By Trouble Ziba
Lilongwe, October 27, Mana: International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has given a special recognition to Sustainable Agricultural Productivity Project (SAPP) for the impact it has made in gender and women empowerment in the project’s impact area in Malawi.
IFAD financially supports the six- year agriculture initiative in Malawi which is being implemented in six districts since 2015 with aims to empower women, increase their participation in farming business and increase their access to resources, among others.
The project initially phases out in 2021. However, having made impact, IFAD recently gave it a special recognition in Rome, Italy where the financier pledged continued support for the project after its initial life span ends.
“IFAD honours those who have done well. This year, they were satisfied with the impact of SAPP in gender and women empowerment, and decided to recognise us,” said SAPP Project Officer, Kenneth Chaula.
He was briefing journalists about the project at the end of a media tour to women’s groups in Nkhotakota where SAPP is implementing a Household Approach (HHA) to gender mainstreaming.
“Due to the impact we have made, IFAD indicated they would continue funding us,” said Chaula who recently received the recognition in Rome on behalf of SAPP Project in Malawi.
Among other aspects, SAPP trains farmers in establishing marketing strategies, practicing new farming technologies, market identification before deciding on crops to be grown. The project also encourages farmers to form cooperatives.
Chaula said IFAD nominated SAPP after the agricultural initiative achieved a number of its objectives, notably increased women participation in farming business and increased access to income through women empowerment.
“Workload of productive roles among women at household level has also been reduced through their use of rocket stoves.
“The stoves have reduced time the women spent in the past in fetching firewood because they use little firewood,” said Chaula.
Household Approach to gender mainstreaming is an extension approach that promotes power relations amongst adults and youth household members.
It aims at promoting equitable access to and control of resources, assets and benefits. In agriculture, the approach empowers adults and youth male and female household members in planning and implementation of household farming business.
In Nkhotakota, Kasokolowe Women’s Group in Chipelera 2 Area, Sub T.A. Nkhanga under Zidyana Extension Planning Area (EPA) has been trained, through SAPP in raising nurseries of fruits like pawpaw, lemons and guavas, and trees such as Nsangu and molinga (Cham’mwamba).
This year alone, they have raised nearly 5, 000 such trees and fruits which they are about to sell to fellow farmers at a price yet to be determined by the group.
“We are now able to identify female and male seeds of a pawpaw fruit. We extract seeds from the pawpaw and put them in a plate of water.
“Some seeds will float; others will go to the bottom of the plate. Those that sink are female while those which float are male. So we easily separate them and raise their nurseries separately,” explained the group’s lead farmer, Monice Banda.
Apart from raising nurseries of fruits and vegetables and conducting seed multiplication, Kasokolowe Women also rare chickens in their respective households. To date, Banda has 32 chickens from the 10 she was given through the project.
She said she no longer bothers her husband everyday with money requests to buy relish; instead she just kills a chicken or sells it for money.
Through SAPP, farmers have also been trained in business farming and farming with a vision. In the latter, farmers are encouraged to have a picture of what they want to achieve in life and work towards that.
For Tithandizane women’s Club in Chikwawe 1 Area within the same sub chief (Nkhanga) in the district, they have made a big step this year after they were given treadle pumps and K1, 058, 000 through a Beneficiary Challenge Fund (BCF) to start irrigation farming in various crops including rice.
“Last year, we harvested 102 bags of rice, this year we have over 154 bags which, we feel, are likely to fetch about K4 million.
“If that happens, our plan is to buy a vehicle that fellow farmers can be hiring to carry their crop produce to markets,” Tithandizane Group Chairperson, Florence Salim said.
Apart from Nkhotakota, SAPP also implements its activities in Balaka, Lilongwe, Chitipa and Chiradzulu districts.
The aim is to empower women, increase their participation in decision making and productive work at household level, and help in planning for household business farming.
