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- One Acre Fund Brings Relief to Hunger-Stricken Communities in Malawi with Input Loan Program
One Acre Fund Brings Relief to Hunger-Stricken Communities in Malawi with Input Loan Program
The area's residents were unable to afford quality seeds and fertiliser because of the area's extreme poverty, according to traditional authority Malemia.
Malawi: Due to poverty and the fact that the majority of the residents were unable to access government-sponsored subsidies, communities in and around Traditional Authorities Chikowi and Malemia have been suffering from hunger year after year, writes Mathews Mwantani.
The area's residents were unable to afford quality seeds and fertiliser because of the area's extreme poverty, according to traditional authority Malemia.
The quality of life for people in the two TAs has significantly improved as a result of the entry of One Acre Fund, who has a 5-year project with an input loan programme in which they loan out seeds and fertilisers.
The One Acre Fund organisation began operating in 2013 and currently provides 71 farmers with a loan programme for agricultural inputs like fertiliser, maize, groundnut, and soybean seeds.
Through loans that farmers repay in instalments, the organisation provides access to high-quality farm inputs.
“Since One Acre Fund arrived in this region five years ago, things have improved. The programme benefits a select group of farmers from each of the more than 50 large villages in my area,” said T/A Malemia.
“Since the majority of the population is extremely poor, quality farm inputs are very expensive, and government subsidies for farm inputs haven't been available to everyone in my region. We have been stuck in poverty-related circles as a result for a very long time. But the arrival of One Acre Fund and their programme has helped to mitigate hunger.”
One of the organization's senior managers, Sydney Banda, claims that by 2023, the organisation will have provided an input loan programme to more than 80,000 small-scale farmers in Malawi.
“In 10 Traditional Authorities across the nation—Ngwelero, Tholowa, M'biza, Chikowi, Mlumbe, Nkapita, Malemia, Mwambo, Kuntumanje, and Nkangula,” said Banda.
"We are now assisting farmers with access to quality farm inputs that they could not afford on their own.”
He also expressed the hope that farmers participating in the One Acre Fund programme would experience greater yields this year than in previous ones.
“As a social enterprise, our goal is to end hunger both now and in the future, so we will keep assisting farmers in low-income or underserved communities who lack access to or cannot afford high-quality farm inputs,” he said.
Banda continued by saying that as part of the interventions, the group offers farmers transportation assistance so they can transport seeds and fertiliser to various locations.
Hanna Kunje, a project beneficiary who is also from T/A Malemia, praised One Acre Fund for their loan input programme because she had benefited from it by receiving bags of fertiliser and maize seeds.
“Despite not being selected for the AIP 2022/2023 government programme,” Kunje said.
"I can say that I am anticipating a bumper crop this year because of One Acre Fund Organization, which provided me with fertiliser and maize seed through their farm input loan programme."
In addition to its loan programme, One Acre Fund offers free tree seedlings in areas like Zomba, Mulanje, Chiradzulu, Phalombe, Machinga, and Balaka to promote environmental preservation.