In Chilembe, Northern Malawi, Gabriel Msumba lives with his wife and three children. To support his family, Gabriel has multiple businesses including a bar, motorcycle business and subsistence farming. Due to high input prices, he can only cultivate on a small scale, which has led to a shortage of food for his family.
This is especially pressing for farmers in Malawi this year as around nine million people are reeling from the devastating impacts of El Niño-induced floods and drought. This is destroying harvests and causing hunger to soar to crisis levels. The current episode is happening in the context of recurrent shocks and heightened vulnerabilities, particularly affecting more rural areas and subsistence farmers like Gabriel.
In 2023, Temwa visited Bula in Malawi for an awareness event that aimed to prepare farmers about predicted erratic rainfall. This event inspired Gabriel to contact his neighbour Towera Msiska, who is a member of Temwa’s Kakhulukulu Farming Futures School in Chilembe. They shared practices and Towera trained Gabriel on manure making, leading to him producing 13 bags of Mbeya (an organic fertiliser made from a mixture of poultry dung, ashes, maize chaff and a bag of fertiliser) and compost manure that he could use on his maize field. The practices that Towera learnt from Temwa has meant that Gabriels’ maize has done very well, as he is expecting to harvest 120-150 tins, where he used to only harvest 30 tins.
Gabriel now has hope that his family will have enough food to eat throughout the year, while his business grows. He has even trained 2 other women on manure production and plans to train more farmers in the village. Despite not being a member of the Farmer Field School (FFS), Gabriel feels that Temwa has had a huge impact on his mindset.
“With Temwa’s support in practices such as these, I am sure I will be able to meet my goal.”
The project aims to improve food security for vulnerable households by establishing Farmer Field Schools, through which local farmers like Gabriel will train their peers in agricultural knowledge and skills. This is a group-based learning process where farmers engage in experiential learning, experimenting and problem-solving in their own fields.
Find out more about Farmer Field Schools in our latest report here.