In April, SFHC staff organized two Field Days and one Recipe Day in order to promote awareness, share knowledge and celebrate the successes of the project. The Field Days, which were hosted by farmers in the Emazinyeni and Ekwaiweni areas, attracted hundreds of people, including participating and interested farmers from surrounding areas, and representatives from the Malawian Broadcasting Corporation, Bunda College of Agriculture and the Ministry of Agriculture. Selected farmers showed off their fields, explaining the cropping methods that they use and answering questions from the audience. After the demonstrations, enthusiastic community members performed skits, songs, and dances.Once the entertainment had finished, everyone enjoyed a meal of nsima (the local staple food, made from maize), chicken, and cabbage, while reflecting on what they had learned throughout the day.
The Recipe Day was hosted by farmers in the Encongolweni area. The Nutrition Research Team (NRT) worked hard to organize the day, and many interested farmers from the surrounding areas attended.Using the different legumes from the project, NRT members demonstrated how to prepare various nutritious recipes, including soy meatballs, soy milk, and ground peanut balls. Canadian PhD student, Lauren Classen, also demonstrated a recipe using green soy beans, causing much excitement, as farmers had never known how to use green soy beans! They eagerly accepted the new, nutritious recipe. After the demonstrations, everyone shared a meal and tasted the new recipes, and then enjoyed some traditional drumming and dancing. All three days were very successful, and SFHC staff is looking forward to the upcoming Recipe Days in May!



Posted: September 8, 2008 by rachel Leave a Comment
Seed quality high
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.
Posted: June 29, 2008 by rachel Leave a Comment
Lots of Seed Finds its Way to Seed Bank
The Farmer Research Team members have started collecting the seed from farmers. New participating SFHC farmers were given a seed ‘loan’ which they have to pay back at harvest. This year’s groundnut harvest is not as good as last year, due to short rains, but soya bean harvest has been good. Farmers are enthusiastically bringing their seed loans to the Community Legume Seed Bank, which is run by the FRT. This seed will be distributed to participating farmers around October 2008.
Posted: April 30, 2008 by rachel Leave a Comment
Farmer Pamphlets Coming Soon!
A farmer pamphlet committee was formed in February 2008, including 6 farmers from the Farmer Research Team and our new SFHC Young Professional Intern Laura Swift. The pamphlets, designed, written and drawn by the committee, will tell stories of what the farmers feel that they have learned from the SFHC project. Themes will focus on legume production, recipes and gender household relations. The pamphlets will be published locally and shared with other farmers using participatory farmer exchanges.
A draft pamphlet has been developed and is posted below:
Last Updated: May 20, 2008 by rachel Leave a Comment
Field & Recipe Days a Big Success!
In April, SFHC staff organized two Field Days and one Recipe Day in order to promote awareness, share knowledge and celebrate the successes of the project. The Field Days, which were hosted by farmers in the Emazinyeni and Ekwaiweni areas, attracted hundreds of people, including participating and interested farmers from surrounding areas, and representatives from the Malawian Broadcasting Corporation, Bunda College of Agriculture and the Ministry of Agriculture. Selected farmers showed off their fields, explaining the cropping methods that they use and answering questions from the audience. After the demonstrations, enthusiastic community members performed skits, songs, and dances.Once the entertainment had finished, everyone enjoyed a meal of nsima (the local staple food, made from maize), chicken, and cabbage, while reflecting on what they had learned throughout the day.
The Recipe Day was hosted by farmers in the Encongolweni area. The Nutrition Research Team (NRT) worked hard to organize the day, and many interested farmers from the surrounding areas attended.Using the different legumes from the project, NRT members demonstrated how to prepare various nutritious recipes, including soy meatballs, soy milk, and ground peanut balls. Canadian PhD student, Lauren Classen, also demonstrated a recipe using green soy beans, causing much excitement, as farmers had never known how to use green soy beans! They eagerly accepted the new, nutritious recipe. After the demonstrations, everyone shared a meal and tasted the new recipes, and then enjoyed some traditional drumming and dancing. All three days were very successful, and SFHC staff is looking forward to the upcoming Recipe Days in May!
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Reflections: A Visit from the Seed and Knowledge Initiative
January 10, 2022
By rachel
In March 2018, SFHC was pleased to host a visit from the Seed and Knowledge Initiative (SKI)’s Community of Practice. These experienced and dedicated activists, farmers, and community leaders joined us for several days to exchange knowledge, share… Read More
Launch: we have a podcast!
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By rachel
What is agroecology? How is it related to biodiversity and conservation? What is participatory research, and what does it mean to share different types of knowledge? How can you map knowledge sharing across a landscape? If you’ve ever… Read More
Solar panels at the Center
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By rachel
Wooohooo! We are finally solar powered! For years, it has been part of our dream to build solar panels onto the roof of our Farmer Research and Training Center, in order to run on renewable energy. In the… Read More