Malawi
CDI is working with 1,200 farmers in Neno to increase wheat production and arrange sales to the largest wheat purchaser in Malawi at prices 50 percent higher than in previous years.
Malawi is one of the world’s 20 poorest nations, a country where more than 40 percent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day. Agriculture is the mainstay of the economy, supporting almost 90 percent of the population through smallholder, rain-fed farming. But the Malawian smallholder’s livelihood is threatened by challenges that have been familiar to farmers around the world over the centuries: nutrient-depleted soils, lack of fertilizer, poor quality seed, pests, disease, and drought. Deprived of life-sustaining necessities, crops become decimated and Malawi faces endemic famine and chronic malnutrition.
President Clinton is determined to work alongside the people of Malawi to break this cycle of poverty by improving access to the tools they need to create a thriving and stable agricultural society. At the invitation of the government of Malawi and with the financial support of the Salida Capital Foundation, the Clinton Development Initiative (CDI) in Malawi is focusing its efforts on two models with proven success in improving farmers’ livelihoods through access to quality inputs and advanced practices: the Anchor Farm Project and Trees of Hope Project. These projects are active in Dowa, Neno, and Mchinji Districts, which have a combined population of nearly 900,000 people.
Anchor Farm Project:
In 2008, CDI began operating its first Anchor Farm, in Mchinji District, Malawi, linking a 1,000-hectare commercial farm growing soy, maize, and groundnuts to hundreds of surrounding smallholder farmers. CDI is working with more than 10,500 smallholder farmers near the farm to grow additional soy. And farmers in the area are provided access to improved soy seed, training and monitoring of advanced agronomic techniques, and access to a domestic bulk buyer of soy through their affiliation with the anchor farm.
Trees of Hope Project:
The Trees of Hope reforestation project in the Dowa and Neno Districts is working to make tree farming attractive and profitable for smallholder farmers and to generate the important secondary benefit of reversing deforestation in Malawi. More than 2,000 smallholder farmers have already planted more than 2 million hardwood, mango, and citrus trees, sequestering 248,000 tons of carbon dioxide. The carbon offsets generated by the tree planting are then sold on the international marketplace, with income from the offset sale funding ongoing operation and expansion of the project.
Additionally, CDI is seeking to identify large-scale business opportunities, develop the market research and business plans to support them, and then actively invest in the businesses alongside local co-investors in Malawi. As with the Anchor Farm, CDI will maintain hands-on involvement through construction and implementation phases, lending management, technical, and marketing expertise. These large agri-based business-development projects will create employment and stimulate demand for crops that are supplied by local farmers.
