Tractor and harrower at the MFT stand

This week was the “8th Mzuzu Agricultural Show”. It wasn’t quite on the scale of the Royal Highland Show, although you might have hoped for something bigger in the third biggest city of a country where 70% of the economy is agriculture. There were a few things that struck me:

  • There were only two tractors at the show and no evidence of any other kind of mechanisation. Farming remains a hard, manual task.
  • We had the only solar irrigation pump (indeed, the only irrigation pump of any kind) on display. And yet this year the harvests are poor because of inconsistent rains and irrigation has the potential to double or triple yields.
  • There were several stalls from farming co-operatives, many displaying added-value products. There was nicely packaged tomato sauce, hibisus tea, dried mango and much more. We haven’t cracked food processing ourselves so I’m very interested in all this. In most cases, the co-operatives are supplying the raw material to an NGO or private company and the processing, packaging and retail happens there. I ask the farmers whether these “high value products” mean that they get more for the raw materials – they shake their heads sadly.

All of this is a reminder that there is so much work to be done to bring Good News to the poor through farming. And so much that can be done! Our social enterprise company is MFT – Modern Farming Technologies – but greenhouses and solar irrigation are not particularly “modern”. They are just thin on the ground in Malawi where the impact of these technologies can be huge: increasing yields; producing higher quality crops; providing resilience in the face of climate change; and pushing up household incomes. As far as we are able, we will continue to make these technologies affordable for farmers.

Atusaye in full flow, with an attentive crowd wanting to know what the solar powered Futurepump can do for them

There was one great encouragement from the show, though, and that was the spirit of partnership that was evident. People moved freely from one stall to another eager to understand what each group was doing and ready to be inspired by their ideas and products. This resonates so well with us at Malawi Fruits and it was good to connect with many people and groups who we have worked with over the years. Truly, we are in this together.