In food security, there is safety in numbers

At 5 am on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Cledonia Nkhonyo and her four
children wake up to the sound of the bell from the parish church
signaling to all villagers in Group Village Headman Kachule in Dedza
to go to work in their fields.

Besides her own eight acres in which she cultivated maize and beans,
on other days, Nkhonyo also works in the five acre community maize
garden and the village demonstration garden where farmers in the
village learn modern farming methods and replicate them in their own.

Six years ago, Nkhonyo’s household used to experience hunger after
every harvest season. Then, all her 10 children were living at home
and they depended on two acres of land for farming.

Last farming season, she experimented with applying manure and
fertilizer in her maize fields. In the end she harvested 300 bags from
the increased acreage which she has been selling during this lean
period at K4,500.

“I also used some of the bags to pay labourers in my fields or I sell
so that we eat meat at least everyday. I have also managed to pay
K45,000 fees for my son at New Era Private School ,” she states
proudly.

But how was this turnaround made possible?

Irrigation, Rural Livelihoods and Agricultural Development Project
(Irlad) is a government agricultural project being implemented by the
Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to raise agricultural
productivity and incomes of rural households in the districts of
Nsanje, Chikwawa, Blantyre, Phalombe, Zomba, Dedza, Lilongwe, Salima,
Nkhatabay, Rumphand Chitipa.

Nkhonyo benefitted under the project through the Input for Assets and
Farmer Services and Livelihood Fund through which the farmers
themselves demanded extension services which were provided through the
district assembly agricultural office.

Theresa Jabesi is one of 150 farmers in GVH Kachule who benefitted
from Irladp project activities in the village. For moulding bricks and
providing dambo sand for the construction of the community warehouse,
she received 10 kg of Pannar Seed and a 50kg bag of Urea fertilizer to
use in her one acre maize field.

With expert advice from extension workers, where she used to harvest
10 bags of fertilizer, she expects at least 40 bags this year.

Patricia Magola and her four children will not go hungry this year
thanks to assistance from Irladp. For working in the community maize
garden and moulding bricks for the warehouse, she received a bag of
fertilizer and seed.

This season she expects to harvest at least 8 bags of maize from her two acres.
Under the second component of farmer services and livelihood fund,
farmers of Kachule in Dedza were trained on improving marketing of
their produce and encouraged to carry out public works in exchange for
inputs under the Inputs for Assets project.

According to Irladp project coordinator Dickxie Kampani, the project
started in 2006 co-financed by World Bank and International Fund for
Agricultural Development (IFAD) with about US$52 million over five
years.

The project has five components, namely rehabilitation of irrigation
schemes, farmer services and livelihood fund, social development and
community mobilization and project coordination and monitoring and
evaluation.

Under the project, 2,500 hectares of irrigation land is undergoing
rehabilitation including the main government schemes of Muona in
Nsanje, Limphasa in Nkhatabay, Likangala in Zomba and Nkhate.

Kampani said about 38 new irrigation schemes are being developed, 18
of which are small scale (10 to 50 Has).

Kampani however said relying on the decentralized system at districts
has been a problem for the project because most assemblies lack
capacity so they fail to adequately support the project.

Dedza district agriculture development officer William Kamlomo said
Kachule under T/A Kachere has been a beneficiary of Irladp activities
through the establishment of an irrigation scheme, agro-forestry,
community resource centres and farmer cooperatives.

In Kachule, the project also empowered the farmers to incorporate
issues of gender, equal distribution of resources and community
mobilization as the farmers were able to work together on five acres
of a community maize field.

After identifying land for the community garden, GVH Kachule gave the
farmers the go ahead and they would mould bricks while working in the
garden.

The field was divided into small areas which the farmers worked on
individually, applying manure and fertilizer as advised by the
extension workers.

A total of 15 bags of Urea fertilizer and 250 mounds of compost
manure, prepared by the farmers themselves, went into the garden in
the end.

“We have put in place procedures on how the maize will be divided and
what it will be used for. The harvest from this garden belongs to the
whole community,” Nkhonyo said.

After applying compost manure, Nkhonyo said the farmers believed the
extension workers when they said the land would be fertile for a long
time and they would always harvest more than an ox-cart of maize each
season.

According to GVH Kachule, the 450 bags of maize which they hope to
harvest from the community garden will act as safeguard in times of
hunger in any one of the 792 households under his care.

In the past, if farmers harvested more than anticipated, they would
sell soon after and when food shortage hit the village, the households
were not prepared.

“150 farmers have worked in this field and this maize will be stored
in the warehouse which we have constructed under the inputs for assets
programme. Each farmer received a bag of fertilizer and seed for
working on the warehouse,” he said.

The farmers of GVH Kachule did not just stop at working together
increase maize yield and put money in their pockets but also
conserving the environment.

In 2008, about 90 farmers, of whom 50 were women, started an
agro-forestry nursery of green and red acacia trees in the village to
plant along Thethe river in the village.

The villagers saw the need for a forest after noting rampant siltation
in Thethe river because farmers would cultivate crops along the river.

The women suffered most, according to the forest supervisor Ellen
Dimba, because there were no trees to use for firewood in the trees
and they would travel long distances to fetch it.

About 5,500 trees were planted and since then, the farmers take turns
weeding the forest, binding the branches thereby ensuring all the
trees survive to maturity.
Most of the farmers stated that such agricultural development has been
successful because of the leadership qualities of their village
headman.

GVH Kachule agrees: “Being a chief is not about allowing access to the
graveyard or presiding over disputes between villagers. You have to
look after the well being of your people. What are they eating, are
they staying in good homes?”