What We Do
Updated March 2020
Nkope Village sits on Lake Malawi, the ninth largest lake in the world, and is representative of the many food insecure, vulnerable areas in Malawi that suffer from low agricultural productivity - especially during the dry season. Malawi is in dire need of improved agriculture techniques to boost economic growth and enhance health outcomes. One technique, drip-irrigation, has the potential to revolutionize farming in not just Nkope Village, but the entire country, by harnessing the country's abundant resources (i.e., access to fresh water) and its growing youth population to create sustainable agriculture year-round.
Our organization, Harvest Malawi, is working in Nkope Village to help establish efficient and reproducible agricultural habits, supported by sustainable irrigation schemes, that can be spread village to village. We believe that sustainability is the key to the project's success, so our aim is to build local capacity so that communities can benefit from improved agriculture productivity for years to come. It is with the support of our generous donors that Harvest Malawi is able to provide access to resources that directly support this initiative.
We are currently partnering with a UK-based NGO, Naturally Africa Volunteers (NAV), to achieve our goals and create a sustainable agriculture project model. Together, we are using a 70-acre plot of land neighboring Lake Malawi that was purchased by Harvest Malawi and is managed by NAV to initiate these tasks. NAV is a well-established volunteer organization with medical, educational, and nutrition initiatives in Nkope and other surrounding villages. NAV employs local Malawians, which allows volunteers and the organization as a whole to immerse themselves in the culture and better understand the needs of the community. We believe that community engagement will be at the heart of this project, so working with NAV is critical to achieve our goals. Currently, NAV provides the day-to-day management for the agriculture project, while Harvest Malawi provides both agriculture expertise and project funding. Working together, both organizations are better able to create sustainable change.
With the support of the local community, the joint-agriculture project is currently growing crops local to the area and also introducing new produce to create and support small retail/market trade businesses by selling produce not commonly available at low wholesale prices. Some examples of the crops we are producing are tomato plants, cabbage plants, pepper plants, eggplants, onion plants, papaya trees, & banana trees. In the future, we hope to continue diversifying our produce depending on local demand and growing conditions. So far, these efforts are not just increasing food availability, but are also building the local agriculture economy by producing affordable vegetables through an available dry season water supply. In addition, we hope that diversifying affordable crops and educating locals on the importance of a healthy diet will help combat severe malnutrition and improve overall health outcomes.
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During the past dry season of 2019, there were significant advancements to our irrigation scheme on the ground. We now have 2 large water tanks on top of an elevated water reservoir for gravity fed drip-irrigation that has the ability to irrigate 10 acres of land. Additionally, we have installed solar panels and solar pumps to facilitate efficient drip irrigation. On the ground, the project is being managed by 2 Malawian agriculture-experts, Jacob and Victor, that have helped facilitate one successful year of farming with irrigation so far.
We are extremely pleased with the agriculture project's advancements and are hopeful to continue harvesting & building local capacity in Nkope Village and the rest of Malawi.
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