Malawi’s largest independent smallholder farmers association is working to help producers improve crop yields and adapt to the climate crisis while promoting gender equity.
With over 130,000 members, the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (NASFAM) operates in 22 of the country’s 28 districts. Through local and regional groups, they help producers grow better crops, increase the quality of their output, and connect to “more rewarding markets,” Betty Chinyamunyamu, the Association’s CEO tells Food Tank.
Women empowerment is also central to NASFAM’s efforts, Chinyamunyamu explains. Women represent more than half of all members, and they are increasingly taking leadership roles in the Association.
Malawi’s women farmers have traditionally faced challenges accessing land and capital. “Most of them really do not participate in farming enterprises that will take them to the market or that would require them to access financing,” Chinyamunyamu tells Food Tank. “They limit themselves to food for production and because of that, it’s just a vicious cycle. They’re not able to really get out of poverty.”
NASFAM wants to change this reality for women. By engaging women in conversation about their potential and through training programs, the Association wants to show them that “they have similar opportunities like the men” and “they’re able to do what the men can do,” Chinyamunyamu says.
Over time, women have become more active participants in the Association. They are also producing crops that they previously felt they could not produce. And on three occasions, NASFAM members have elected a woman farmer to chair the entire organization. Chinyamunyamu believes this is a sign that men and women understand the benefits that female leadership offers to individual homes and entire communities.
Gender equity is also “good for business,” Chinyamunyamu argues. “When you make the men and the women work together, they bring in different strengths, and when you capitalize on that, you find that it’s actually good for the Association’s business, good for their farming business.”
But this work is as much about the short-term gains as the reverberations that will span generations. Chinyamunyamu is seeing women at 50 to 60 years of age demand literacy classes to help them pursue new opportunities. As a result they are encouraging their daughters to stay in school “because they themselves have seen the value of having an education in terms of being able to participate in community development programs.”
Listen to the full conversation with Betty Chinyamunyamu to learn more about how NASFAM is helping women succeed, how the climate crisis is impacting the Association’s members, and the ways that young people are changing the future of agriculture in Malawi.
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