21st September 2011 GCL Event: Agriculture, Food Security and Water Access

1. Addressing Food Security Challenges
The experience of Smallholder
Farmers in Malawi
Andrew Namakhoma
(Community Development Programmes Officer)

2. Addressing Food Security Challenges
What is NASFAM ?
• Malawi’s largest smallholder
Farmers’ Organisation
• 108,000 individual registered
members in 43 Associations
• Has physical presence in 19 out of
29 Districts in the country
• Promotes production and
marketing of cash crops, including
chillies, groundnuts, cotton, rice,
soya, paprika, & beans
• Acts as a voice for smallholders in
the country
• NASFAM is a member of the
Southern Africa Confederation of
Agricultural Unions (SACAU) and
the international Federation of
Agricultural Producers (IFAP).

3. Addressing Food Security Challenges
A Typical NASFAM Member ...
owns 1 to 2 ha of land
willing to put training
into practice cultivates less than 1 ha of land
ready to change their production is 60% for food,
own lives 40% cash crops
self-motivated looks after 5 or 6 dependants
2 or 3 dependants go to school
basic tool is hoe
willing to pay a small has received only junior primary education
membership fee to support
the Association on joining:
- not conversant with best farming practice,
- requires on site, simplified training on
agricultural production
can be male of female - does not have capital assets like treadle
pumps, ploughs, etc
- has 2 to 3 room hut of mud construction and
grass thatch roof

4. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Agriculture in Malawi
Agricultural sector:
• Single most important sector in the country contributing;
• 85% of the labour force,
• 35% of GDP
• 90% of foreign export earnings
• 65% of raw material for industry
• Is divided into two sectors:-
• Smallholder – mainly subsistence production
• Estate- mainly commercial production
• Land holding is a major issue – population density 92/sq.
km 4

5. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Food security defined
• Food security exists when people have
physical, social and economic access to
sufficient, safe and nutritious food at all
times to meet their dietary needs for an
active and healthy life.
• Food security not equal to own and/or
local food production
• Income security equals food security if
and when markets work

6. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Food Situation in Malawi
• Key Food Security Food Dietary Cotribution
Crops
– Maize as a staple
food
– Rice, Beans, Maize
Rice
Cassava, Sweet Cassava/Sweet Potato
Sorghum/Millet
Potatoes,
Groundnuts,
Sorghum, Millet

7. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Food Security Challenges in Malawi
• Insufficient resources to
acquire food on the market
– 60% of the economy live on
less than $1/day
• Insufficient and poor
infrastructure to support
food markets.
– (information, distribution and
storage)
• Low average productivity for
maize
-0.8 to 1.3 Mt/hectare for
Smallholder farmers

8. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Smallholder Farmers
• 70 % of Malawi population
• Has average land holding size of 0.2
ha.
• Majority live below poverty line, less
than $1 per day
• Often runs out of food very often
• Highly illiterate
• Social and economic hardship

9. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Major Smallholder Farmer Challenges
• Lack of resources
• Increasing cost of production
• Illiteracy level
• Unstable produce prices/ input prices
• Poor infrastructure
• Unreliable produce markets
• Depend on rain fed agriculture
• Lack of access to value adding
technologies

10. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Smallholder Farmers & Food Security
– Generally, Malawi moved from a nationally self-
sufficient maize producer in non-drought years to
dependence on commercial food imports and
foreign assistance to achieve a national food
balance
– In 2000, only 5% of the SHFs produced maize to
last whole year (Sibale et al, 2001).
– average maize deficit amongst SHF is ~ 4.5
months and in poor harvest years this can go up
to over 6 months.

11. Addressing Food Security Challenges
How did we get here
• Natural factors- droughts, floods, pest and disease
outbreaks
– Droughts becoming a frequent occurrence
– Climate change (diseases,
• High population growth rate
– GDP growth must be more than population growth
– Pressure on available land
– Deforestation (environmental hazards)
• Policy errors and/or disjointed policies –
– Subsidising tobacco production and encouraging
diversification from tobacco
• Need to resolve short term emergencies at the expense
of LT solutions
– How much emergency aid has Malawi received?
What is the impact?

12. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Addressing Food Security Challenges
• 2002 hunger- wake up call
• An integrated approach to resolving food
insecurity challenges (due to multiple causes)
• A combination of short and long term strategies
-Irrigation
-Crop diversification
-Food Utilization
-Village Grain Banks

13. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Grain Banks
• Buying of maize @ harvest
• Maize is the sold @ affordable prices
in times of scarcity
• Grain banks are within villages
• Farmer-led and farmer driven initiative.

14. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Drought tolerant crops
• Promote Sweet Potato & Cassava
production
• Establish multiplication sites
• Cassava for food (tubers); relish (leaves);
Cuttings (planting materials); income
earner (sale of tubers & cutting)

15. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Irrigation
• Specifically Drip Irrigation
• Though expensive ensures farmers save
labor & time
• Ensures proper utilization of the scarce
water resource

16. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Addressing Food Security Challenges
• An integrated approach to resolving food
insecurity challenges (due to multiple
causes)
– Synergies and contradictions between
policies
• Reliable data to inform policies – not ‘it
works in Zambia’ syndrome
– Need to understand local/national
dynamics but also not reinventing the
wheel

17. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Strategies for impact
• Invest in efforts to increase both food
and cash crop productivity
– Integrated agriculture – legumes in
addition to improving nutrition improve
soil fertility
– Integrated livestock and crops production
• Improved animal production – help nutrition
and can absorb ‘useless’ crop production
• Adoption of appropriate technology
– Farm mechanisation (e.g. SHF tractor
hire scheme for better ploughing)
– Improved crop varieties

18. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Increasing productivity
• Investment in practical agricultural research
– Linkage between research, government, NGOs and
farmers - Land grant universities
– research in crop production diversification (where
you have comparative advantage due to soil types,
composition, weather, etc)
– Extension in proven technology

19. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Investment in Irrigation
• Irrigation – Malawi’s agriculture
remains susceptible to effects of
drought because it’s almost entirely
rain-fed.
– Supplementary irrigation, Second crop
production
• Irrigation to concentrate on water
reservoirs and water harvesting
– E.g Treadle pump irrigation – very
labour intensive, only work in limited
areas close to water sources, irrigate
0.3 ha

20. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Irrigation development
• Malawi potential for irrigation – 400,000 ha;
– 62 000 ha. developed
– Of this, 14 000 ha. is SH (Dept. of Irrigation)
• reuse irrigation water by employing
irrigation return systems

21. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Conclusions
To maximise positive impact…
• Interventions must look at synergies and avoid
contradictions
• Must focus on increasing productivity of both food
and cash crops (the role of income security in
food security)
• Invest in agricultural research and extension for
increased productivity
• ST strategies to be limited to the minority of the
population and invest more in LT strategies with
possibilities of spill-over to the poorest

22. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Conclusions cont
• Subsidies well targeted and timed
• Private sector must be fully involved in any
intervention – help markets work
• Integrated agric (livestock and crops to support
each other)

23. Addressing Food Security Challenges
NASFAM in Scotland
• NASFAM has some links with Scotland through groups
such as Just Trading under Fairly Traded initiative
which supports farmers through farmer Organizations.
• In 2010 Just Trading procured 38Mt of NASFAM rice
which they supplied to schools, Universities, Church
groups.
• Just Trading also linked NASFAM to IMANI
Developments—the managers of Scotland-Malawi
Trade Partnership, a Project funded by the Scottish
Govt. to provide technical support on improved rice
production process.

24. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Possible Areas of Linkages
• Technical support on processing and value addition of
crops such as Groundnuts, Soy beans, Sunflower.
• Possible marketing linkages with Scottish
organizations that are interested in buying smallholder
farmers crops such as rice, Groundnuts, Soy beans,
Sunflower which NASFAM promotes.
• Supporting Smallholder Farmers towards both Crop
and Animal production processes.
• Support toward HIV and AIDS impact mitigation among
Smallholder Farmers.

25. Addressing Food Security Challenges
Thank you for your attention!
Let us contribute to the impact, not
only the debate!