Improved farming transforms lives
Rozalio and Edna have six children and earn a living through farming. They grow maize, sweet potato, apart from rearing pigs, goats and a cow. To the people in their community, they are role models, transiting from excessive poverty to prosperity within a brief stint.
Rozalio Chibade, and his wife Edna, hail from Chingondo, a village in the area of Traditional Authority Mwambo in Zomba district.
The couple has six children and earns a living through farming. They grow maize, sweet potato, apart from rearing pigs, goats and a cow.
People of Chingondo regard Rozalio and Edna as role models, following their transition from excessive poverty to prosperity within a brief stint.
The family’s annual crop and livestock production increased thanks to World Vision Namachete Area Development Programme (ADP) for introducing the family to modern farming skills.
Life used to be unbearable
Not more than three years ago, life was unbearable for Rozalio and his wife as they struggled financially and could barely fend for their children.
“Our children were often attacked by malnutrition due to lack of proper food and their lives faced great danger,” Rozalio explains.
Despite working tirelessly on their 1.5 hectares of land, Rozalio and his wife could not harvest more than six bags of maize at the end of each growing season.
Lack of fertilizer, good seed and erratic rains are some of the major factors that contributed to the family’s poor harvest. “Our home used to ran out of food six months from the harvesting period and we had no clue where our next food would come from,” Rozalio explains.
In January 2008, Rozalio’s daughter Lucia, now nine years old, suffered from malnutrition and had anemia. She was admitted for three weeks at one of the private hospitals in Zomba.
Rozalio was forced to borrow 5,000 Malawi Kwacha [US $30] from a friend to buy supplementary foods for the child and also pay for medical and transport bills.
When time to settle the debt came, Rozalio failed to access the money he borrowed and as a result, he was forced to sell 0.5 hectares of his farm land.
“It really pained me to offer the land portion because my children could have benefited from it. Selling it was more like disregarding their future,” Rozalio says.
In pursuit for a decent life, Rozalio temporarily abandoned his home in July 2008, and went to scrounge for jobs along Lake Chilwa, located some 30km from his village.
Luckily, a group of fishermen at the lake hired Rozalio to fix their fishing nets and at the end of the day he was making money amounting to US $2.
Two months later, Rozalio decided to go back home to share part of the money he had saved. On his arrival, he met a group of friends coming from a brief meeting World Vision had conducted in their community.
Farmer training by World Vision
The meeting was aimed at sensitising community members about a week-long agricultural training World Vision, through extension workers from Ministry of Agriculture, had planned to conduct the following week.
The training particularly targeted small scale and inexperienced farmers.
Lured by his friends, Rozalio decided not to return to the lake but to attend the training.
When time came, Rozalio and other 83 small scale farmers attended the training and at the end, they had the opportunity of gaining knowledge on how to enhance crop and livestock production through modern farming methods.
“During the training we learnt a number of things including use of irrigation, drought resistant crops, organic manure and crop diversification,” Rozalio says. Aside from this, Rozalio and his friends were imparted with knowledge on how to manage livestock including pigs, goats and cattle. Inspired by what he learned during the training, Rozalio, in September 2008, decided to grow an improved sweet potato variety from seedlings which he got from a friend.
Eight months later, he managed to harvest 15 bags of sweet potato. He kept three of the bags for food and sold 12 bags to traders at a local market in Zomba.
After selling the 12 bags, Rozalio earned 51,000 Malawi Kwacha [US $320] and this marked the genesis of his family’s transformation.
Prosperity
“I used the money to buy two goats, two pigs, chicken and improved variety of maize seed and sweet potato seedlings,” Rozalio explains.
According to Rozalio, the remaining amount was spent on surplus food, school uniforms and learning materials for his children.
The availability of learning materials and good clothes prompted Rozalio’s children to start working hard at school.
Lucia's grades have improved now that she has a school uniform and is no longer hungry. Photo by Wezzie Banda
Lucia, Rozalio’s fifth born daughter who is in Grade 3 at Sekwere Primary School explains how her education has improved.
“I used to score low grades during exams due to lack of concentration in class. The situation has now improved as I get good grades,” Lucia explains.
According to Lucia, she was failing to concentrate in class due to hunger. Also her teachers used to send her back for not putting on her school uniform.
Rozalio continued to practice the techniques he learned. During the 2010 and 2011 growing seasons, he planted maize, sweet potato and groundnuts.
To improve soil fertility on his piece of land, Rozalio applied organic manure from his livestock.
When the harvesting period came, Rozalio realised 33 bags of maize, 20 bags of sweet potato and 10 bags of ground nuts.
To ensure that his household was food secure, he spared a good part of the harvest and offered the remaining at the market.
This time around, Rozalio managed to raise 200,000 Malawi Kwacha about [US $1,250].
Apart from selling the harvest, part of the money Rozalio earned was generated from the sweet potato tubers which he sold to an agri-based company at 25,000 Malawi Kwacha [US $150].
As part of his long term plan, Rozalio has bought a cow and he also intends to secure a piece of land to plant rice.
“I am proud to say that hunger and malnutrition in my family will be history. The cow that I have bought will give us milk,” Rozalio explains.
Just like his father, Lucia dreams of going further with her education. “Apart from consuming the milk, some of it will be sold and through this, my parents will be able to get our school fees,” Lucia says, who aspires to be a teacher.
Rozalio’s success story gives a reflection on how farmers in Namachete ADP are benefiting from World Vision’s food security programme.
According to Jacob Mazibuko, programme manager for Namachete ADP, the average annual income for small scale farmers in Namachete has increased from US $50 in 1999 to US $150. Jacob attributes the rise in income to new variety crops World Vision introduced in the area, for example rice, sweet potato, maize and sorghum.
Currently, World Vision continues to impact the lives of more than 3,400 registered children in Namachete through the food security programme.
According to a mid-term survey conducted in Namachete in 2009, stuntedness as a nutrition condition has reduced to 47 per cent from 51 per cent.
This indicates that communities in Namachete are able to manage acute malnutrition and underweight children through food security interventions.
World Vision Namachete ADP began in 1998 and will be phasing out in 2014.