Tea is a major cash crop in Malawi and the industry is one of the country’s biggest employers. For small-scale farmers, it is an important source of cash income. But deep gender inequalities prevail at smallholder level, and women tea farmers are being left behind. As part of the Empowering Rural Producers...

The first cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Malawi in early April 2020, and the numbers went up subsequently, leading to Government-instituted COVID-19 lockdowns, which disrupted almost all aspects of normal life in the country.  One of the most affected sectors by the lockdowns was agriculture, as contacts between extension workers...

The Malawi Forum for Agriculture Advisory Services (MaFAAS) held its Farming and Extension Conference in Lilongwe, Malawi, from 19 to 22 July 2022. The conference brought together various stakeholders, who are working in the agriculture space in Malawi, from farmer groups to extension service providers (both state and non-state) and...

How to engage farmers that have limited formal education is at the foundation of environmentally sound and equitable agricultural development.  This study describes the process of development of an innovative curriculum, which integrates agroecology, nutrition, climate change, gender, and other dimensions of social equity across 2 weeks of training explicitly for...

Small-scale farmers in low- and middle-income countries face vastly different realities, which translate into diverse challenges and opportunities. Some businesses, governments and development agencies have been promoting smallholder inclusion in global value chains and smallholder commercialisation as an essential part of addressing challenges and creating opportunities. This is happening against a backdrop of growing corporate concentration in agri-food...

Healthy Soil Healthy Food Initiative: Three African agricultural development organisations from Uganda, Kenya and Malawi present their experience of testing new farming principles learned from the Community Managed Natural Farming initiative in India.

This guide is based on information from the Food Plants International (FPI) database developed by Tasmanian agricultural scientist Bruce French.The source material and guidance for the preparation of the book has been made possible through the support of Food Plants International, the Rotary Clubs of District 9830, particularly the Rotary...

Women are involved in many activities along the value chain of fish trade in Africa including post-harvest handling, processing, branding and marketing. However, limited access to and control of key assets such as capital, skills and technologies limit their engagement in formal fish-related businesses. Women work under critical conditions using...

Jeffrey Chimenya could not imagine that agriculture could one day allow him to own a decent home and have a thriving milk supplying business. Farming meant subsistence for Jeffrey; it didn’t mean success. Yet today, four years after joining the Nyadanawo Farmer Field School (FFS), Jeffrey says that his dreams...

Small-scale farmers in low- and middle-income countries face vastly different realities, which translate into diverse challenges and opportunities. Some businesses, governments and development agencies have been promoting smallholder inclusion in global value chains and smallholder commercialisation as an essential part of addressing challenges and creating opportunities. This is happening against...

Agri-innovations are mostly delivered to farmers through private and public sector-led institutions around the world, with various degrees of success in Malawi. These distribution systems, on the other hand, do not meet everyone's production and productivity needs, particularly those of smallholder farmers. Alternative gap-filling systems are therefore required. Over the...

Tea production accounts for 9%  of Malawi’s foreign exchange earnings and is a major employer, but smallholder farmers are struggling. While those in neighbouring Kenya are adding value to their tea crop for their own benefit, Malawi’s smallholder farmers — the majority of whom are women — gain far less...

MONGABAY's Charles Mpaka authored an excellent piece on Malawi's 3.3 million smallholder farming families, which comprise the country's economic backbone, yet many are underprivileged and facing food scarcity. Agroecology has proven to be a lifeline for some farmers, enabling them to increase yields and revenue while lowering the usage of...

At the recent launch of the new strategy for the National Agriculture Extension and Advisory Services in Lilongwe, Malawi, Access Agriculture (www.accessagriculture.org/) was invited to participate in the exhibition titled “Agriculture Extension and Advisory Services within reach: Key to Improved Agricultural Productivity and Nutrition.”

Learn more about the project 'Revitalising agricultural clusters and ulimi wa m’ndandanda through farmer field schools in Malawi'. This project is part of the wider European Union (EU)-funded KULIMA programme, a five year programme that is being implemented between May 2017 and June 2022 with the aim of achieving improved...

Malawi’s many smallholders rely heavily on rainfed, low-input subsistence farming to meet their food needs. Yet for most rural Malawian households, subsistence agriculture cannot consistently produce enough food to ward off hunger. Nor can they rely on the country’s weak markets to buy additional food they may require or to...

According to a new study, rising temperatures and decreased rainfall in eight Southern and East African countries are likely to reduce the production of vital food crops in the region by 2050. The International Fund for Agricultural Development has issued the scientists' report, which covers Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda,...

The impact of COVID 19 on food security in Africa has been among the most widely discussed subjects since the first cases of COVID-19 in Africa broke in February 2020. Most of the narratives were alarming. The headlines put Africa at the brink of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis caused by...

Adaptation to climate stress is an unprecedented challenge facing cropping systems. Most adaptation assessments focus on how adaptation options affect yields of a single crop under different weather or climate conditions. Yet, cropping systems often comprise more than one crop, and holistic assessments should consider all crops grown in a...

Two new studies published by the Agriculture Policy Research in Africa (APRA) collaboration present a bleak picture of Malawi's smallholder farmers' future. This article builds on the results of APRA Working Papers to better understand the realities of smallholder farming in Malawi and what the future holds for those who...