Traditional farming practices significantly deplete natural resources, including fertile soil and the green cover—the very foundations of sustainable food production.
Soil produces 95 percent of the food humans consume, yet it faces serious degradation from erosion and unsustainable land use.
However, smallholder farmers, especially women farmers in Makawa Village in Zomba have switched to farming methods that increase crop yields without harming natural resources, in-cluding soil.
Francis Phazi, a smallholder farmer in the rural community, says for decades, crop yields have been dwindling due to drought, flooding and other climate-related disasters.
“This has significantly reduced annual food production. We cannot feed our families three times a day anymore,” he says.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Malawi is among the sub-Saharan African countries where crop yields are projected to decline by five to 17 percent by 2050, intensifying food insecurity and poverty.
For 18 months, UN Women has been supporting sustainable agricultural practices at Kanjedza Irrigation Scheme in Zomba.
This is part of the Women Resilience to Disaster (WRD) programme funded by the Govern-ment of Australia to build community resilience to climate-related disasters.
The 38-hectare scheme benefits 172 women and 92 men with 0.25 hectares each.
Kanjedza is one of the five pre-existing schemes supported by the United Nations entity for gender equality and women’s empowerment.
UN Women provided three solar-powered irrigation pumps that have helped water manage-ment and agricultural productivity.
The farmers also received 300 kilogrammes of bio-fortified maize seed and four improved veg-etable varieties.
The farmers produce and use organic fertilisers which retain soil moisture, improve soil health and boost food security as rainfall become erratic due to climate change.
Agnes Chisoni, a farmer from Alawe Village in Traditional Authority Mwambo, says the pro-gramme has equipped the farming community with knowledge, resources and technologies to switch to agricultural techniques that bring bumper harvests and building farmers’ resili-ence to climate impacts.
“My livelihood is improving. I earn K120, 000 from selling vegetables from my small field,” she says.
Chisoni has built a brick house roofed with corrugated iron sheets. And she is planning to build a bigger one this year.
“I now support all my school-going children with ease. And none of them is malnourished. I give them enough nutritious food,” she states.
When she toured the scheme last Monday, UN Women Deputy country representative Fatma Abdelkarim Mohamed said she was particularly impressed that climate-smart agriculture is making women self-reliance and resilient.
She said women are disproportionately affected by climate change.
“The project has helped women increase their income and improve their economic well-being. Some have built houses. These humble houses give them decent shelter and they have bigger ideas to roof them with iron sheets,” she said.
The programme also senstises the farming community to women’s rights, including rights to food, water, shelter, education, health and political participation.“
Apart from economic empowerment of women at the community level, another pillar of work focuses on building grassroots women, strengthening grassroots women-led movement on humanitarian and disaster risk reduction,” Mohamed said.
