For Chisomo Taulo, Chairperson of Namahoya Milk Bulking Centre in Thyolo, and over five hundred other farmers, there is nothing much to sustain their livelihoods other than the milk trade, which has in their view relatively fewer depressing factors than the routine way of farming.
The farmers who are drawn from villages such as Mitabali, Chirombo, Mangazi, and Grimishoni under Traditional Authority Chimaliro in the district, any other day begin with heading to the bulking centre where a due process is taken to make sure the milk is of quality standards.
‘’We are all aware that the process is rigorous. Just no one would wish to take to the centre sour milk, because it is not allowed,’’ says Taulo.
Through this eye-opening media tour, the Transforming Agriculture through Diversification and Entrepreneurship (TRADE) Programme portrays a high-level engagement with farmers under a series of projects in Thyolo, Blantyre, and Dedza districts.
TRADE is a six-year government programme aimed at improving the livelihoods of people living in rural areas through agribusiness.
The programme is supported by the International Fund for Agriculture (IFAD) and Opec Fund for International Development (OFID) to the tune of US$ 125.4 million (an equivalent of K130 billion).
The Trade programme aims at improving rural livelihoods through commercialized agriculture targeting seven value chains of honey, Irish potatoes, sunflower, soya beans, groundnuts, and milk.
Back at Namahoya Bulking Centre, Taulo details how the milk undergoes a sour test.
‘’ The milk has to first undergo a soda test which measures whether the milk is sour or not. Later, a lactometer is used to ensure that the required level of 24 on the grading machine is attained. We then sell and every one of us has an account and payments are done at the end of each month. Some farmers here, have even managed to fetch over MK 400, 000 in a month,’’ he says.
However, as Andrew Maone, treasurer of the centre admits, recent power outages have been a thorn in a fresh for the farmers, a situation the farmers seek to engage the leadership of the TRADE to address.
‘’We sometimes have to do the processes hurriedly in fear that power may be lost. However, there are efforts to ensure that we have an operational generator because the farmers bring milk in the morning and the afternoon, ‘’ says Maone.
A similar project is also a feat to smile about for communities at Goliati Bulking Centre. This facility is the headquarters of Mkaka Sacco, which offers saving and loan services for dairy farmers in Thyolo and Blantyre.
Miles away, in Blantyre, one Madalitso Charles Phiri, leads a team of over thirty workers at a milk processing factory around Mpemba township known as Mach Milk Company Limited which is well set up, within sight, hills demarcating Blantyre, Thyolo, and Chikwawa districts.
In an interview, Phiri who is the Managing Director of the company says: ‘’ We process the milk into powdered form and make yogurt. We expect the TRADE program to help us increase our capacity for links with the market at small and large scales as well as in the field of agro-processing,’’.
Until now, the company has sights on creating at least two hundred jobs, intentions that have also been heavily affected by power outages which have had an impact on levels of production.
Dedza is one of the districts where the TRADE programme has sites.
We first head to Kanyama Village under the area of Traditional Authority Kasumbu, where farmers are working tirelessly to meet the targets in the growing and selling of Irish potatoes.
Through their well-established cooperative, the farmers store their bags of Irish potatoes in a warehouse, just a few footsteps away from Kanyama Primary School, a location, one Velemu Chizula, Vice Chairperson of the grouping says is convenient for the farmers.
‘’The warehouse you see here was constructed in 2016. But, the challenge we have is in its design which affects ventilation and the potatoes can easily go bad, a situation that furthers levels of rejection on the market. And we expect TRADE’s intervention on this. Just to highlight that to lessen the problem, we also utilize farmers clubs at village level to have alternative storage facilities before taking the potatoes to the market,’’ he says.
Back to where the farming work is done, Chizula admits that the effects of climate change have not spared them.
This is after the Likizi river has been drying up in recent months, making it hard for the entire irrigation process to be effective as it were.
One of the farmers, Doris Mitala, from Gawanyumbu Village in the area of Traditional Authority Kasumbu in the district says: ‘’The state of the river means that more farmers around this area are all depending on this little water. Let’s also not forget that others use the water for other domestic work. We are feeling the pinch and as you may appreciate, the population is growing and we can’t just keep depending on rain. We find solace in the fact that through Agricultural Commercialization and Innovation Fund (ACIF), we have been informed that an upgrade will be done,’’.
Speaking later, Oscar Ulili Knowledge Management and Communications Officer for TRADE reaffirmed that they are also challenging farmers to encircle climate-smart agriculture as a response to adverse climate change situations which have lowered water levels for irrigation.
“The programme has been designed to mainstream environmental management and climate-smart agriculture, so we have various interventions to help these farmers practice climate-smart agriculture. We have specialists encouraging smallholder farmers to adopt climate-smart agriculture so that they know how to manage the environment and how they can adapt to climate change shocks,” Ulili said.
For others, in different sectors, the programme is also offering funds to innovative farmers through ACIF, which Ulili says is aimed at ensuring that creating as many opportunities for farmers as possible.