Farmer-to-Farmer Agroecology in Malawi

The expected intermediate outcomes for this project include: Identified households increase the quantity and diversity of their farm yields and increasingly adopt agroecological practices in their farming routines; Women from participating households have greater access to and control over resources and increased decision-making power over agriculture, food security and income; Food insecure households in the district obtain higher income levels and consume more nutritious food; Increasingly, local (youth and farmer) enterprises establish markets for agricultural products, as well as market linkages; Farmer research teams operate on principles of transparency, inclusion, accountability, social justice, democracy and gender equity, whereby farmers have greater input into research and development activities.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (March 2018) include: (1) 6,651 farmers were provided access to technical agroecological advice from farmer research teams; (2) gender-inclusive household decision-making increased from on average 25.3% in Ekwendeni and 34% in Lobi to end-line results of on average 41% in both Ekwendeni and Lobi, based on percentage of households reporting shared decision-making between men and women on a variety of topics; (3) at the beginning of the project, 27% of households were food secure, at the end of the project, end-line surveys indicate that 63.1% of Ekwendeni men, 39.73% of Ekwendeni women, 54.5% of Lobi men, and 40.32% of Lobi women are now food secure; and (4) at the beginning of the project, 11% of farmers in Ekwendeni and 17% in Lobi had grown orange maize, end-line surveys indicate that 43.47% of men and 45.67% of women in Ekwendeni, and 80.95% of men and 69.41% of women in Lobi have now grown orange maize by the end of the project. These results contributed to more resilient, networked communities in Malawi, sustainably managing their lands and improving their livelihoods, food security and nutrition.