1.Project description

Way back in 2019, the targeted beneficiaries underwent the sustainable agriculture participatory training demonstration plot. It is through the demonstration plot and field days that sustainable agriculture has been promoted. The targeted beneficiaries (both direct and indirect) have been improving crop production without much reliance on commercial fertilizers and use of pesticides. All in all, the targeted beneficiaries were not trained in environmental management and thus continues to use much pesticides thereby polluting the environment. It is through this background that this proposed project is of paramount importance as it will equip the villagers not only with sustainable agriculture skills but also the entire environmental management skills through safe usage of pesticides and proper disposal of pesticides containers. The project is aiming at building and cementing food security gains achieved through sustainable agriculture training conducted in Lilongwe Rural in 2019. The villagers will be trained in safe usage of agricultural pesticides as currently they are just applying the chemicals haphazardly in their fields. At the same time, villagers dispose pesticides containers anyhow. A refresher session on sustainable agriculture will be conducted too during the safe pesticides’ usage training. The training will be followed by visiting Lilongwe City Council pesticides’ containers damping sites so that the farmers will appreciate how the pesticides containers are disposed safely. Thereafter, there will be open days targeting the indirect beneficiaries of the project within the village and others from the nearby villages. During the open day, sustainable agriculture demonstration plot will be inspected and appreciated by the participants.

2. Project progress up to now

The project kickstarted with the inception meeting aiming at bringing awareness to the traditional leaders and the villagers about the incoming project at Chikuni Village. It was conducted through a meeting format followed by questions and answers session. Inception meeting was conducted by Sustainable Solutions for Life.

Inception meeting was followed by project launching and a first training session -safe usage of pesticides at Chikuni Village. The project was launched on 20^th May, 2023. Villagers from the nearby villages such as Ndodani and Pheleni participated too. The aim was to bring awareness to farmers on how they can use the pesticides safely as well as how to dispose the pesticides containers. It was facilitated by the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources’ experts. It was conducted through an interactive approach allowing the participants to lead some training session parts through the facilitators’ guidance.

The first training session was followed by a second training session -relationship between sustainable agriculture and environmental management at Chikuni Village. It was conducted on 17^th June, 2023. It aimed at bringing awareness to the participants on the reason why sustainable agriculture cannot be achieved without adding the component of environmental management. It was facilitated by Lilongwe of Agriculture and Natural Resources’ experts. An interactive learning approach was applied to enhance knowledge uptake.

The second training session was followed by the third and final training session-sprayer calibration. It was conducted on 24^th June, 2023. The training session aimed at bringing awareness to farmers on estimating quantity of pesticides to be used in a measured garden. It was also aiming at bringing awareness to farmers on pesticides dilution and setting a sprayer for the spraying process. It was conducted in a formal class set-up as well as a practical session. It was conducted at Chikuni Village and was facilitated by Lilongwe university of Agriculture and Natural Resources’ experts.

The first monitoring meeting was conducted on 30^th June, 2023. It was a joint meeting attended by the project implementers, Sustainable Solutions for Life and the villagers (Chikuni and Ndodani, Pheleni Village). It was aiming at reflecting on the project activities that have been implemented so far and planning to change some activities based on the situation on the ground. It was also aiming at connecting the on -going sustainable agriculture program and environmental management education component project being implemented with Korea SHE Foundation. The monitoring meeting was a day long undertaking whereby in the afternoon, a number of sustainable agriculture gardens were visited. The meeting noted that all was well as far as project implementation was going on and it was decided not to change project implementation schedule.

Some more project progress can be accessed through the following links:

https://www.linkedin.com/messaging/thread/2OWVmNDIwYTEtZDUwYy00M2E0LThhOTktOTJlZTFjMmViNTExXzAxMg==/

https://www.linkedin.com/messaging/thread/2MTE4OTYwMmUtNDU3ZS00YTdlLWEyYzktZDg4MzliZTExYWZjXzAxMw==/

https://youtube.com/shorts/rMpiab7nrdc

 

3. Project plan forward

Damping site visitation, monitoring meetings and open days are the remaining activities to be implemented. During the open days, t-shirts branded with Korea SHE Foundation logo and project message s will be distributed to promote the project further. Moreover, calendars branded with Korea SHE Foundation and project messages will be distributed to promote the project. All these 3 activities will be implemented according the original planning schedule.

There are no any suggested changes aiming at improving the project as the villagers are acquiring knowledge and skills easily. Farmers are acquiring hands on experience through an interactive learning approach applied as well as through practical session carried out concurrently with the formal learning. All in all, project implementation during the rainy season can make a difference especially on part of project activities’ adoption at the household level. This is like so as only a few farmers engage in winter cropping (irrigation farming) in the area and thus not practicing the project activities at household level during the project implementation period. There are 100% chances that all project activities will be implemented according the planned schedule. This project is the starting point as far as environmental management education is concerned and it is expected that some more environmental management education aspects will be incorporated in the future considering the fact that climate change can be offset through good environmental management education. The project activities will be incorporated in the village action plans during the last monitoring meeting. Incorporation of the project activities into the village action plan is one of the project sustainability strategies. Overall, it is expected that project activities will be sustained through anticipated Korea SHE Foundation second funding or other funding sources.

Generally, the project has been designed in such a way it will initiate both horizontal scaling up and vertical scaling up on its own. The horizontal scaling up is starting with capacity building targeting direct beneficiaries. The direct beneficiaries will start upscaling process by practicing the skills and knowledge in their own gardens. Later a number of indirect beneficiaries will learn from the direct beneficiaries’ gardens and thus furthering the upscaling process horizontally. Small holder farmers from nearby villages will complement the scaling up process upon being invited to attend the open days. The open days will initiate vertical scaling up through the policy makers, researchers and extension personnel invited to attend. The policy makers, researchers and extension personnel will call for the review of the national agriculture policy to include safe usage of pesticides and proper disposal of the pesticides’ containers in achieving sustainable crop production. Furthermore, chances are high for the policy makers to call for the safe pesticides usage Act through the Minister of Agriculture. The safe pesticides usage Act will initiate full scale implementation of the safe pesticides’ usage throughout the country. In this way, the project’ design itself is pre-cursor of scaling up process.

 

4. Photos

Project inception meeting

Part of the monitoring meeting

Monitoring meeting poster

Part of the monitoring meeting-Visiting a sustainable agriculture garden

 Sprayer calibration practical session-clarifying on the spraying width

Sprayer calibration practical session

Sprayer calibration training in progress

Sprayer calibration training in progress

 

Sprayer calibration training poster and content

Sustainable agriculture and its relationship to environmental management -participants sharing ideas on nutrient recycling

Project launching banner

First training session poster