The Farming Futures Project Supports Farmers to Grow a Surplus
Stellia Kanyika is a member of the Penjani Beans Group in Njiri, Northern Malawi. During the winter season this year, Stellia embarked on a cabbage farming venture with the support of the Farming Futures Project. Farmers have limited cultivatable land because of the region’s topography and winter cropping empowers them to produce surplus to sell for money that supports their families.
In the second week of May, Stellia planted her first cabbage crop, adopting a sustainable approach by utilising Mbeya (a combination of ash, maize bran and animal manure left for 21 days to ferment) as her primary cultivation method. During the preceding month, Stellia faced a significant challenge when her cabbages were attacked by pests, so she implemented a control measure by applying Chibomba (a natural pesticide) to safeguard her crop, successfully driving them off.
Stellia’s first cabbage harvest has already reaped financial benefits. To date, she has generated MK 242,000 (£180) in sales revenue from her cabbage sales, with the prospect of earning more as harvesting continues. With her new earnings, she managed to purchase one bag of fertiliser, which will be used to produce Mbeya for the 2023-2024 farming season, as well as covering school fees and essential items for her son, currently in Form 2.
Stellia plans to scale up her cabbage cultivation efforts for future crops. She has already raised cabbage seedlings and diversified her crops with the inclusion of tomatoes.
Empowering Farmers‘ Futures
This 3-year project called Farming Futures focuses on building communities’ climate resilience through sustainable farming, forest-friendly livelihoods, and sustainable use of local natural resources. Temwa is supporting self-organising farmer groups like Stellia from the Penjani Beans Group to increase their crop yields using sustainable farming practices going into the future.
Read more about this project in our latest report here.
You can also read about this in our recent impact report.