governance structures. This inclusive approach has enhanced agricultural productivity, sustainable land management, and economic empowerment, ultimately improved rural livelihoods and contributing to the resilience and sustainability of the community.

Authors: Fritjof Boerstler, Annabelle Buhrow, Lucia Gerbaldo, Cynthia Mahata, Maria Teresa Di Benedetto with thanks to the work performed by the Malawi Project Management Unit, the FAO Malawi country office and the Global Coordination Project of the DSL-IP and Agnes Libanda for sharing her story.