By Frazer Potani
Here one meets Magomero Food
Processing Enterprise (MFPE), a 10-member women group established in 2002 and
learns on how value addition on fruits and vegetables transformed them from
just housewives into breadwinners.
“We preserve vegetables by drying them, and process fruits to produce drinks (juice), wine and other products such as jam from bananas, malambe (baobab fruit) including mangoes for sale to generate income,” explained MFPE Chairperson Mervis Chagwa.
“Since forming our group we are also breadwinners in our own right. We alongside our husbands provide support for our families,” she said, disclosing that prevously they used to earn a living by just selling fresh fruits, vegetables and other farm produce to surrounding communities.
“We ventured into agro-food processing after a visiting lecturer at Magomero from Germany sold us an idea that we could earn more money by adding value to our products through processing them and sell them at a higher price,” said Chagwa.
After scrutinizing the idea, the group filed a proposal to Compass 11 Project under USAID for funding and lucky enough it was successful.
“We got production equipment and training in food processing including computer skills from Compass 11 USAID Project,” said Chagwa.
MFPE Treasurer, Elizabeth Suga disclosed that they produce 100 litres of juice per hour and 40 litres of wine per month.
“We share responsibilities. While others source raw materials, others are in production and in sales,” she said.
Suga explained that their products are mainly sold in surrounding areas of Nasawa, Zomba, Chiradzuru and Namadzi.
“We record sales in the books and part of the generated income share among ourselves according to one’s productivity to encourage members to work hard,” she said.
The Treasurer disclosed that they also bank part of the money while another chunk is used for purchasing raw materials for processing products.
“We formed our group to fight against poverty in our households and achieve prosperity as well as preserve natural resources in our community,” said Suga adding that they have achieved their goals.
“Our families are food secure because we can afford three meals a day. We have also managed to build houses with iron sheets. We are even able to support our spouses including paying school fees for our children and meet their needs,” she said.
However, the group’s Secretary, Ellen Luka, said their vision is to expand but facing some challenges including electricity black outs, water crises, limit of resources and equipment, difficulties in sourcing raw materials for production and packaging including climate change.
“We also need our own premises to operate from and a ware house for storing finished and unfinished products including means of transport to deliver our products to sales outlets,” she said adding that they also need adequate skills to maintain the quality of their products.
MFPE is just one Malawi’s smallholder agro-processing groups scattered across the country whose success in value adding if fully tapped could contribute to the country’s social-economic development and eradicate poverty outweighing over 60 per 100 people in the 13 million plus population.
Most of the groups comprising of men and women mushroomed under the One Village One Product (OVOP) Project whose slogan is "Towards the Economic Empowerment of People".
OVOP originated from depressed villages in Japan's Oita Prefecture in the 1970s and encourages local communities to concentrate on local strengths, be they in materials, crops, culture, or personnel skills to create distinctive products which can be effectively marketed locally or internationally.
Since OVOP conception in Malawi in 2003 the groups with support from Japan have been involved in the promotion of value adding technologies, small-scale business skills development and market linkages for both domestic and export markets.
Malawi’s agro-processing activities under OVOP already made their mark internationally through Khumbo Cooking Oil Refinery group on the foot of Michiru Mountain, Blantyre.
The refinery got the Hiramatsu OVOP Promotion Award at the International Seminar at Tianmu Hall of Tianmu Lake Hotel, Liyang City, China in November 2008 given to commend groups for outstanding work in contributing to development and prosperity to local communities with creative spirit and passion for the OVOP Movement.
Not surprising therefore, that former Japanese Ambassador to Malawi Motoyoshi Noro appealed to all the country’s stakeholders to exploit ways to boost agro-processed products.
“The products have the potential to find themselves on the shelves of international markets and contribute to the country’s economic growth to eradicate poverty,” he said adding that what was required was supporting the groups involved in agro-processing to improve their products’ quality.
“Improving quality will enable the products attract more markets,” said Noro.
Malawi OVOP National Coordinator Kamia Kaluma Sulumba said to enable OVOP member groups improve their products quality Malawi Government and JICA build their capacities.
“The groups are being empowered through adding value to their farm produce for sale. Otherwise, such farm produce would have been wasted after harvest,” she said adding, “We are even proud that Malawi is being taken as the pioneer of OVOP in Africa. Normally we have delegations from different parts of Africa to see OVOP in Malawi.”
If Malawi is to switch from a predominantly importing and consuming to producing and exporting country and cut high levels of unemployment OVOP is an ideal strategy.
Even Malawi’s former Principal Secretary (PS) for Agriculture Andrew Daudi admitted that agro-processing remains one of the missing link in the country’s economic revival.
He therefore, emphasized the need for Malawi to shift agricultural industry goal posts from just producing to value adding on farm produce for the domestic and foreign market to realize social-economic development benefits from agriculture.
“The Malawian farmer is long used to selling unfinished agricultural products while the country’s top produce buyers have grown accustomed to exporting raw materials,” said Daudi adding, “This is analogous to “throwing away the baby with the bath water.”
The PS explained that by exporting unfinished agricultural products Malawi was doing harm to itself because the country also exported jobs and businesses.
“Take, for instance, cotton: exporting raw cotton, which is bought at extremely low prices, means that we are also exporting the (cotton) seed for free,” he said, revealing that Malawi’s target countries for the exports simply employ their own people as cotton ginnery workers.
“.. and then they export the finished product back to Malawi at exorbitant prices. In return the country’s losses are thus two-fold: lost employment opportunities for people on the unemployment queue as well as lost national wealth -hence the adage throwing away the baby with the bath water,” said Daudi.
To prevent such losses late president Bingu wa Mutharika banned the exportation of raw products from Malawi describing the practice as ‘immoral and irresponsible’.
“These people manufacture a lot of goods from our raw materials. The most unfortunate part is that it’s the rural farmer who suffers. There are no good returns for their labour and toil,” he said.
On his part Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) President, Mathews Chikankheni also said unless Malawi increased agro-processing through value adding activities at all levels achieving social-economic growth and eradicating poverty would remain just a dream.
“In fact value addition has among others, rejuvenated the once napping economies of Europe, East Asia and India,” he said.
Chikankheni further appealed to Malawi Government and public service providers to stop subsidizing consumers, especially those in urban areas.
“These subsidies discourage market liberalization and hurt food and industry processors,” he said adding that removal of such subsidies would mean that Malawian private sector players in the agro-processing sector would be assured of positive investment returns.
“Farmers will also benefit a lot because buying prices for farm produce will improve,” he said.
But a Malawian scholar at University of Reading, United Kingdom (UK), Chipaso Chanaichi Nkhonjera in his research, “The Role of Women’s Empowerment on Agricultural Development in Malawi” says if Malawi has to achieve social-economic development through agro-processing and value adding on agricultural products women should be deliberately targeted.
“Women being an important stakeholder in agricultural development in Malawi need to be equipped with all the necessary capacity to enable them contribute effectively,” he says.
Nkhonjera reveals in his study that Malawi is struggling to fully tap benefits from value adding in agriculture because women [also majority (over 70 percent) food producers and processors in the country] are often sidelined.
“Addressing the challenges of women in agriculture in Malawi is vital since it’s the major strategy in reduction of poverty as they make up the majority of people living in poverty,” he said.
In another research, “What works for women: proven approaches for empowering women smallholders and achieving food security” ActionAid International’s Head of Right to Food Ruchi Tripathi concurs with Nkhonjera.
“Women are a critical component of agriculture. They are farmers, unpaid workers on family farms, paid or unpaid agricultural labourers on other farms and agricultural enterprises, food processors and vendors,….” she says adding that often women are not recognized as “productive farmers”.
“…women tend to be excluded from decision-making; and they don’t have equal access to land and other resources, credit, markets, education, extension services and inputs with men in the agricultural sector,” says Tripathi.
“We preserve vegetables by drying them, and process fruits to produce drinks (juice), wine and other products such as jam from bananas, malambe (baobab fruit) including mangoes for sale to generate income,” explained MFPE Chairperson Mervis Chagwa.
“Since forming our group we are also breadwinners in our own right. We alongside our husbands provide support for our families,” she said, disclosing that prevously they used to earn a living by just selling fresh fruits, vegetables and other farm produce to surrounding communities.
“We ventured into agro-food processing after a visiting lecturer at Magomero from Germany sold us an idea that we could earn more money by adding value to our products through processing them and sell them at a higher price,” said Chagwa.
After scrutinizing the idea, the group filed a proposal to Compass 11 Project under USAID for funding and lucky enough it was successful.
“We got production equipment and training in food processing including computer skills from Compass 11 USAID Project,” said Chagwa.
MFPE Treasurer, Elizabeth Suga disclosed that they produce 100 litres of juice per hour and 40 litres of wine per month.
“We share responsibilities. While others source raw materials, others are in production and in sales,” she said.
Suga explained that their products are mainly sold in surrounding areas of Nasawa, Zomba, Chiradzuru and Namadzi.
“We record sales in the books and part of the generated income share among ourselves according to one’s productivity to encourage members to work hard,” she said.
The Treasurer disclosed that they also bank part of the money while another chunk is used for purchasing raw materials for processing products.
“We formed our group to fight against poverty in our households and achieve prosperity as well as preserve natural resources in our community,” said Suga adding that they have achieved their goals.
“Our families are food secure because we can afford three meals a day. We have also managed to build houses with iron sheets. We are even able to support our spouses including paying school fees for our children and meet their needs,” she said.
However, the group’s Secretary, Ellen Luka, said their vision is to expand but facing some challenges including electricity black outs, water crises, limit of resources and equipment, difficulties in sourcing raw materials for production and packaging including climate change.
“We also need our own premises to operate from and a ware house for storing finished and unfinished products including means of transport to deliver our products to sales outlets,” she said adding that they also need adequate skills to maintain the quality of their products.
MFPE is just one Malawi’s smallholder agro-processing groups scattered across the country whose success in value adding if fully tapped could contribute to the country’s social-economic development and eradicate poverty outweighing over 60 per 100 people in the 13 million plus population.
Most of the groups comprising of men and women mushroomed under the One Village One Product (OVOP) Project whose slogan is "Towards the Economic Empowerment of People".
OVOP originated from depressed villages in Japan's Oita Prefecture in the 1970s and encourages local communities to concentrate on local strengths, be they in materials, crops, culture, or personnel skills to create distinctive products which can be effectively marketed locally or internationally.
Since OVOP conception in Malawi in 2003 the groups with support from Japan have been involved in the promotion of value adding technologies, small-scale business skills development and market linkages for both domestic and export markets.
Malawi’s agro-processing activities under OVOP already made their mark internationally through Khumbo Cooking Oil Refinery group on the foot of Michiru Mountain, Blantyre.
The refinery got the Hiramatsu OVOP Promotion Award at the International Seminar at Tianmu Hall of Tianmu Lake Hotel, Liyang City, China in November 2008 given to commend groups for outstanding work in contributing to development and prosperity to local communities with creative spirit and passion for the OVOP Movement.
Not surprising therefore, that former Japanese Ambassador to Malawi Motoyoshi Noro appealed to all the country’s stakeholders to exploit ways to boost agro-processed products.
“The products have the potential to find themselves on the shelves of international markets and contribute to the country’s economic growth to eradicate poverty,” he said adding that what was required was supporting the groups involved in agro-processing to improve their products’ quality.
“Improving quality will enable the products attract more markets,” said Noro.
Malawi OVOP National Coordinator Kamia Kaluma Sulumba said to enable OVOP member groups improve their products quality Malawi Government and JICA build their capacities.
“The groups are being empowered through adding value to their farm produce for sale. Otherwise, such farm produce would have been wasted after harvest,” she said adding, “We are even proud that Malawi is being taken as the pioneer of OVOP in Africa. Normally we have delegations from different parts of Africa to see OVOP in Malawi.”
If Malawi is to switch from a predominantly importing and consuming to producing and exporting country and cut high levels of unemployment OVOP is an ideal strategy.
Even Malawi’s former Principal Secretary (PS) for Agriculture Andrew Daudi admitted that agro-processing remains one of the missing link in the country’s economic revival.
He therefore, emphasized the need for Malawi to shift agricultural industry goal posts from just producing to value adding on farm produce for the domestic and foreign market to realize social-economic development benefits from agriculture.
“The Malawian farmer is long used to selling unfinished agricultural products while the country’s top produce buyers have grown accustomed to exporting raw materials,” said Daudi adding, “This is analogous to “throwing away the baby with the bath water.”
The PS explained that by exporting unfinished agricultural products Malawi was doing harm to itself because the country also exported jobs and businesses.
“Take, for instance, cotton: exporting raw cotton, which is bought at extremely low prices, means that we are also exporting the (cotton) seed for free,” he said, revealing that Malawi’s target countries for the exports simply employ their own people as cotton ginnery workers.
“.. and then they export the finished product back to Malawi at exorbitant prices. In return the country’s losses are thus two-fold: lost employment opportunities for people on the unemployment queue as well as lost national wealth -hence the adage throwing away the baby with the bath water,” said Daudi.
To prevent such losses late president Bingu wa Mutharika banned the exportation of raw products from Malawi describing the practice as ‘immoral and irresponsible’.
“These people manufacture a lot of goods from our raw materials. The most unfortunate part is that it’s the rural farmer who suffers. There are no good returns for their labour and toil,” he said.
On his part Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) President, Mathews Chikankheni also said unless Malawi increased agro-processing through value adding activities at all levels achieving social-economic growth and eradicating poverty would remain just a dream.
“In fact value addition has among others, rejuvenated the once napping economies of Europe, East Asia and India,” he said.
Chikankheni further appealed to Malawi Government and public service providers to stop subsidizing consumers, especially those in urban areas.
“These subsidies discourage market liberalization and hurt food and industry processors,” he said adding that removal of such subsidies would mean that Malawian private sector players in the agro-processing sector would be assured of positive investment returns.
“Farmers will also benefit a lot because buying prices for farm produce will improve,” he said.
But a Malawian scholar at University of Reading, United Kingdom (UK), Chipaso Chanaichi Nkhonjera in his research, “The Role of Women’s Empowerment on Agricultural Development in Malawi” says if Malawi has to achieve social-economic development through agro-processing and value adding on agricultural products women should be deliberately targeted.
“Women being an important stakeholder in agricultural development in Malawi need to be equipped with all the necessary capacity to enable them contribute effectively,” he says.
Nkhonjera reveals in his study that Malawi is struggling to fully tap benefits from value adding in agriculture because women [also majority (over 70 percent) food producers and processors in the country] are often sidelined.
“Addressing the challenges of women in agriculture in Malawi is vital since it’s the major strategy in reduction of poverty as they make up the majority of people living in poverty,” he said.
In another research, “What works for women: proven approaches for empowering women smallholders and achieving food security” ActionAid International’s Head of Right to Food Ruchi Tripathi concurs with Nkhonjera.
“Women are a critical component of agriculture. They are farmers, unpaid workers on family farms, paid or unpaid agricultural labourers on other farms and agricultural enterprises, food processors and vendors,….” she says adding that often women are not recognized as “productive farmers”.
“…women tend to be excluded from decision-making; and they don’t have equal access to land and other resources, credit, markets, education, extension services and inputs with men in the agricultural sector,” says Tripathi.
Frazer
Potani, AfricaNews reporter in Lilongwe,
Malawi
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