The Salvation Army Canada is supporting The Salvation Army Malawi with a three-year agriculture and livelihood project in Mangochi District, Malawi.
Food insecurity is a major problem in this area due to continuous weather hazards like persistent drought, increased crop and livestock disease and degraded soils. The consequence of these issues is reduced herd sizes and agricultural harvests which in turn worsen poverty as many households in the area are dependent on agriculture for food and income.
Food insecurity is at its worst between November and February as there is little food stock left and households are waiting for their crops to be harvested. This project is working with farmers and their households to develop skills in conservation agriculture (CA). CA helps to boost soil fertility, increase food production, and build the resilience of agriculture systems by minimizing tillage and soil disturbance, placing permanent soil covers, and rotating crops. 450 farmers are receiving training from the project and will then train other farmers in their communities.
These trainings are also meant to increase awareness on gender in response to situational assessment findings that found farming duties were split inequitably among men and women and have a negative effect on the wellbeing of families. In total, the project is working with 2,950 individuals.