{"id":2568,"date":"2011-06-09T17:00:41","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T17:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/?p=2568"},"modified":"2011-06-09T17:00:41","modified_gmt":"2011-06-09T17:00:41","slug":"agroforestry-food-security-programme-afsp-in-malawi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/2011\/06\/09\/agroforestry-food-security-programme-afsp-in-malawi\/","title":{"rendered":"Agroforestry Food Security Programme (AFSP) in Malawi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2569\" title=\"7407n\" src=\"http:\/\/www.faceofmalawi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/7407n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"252\" height=\"188\" \/>The World  Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) with funding from the Irish  Aid Malawi, has been  implementing a four-year nation-wide programme  known as the Agroforestry Food  Security Programme (AFSP) in 11  districts and eight Agricultural Development  Divisions (ADDs): Shire  Valley, Blantyre, Machinga, Lilongwe, Salima, Kasungu,  Mzuzu, and  Karonga ADDs since its inception in January 2007. ICRAF is  maintaining  the existing national partnership  arrangement initiated in the first  year. Partners included government  departments, research institutions,  Universities and national farmers  organisation (namely: DAES, DARS,  LRCD, DAHLD, FORESTRY DEPT, MZUNI, UNIMA, and  NASFAM). Project funds  and resources are directly shared with the partners  receiving  approximately 60% of the operational budget, and additional field   support.<br \/>\nProgramme  activities carried out include among others:  planning and review meetings,  recruitment of three new\u00a0 programme   staff, procurement, sourcing, packaging and distribution of quality tree  seeds  to farmers through partners; Establishing  biophysical  suitability and niches of Agroforestry species using GIS mapping,   production and dissemination of extension materials, training farmers  and  extension staff in agroforestry technologies, partner coordination,  monitoring  and facilitating policy review meetings. .<br \/>\nThe  progress  achieved for each of the planned activities are reported by  outcome and output  based on the approved Results Based Management (RBM)  framework developed at  appraisal with the 2nd AFSP Review and Planning  workshop held at the  Sun \u2019n Sand Hotel in Mangochi on 30-31 March  2009.<br \/>\nOverall, the  programme is on track and the following highlights were achieved during the  period under review:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Farmers  were supported with agroforestry extension materials and  seed and seedling  inputs during the year with over 50% being women<\/li>\n<li>Farmers  participated in agroforestry field days held in the various districts<\/li>\n<li>Farmers  were trained in various agroforestry practices (close to <strong>60%<\/strong> women);<\/li>\n<li>Seed of various  agroforestry tree species were sourced and\/or  procured and distributed; seed of  diverse fruit tree species (mango  stones, avocadoes, peaches, guava, etc) were  procured and used. More  tree seed are available from within the country as part  of the impact  of the AFSP as most of the seeds are sourced from farmers  themselves.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul type=\"disc\">\n<li>More than<strong> 90%<\/strong> of seed       sachets distributed were fertiliser tree system as the AFSP focuses mainly       on food security;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Fruit tree <\/strong>seedlings were produced\/distributed to farmers.<strong> <\/strong>Of these,<strong> 72,008<\/strong> fruit tree seedlings were produced  in <strong>119 community nurseries<\/strong> and  101,782 were produced in centralised nurseries (33,780) were grafted\/budded);<\/li>\n<li>New seed  orchards and fruit mother clone banks were established on farmers\u2019 <strong>fields<\/strong> and also on-station; <strong>existing<\/strong> tree seed orchards and mother  clone banks are being maintained;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Road side demonstrations<\/strong> were established or maintained;<\/li>\n<li><strong>Brochures<\/strong> and,  extension materials  were reproduced and distributed to farmers.<\/li>\n<li>Working Paper  was published on the status of fruit production, processing and marketing\u00a0 ;<\/li>\n<li>Joint strategic  working meetings, follow-ups and monitoring and  backstopping visits\/meetings  were held with partners; also Irish Aid  monitoring missions were hosted;<\/li>\n<li>Seminars on  \u201cLessons Learning\u201d were done with stakeholders. Key  lessons are being incorporated  in the programme. For instance,  Conservation agriculture was found to be a  common interest for most  stakeholders.<\/li>\n<li>Policy review  meetings were held.<\/li>\n<li>A draft Policy Review Report has been produced. The reviewed found  that  there has not been a specific Agroforestry policy. It recommends  what needs to  be done to achieve this.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are some challenges experienced in the AFSP implementation such  as  dry spells, wild fire, overriding government priorities and reduced  funding  that affected some activities.<br \/>\n<strong>PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION<\/strong><br \/>\nBy testing and  adopting agroforestry, the AFSP is expected to  positively impact on the  livelihoods of smallholder farmers and their  families in 11 selected districts  in the southern, central and northern  regions of Malawi (Salima, Dedza, Ntcheu,  Lilongwe, Chikwawa, Mulanje,  Machinga, Thyolo, Ntchisi, Mzimba and Karonga) as  shown in <strong>Figure 1<\/strong>.  The AFSP supports  smallholder farmers through germplasm provision,  training and information  necessary to implement Agroforestry for  improving the food security, nutrition  and livelihoods in Malawi  through the use of sustainable proven agroforestry  technologies.\u00a0 The  agroforestry  technologies being promoted include fertilizer trees,  fruit trees, fodder and  fuel-wood options. The adoption of these  technologies is expected to raise the  productivity of land and labour,  overall production of food, improved nutrition  and income generation  from the sale of excess maize and through the processing  and marketing  of tree products.<br \/>\nThe overall  programme <strong>purpose<\/strong> is to combine  proven science, effective partnership and informed  policies that will help to  increase food security and income, and  improve livelihood opportunities for  rural communities in Malawi,  through accelerated adoption of fertilizer trees  and fruit tree  portfolios. The programme targets 200,000 farmers over a  four-year  implementation timeframe; which is expected to have a positive impact   on up to 1.3 million people in terms of food security.<br \/>\n<strong>PROGRAMME OBJECTIVES<\/strong><br \/>\nThe AFSP has six <strong>specific objectives<\/strong> as follows:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Target,  prioritize, adapt and demonstrate fertilizer, fodder, fruit  and fuel-wood trees  portfolio options in eleven selected districts  with suitable biophysical,  geographical and social niches for  agroforestry interventions, including  vulnerable sub-populations  (HIV\/AIDS afflicted, food insecure, poor, women);<\/li>\n<li>Engage  partners in developing and applying strategies for  sustainable supply and  delivery systems of quality tree germplasm to  meet massive demand by  smallholder farmers;<\/li>\n<li>Engage,  mobilize and sensitize policy makers to formulate  appropriate policy mechanisms  and instruments for mainstreaming  agroforestry and catalyzing its adoption at  the district and national  levels;<\/li>\n<li>Improve  strategies for accessing functional and equitable input  markets and market  support systems for agroforestry products that  increase prices paid to farmers  for their outputs and reduce costs  incurred by farmers for needed inputs;<\/li>\n<li>Strengthen  and mobilize the capacity of national and local  institutions and development  agencies in scaling up agro-forestry and  develop strategies for  institutionalizing agroforestry research for  development in Malawi;<\/li>\n<li>Mainstream agro-forestry into national development plans and community  based land-use and management practices.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Source : <\/strong>http:\/\/worldagroforestry.org\/newsroom\/highlights\/agroforestry-food-security-programme-afsp-malawi<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) with funding from the Irish Aid Malawi, has been implementing a four-year nation-wide programme known [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230],"tags":[342,737,324],"class_list":["post-2568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture","tag-agriculture-2","tag-agroforestry","tag-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.faceofmalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}