The Salvation Army Canada is supporting The Salvation Army Malawi with a three year agriculture and livelihoods 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 includes reduced herd sizes and agricultural harvests. Poverty is also worsened 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 are little food stocks left and households are waiting for their crops to be harvested.
In response, this project will work with farmers and their households to adapt conservation agriculture (CA) approaches with accompanying livestock management, village savings and loan associations, seed multiplication and water. 510 farmers will receive training from the project and then mentor other follower farmers in their communities. These trainings will also 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 affect on the well-being of families.
In total, the project will benefit approximately 3,060 individuals.