Peasant farmers in Malawi, one of Africa’s poorest nations, rely on subsistence farming. Malawian agriculture has experienced extreme weather in recent years El-Nino drought, floods, etc., making the food supply situation precarious. The malnourished people of Malawi often rely on food aid, which is never enough. In the health sector, 14 percent of the 12 million Malawians is HIV-positive.
But something positive in the area of food security and rural development sector is happening in the Nkhotakota Lake District of Malawi. This is the outcome of a public/private/partnership cassava project of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in collaboration with the Southern African Root Crops Research Network (IITA/SARRNET). Rural dwellers in the Lake District are experiencing a new lease of life, because they are being empowered economically to cast-off the toga of poverty through their participation in the project introduced by IITA scientists. Funded by the USAID/Washington and Malawi USAID bilateral Mission, the project has opened new ways of life for the people who produce high-yielding cassava for processing into industrial starch at the Masinda Club Cassava Factory in T andwe village.
To demonstrate a value added cassava chain using low cost technologies in the rural set up and improve people’s incomes from the crop, IITA/SARRNET and its partners trained Masinda Club members in cassava production, processing, factory management, environmental sanitation, group dynamics, book keeping, market identification and sourcing of market information. With the assistance of the Nkhotakota Rural Development Program of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Extension Department staff advise farmers on business management, while IITA/SARRNET offers backstopping support.
The result? Cassava starch from the factory is now being readily purchased by three major companies producing dry battery cells, matches and paper packaging. Established in 2003 with an initial capacity to produce four tons of industrial starch monthly, the factory now produces 20 tons. With an average price of $471 per ton, cassava starch produced from the factory since its establishment amounted to about $47,100. The accruing profit from the transaction goes directly into peoples’ pockets in the rural areas. In addition to raising the income of small scale farmer members of the club, other farmers from neighbouring villages are deriving better incomes from sales of raw cassava roots to the factory. Within two years of operation, the factory has facilitated an increase of about 38.42% in cassava production from 18.7 tons per ha to 21.0 tons. This is due to increased yield per unit area as a result of improved varieties of cassava distributed by IITA/SARRNET and better crop management practices introduced to the farmers. Furthermore, the area put into cassava cultivation has equally increased from 10,780 ha in 2003 to 15,258 in 2006.
At the current production levels of 20 tons per hectare, farmers realize over US$1000 from one hectare of cassava. To-date, out of the 16 members of the group who hold shares in the factory, 15 have constructed brick houses from sales of their cassava to the factory and profits from their share dividends. The remaining one person has bought a set of high class furniture in his house, and is in the process of building a modern house. Within three years of operation, several modern houses of burnt bricks roofed with corrugated iron sheets have started mushrooming in the area. This benefit spreads to other farmers around the area. Masinda Club members who work in the factory are getting regular income in form of salaries. They are equally able to get loans, to buy fertilizer and other inputs for maize production.
According to Dr. Nzola Mahungu, IITA/SARRNET Cassava Breeder in Malawi, two of the several farmers who now own modern houses are Mr. O. Yatimu, a Masinda Club member, and Mr. Godwin Chibowa, a non-member. Before now, the two farmers have grown cassava for household consumption only. However, with the establishment of the starch factory, Mr Chibowa has made over MK60,000 ($487) from sales of cassava roots to the factory, while Mr. Yatimu has earned over MK50,000 (US$406) from cassava and salary as a worker in the factory. Some members now own mobile phones for easy communication with relatives and for the growth of their agribusiness.
company, Warm Heart Products based in Lilongwe has successfully sourced a $5.2 million bank loan to establish a large scale cassava starch factory in Lilongwe, with production capacity of 20 tons per day. The initiative was taken after the company’s directors visited Masinda Club. Warm Heart Products has established 15 ha cassava farm for backward integration, while commercial growers are equally being contracted to produce cassava for the factory. “This is good news to small scale farmers within a radius of 120 km from the factory who will supply over 50 % of the raw material needed by the factory”, says Mahungu. According to him, several commercial farms formerly producing tobacco, are already changing to cassava production through irrigation to supply Warm Heart Products. The company has ordered major equipment for cassava processing while construction of the factory will be completed in the next couple of months. Furthermore, Masinda Club will be linked to Warm Heart Products for the commercialization of their starch.
The Masinda Club Cassava Factory has become a Mecca of some sorts to farmers groups, government staff, local NGOs, community based organizations and private commercial companies. “Here is a model project in rural industrialization and income generation,” says Mahungu. From all intents and purposes the Masinda Club Cassava Factory is a success story in public/private/partnership. Who knows, this might be what Malawi needs to emerge from abject poverty to an economically stable nation, where agriculture will take its pride of place.
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