The following text is published on behalf of Richard Mhinji, a member of BluA Malawi.
In Malawi, people are mostly dependent on agriculture. About 80 - 90% of our income is through farming. It is against this background that we have decided to indulge in the farming business.
At first we only did it for our own consumption, but later on we thought of going commercial, as a way to aid ourselves and generate some revenue.
In the 2023/2024 season we tried at a larger scale. We managed to cultivate more acres with the aim of utilizing the harvest to finance the building of a house in Lilongwe. It started out as a very good season. We had enough fertilizer, some of which were assisted by BluA Norway.
Unfortunately, the season was disturbed by a dry spell that hit Malawi very hard from February 2024. This is the time when the maize/corn is about to get ripe. This affected us a lot. Four acres of maize dried due to sun. We only managed to have a good harvest in two acres, which had moderate rainfall.
This impacted our house project, as we only managed to sell enough maize to afford fertiliser to try again this coming season. Fertiliser and seeds have become very expensive this season. Fertilizers are going at 115, 000 to 150, 000 Malawi Kwachas per 50kgs bag (USD86) and seeds at 40, 000 to 55, 000 Malawi Kwachas per 5kgs (USD32).
It is our hope that the next season will go as planned. However, it all depends on what nature will bring. Thank you for reading!
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