As crop yields dwindle due to climate change, rice growers in Karonga are discarding traditional planting methods to harvest more from their small plots.

Geoffrey Mkandawire, a father of two girls and four boys in Mwenewise Village, now saves seed and gets a bumper harvest by planting a single seedling per station.

“I was born here in 1969 and grew up growing rice as the main cash crop, but we used to waste seed until we learnt to transplant one seedling per station. Now I use just 3.5kg on an acre that once required up to 40kg when I was using the broadcasting method,” he explains.

Mkandawire is among 883 farmers in the paddies of Karonga who acquired certified seed from the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (NASFAM) for the new system of rice intensification, called SRI.

In Malawi, forests are disappearing faster than they are being replenished.

The fast-growing population’s appetite for firewood, charcoal, farmlands and housing pops clear in the hills along the Mangochi-Ntaja –Liwonde Road.

Locals in the border strip murmur about the ‘chaotic 1980s’ when the hilly setting received thousands of Mozambicans fleeing civil war in their country.

By James Chavula

Women and children in Malawi risk of dying from smoky fumes of an everyday chore – cooking.

At least nine in 10 households cook using firewood and charcoal, shows the 2018 Malawi Population and Housing Census report. Their toxic fumes claim eight lives every minute globally, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Put the smoky fireplaces marked with three stones in minute kitchens without windows, the emissions can be deadly.

As part of the events for the visit by the Norwegian Minister of International Development, Anne Beathe Tvinnereim, and International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) President, Gilbert Houngbo, to Malawi, today, they held discussions with Farmer organisations at BICC, where NAFAM was in attendance. Speaking during the interface meeting, NASFAM Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr. Betty Chinyamunyamu highlighted on the potential that agriculture has to transform Malawi smallholder farming systems.