Lilongwe East Smallholder Farmers’ Chapter

Biter Kambayika is one of the 93,000 smallholder farmers that are members of the National Association of Smallholder Farmers (NASFAM) and have seen the benefits of belonging to a smallholder farmers’ association. Mr. Kambayika belongs to the Msampha Club of Lilongwe East Smallholder Farmers’ Association (LESA), a local chapter of NASFAM. He is currently the vice-chairperson of the chapter.

Mr. Kambayika was a petty trader before he decided to settle down to farming in 1992. He used to grow maize and groundnuts but he was lucky if he earned more than K4,000 in a year from the sale of these two crops. Marketing was a major problem, not only to him but to many other smallholder farmers in the area.

In 1998, the LESA was formed, and after hearing that it was promoting cash crop production, particularly spices and herbs, Mr. Kambayika decided to join right away. In his first year as a member, Mr. Kambayika grew ginger, strawberries, vegetables, maize and groundnuts. He was overwhelmed with joy when for the first time in his life, he made K32,000. The chapter helped members market their crops for a good profit, and perishable crops, such as strawberries, never went bad because the demand was so high. The farmers supplied supermarkets in town and although the farmers felt that they were asking a fair price for the goods, they were surprised to learn that the consumers thought the prices were very competitive. The farmers realized that the intermediate buyers that they used to deal with, had been exploiting them.

Mr. Kambayika says that since joining the chapter and taking a more business-oriented approach to farming, his life has improved tremendously. In 1993 he received a loan to build a house, but it was difficult for him to make the yearly repayments of K272. Now he will be able pay off the loan by the end of this year. But more than that, Mr. Kambayika has managed to acquire some assets in a much shorter time than he ever expected. He bought a treadle pump for irrigation, four goats, a bicycle and a radio, which he says, his children enjoy listening to.

Unlike in the past when he always used to rely on fertilizers, Mr. Kambayika says the chapter has taught him agro-forestry and the use of compost manure. His maize crop, which is now close to knee-high, has not seen any inorganic fertilizer but only trephosia and compost manure. The chapter has also introduced him to treadle pump irrigation and he says now he is able to harvest much more than he used to in the past. His plans are to start growing maize not as an annual crop but up to three times a year.

Mr. Kambayika says having learnt that farming is a business and not just a way of life has helped him to do proper planning and cost benefit analysis for his farm. “I have new plans every year, and I want to put up a maize mill in this village because women always have problem traveling to the next villages to find a maize mill.” With more people like Mr. Kambayika, the whole village will be transformed. He is also very happy that one of his children is now in school (form four) – in a village where only two other people have reached this level of education, this is a source of great pride to him.

Written by: Mary Msusa, NASFAM PPU Assistant