The area of Malawi which MSP supports has experienced exceptionally dry weather in recent years.
In these villages, maize is the staple crop (many people eat little or nothing else) and everyone has a patch of land to grow their own food. If it doesn’t rain, they starve. Government and international aid agencies have, for the most part, failed to respond. And if there is no food, the children go hungry and cannot be expected to study effectively or at all. Every available penny in the household goes to buying food.
In 2020 MSP sponsored the first of its school bursary children to obtain an offer of tertiary education, Thocco Frank. With MSP’s support he obtained a Diploma in Nutrition, Food Security and Sustainable evelopment in 2022 from a local college, to UK standard exams. He has since requested MSP’s financial assistance to set up an irrigation project drawing on river water, which is plentiful in some areas, to supplement rain fed cultivation.
According to a recent paper “REVIEW OF IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT IN MALAWI: OPPORTUNITIES, APPROACHES AND CHALLENGES”: KA Wiyo, Bunda College of Agriculture, Malawi and JT Mtethiwa, Natural Resources College, Malawi:
“Malawi agricultural production relies heavily on rain-fed agriculture. Consequently, Malawi is prone to food insecurity during years of erratic and poor rain fall. This has been exacerbated by climate change increasing the frequency of dry spells and droughts. The 2017 Malawi Growth and Development Strategy, a national development framework, prioritised irrigation development and set a smallholder irrigation target of 2% hectare growth annually. The smallholder irrigation sector has since 2004 grown at a rate of 1% per annum which is below the desired increase of 2% per annum.”
With starving children and poor school attendance uppermost in our minds, MSP took a decision to help him establish a trial operation. MSP has provided him with a pump and pipe work, rent for land, and enough money for seeds and fertiliser to grow maize and tomatoes for the past two years. It is the intention that the project will become self-sufficient.
MSP is now seeking to develop links between Thocco’s project and two other local organisations – Tiyeni, and the Altenburg Foundation. Tiyeni specialises in developing farming methods in drought stricken areas. They say “Smallholder farmers are fundamental to ending food and water poverty in Africa. Our innovative method of climate-smart agriculture, Deep Bed Farming, empowers farmers across Malawi to double their crop yields and to harvest rainwater, transforming lives forever.” For more about Tiyeni see tiyeni.org
The Altenburg Foundation funds education and training, economic and community development and employment projects. It has a small operation in southern Malawi, providing micro loans and training for small business enterprises. Thocco hopes to join their training programme.
My name is Thocco Frank, living in Phalombe, Malawi. The Malawi Schools project has been supporting me since my secondary school level. I now have a two year Diploma in Nutrition, Food Security and Sustainable Development and am working with MSP doing an irrigation project. I learnt about running irrigation projects while I was at college, and when I left I pleaded with MSP to support me establish one in the Phalombe area.
Although we have had setbacks, I believe we are doing well. My aim is to make this project grow bigger and make more profits year on year. And although it has not been easy to find a way of achieving it, we are trying to our best to operate as a Club.
I hope by the end of two to three years we are going to make a big change here in Malawi, and many people will join us to gain better knowledge of irrigation projects from us, both from within our own community and other communities in Malawi.
