Reaping the rewards of the land

By Richard Harvey in Malawi
Former Chief Executive, Aviva Group

Workers look after irrigated farmed land in Malawi Striving for a living in Malawi Working to insure a better future Watch: Richard before setting off

With a bit of simple irrigation, these subsistence farmers on the slopes of the Dedza hills are breaking out of poverty and turning into businessmen and women, albeit on a small scale.

In the middle of Malawi, a fragile agricultural industry has been dependant on one rainy season a year, making malnutrition the norm for the people of one of the poorest countries on earth.

And climate change has been making it worse, creating volatility and uncertainty in the already delicate balance.

But with the support of Concern Universal, the help of a water engineer and the diversion of a hill stream along aqueducts hewn with the universal African hoe, farming is transformed.

Creating viable farms in Malawi requires a lot of grass roots support

Food prices

Three crops a year instead of an uncertain one. So not only can these villagers feed themselves, but they have surplus to sell.

As we all know, world food prices are skyrocketing. The two biggest drivers are the price of oil, (and the consequent trend of growing biofuels, rather than food) coupled with the damaging effects of climate change on some of the worlds big producers, like Australia.

This is a terrible headache for aid agencies bringing emergency relief and the World Bank has been at the forefront of raising awareness of just how much more money will be needed to feed those who are already starving.

But if we can overcome the short-term problem like in the case of the Dedza hill farmers could there be a positive side to this apparent disaster?

Education in farming techniques is key to Malawi's progress

Transform lives

Africa has vast tracts of unfarmed land, not all of it viable, but a lot of it under-utilised.

Vast surpluses from Europe and the US, coupled with price subsidies for western farmers have, in the past, destroyed the market for locally grown food. But that has all changed with breathtaking speed and real economics are starting to apply - at last.

Small scale they may be, but these local Malawian farmers can now sell their surplus potatoes for a price that transforms their lives.

Better still, Concern Universal has linked them to a Malawian potato crisp manufacturer who can use their now regular crops for a high added value import substitute.

There is much unfarmed land in the African country

One local farmer told me that for his first crop, after deducting all costs, he had made a profit of $900, about three times the Malawian average annual wage.

Education

So, can this micro example be replicated? Could Africa move forward as a food provider? A radical thought and a question that hardly seems to have occurred to the developed world. But could we see a green revolution?

The answer is there is a very long way to go and for many who spend 85% of their income on food, things have got a lot worse.

Learning the skills of food production rather than dependency on food aid is going to require a lot of grass roots support. Land ownership in Malawi is normally in the hands of the Traditional Authority, or village headman, so creating viable farms is not easy.

Economics is beginning to prevail in the local food trade

The first step is to get enough food production to feed the country, and building that capacity will require education on irrigation, fertilizer, seed varieties and marketing. But it can be done, as Concern Universal and the Dedza potato farmers have proved.

The biggest obstacle to sustainable self sufficiency has been subsidised surplus food, and since this has been all but removed the way may just now be clear for a local market economy that could operate independently of what is happening to food prices elsewhere in the world.

The opinions expressed are Richard's, not the programme's.