Sustainable Livelihoods in Mulanje - scaling up our efforts
Mulanje Mission Primary Healthcare team
August 2016
‘A livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, while not undermining the natural resource base.’ DFID 2011
Background
More than 80% of the population of Malawi are dependent on agriculture for food and livelihoods. About 2 million of the 2.7 million hectares of cultivated land in the country are cultivated by smallholder farmers, mostly women, and mostly by hand. (World Bank 2010) They tend to cultivate small and fragmented landholdings, averaging less than one hectare per household, under customary land tenure. Maize, the food staple, is grown on almost 85% of the smallholder land area, together with a few other food crops such as cassava and sweet potatoes, to meet subsistence requirements.
Mulanje Mission Hospital has for many years promoted and supported activities which underpin a broad approach to improving community health and nutrition. One such area is agricultural development, and the sustainable livelihoods approach - poverty reduction, reducing livelihood vulnerability, improving environmental sustainability, and participatory approaches - are key aspects of the work which has been carried out. Few would doubt the importance of these approaches.
Nutrition Rehabilitation Units, including the NRU at MMH, have been set up to reduce severe and acute malnutrition amongst vulnerable rural households, and have also promoted improved nutrition and diet diversification for people affected by HIV infection. MMH has supported village programmes with animal husbandry, pigs and dairy goats, vegetable growing, small scale fish farming and more recently has added bee keeping, mushroom growing and solar drying to the range of activities on offer.
However, in reality most smallholder farmers in the area are yet to generate meaningful incomes from farming – in part due to limited access to land, but also to the limited range of enterprises they pursue, low productivity levels, high input costs due to reliance on imported fertilisers, seed and chemicals, lack of access to capital/credit for investment, and poor market access. In recent years there has also been an increasing incidence of disasters such as flooding and drought, in large part brought about by climate change, high population growth and environmental degradation, which have contributed to chronic food insecurity in the area.
Irrigation schemes would seem to be an obvious part of the solution, with the possibility of increasing yields, multiple annual cropping cycles and larger scale production and marketing. However, recent local large scale ( >60 hectare) irrigation schemes in Mulanje show that this is not enough on its own. Such schemes typically have low utilization (20 – 40%) and traditional farming practices continue on the irrigated land, which is mostly used repeatedly for maize. Dependence on expensive inputs therefore continues. The potential benefits of irrigation can only be realized when farmers have opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills, and attention is paid to the transport and marketing of products in excess of local requirements.
Strategy
MMH, working closely with local government and community partners, therefore proposes to scale up work on the promotion and support of sustainable livelihood approaches in its catchment area. The programme will be evidence-based, learning from national and international research, as well as from other organisations engaged in similar work in Malawi. Community participation is crucial at every stage.
The outcomes of the programme will be cross cutting, simultaneously addressing poverty reduction, improved health and nutrition, reduction in environmental degradation, and empowerment of vulnerable groups including women and children, orphans and others affected by HIV. These outcomes align closely with the objectives of the Malawi Agriculture Sector Wide Approach (ASWAp) and the Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (MGDS II)
Outcomes
· Improved agricultural productivity
o Adoption of evidence-based good agricultural practices, for example minimum tillage, cover crops and crop rotation to reduce dependence on costly inputs
o Improve post-harvest management and storage to reduce losses
o Implementation of wet land (gravity fed) and dry land (solar powered) irrigation schemes on communal lands
o Diversification of small holder farming - cash crops and alternative staples
o Increasing animal husbandry, including dairy cattle, to improve the asset base, nutrition and incomes of poor households
o Increase small scale fish farming enterprises
o Improved farming business management
o Improved access to loans for agricultural investment
o Map and improve supply of local processing facilities for crops and livestock
· Increase resilience of rural communities to the impacts of climate change
o Build capacity for small scale irrigation to scale up village level cereal production
o Increase afforestation through agroforestry schemes – managed woodlots, fruit tree production, food forests, honey production, tree propagation
o Scale up soil conservation practices, including catchment conservation and riverbank protection to increase and extend river flows
o Increase number of households with food reserves in critical months
o Support the development of village grain banks to avoid high prices during periods of scarcity
o Reduce dependence of primary schools on external food distribution schemes
· Improve opportunities for members of vulnerable communities to gain knowledge and skills
o Use existing community, school and church-based networks to promote good practice
o Integrate health and hygiene education, including HIV awareness, into all training programmes
o Provide training in a range of smallholder techniques and enterprises
o Support teaching of good agricultural practice at primary schools
o Provide technical support and training for irrigation projects
o Offer mentoring and ongoing business management support to smallholders embarking on new enterprises
o Encourage innovation through demonstration projects, opportunities for skill sharing, evaluation and dissemination of results.
o Identify influential farmers who will be trained to train other farmers in the community (farmer to farmer concept)
Proposal
MMH, with the support of partners, will build on the successes of the NRU, and use its considerable experience of community development approaches across the catchment area to develop a newly invigorated Sustainable Livelihoods programme.
Changing traditional practices and customs cannot be a short term effort – a sustained commitment of at least 5 years is required.
Key elements of the programme will be:
· Redesign of the current NRU as a training and resource centre, providing a range of educational opportunities at low cost to local community members, together with access to learning materials such as books and DVDs, and access to computers for research and assistance with business administration
· Re-utilising the rural centre at Namisase to work alongside the NRU, as a second training and resource centre for the area, with demonstration irrigated gardens, whilst maintaining and extending the current IGAs at Namisase - the nursery school, tailoring training and maize mill.
· Providing an IEC (information, education, communication) approach throughout the local community to promote conservation agriculture and improved farming practices, together with health and hygiene education and HIV awareness.
· Supporting implementation of agreed irrigation programmes in selected areas with appropriate technical support
· Work with primary schools to improve the knowledge and skills of teachers, parents and pupils, and promote school gardens
· Supporting a local network to develop business skills for small scale farmers
· Assessment of the need for credit/loan facilities, shared plant and equipment such as tractors, processing facilities and market transport with a view to further proposal development.
· Assess outcomes of different irrigation models with a view to increasing the number of schemes and expansion of acreage of initial schemes as evidence suggests is appropriate
Irrigation
Working with the Ministry of Irrigation, Mulanje Office, MMH proposes four irrigation schemes are implemented in the first year, to provide a range of opportunities and experience.
1. Nansomba Wetland Scheme
2. Nansomba dry land scheme
3. Two small scale irrigation schemes for existing community-run garden
Development of Knowledge and Skills
Implementation Plan
Phase One: 2016-17
Work with potential partners to establish support for MMH SL programme
Employ volunteer to work with existing MMH resources to:
Develop current NRU to become a training and resource centre for a range of agricultural learning opportunities
Establish baseline position in MMH catchment area:
assessment of existing community gardens and primary school gardens to agree next steps with community
consultation with local leaders and assessment of poorly utilized land with a view to implementation of irrigation in Phase Two.
Phase Two: 2017-18
Implementation of programme as funding permits:
Seek and employ key local staff
Sustainable Livelihoods Programme Manager – overall responsibility for delivery of the outcomes
Conservation agriculture trainer – to work alongside MMH home gardening officer in the Training and Resource centre to deliver training programmes and facilitate learning networks
Secure technical support for implementation of Irrigation schemes - available from Ministry of Irrigation, Mulanje office, and contractors on an ad hoc basis
Tender for contractors to establish agreed irrigation schemes in two areas, at least one to be a solar powered scheme, plus two community garden irrigation schemes
Begin to train Farmer to Farmer trainers: a learning network for innovative farmers in the catchment area
Begin redesign of Namisase rural centre as an agricultural training and resource centre with a range of demonstration areas and study materials
Scaling up production: work with partners to implement and extend animal husbandry to at least two additional villages
Establish at least one further fish farming enterprise
Establish primary school gardening schemes at three more schools
Establish at least three small scale agroforestry schemes, including bee keeping, both for income generation and to increase community appreciation of the value of standing trees
Phase Three: 2018-19
Communicate programme of educational opportunities at the training and resource centre and begin to deliver courses
Establish a learning network for primary school teachers of agriculture
MMH staff work with Learning Networks to implement IEC activities in health, hygiene and HIV awareness
Initial assessment of Irrigation programme, necessary changes incorporated and extended as appropriate
Continue extension of animal husbandry, fish farming and agroforestry
Assess and evaluate activities with partners and plan for years 3-5
Governance and Accountability
Initially managed by MMH, this programme should develop a local Advisory Committee, and report to management via the Primary Healthcare Coordinator. MMH publishes annual audited accounts at www.mmh.mw
MMH has an excellent track record for the management of externally funded projects to budget and on time, for eg
DFID grant for palliative care service development 2015-6
£64,000
European Commission grant: extending essential health services at village level 2016
£ 26,000
DFATD Canada grant for maternal and child health 2016 – 2018
$107,000 pa
Further information
See www.mmh.mw , or contact
Dr Ruth Shakespeare, MMH Medical Director