 Temwa are thrilled to announce the start of a new agricultural project - a project made possible through generous grants from LUSH Charity Pot and another anonymous donor.
The team on the ground in Malawi began the initial phase of the project in early October, and will continue working on it for the next 12 months. The overall objective is to utilize the wetlands in order to alleviate the poverty of vulnerable households by improving their income and food security status.
The problem of food insecurity is one that is common among most households in Usisya. Most harvest little and can only manage to store food from March to September. This means that for the remainder of the year, many households do not have a steady food supply. This project aims to close the hunger gap by enabling farmers to grow food all year round. Not only will this mean that they and their families can eat, it will hopefully provide them with enough to sell - thus providing valuable extra income.
To achieve this objective, firstly awareness creation and community mobilization will take place leading up to the selection of the households to be targeted / farmers to be trained. The 100 participating farmers will firstly undertake a two-day wetland management training course. Farmers will then individually select their crops of choice on whose agronomy they will be trained. Organic and sustainable soil and moisture conservation techniques will then be transferred to participants along with training in soil fertility. All the training session above will be run in collaboration with Department of Field Services under the Ministry of Agriculture
A total of 100 vulnerable households will be targeted. These comprise of families affected by HIV & AIDS, households headed by females or widows, and families looking after orphans. One farmer from each household will participate in the training and before they establish their growing plots they will be provided with their initial seed allowances from Temwa. They will also receive business management training to allow them to successfully transform their farming into an income generating activity.
Wetlands are predominant in many areas of Usisya but are not fully utilized. The occurrence and subsequent utilization of wetlands has potential to contribute to household food security. Experience has shown that the few farmers that attempted to utilize the wetlands have had their food security situation improve. Increased capacity building of farmers in wetland management can assist in complimenting the rain-fed crop production and this could lead to a complete yearly cycle of household food supply.
Temwa would like to send its heartfelt thanks to LUSH Charity Pot and our other anonymous donor - without them this project would never have even started.
 An area of wetlands in Usisya
 UK Manager Jo Hook and the Malawi team visit an existing wetlands growing plot
 A local woman tends her crops
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