Deborah and Kirstene Hair of Mains of Ardovie, Brechin, recently returned from Malawi, where they were taking part in a Young Famers exchange programme organised through the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth.
After 2,185 miles in a minibus, 14 visits and a lot of chicken and rice we are home from our Malawian experience. With a population of nearly 16 million, covering 118km2, a life expectancy of around 50 years and a GDP per capita of around $400 (Scotland’s is about $39,000), Malawi was a world away from home.
It is one of the of the poorest countries in the world.
Throughout the trip we gained a much greater insight into both the opportunities and struggles within the country, many of which were not dissimilar to those facing the developed world.
However, the vast disparity arises as Malawi’s economy is based 34.6% on agriculture which is the source of income for around 85% of the population, with 80% of the rural workforce female.
In contrast, Scotland’s agricultural industry amounts to a mere 1.4% of the GDP contribution, employing around 1.8% of the population.
The stark difference between the two countries shows that a poor-yielding year in Malawi would have disastrous consequences. This would be felt throughout the country, where a staggering 54% of the working population rely on an income of less than $1 per day.
Although we witnessed many opportunities and the success achieved when these were grasped with enthusiasm there are prevailing struggles in the form of funding, cultural outlook, education and infrastructure.
Malawi’s economy is reliant on maize, tobacco, cotton, tea, sugar, groundnuts, rice, pulses, and fruit such as bananas, pineapple, mangoes, lemons and watermelon.
Maize is a major player and consequently its yield determines national food security as well as overall economic performance.
The drought of 2005 decreased agricultural output by 9.3%.
However, in 2006 with sufficient rain, and the introduction of a government-led subsidised fertiliser programme they witnessed a huge increase in maize production meaning they could not only cover their requirements but had 250,000 tonnes for export.
As a result of that successful year, 900,000 fewer Malawians required food aid, which illustrates the importance of the link between climate and food security.
Tobacco accounts for around 50% of foreign exchange earnings and, although production has increased in recent years, the dominance of only two multi-national buyers means farmers often receive a raw deal.
Sugar is a growing industry and, although we did not delve into this much, there is great potential in this area.
The other crops such as pulses, fruit and groundnuts are grown on a smaller scale but are also vital to the industry and are made into the best peanut butter we’ve ever tasted.
Cotton output has recently decreased, but tea is still very much an important product.
Plantations, however, are largely owned by external shareholders exploiting Malawi’s low-cost labour.
Although not on the scale of neighbouring countries, natural resource extraction is an area Malawi has potential to exploit.
However, due to lack of infrastructure and power supply (currently all supplied through hydro, but about to convert to coal due to demand), the extraction seems unfeasible even although it has the potential to account for 20% of GDP and be the second-highest export following tobacco.
Manufacturing and financial services are small sectors in Malawi, even with the minimal overheads, fundamentally due to lack of power and skilled workers.
One of our first visits was to the Ministry of Agriculture, which was proud to explain its investment in the employment of agricultural extension officers (AEOs) who were each designated an area in seven districts throughout the country.
The AEOs were a resource for farmers to ask questions and receive advice regarding agricultural policy as well as crop/livestock/general farming queries.
Unfortunately these officers were severely stretched and found it difficult to attend to their existing workload, never mind offer further support which, as we discovered, was much sought after.
Following on from this we toured a production factory of NASFAM (National Smallholder Farmers Association of Malawi).
This initiative invited smallholder farmers to sell to the organisation, which in turn traded in bulk and subsequently offered better prices through increased bargaining power.
Set up in 1998, NASFAM has 100,000 members and actively seeks to improve the quality of members’ products.
It buys and packages rice, peanuts and maize from the Malawian farmers and exports all over the world.
This scheme is going from strength to strength, and membership is steadily growing.
One of the most interesting visits was to Malawi Mangoes, which was largely funded by British private investors.
The scheme’s first farm of bananas and mangoes spanned 126 hectares.
Its second (which is currently under cultivation) is 300 hectares.
It has just agreed a deal with the government for further expansion to rent a third farm covering an impressive 3,000 hectares.
Generally, the standard of mangoes in Malawi is not high enough for resale value so this initiative peels and pulps the fruit to a puree and exports 100% to Coca Cola and McDonalds for smoothie making.
Due to the employment it was bringing to the local community as well as the scale and investment, it was met with considerable backing from all parties, irrespective of the fact that profits were not necessarily ploughed back into the country itself.
Astonishingly, even once the operation expands to more than 3,300 hectares, there is still a question over bringing in machinery to carry out the work as this was being weighed up against the cost of manual labour at $1.5 per day.
Some 30% of the project was in conservation (without any governmental subsidy) simply because it helped keep the monkeys away from the banana trees.
The sheer scale of this project will almost force the government to open a new school and hospital to support the community being built up around it.
A further encouraging excursion was to a rice irrigation scheme in Zomba, below Lake Malawi.
The cooperative between 2,000 farmers (who each had about 0.1ha of land) grew three varieties of rice during the first cultivation and then a mixture of rice, watermelon and fruit on their second.
In total it annually yields 300 tonnes of rice. This was primarily dried through laying it out in the sun before entering their mill, which was donated by the Italian government.
Interestingly this scheme was initially built by the Taiwanese government (in collaboration with the Malawian government) and was only handed over to the farmers in 2001.
They were extremely proud of it and understood the need to continually modernise and renovate the canals bringing the water into the scheme.
Looking around there were very noticeable differences between the plots as best practice was not a fundamental issue for them.
This reflected an issue across the country farmers often did not seek to improve their farming practice due to the concern of standing out and segregating themselves from the community.
This culture has huge implications on yields as there was little desire to improve farming practice.