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Foods Resource Bank (FRB)
Update on the Livingstonia, Malawi project
July 2005
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DR000158 |
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Presbyterian Disaster Assistance was the lead implementer of the FRB project in Livingstonia, Malawi. Funds for this project were provided by a First Presbyterian Church growing project in Atkinson, Nebraska.
Following are excerpts from a recent trip report by Bev Abma, FRB, written July 19, 2005.
We arrived at the office of the Livingstonia Synod of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP). This is one of 3 synods in Malawi that receive FRB funds. There are 19 Presbyteries in the Livingstonia Synod with an average of 20 congregations in each. Development work has been part of the CCAP for over 100 years but |
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was done by the clergy until 13 years ago, when a development department was created to address emergencies, food security, clean water, sanitation, and micro-enterprise initiatives, divided into various zones with different components being offered to different zones at different times. Each zone has a Zone Development Officer, and specific entities such as a Water Field Officer are added as required. Each area also has an Area Development Committee (ADC) as a prerequisite, elected by the community and with gender balance. Village Development Committees (VDCs) include headmen, clergy of various denominations, and agricultural extension workers, and are responsible for selecting beneficiaries, monitoring, timing and distribution of inputs. |
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We first met Cohen Sichinga, the program agriculturalist who took us for a tour of the demonstration plot near the offices which contains vetiver grass, nitrogen-fixing plants, cassava and other vegetable crops. Cassava was not common in this area because of historical tribal conflicts, each group thinking the other was inferior until recent drought resulted in the one tribe helping the people of the other. As a result people are more receptive to considering cassava in this area where the nutrients in the land have been depleted by long-term maize production, erratic rainfall and pests such as army worms.
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Cohen Sichinga, program agriculturalist. Photo: FRB |
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In the test plot there are a number of indigenous nitrogen-fixing trees. Test plots are kept small to carry the message that cropping is manageable by any of the participants, who are chosen by a committee composed of local leadership, clergy, agriculture extension workers and community representatives. Only 30 of the participants have wetlands but efforts are being carried out with these to look at fully utilizing residual moisture. |
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We traveled for several hours to the Euthini program area where Hasswell Mvula, the Zone Development Officer explained program participants are organized in groups that come together at three meeting points. For example one meeting point consists of two groups of seven and eleven villages respectively. One of the groups has oxen and a cart which is used to respond to others asking for assistance.
We met representatives from all of the groups. Reasons for forming a group included hunger, no other options to get food, Synod telling them they needed to do so to receive inputs, and poverty. |
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The Synod did an assessment that showed that farmers lacked capital for inputs on their 3- to 4-acre farms. After the assessment the VDC supplied the names of the neediest to the department, after which the department conducted another interview. The first relief efforts were supplemental feeding with Likuni Phala (a nutritional cereal mixture) in 2000. |
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This phase focuses on helping people to grow their own crops, including maize in wet areas. Each beneficiary was issued vetiver grass for marker ridge stabilization and then given a package of OPV maize, cassava, soy beans, ground nuts, cassava and sweet potato vines (when available). Harvests were poor because of drought and lack of fertilizer. Ground nuts, pigeon peas and soy beans were said to be most successful while sweet potatoes have a short storage span. A few people have adopted the taught methodology of storing them in a pit in the ground. Pigeon peas which provide biomass, and velvet beans which many fear because of their toxicity, were distributed on a more limited basis to those identified as lead farmers.
Efforts to use animal dung as fertilizer are said to have had minimal effect because of the small numbers of animals in the area. The program |
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The project helps people grow their own crops. These women have grown maize. Photo: FRB |
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is now focusing on making compost — this will be a slow process on limited amounts of land but is affordable and sustainable. About 3 people identified having compost pits while some others on further questioning agreed they had waste pits but did not know they were making compost. One woman who saw the difference between her crop and a hybrid, fertilized one says she will use compost next year. |
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The goal of the program was sufficient seeds for the family as well as for community seed and food banks. Since we are just at the end of the first harvest, neither the pay back nor the banks have been initiated although people were able to vocalize somewhat about what would happen. In another program area that we visited later pay back was reported to be good. |
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Black Austrolop chickens are being provided to cross with local chickens in order to upgrade them. Prior to distribution, the communities must prove they have vaccinated the other chickens in the area. Only half have been distributed because of there was no proof of vaccination of the second group. In the first group, the second immunization for New Castle disease, which must be done every 6 months, has not been undertaken. |
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We are told that the initial Participatory Rural Appraisal may not have been reliable as people responded in terms of what they expected to receive since it happened after some relief programming. Three different groups spoke of how "relief food comes, we eat it and it is gone but with this program we have something to take this in to the next year."
During a debriefing discussion, one of the noted impacts of our visit was the decreased shyness of village women with us as a mixed group compared to the all-male CCAP staff visits. |
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This program was also supported by USAID.
USAID (U.S. Agency for International Development) is the principal agency that administers America's foreign assistance programs. USAID funds programs that help people in developing countries escape from poverty and hunger, recover from disasters, engage in democratic reforms, and improve their health, education and environment. |
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To Malawi response index
Find out more about Foods Resource Bank by visiting the Web site. |
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