Visit to Dedza

Maize (known as corn in England) is the staple crop in Malawi. 85% of Malawi's workforce is involved in agriculture, the majority being subsistence smallholder farmers. Typically, a Malawian family will own or rent a small area of land, which they will farm by hand. They will grow mostly maize, which will provide their food for the year. Once harvested, the maize will be ground down into flour, which is used to make 'nsima', a starchy substance which resembles spongy mash potato. It's fair to say that this is the Malawian national dish. Depending on availability, nsima will be accompanied by 'relish' - most usually goat, fish or vegetables.

 A mountain of nsima cooked up by the guards

Farmers will also grow a small number of 'cash-crops' to provide some income - most typically this will be tobacco. The global push to reduce smoking has reduced the demand for (and therefore price of) tobacco in recent decades.

Due to its heavy reliance on just one staple crop, Malawi is extremely vulnerable to climate shocks, which affect the maize harvest and lead to food shortages and famine. The vast majority of Malawian agricultural production is rain-fed (i.e there is no artificial irrigation), meaning that there is only one harvest a year - at the end of the rainy season, in April. When these harvests are affected by floods and droughts, the impact on Malawians can be devastating. In 2002, a famine in Malawi killed between 300 and 3000 people. Further food crises followed in 2005 and 2013, with climatic factors exacerbated by political mismanagement.

On Tuesday, I travelled to Dedza district with some colleagues, to visit three villages where DFID funding is helping to increase the resilience of communities to climate shocks through diversifying incomes (e.g. by broadening the crop-base; helping villagers procure livestock; and providing training in alternative livelihoods, like bee-keeping and stove-making); encouraging the use of conservation agriculture practices which reduce the need for inputs like fertiliser and water; and building irrigation systems to allow villagers to cushion the impacts of floods and droughts, and most importantly harvest crops more than once a year.

We were shown how the stoves were made. A group of villagers digs clay from the ground; this clay is then shaped into a stove, which is baked in a hand-made kiln. A similar process is used to make bricks for building houses. The stoves are far more efficient than open fires, using ten times less wood for the same heat output. This not only reduces the time villagers have to spend collecting firewood, but - perhaps more importantly - helps reduce deforestation - a serious problem in Malawi where the majority of the population cook using firewood. The stoves also produce less smoke than an open fire, helping to reduce the negative impacts of smoke inhalation on the population. Once they have made enough stoves for the village, the villagers will start selling them to neighbouring villagers or to traders, who bring them to the cities to sell. The villagers sell the stoves for 75p.

A stove being made

A stove in action

Conservation agriculture techniques are increasingly popular in Malawi, where fertiliser is expensive, and rainfall unpredictable. Conservation agriculture is a way of locking nutrients and moisture into the soil. Frequently used techniques include crop rotation, planting trees which help fertilise the soil, and laying maize husks across a field to trap moisture and prevent heavy rains from washing away nutrients.

A farmer stands in his maize husk-covered field, showing the soil from the field (left), which is full of nutrients, and the soil from a neighbouring non-maize husk-covered field, which is devoid of nutrients

Of all the interventions which we saw, the most impressive - and seemingly the most effective, in terms of increasing incomes - was the implementation of irrigation systems, which allowed villagers to harvest more than one crop a year, and continue to water their crops during periods of drought. We visited two irrigation systems. Both drew water from streams running through nearby mountains. A network of concrete lined ditches and pipes brought the water to the villagers' fields, where they used miniature dams to control the flow of water onto their crops. The villagers dug the channels themselves, with funding for the materials coming from DFID and other donor partners. Each system cost around £10,000 to build. The systems were designed by a young Malawian Civil Engineer, who travelled to the villages with us, and was welcomed like a returning hero! The impact of the irrigation schemes was clear to see. We spoke to one woman who was using the additional income she was receiving from the extra harvest to pay her children's school fees; before the irrigation scheme had been built, she was illegally taking wood from a nearby protected forest to sell and illegally brewing and selling beer, in order to pay the fees.

Irrigation channels drawing water from the mountains

Villagers watering their crops

An irrigated maize field

In each village we visited we received an overwhelming welcome, in which all the women in the village sung and danced. The song lyrics had been specifically tailored to our visit: 'DFID is coming, what shall we do with them? Let's hug them and show them where to sit?' etc. It was hard to resist dancing, but as I was the one doing the filming, the truth of my exploits will remain a mystery. We also heard a poem, saw a play, and received a speech of heartfelt thanks from one of the village Headmen on behalf of 'all the people overseas' who had helped the villagers to improve their lives.

All of the interventions outlined above have been designed to be self-sustaining, to ensure the villagers are able to continue to benefit - and share their knowledge with other villagers - without donor support.

Important as this work is in the short-term, to help mitigate the threat of future famines, smallholder farming - no matter how productive - will not deliver the sustained economic growth that Malawi needs to improve the lives of its citizens. How Malawi - a land-locked country, with few natural resources - delivers this growth is an interesting question, and one I'll be returning to in this blog.