Malawi – Wellness and Agriculture for Life Advancement (WALA)
Commercial Marketing Improvements Help Malawi Farmers Fight Food Insecurity
The USAID-funded Wellness and Agriculture for Life Advancement (WALA) is a 5-year integrated food security program in Malawi that engages farmers in commercial marketing to improve household incomes and, ultimately, food security.
ACDI/VOCA works with a consortium of NGOs, led by Catholic Relief Services, to reach 214,974 chronically food insecure households within eight districts in Southern Malawi.
As the lead technical partner for agribusiness, ACDI/VOCA provides support to the project’s seven implementing partners in three key areas:
Building on this expertise, ACDI/VOCA staff will engage 20,600 smallholder farming households in commercial marketing.
Value Chain Analysis, Implementation
ACDI/VOCA experts train project staff and government partners in value chain analysis and implementation. Identifying growth opportunities and alleviating critical growth constraints along value chains increases the incomes of enterprises and farmers, develops relationships between firms, and promotes more efficient business practices and higher profits for industries.
In April 2010, ACDI/VOCA facilitated a value chain workshop for 19 project staff members and Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security agribusiness officers. The training included a field exercise designed to provide participants with hands-on experience on how to identify a focus industry, collect and analyze data on value chain constraints and opportunities, and develop an effective intervention strategy.
ACDI/VOCA experts also assist partner staff to identify market opportunities and develop value chain interventions that link producers of high-demand commodities—cow peas, pigeon peas, rice and sesame—to the most profitable markets.
Collective Marketing
ACDI/VOCA project staff train smallholder farmers in collective marketing. The majority of smallholder farmers under WALA typically market their produce individually to vendors who buy at above-market farm-gate prices. As such, ACDI/VOCA staff are leading efforts to assist smallholder farmers to form effective producer associations. These groups will offer their members access to training, linkages to buyers and harvest improvements.
During the 2010 harvest season, project staff assisted 3,515 smallholder farmers in the collective marketing of pigeon peas. The farmers managed to bulk and market 323 MT of pigeon peas directly to large-scale buyers, who offered an average 10-percent premium over the going price.
Moreover, many farmers walked away with a practical understanding of how a bit of strategic planning can lead to a concrete result.
Linking Smallholder Farmers to Private Sector
The WALA program also helps facilitate linkages between smallholder farmers and private sector service providers, including commercial buyers of commodities, input suppliers and financial institutions.
By connecting farmers and other stakeholders within targeted value chains, ACDI/VOCA staff help vulnerable households benefit from new market opportunities.
Food Insecurity in Malawi
An estimated 90 percent of Malawi’s population depends on agriculture for its livelihoods. The vast majority of rural households are farmers who cultivate less than one hectare of land and rely heavily on adequate rains to grow maize for food.
Although Malawi has made significant gains in improving agricultural productivity over the last few years, 40 percent of the population still lives on less than $1 per day. The southern region of Malawi holds the largest percentage of poor households with more than 45 percent of people living on less than a $1 per day.
ACDI/VOCA Experience in Malawi
ACDI/VOCA has a long and successful history in Malawi. Starting in the 1980s, ACDI/VOCA implemented a series of USAID-funded projects that led to the formation of the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (NASFAM).
For more information contact Kristin Cullison at kcullison@acdivoca.org.
PDF version of profile (1 MB)
