World Renew Canada is supporting its partner, the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) – Nkhoma Synod to implement a five-year agriculture and livelihoods project in Salima District, Malawi.
Salima District, located in Malawi’s Central Region, faces severe climate-induced food insecurity, with 77% of households having no surplus food after harvest and over 60% resorting to negative coping strategies such as skipping meals and withdrawing children from school. The district is highly vulnerable to prolonged dry spells, erratic rainfall, and periodic flooding, all of which have depressed agricultural production. Inflation and rising maize prices have further constrained household access to food.
The five-year project aims to improve food security and build resilient livelihoods among smallholder farming households in Salima, with a focus on women, youth, and people with disabilities who are disproportionately affected by food insecurity. An integrated, resilience-focused approach that combines improved access to quality agricultural inputs with training in climate-smart agriculture and soil, water, and natural resource conservation will be implemented. The project will also aim to strengthen post-harvest management and storage to reduce losses and will enhance market linkages and collective marketing. In addition, it will promote nutrition-sensitive agriculture through biofortified crops and backyard gardens, alongside gender equality awareness. Finally, the project will support diversified livelihoods and financial empowerment through financial literacy training, strengthened savings and loan groups, and the promotion of off-farm enterprises.
This project aims to reach a total of 1,842 smallholder farming households with a total of 7,368 household members.