Soils, Food and Healthy Communities

Two hundred farmers throughout Ekwendeni region tested sorghum and cowpea in 2009-2010 season as possible drought-tolerant crops to include in their farming system to increase food security. Farmers designed their own experiments to test the crops, some growing them in intercrops, others trying sole-cropping systems. All farmers met to discuss their experiments in February, to exchange ideas and experiences. Some farmers had difficulty with germination of the sorghum, which is a very small-seeded crop, but many were excited by the possibility of adding another crop which is better able to withstand dry spells. An initial assessment of the experiments will be conducted after the harvest is completed.

SFHC held a planning meeting with colleagues from the Ekwendeni Hospital AIDS Programme, Bunda College of Agriculture, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, the University of Western Ontario (Canada) and MALEZA in May 2010. We are launching a new research project, funded by the International Development Research Centre, called  Participatory Farmer Research on Agroecological Adaptation to Environmental Change and HIV/AIDS in Malawi. The project, which is taking place in Ekwendeni and Kasungu (central Malawi) will involve participatory experiments with 400 households on climate change adaptation strategies, along with research to understand farmer and government perspectives on climate change.

A group of sixteen Canadians, representing the Presbyterian Church in Canada, visited the SFHC project in August. Several healthy recipes were prepared by participating farmers in the presence of the visitors. Some of these were as follows:soya milk, pigeonpea relish, soya meat, fried bananas, soya coffee, pigeonpea and bananas. The visitors sampled the dishes and enjoyed some songs with the farmers.

Lizzie Shumba and Rachel Bezner Kerr attended a policy workshop on soil fertility management and seed systems in Lilongwe, Malawi August 31-Sept. 1 2009. The workshop was organized by Bunda College of Agriculture and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to discuss how legumes can be better linked to other efforts to address food security. Several interesting policy ideas were discussed and will be presented to government representatives. Lizzie and Rachel raised the work of SFHC as one way that government can support farmers in trying to address food security and soil fertility.

A participatory workshop was held in May 2009 with 60 farmer representatives as well as staff and representatives from the Ekwendeni Hospital AIDS Program. The workshop involved assessing challenges and achievements of the project over the last 3 years, and thinking about strategies for the next few years. Rachel Bezner Kerr and Lizzie Shumba presented some highlights from research findings from the past three years. Farmers were keen to have these results published in chiTumbuka so that they could present them to the communities. The workshop was considered very helpful for planning for steps ahead.

Zacharia Nkhonya, Boyd Zimba, Rodgers Msachi and the members of the FRT have been pegging areas to collect yield data in 2009, and they have observed very healthy looking maize, and excellent legume fields. They think that the harvest this year should be very high, and look forward to collecting data in June-July.

A new article in the magazine National Geographic highlights the SFHC project as an agroecological alternative to the dominant model of agriculture of fertilizers, hybrid seeds and pesticides being promoted for Africa. The author, Joel Bourne, visited the project in November 2008, and interviewed Rachel on the phone following his trip. To read the article visit: http://s.ngm.com/print/2009/06/cheap-food/bourne-text

Lizzie Shumba, the Project Coordinator, has returned to the Natural Resources College in September, after having a break from her studies. Lizzie has been on ‘study leave’ since February 2008. She spent her ‘break’ helping write reports and carry out seed collection and assessment. We wish her the best in her studies this coming semester!

Analysis by the SFHC team and collaborating researchers of anthropometric data collected over 8 years indicates that project involvement has a positive, significant effect on child weight-for-age, which is an indicator of child nutritional status. A report on these exciting findings will be submitted for publication in a scientific journal. See our ‘research results’ for a summary of the findings.

The Farmer Research Team and SFHC staff have been busy grading groundnut and soya bean seed this past month. Over 3000 kg of soya bean seed wascollected from participating farmers, and the quality of this legume seed is high. This seed will be redistributed to new participating farmers in the coming rainy season. No pigeonpea seed was collected, which was attributed to a break in the rainfall and high weevil incidence this past year.