Maize is Malawi’s staple grain cultivated by over 1.6 million smallholder farmers.
Its shortage translates to hunger.
However, most farmers of Malawi rely on imported fertilisers to boost crop yields from barren fields, making the country susceptible to global market fluctuations, pushing up fertilisser prices.
As the economy mostly depends on rain-fed agriculture, which employs over 80 percent of the population, the country is vulnerable to external shocks, including climate-related ones.
However, Malawian farmers have embraced measures such as manure to boost their crop yields resilience to climate change.
Chapansi Njinga of Mtsiriza Village, Dowa District, used to toil in vain without chemical fertiliser.
“I break my back to care for the crop, but cannot get bumper yields without fertiliser even with good rains,” she says.
The 65-year-old woman used to harvest only five bags of maize from a field the size of a football ground that could potentially produce 60 bags.
Hastings Chimwenje, from Magaleta Village in Neno District, notes that climate change also frustrates food production efforts. Without fertiliser, the father of five has never produced enough maize to take his family to the next harvesting season.
“I have had my crops wilting due to dry spells, and I could harvest only four bags that could only last for four months,” he says.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, a hectare loses up to 29 tonnes of fertile topsoil annually, leading to a 10 percent decline in farm output.
Fertiliser scarcity and soaring prices reduced farmers’ yields in the 2022/23 growing season
In 2005, government introduced the Farm Input Subsidy Programme, now dubbed the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP), so that smallholder farmers can afford fertiliser and improved seeds.
However, in June 2022, the International Food Policy Research Institute reported that local maize production is still expensive as it costs K K3 236 to turn fertiliser into a kilogramme of maize, which can be imported five times more cheaply.
“Rising fertiliser prices and decreasing yield will make the situation even worse,” says Njinga. “I wanted to abandon farming because fertiliser was too costly.”
A breakthrough
In response, the two farmers turned to manure, a move that proved to be worthwhile.
They mix dung with ash, dead plants, urine and water, turning 10 kg of chemical fertilisers into a 50 kg bag—enough for a half-acre maize field.
They had bumper harvests this year despite erratic rains and prolonged dry spells.
Chimwenje harvested 30 bags of maize, enough for his family until the next season. Njinga harvested 58 bags.
Chimwenje is a member of Thanga la Ng’ombe Farmers’ Field School under the Evangelical Association of Malawi’s Strengthening Community Resilience to Climate Change initiative.
The initiative helps about 840 smallholder farmers in Neno to achieve food security and engages farmers in manure-making and fertiliser multiplication to enhance food production.
Chimwenje says the manure has also built maize’s resilience to climate change by enhancing soil fertility, texture and moisture retention.
It has also brought peace of mind to Njinga and the nearly 50 other households in Chivala Mtsiriza and Mtsiriza villages in Dowa.
This is part of the Social Support for Resilient Livelihoods Project partly implemented by the Community Savings and Investment Promotion (Cosmic).
The initiative engages farmers in climate-smart agriculture practices to enhance food and nutrition security.
Njinga says, “I produced a 50 kg bag of the manure-fertiliser mixture, which was ready for use within 21 days and enough for a half-acre maize garden.”
Another farmer, Annie Mbewe, says the product also contributes to soil health.
“We turned the chemical fertiliser into an organic one, helping us to have bumper yields and do farming as a business.”
In the neighboring district of Ntchisi, Gladys Amos says the cut in production costs allows them to be more profitable. The farmers have started making the manure for sale at K25 000 per 50 kg.
Beyond Malawi
Shortages and high prices of fertiliser affect the entire food supply chain. In 2020, Russia and Belarus were the world’s top exporters, accounting for nearly 20 percent of nitrogen, phosphate and potash fertilisers globally.
But when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, fertiliser prices were already rising due to the Covid-19 pandemic’s supply chain disruptions and transportation bottlenecks.
The war drove up prices by over 50 percent from February to April 2022.
omsip environmental and social safeguards officer Febron Mwiba says: “We want them to curb their households’ poverty by equipping them with skills to produce more food at low cost,” he says.
