How do we face climate change effects as droughts, floods and pests?
Over 2 million smallholder farmers in Malawi are facing food insecurity after months of heat and scarce rainfall. Most farmers rely on maize as their staple food. However, maize is often cultivated as a monocrop and relies on external inputs such as mineral fertilizer (e. g. Urea and NPK) and synthetic-chemical pesticides.
Furthermore, farmers are — in the case of most hybrid seeds — not able to recycle the seed for future use. This has created a huge cycle of dependency, from which the farmers can hardly break out.
In order to advocate for a socio-political change, CARD, together with funding from Bread for the World in Germany, established a Syntropic Agroforestry demonstration plot in Chimwala, Mulanje. On this plot, which was created in late November 2023, farmers learn how to combine different agroecological practices such as biofertilizer and biopesticide making, cover cropping, continuous pruning and mulching, grafting fruit trees and water harvesting.
The focus is to quickly reestablish soil fertility for better water retention, enhancing soil and plant health as well as harvesting cash crops while waiting for the trees to produce nuts, fruits, fodder, medicine and fibre.
A group of 20 smallholder farmers receive materials and tools in order to establish their own productive and organic field.
Stakeholders from all over the country are welcome to visit the site to learn and exchange knowledge and experiences. This includes smallholder farmers, NGOs, political leaders and educational entities.
Watch our programme NOW on Youtube: https://youtu.be/kA2abOkrL9A
To watch the first interview on the establishment of the site end of November 2023 with Mzati TV:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6w3GEvtWs6M
#SyntropicAgroforestry
#Agroecology
#ClimateChangeAdaptation
#PolicyChangeNow
#ActionsThatCount
