An Overview Of Our Solution
Mkhazikika is a three action pass-on growth development farming solution. It will aim at enriching biodiversity and improving the quality of life of farmers. And Mkhazikika will purpose to improve and increase knowledge, skills, and capabilities of the farmers in producing farm produce, enhancing nutrition, conserving nature, and raising income. The farming solution will emphasize on peer group capacity building and training by the farmers themselves and enhancing their active, skillful, and competent participation in activities that will help achieve the improved quality of life. Each farmer’s land, on average three acres, will be demarcated to allow for homestead settlement, crop and livestock production, restoration of biodiversity, and income generation. With the pass-on, the solution will increase the number of farmers adopting the solution.
Who is this solution impacting?
Community Type
Rural
Additional Information
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: Africa
General Information
Organization type
Nonprofit
Ecosystem (select all that apply)
Forests
Grasslands
Population impacted
150 farmers to start, 1,050 in three years time
Challenge
Size of agricultural area
Cereal (maize), a legume (soybeans), a livestock ( poultry) and fruit trees.
Production quantity
Maize=1,500kgs per acre, Soybeans=1,875kgs per acre, Poultry=eggs and chicken.
People employed
1smallholder farmer or 2(husband and wife) smallholder farmers
Solution
Describe your solution
The solution is Mkhazikika. It is a three action pass on growth development farming solution for small farmers. The actions are producing farm crops and livestock to ensure sustainable harvests, conserving nature to restore biodiversity, and to sell farm produce to realize household income. And the actions will be carried out in simultaneity by the small farmers. Mkhazikika will first emphasize on improving the mindset of the farmers to improve their behaviour through capacity building. It will then give the farmers detailed training in technical aspects of production of farm crops, development and management of livestock, preparation of nutritious meals, conservation of natural resources, and mastering of skills in entrepreneurship and business management. With a positive mindset, good and skilled behaviour, the farmers will be willing to adopt new ideas of producing food, generating income, and conserving nature, let alone restoring biodiversity.
With skilled behaviour, smallholder farmers will successfully produce maize, soybeans, and vegetables, promote nutrition, keep chickens, market their produce to raise money, and establish forests for biodiversity in simultaneity. The skilled behaviour will also help the farmers to train other farmers under a pass-on strategy. The Solution will be ongoing and sustainable. Mkhazikika will allow each farmer to produce more food sustainably, have a forest reserve, and earn a lot more income.
Implementation
Describe your implementation
The implementation of Mkhazikika Solution will be in two parts, capacity building and training by expert trainers, and actual work by the farmers themselves. The actual work by the farmers will include peer group capacity building and training of the new farmers by the trained farmers.
Specific Activities: Recruiting Volunteer Trainers; Choosing farmers (25 men, 50 youths, 75 women) to start the solution; Building the capacity of farmers; training farmers in specific technical aspects of growing, entrepreneurship, raising forests and conserving nature; Surveying 150 farmers’ lands apportion the lands and allot activities according to their use; Each farmer will grow maize, soybeans and vegetables which include beans,will keep poultry, grow fruit trees around the farm land as border and on the homestead, and reserve land for forests where trees will regenerate; Supervising the farmers, monitoring the activities ,and evaluating the progress
Through capacity building and training farmers will change their mindset & develop skilled behaviour. With skilled behaviour farmers will be able see the benefit of farming for biodiversity (Mkhazikika). Mkhazikika will help the farmers adopt the solution and carry its activities sustainably and effectively.
The Mkhazikika solution will require the following enabling conditions: Government support of the solution, political will towards the solution, willingness of the farmers to adopt the solution & availability of the required resources, including farm land, funding, and experienced experts.
Key success factors: People who will carry out the activities of Mkhazikika Solution; Goal and purpose of the solution; The three main activities (Producing farm crops and livestock, Conserving nature to restore biodiversity, and Selling farm produce to raise income). These form the centre of the solution; Resources, which include farm lands, qualified expert trainers and management experts, training materials, funds; End beneficiaries
External connections
1. Our external connections will be with the following: (a) Donors who will be engaged in providing financial support to let the solution be able to function. (b) Researchers who will be engaged in providing systematic investigations to establish facts about the solution to perfect it. (c) Consultants will be giving expert advice about the project in order to implement it very well and successfully. Lawyers who will be providing legal advice about the implementation of the solution. (d) Government through policy guidance will provide an environment which will be conducive. At the same time the Government will provide its political will about the solution. Through the ministries responsible for the activities of the solution, Government will provide broad technical guidelines on various issues that will help the solution to be implemented successfully.
The Mkhazikika Solution will connect with other sectors through one of the three main activities. For example, the fisheries sector will be carried out through entrepreneurship. Farmers may have fish ponds on the homestead areas. The forestry sector will be carried out through nature conservation or biodiversity restoration. The apportionments for afforestation will have trees, shrubs, and grass grown on. All matters related to finance will be connected with entrepreneurship
Results
What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?
The challenge is the degradation of natural resources of tropical deciduous forests, savanna type grass, rain water, and soils. Every year huge amounts of trees, rain water, and soils are destroyed as a result of human behavior due to poor mindset. Large quantities of trees are cut down by people as fuel wood for sale. Forests are cleared, leaving land bare. Grass is burnt down to aid the practice of hunting wild animals. Water catchments and wildlife habitats are destroyed. Rain water flows freely on land. The rich top soil that supports agricultural productivity, the source of food and income, disappears with the rain water. Both rain water and soil are never conserved. Loss of these resources has been failure of the smallholder farmers to restore biodiversity, to improve food security, and to have secure income. Unless something is done to improve the situation, smallholder farmers will remain hungry, poor and miserable.
Describe the context in which you are operating
84% of Malawi population lives in rural areas. About 90% of these are smallholder farmers, each owning three acres of land on the average for farming and settlement. The farmers depend on soil, rain water, air and sunlight for their farming. And the farming is never productive. They fail to conserve soil and rain water. Like trees and grass, soil and rain water are degraded. The smallholder farmers lack knowledge and skills in modern technologies on farming, nature conservation, and entrepreneurship. They also lack power to purchase farm inputs. Farmers do not have food and income to meet their needs the whole year. Their nutrition is poor. They are not exposed to nutritional information. Their children have stunted growth. Their standard of living is low and it negatively affects their mindsets.
Farmers rely on forest products, mainly, fuel wood, which they cut down wantonly and sell for income. Forests and grass are cleared off. Water catchments and ecosystems are destroyed. Land is bare and degraded. Shelters for wildlife no longer exist
How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?
Mkhazikika Solution is not yet established. It is only an idea that has to be tried, adopted, and practiced. Once this solution is successful and wins some money a site will be identified and established. What is written in the write up will be established.
Mkhazikika will improve biodiversity in these ways:
• Reduce the factors that influence destruction of biodiversity through capacity building and training. Apportion farm land for afforestation and let the vegetation on the land regenerate. Set rules about protection of the forests. Stop selling fuel wood to raise income. Instead increase production of farm products to be sold to raise income. Prohibit the burning of bushes and hunting of wild animals.
• Inculcate interest into biodiversity in smallholder farmers so that they are able to see biodiversity as being useful to them and farming.
• Allow the farmers to take part in conservation of nature and restoration of biodiversity.
Allow wildlife to creep in the reserved forests to stay. Protect wildlife staying in the forests.
Language(s)
Chewa, English
Water
People with more food and money, they will need to have plenty of water. Water will be conserved. Water sources will be established
Food Security/Nutrition
Farmers will seek to have balanced diets. So they will engage in producing more food and livestock, preparing their nutritious diets, and taking their meals three times a day,
Economic/Sustainable Development
With a lot of money farmers will be engaged in other viable development activities. For example, at the homestead two or more income generating activities could be established, such as juice processing machinery.
Climate
There will be many forests established. More carbon dioxide will be absorbed from the atmosphere. Atmospheric heat will be reduced. Weather conditions will be good, making rainfall to be favourable. Droughts and floods will be reduced.
Sustainability
Describe the economic sustainability of your solution. Does it rely on grant funding, government subsidies or market-based revenue? (750 characters max.)
Return on investment
Mkhazikika will require US$30,000 to be fully implemented. This will be for resources and administration. $19,950 will be for resources, and $10,050 for administration which includes capacity building and training. The resources are farm inputs, namely, certified seeds of maize, vegetables and Soybeans, fertilizers, inoculants, chemicals and chickens. For each individual farmer $200 will be allocated. Of this $133 will be for 10kg maize seed, 30kg soybeans, 2 bags fertilizers, 10 local hens and 1 cock, inoculants, vegetable seeds and chemicals. $67 will be for Administration and training. The $200 will be an investment on a revolving scheme. Each farmer will repay it to help new farmers and to keep the solution sustainable.
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Replication and Scale
How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
To begin with, it is not known if anywhere in Malawi farmers practice Mkhazikika Solution. If they do it, they do not realize it is Mkhazikika. Otherwise no one does it. And if they did it there would be no problems with biodiversity. Wildlife would have everywhere. Fuel wood would not be standing the main source of income for rural farmers. Misery would not be on households.
Mkhazikika Solution would successfully be replicated elsewhere. The place where it is going to start will act as a demonstration point. Farmers from different parts of the world will travel to the place on education visits to have a practical feel of what takes place. This being very expensive, assuming it is, the author will be willing to pass information to others on the approval and arrangement of the organizers of the competition