Malawi

This blog discusses stories of resilience, change and achievement emerging from the testimonies of women running their own households. A recent study shows that many of the “unattached” women in the sample rated themselves as strongly empowered by their experiences with running their households and with managing their own farms. »

This publication was produced by the AFSA Agroecology Working Group and Tanzania Organic Agriculture Movement. The 88 page illustrated book showcases 15 case studies, showing how agroecology benefits Africa in terms of food and nutrition, livelihoods, restoration of biodiversity, knowledge and innovation, and climate change resilience. »

This book provides a detailed explanation on optimizing fertilizer use within an Integrated Soil Fertility Management Framework in 13 African countries. The book shares the findings of the Optimizing Fertilizer Recommendations in Africa (OFRA) project. The last chapter elaborates on enabling fertilizer use optimization, and how to maximize potential profits of fertilizer use while taking the farmer’s context into account and keeping risks low. At the farm level enabling fertilizer use optimization is in early stages for most countries but considerable experience has been gained from Uganda, as well as Kenya and Tanzania. »

This info note presents the main results and lessons learned from a programme focusing on productive farming systems based on the principles of conservation agriculture. Lessons learned show that direct seeding systems are the most economical way of planting, that a combination with other climate-smart technologies provides additional benefits, and that crop rotation can improve yields, nutrition and income. The reduction in planting and weeding time can benefit women and indirectly increase the household food basket and income. »

These four reports by the KIT are analysis of four maize seed systems in Malawi, Zambia, Bihar in India and Chiapas in Mexico. The four documents describe the adoption and impact of improved maize germplasm at small scale farmer level in these four areas. The objective is to understand whether smallholder farmers have access to seed of improved maize varieties, and if so, how the seed sector supports this. »

This “Lessons Learned” document reviews experiences over the last two decades in conservation agriculture and provides practical guidelines for the adoption of CA on program level and more technicallu. The three principles of conservation agriculture are: continuous minimum mechanical soil disturbance; permanent organic soil cover; and diversification. While CA took off in Latin America, adoption in sub-Saharan Africa has been limited due to different contexts and challenges. »