THE MALAWI FORUM FOR AGRICULTURAL ADVISORY SERVICES (MaFAAS)

REPORT ON THE 2019 FARMING & EXTENSION CONFERENCE

MALAWI INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT (MIM)

THEME:
Acting on Farmers’ Voices for Agricultural Transformation

11th – 13th SEPTEMBER 2019

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Table of Contents
1. Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................... 4

2. Background ..................................................................................................................................... 5

3. Conference proceedings ................................................................................................................. 6

3.1 Day One: Opening Ceremony ................................................................................................. 6

3.1.1 Speeches ....................................................................................................................... 10

3.2 Highlights of sub-themes ...................................................................................................... 12

4. Day Two: Side Events .................................................................................................................... 12

4.1 Women in Agriculture ........................................................................................................... 12

4.2 Farmers’ Voices on Strategic Issues ...................................................................................... 15

4.3 Building Resilience ................................................................................................................ 16

4.4 ICT in Agriculture................................................................................................................... 17

4.5 Extension and Advisory Services ........................................................................................... 18

5. Day Three: Side Events.................................................................................................................. 19

5.1. Food and Nutrition Presentation by Martha Mwale - Agriculture as the source of nutrition .. 19

5.2. Debriefing from the Farmers’ Field Trip .................................................................................... 19

6.0 MaFAAS General Assembly ....................................................................................................... 21

6.1 MaFAAS Report ..................................................................................................................... 21

6.2 Report on MaFAAS Stakeholder Consultation ...................................................................... 23

6.3 Constitutional Amendment .................................................................................................. 25

7.0 Closing Ceremony ..................................................................................................................... 25

8.0 Resource mobilisation............................................................................................................... 25

9.0 Annexes ..................................................................................................................................... 27

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List of Abbreviations
AEAS: Agriculture Extension Advisory Services
AEDO: Agriculture Extension Development Officer
AFAAS: African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services
AHL: Auction Holdings Limited
ASP: Area Stakeholder Panel
COWFA: Coalition for Women Farmers
DAECC: District Agriculture Extension Coordination Committee
DAES: Department of Agricultural Extension Services
DAESS: District Agricultural Extension Services System
DSP District Stakeholder Panel
FISP: Farm Input Subsidy Programme
FRT: Farm Radio Trust
GBV: Gender Based Violence
GFRAS: Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services
GMO: Genetically Modified Organism
HHA Household Approach
ICT: Information and Communication Technology
IHF Integrated Homestead Farming
LUANAR: Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources
MaFAAS: Malawi Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services
MBS: Malawi Bureau of Standards
MIM: Malawi Institute of Management
NAIP: National Agriculture Investment Policy
NASFAM: National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi
MoAIWD Ministry of Agriculture Irrigation and Water Development
NGO: Non-Governmental Organisation
PACHI Parent and Child Health Initiative Trust
PSA: Partnership for Social Accountability
RDP: Rural Development Project
SANE: Strengthening Agricultural and Nutrition in Extension (Feed the Future Activity)
SANI: Southern Africa Nutrition Initiative
SDG: Sustainable Development Goal
SHA Self Help Africa
T/A Traditional Authority
TC: Tobacco Commission
VAC: Village Agricultural Committee
VDC: Village Development Committee
WUSC: World University Services of Canada

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1. Executive Summary
The Malawi Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (MaFAAS) is an umbrella body of
extension professionals, practitioners, students and farmers in Malawi. Its activities date
back to 2008 when a sensitization meeting was held in Lilongwe, Malawi where
stakeholders agreed to work towards establishing a country forum for agricultural extension
and advisory services. The forum was launched in January 2011 and was registered as a trust
in Malawi in February 2017. The MaFAAS has conducted several notable activities over the
years in the areas of advocacy, networking, and coordination, linking with the existing
structures under the District Agricultural Extension Services System (DAESS) through which
the pluralistic and demand driven extension service policy is implemented in Malawi.

The MaFAAS has been conducting annual events aimed at sharing best practices concerning
farming, extension and agricultural advisory services in Malawi targeting various
stakeholders. Known as the MaFAAS Extension Week, the event has been held from 2011 to
2017. In 2018 the focus was shifted to farmers and the event was now dubbed the Farmers’
Conference. In 2019, the MaFAAS organized what is known as the Farming and Extension
Conference, an event that took place at the Malawi Institute of Management (MIM) from
11th – 13th September 2019 under the theme: “Acting on Farmers’ Voices for Agricultural
Transformation.” The theme was drawn from the lessons learnt during the 2018 Farmers’
Conference which aimed to enable farmers and other stakeholders in the agriculture sector
to share experiences and lessons, network, discuss critical issues and develop an action plan
to address issues such as access to land, markets, finance, extension, research and value
addition under the theme “Hear Farmers’ Voices for Agricultural Transformation”. Farmers
raised a number of issues that needed to be responded to, hence the 2019 Farming and
Extension Conference.

It is against this background that MaFAAS organized the ‘2019 National Farming and
Extension Conference’ targeting all stakeholders to provide linkage between the 2018
farmers’ recommendations and provision of relevant services for agricultural
transformation. The objectives and theme of the conference were in line with the National
Agriculture Investment Plan (NAIP) launched in June 2018. The NAIP has four programs
which are:
A. Policies, institutions and coordination;
B. Resilient livelihoods and agricultural systems;
C. Production and productivity;
D. Markets, value addition, trade and finance

The NAIP programs are linked to 16 intervention areas, the most relevant to MaFAAS
include:
i. Policy, Program and Stakeholder Coordination;
ii. Farmer Organizations;
iii. Public agricultural services delivery;
iv. Food and Nutrition Security;
v. Investments in agribusiness;
vi. Access to financial services;

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vii. among others;

Most of the issues raised by farmers during the 2018 Farmers conference relate well to the
NAIP programs and intervention areas which are key to the achievement of the objectives of
the agriculture sector such as broad-based growth, poverty reduction, food and nutrition
security, resilience, climate change adaptation and trade development.
The 2019 conference therefore, was a success as it achieved the goals of the sub-themes
that were identified and discussed during the conference as follows:
i. Farmers’ Voices on Strategic Issues in Agriculture
ii. Extension and Advisory Services
iii. Women in Agriculture
iv. ICT in Agriculture
v. Building Livelihood Resilience to Climate Change
vi. Food and nutrition Security

The conference also achieved the following milestones:

i. Farmer participation and sharing of best practices which has led to the drafting of
proposed resolutions to the Auction Holdings Limited (AHL) for improved tobacco
sales at the auction floors;
ii. Stakeholder networking for improved service delivery;
iii. Support and buy in from the government through the presence of officials from the
Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development;
iv. Successful MaFAAS Annual General Assembly which approved the amendment of
article 19 of the MaFAAS Constitution;

2. Background
Malawi relies on agriculture for food and cash crop requirements despite progress in other
economic sectors such as mining and tourism. Agricultural advisory services play a crucial
role in the country’s development agenda. Provision of agricultural advisory services in
Malawi is no longer a monopoly of the public sector. Malawi has witnessed increased
participation of private, civil society, local and international non-governmental organizations
in the provision of agricultural advisory services. This has broadened the resource base for
agricultural extension services, provided diversity of extension service providers to farmers,
among many benefits.
However, involvement of many players in the provision of agricultural advisory services has
created some challenges alongside the benefits. One of the challenges is inadequate
coordination among providers of agricultural advisory services which has resulted in
conflicting messages being disseminated to the farming communities and duplication of
services, among other challenges. It is against this background that the African Forum for
Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS) Malawi Chapter, known as “The Malawi Forum for
Agricultural Advisory Services (MaFAAS)” was established. MaFAAS is an umbrella
organization of the Agricultural Extension and Advisory Service (AEAS) providers, actors and
stakeholders in Malawi. MaFAAS exists “to create harmonization, standardization and add
value to initiatives in agricultural advisory services through sharing of information and
increase professional interaction”. MaFAAS Vision is to be a platform for strengthening AEAS

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through information sharing and action to achieve professionalization, standardization and
quality assurance. The MaFAAS mission is to create harmonization, standardization and add
value to initiatives in AEAS through sharing of information and increase professional
interaction. The membership of MaFAAS is open to public and private sector providers of
AEAS, namely government departments, civil society organizations (Non-Governmental
Organizations (NGOs), Farmer organizations), agricultural training institutions (universities
and colleges), banks, the media, research institutions, agro processors, input and produce
traders, transporters, and affiliate members from regional and districts agricultural advisory
services. Affiliation is either as an individual or an institution.

3. Conference proceedings
3.1 Day One: Opening Ceremony
The conference started with a
visit to the pavilions by the
Guest of Honour, Mrs. Martha
Mtenje who is the Director of
Human Resources in the
Ministry of Agriculture,
Irrigation and Water
Development.

Exhibitors at the conference

included representatives from
the DAESS platforms who
were partially supported by Guest of Honour and Keynote speaker touring the pavilions
the Feed the Future - Left: DAESS platform members from Nsanje, Chikwawa, Balaka,
Strengthening Agricultural and Machinga, Dedza and Lilongwe
Nutrition in Extension (SANE) - Right: Betty Chinyamunyamu (NASFAM), Mrs. Martha Mtenje
(MoAIWD)
Activity and partially
supported by the DAESS platforms themselves to work towards their sustainable
participation in MaFAAS after the Activity has phased out.

Balaka farmers explained how they work in different DAESS structures, starting from Village
Agricultural Committees (VAC) at group village level, Area Stakeholder Panels (ASPs) at
Traditional Authority (T/A) level, and District Stakeholder Panel (DSP) at district level.
Farmers were able to explain how the structures work together to demand- extension
services.

DAESS platform members from Chikwawa and Nsanje displayed the Integrated Homestead
Farming (IHF) and Household Approach (HHA) components, especially on visioning which
they said helps households to work together to develop a joint vision for their own
transformation. The display showed how HHA is being applied to IHF to improve integrated
gardens, agroforestry and small livestock around homes, schools and offices.

DAESS platform members from Machinga showcased and sold well-packaged, value-added
products from different cooperatives. Nsanama Cooperative showcased cassava flour and

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baked goods from cassava; Machinga Secondary Cooperative showcased Kilombero rice;
and Naminyanga Cooperative showcased honey.

The Partnership for Social Accountability Alliance (PSA) also had a pavilion at the
conference. They work with the Coalition for Women Farmers (COWFA). The coalition has
farmers from across the country and they produce and aggregate market information. They
practice collective marketing and are able to find good markets and sale their produce at
profitable prices. The coalition is able to access loans for farmer groups and their members
are economically empowered. Their products are soybeans, groundnuts, popcorn, Bambara
nuts and maize.

A team from CARE

Malawi showcased
products on nutrition.
Their project is Southern
Africa Nutrition Initiative
(SANI) and are working in
two districts of Dowa and
Ntchisi where they have
partnered with Parent
and Child Health
Initiative Trust (PACHI)
organization. Farmers
trained in nutrition
showcased different CARE
appetizing locally SANI and PACHI pavilion
produced high nutritive value-added foods. These are the six food groups which are cheap
to make and help to reduce malnutrition.

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Farm Radio Trust (FRT) Pavilion

National Smallholder Farmers Association of Malawi (NASFAM) Pavilion

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Access Agriculture awarding one of the distributors of farmer videos

Self-Help Africa (SHA) Pavilion

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3.1.1 Speeches
i. Remarks from the MaFAAS Executive Chairperson
The Chairperson for the MaFAAS Executive Committee, Mr. George Vilili welcomed
all the participants to the meeting and encouraged them to actively participate in all
the proceedings.
He reminded the
members about
the theme of the
conference which
is ‘Acting on
Farmers’ Voices
for Agricultural
Transformation.’
As such, Mr. Vilili
emphasized that
the conference
deliberations had
MaFAAS Executive Chairperson, Mr. George Vilili
to be done in
Chichewa for the
benefit of the farmers that were in the room. “Let’s try as much as possible to
deliberate in Chichewa. This conference is for farmers, we therefore need to speak in
a language that is convenient to most of the participants in the room, specifically the
farmers,” he said. Mr. Vilili, who was also the facilitator for the opening ceremony,
provided a rundown of the programme for the three-day conference.
ii. Remarks from the MaFAAS Board of Trustees Chairperson
The Chairperson of MaFAAS Board of Trustees Dr. Charles Masangano was proud of
MaFAAS successes. He urged all the stakeholders to make good use of the DAESS for
effective service delivery. Dr. Masangano reminded the participants about the
theme for the 2018
Farmers’ Conference
which focused on
soliciting the ideas
and views from
farmers. “As a
researcher, I can
share with you that
research has found
out about demand
driven extension
delivery, which The Chairperson for MaFAAS Board of Trustees, Dr. Masangano
states that farmers
are not demanding and this is what brought about the theme for this year’s
conference,” he said. Dr. Masangano further said that membership of MaFAAS cuts
across government departments and the private sector, and as such, all of these
need to participate in DAESS in order for the services to effectively reach the
beneficiaries and to hear farmers voice for the services they need. In conclusion, the

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 Chairperson thanked the Guest of Honour for sparing her time out of her busy
schedule to grace the event. He also thanked the organisers for their tireless efforts.

iii. Remarks from the Guest of Honour

The Guest of Honour, Mrs. Martha Mtenje who is the Director of Human Resources
in the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development (MoAIWD) outlined
numerous challenges despite good government policies for agricultural
transformation using
the DAESS platform.
She urged collaboration
and coordination
among stakeholders for
effective delivery of the
DAESS. “I’m here on
behalf of the Principle
Secretary in the
Ministry of Agriculture,
Irrigation and Water
Development. I’m
The Guest of Honour, Mrs. Mtenje
happy to be here
because I’ve seen for
myself how the players in the agriculture sector, specifically in extension delivery are
working so tirelessly to ensure agricultural transformation,” she said.

The Guest of Honour outlined the need for farmers to demand the services in order
to benefit from the services that are being offered. Mrs. Mtenje further commended
the leadership of the MaFAAS for their consideration to listen to the farmers’ voices
and to give responses wherever necessary. “Let me challenge the MaFAAS today to
find lasting solutions to the numerous challenges that still continue to occur despite
the existence of the MaFAAS coupled with good government policies that are
available for agricultural transformation in the country using the DAESS,” she
lamented.

The Guest of Honour called for collaboration and coordination among stakeholders
for effective functionality of the DAESS. She also urged farmers to voice out their
needs and let their voices be heard through the MaFAAS.

iv. MaFAAS Key Note Address

The Key Note Address was delivered by Dr. Betty Chinyamunyamu, who is the Chief
Executive Officer for the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi
(NASFAM). She emphasized on proper coordination which she said was key for
successful implementation of the DAESS. She also made mention of the fact that a
farmer needs to be at the centre of policy implementation. “In the past extension
services were only provided by the government. Today farmers are very lucky
because they are able to access extension services even from the private sector
players,” she said.

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 Dr. Chinyamunyamu also emphasized on the need for proper coordination which she
said was very key for successful
implementation of the DAESS. “We
need to know how best to involve
stakeholders in extension for
effective delivery of the services
and to improve the sector. There is
policy opportunity for farmers to
use the DAESS platform in
delivering or airing out their needs
to respective stakeholders. For all
this to happen, a farmer has to be
at the centre of policy
implementation if we are to
transform the agriculture sector,”
she advised.
Dr. Chinyamunyamu concluded
her keynote address by outlining
four key issues to focus on as we
transform Agriculture together: 1)
Focus on the root causes of the
problems; 2) Goal setting; 3) The Keynote Speaker, Dr. Chinyamunyamu
Setting the vision and targets; and
#) Measure the progress.

3.2 Highlights of sub-themes

The lead institutions for each sub-theme made presentations highlighting what the
participants could expect during the side events. All the presentations responded to the
issues that were highlighted by the farmers during the 2018 Farmers’ Conference. The
following were the presentations that were made:
i. Farmers’ Voices on Strategic Issues in Agriculture (by xxx, xxx)
ii. Extension and Advisory Services (by Noel Limbani, DAES)
iii. Women in Agriculture (by xxx, xxx)
iv. ICT in Agriculture (by xxx, xxx)
v. Building Livelihood Resilience to Climate Change (by xxx, xxx)
vi. Food and nutrition Security (by xxx, xxx)

4. Day Two: Side Events

4.1 Women in Agriculture
The goal of the session was to engage stakeholders with an opportunity to explore the role
of gender and inherent challenges within the agricultural context. The goal of the session
was not only to provide a professional context to examine gender-related issues pertaining
to agriculture, but also to provide a forum to encourage and empower Malawian women to

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achieve the equity that has already been enshrined in several government policy
documents. This was an opportunity to share knowledge so that partner organizations can
create a community that operates within the framework of gender equity. The session also
helped to facilitate a larger conversation about the role of women in agriculture and how to
develop support systems for vulnerable populations, including rural smallholder farming
communities, which mostly comprises women.

A major deliverable from this side event was to identify gender needs in the context of rural
realities in Malawi toward achieving agricultural transformation.

Various presentations were made during the side event as follows:

a) Presentation by Regina Matenga (Self Help Africa): Gender-Based Violence

 The presentation focused much on gender-based violence and how it has affected
agricultural development
 Women fail to travel long distances to search for profitable markets
 Women lack access to economic resources
 When women indulge in personal businesses husbands use the money for other
things
 Women are confined in communities according to culture
 Duty bearers should ensure they safeguard gender or women rights on land and
other resources in the community
 Women must be included in value chains so that they can be economically
empowered
 GBV is a fundamental human right violation all women must know
 Laws are there but not accessible to many
 There is no proper coordination in implementation
 Local leaders need to establish by-laws

b) Presentation by Eluby Kanyenda (Farm Radio Trust): Women and ICTs

 The aim is to build capacity of women and other vulnerable groups in agriculture
 There is low turnout for women in calling and texting through Farm Radio’s mobile
based platforms
 Mrs Grace Chapola one of beneficiaries of call centre who learnt how to make
manure through the mobile based platforms made a testimony
 It was discovered that women make a lot of calls during the rainy season but they
drop during marketing season
 Women look down upon themselves
 Women do not put much effort in joining and learning high tech things
 High levels of illiteracy among women
 Social barriers need to be broken

c) UNITERRA presentation by THELMA KALIU:

 WUSC is into dairy farming, legumes and tea to promote women economically
 They work with volunteers from Malawi and abroad
 Low wages in tea farms

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  Malawi tea has export potential
 Malawi imports a lot of milk products to meet demand
 Malawi is a large exporter of legumes to India

d) Grow Fund success stories: Emma Damiano

 One of the beneficiaries of the grow fund is Emma Damiano, who was given a loan
and she is now doing farming as a business. She produces garlic and other
vegetables, she is a very fast-growing entrepreneur who has employed 4 graduates
from LUANAR and she has secured markets at city mall. She also works with other
farmers.

e) NASFAM presentation by D. Nkhoma

 They encourage the formation of “yakwacha” clubs and schools to teach farmers
how to read, write and simple calculation.

f) Panel Discussion

Participants: Ashraf Saidi represents AGRESSO DEDZA and has a BSC in Agriculture
Extension, specializing in agriculture gender extension; Land policy expert – Beatrice
Makwenda – Works for NASFAM as head of policy and communication department; Action
Aid – Women’s law issue expert – well versed in gender related policies; Chikumbutso
Ndaferankhande – she is the women’s rights specialist for action aid Malawi; Mercy
Chaturuku is the Chair of ASP in Lilongwe, and has been involved with Gender issues for the
last two years and has been farming for a long time; Diana Joshua is a Gender Officer for the
Social Welfare office in Dedza and has been working in gender issues for three years.

Summary of Panel Discussion Women in Agriculture

The final event of the morning session of the MaFAAS Women in Agriculture component of
the conference brought together a number of experts who spoke to specific issues of
concern for women. The session began with each of the participants introducing themselves
and their particular areas of specialty and expertise. The panel consisted of both
government workers, gender officers, and farmers, and focused on the implementation of
gender equity within the agricultural industry both at the level of the field and the level of
the market. Such issues as land ownership, and equitable access to market for crops were
discussed by each of the participants. Questions from the audience were fielded which
brought up important concerns such as labour equity, equitable land and financial access
for women, legal rights and social reform to mainstream gender equity within the larger
context of Malawi, especially considering that roughly 80% of the population lives in rural
areas. The crosscutting issues of GBV, health and domestic responsibilities were also
discussed as it became clear that these separate elements contribute to a woman’s role on
the farm and in the wider success of Malawi’s agricultural economy. The panel highlighted
some of the ongoing themes that were raised by the speakers during the morning session as
well, and echoed the concerns presented by the audience members. The panelists raised
issues about technology uptake, sustainability, available training for women along with
education, health and violence perpetrated against women that are some of the current
challenges and obstacles to gender equality. The panel also noted that there has been quite

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a lot of positive work done in this area in recent years, but that policies in place need to be
respected and implemented.

4.2 Farmers’ Voices on Strategic Issues

This side event was meant to give an opportunity to service providers to respond to issues
that were raised by farmers during the 2018 Farmers’ Conference, and to respond to
emerging issues during the 2019 Farming and Extension Conference. The following are the
deliberations that were conducted:

a) Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS)

 The presentation was made by Kissinger Chiunjira, Export Certification Officer at
Malawi Bureau of Standards
 Hazards from post-harvest handling and pre-processing handling which include:
Diseased and damaged material; Mouldy raw materials; Soiled raw materials; Woody
parts of produce like stems and peel;

Some of the questions and answers raised by farmers to MBS

 Why is MBS hiding the standards to farmers by only putting free access to the
standards on their website?

 What is the relationship between the Ministry of Agriculture and MBS?

 What are the Standards of milk to be accepted by MBS at our markets?

 Why are groundnuts being rejected by external markets while we have MBS in our
borders?

 What is the relationship between milk-bulking station and MBS?

 What is the role of MBS on agricultural inputs since some inputs are of low
standards?

 MBS should provide active presence of MBS personnel in all districts.

 Most of the publications produced by MBS are written in English while most farmers
don’t understand it.

 Farmers want these standards (publications) to be translated into our own local
language

b) Agriculture Commercialization
 Farmers should be linked to other groups that will help them to increase productivity
 Learn how to venture into business within and outside Malawi
 Form a cooperative
 Investing in production and marketing

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 Agriculture Commercialization has come to solve the following challenges faced by
most farmers in Malawi:
 Low agricultural productivity
 Inadequate farmer mobilization and capacity
 Poor access to markets
 Poor access to finance
 Lack of enabling business environment

c) Agriculture Extension and Advisory Services

Presentation by Mr. Noel Limbani - Extension Delivery in Malawi:
 Farmers have now resorted to getting information on agricultural advisories through
radio enhanced by other ICTs due to the dwindling numbers of extension workers,
and yet the number of farmers continues to increase;
 The Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development is no longer hiring
Agriculture Extension Development Officers (AEDOS) but rather the local
government;
 The ministry is now focussing on training the recruited extension workers
 The ministry is currently liaising with training institutions to consider reducing tuition
so that it becomes affordable
 Currently there are no clear standards for the implementation of advisory services
leading to contradictions in information dissemination
 Stakeholders are highly encouraged to abide by the District Agriculture Extension
Coordination Committee (DAECC) standards
 Farmers are highly encouraged to understand how the District Agriculture Extension
Service System (DAESS) works in order to benefit from it
 Transport and housing issues for extension workers are now in the hands of local
government due to decentralization
 Other issues that were discussed during the side event include: Market oriented
extension; Model villages; the DAESS platform; Climate change issues

4.3 Building Resilience

The aim of this side event was to bring together stakeholders to share lessons and
experiences drawn from implementing climate smart solutions in the agriculture sector. The
anticipated outcome from this session was to consolidate models that are working and
reflect on constraints hindering smallholder farmer livelihood resilience in the face of a
changing climate with the purpose of contributing to effective agricultural farming practices.
The following are the presentations that were made during the side event:

a) Presentation by Dominic Nyasulu:

Several challenges facing the environment were presented as follows:
 Silting of rivers
 Depletion of natural resources such as trees, wild animals, mushrooms and wild
fruits
 Shortage of locally available natural foods such as fruits, wild animals and
mushrooms
 Land degradation

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  Removed soil cover
 Low rainfall
 Increase in temperature due to global warming
 Forests have ended due to wanton cutting down of trees
 Importation of some foods which were locally available from other areas and even
countries

b) The following were identified by the participants as the causes of such changes in the
environment and nature
 Population growth has resulted in deforestation during land clearing during garden
opening
 Deforestation has caused global warming due to the emission of greenhouse gasses,
shortage of wild foods and animals
 Factory emissions and oil spills that results into land degradation and low-quality
water supply
 Cultivating along river
banks and slopes
 Floods due to silting of
water bodies
 Use of chemicals and bad
farming practices has
resulted in land
degradation Participants worked in small groups to identify causes of environmental
degradation
 In general, human
economic activities is the
major cause of such changes

c) Impact of climate change

 Women move long distances in search for firewood and clean water
 Low rainfall which results into low yields
 Floods which result into loss of life and property
 Rise in temperature due to global warming
 Increase in prevalence of pest and diseases in the fields affecting crops and animals
 Coming in of different diseases which affects labour output of farmers
 Rise in gender-based violence as women experience a burden in their routine work

d) What needs to be done to mitigate the effects?

 Changing the bad farming practices that affect the environment
 Understanding that climate change is real and needs our effort to be mitigated
 Planting more trees
 Practicing labour saving technologies
 Climate smart agriculture must be promoted

4.4 ICT in Agriculture

The session’s key focus areas were as follows:
 Unveiling ICT based innovations that respond to the farmers’ needs;

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  Displaying interactive ICT based innovations that have contributed or have the
potential to contribute to the transformation of the agriculture sector in Malawi;
 Giving an opportunity to farmers to share practical experiences on the usage and
benefits of ICT based extension services;
 Understanding the linkage between research and ICT based extension services;

a) Key Note Address by Paul Van Mele: Access Agriculture:

 Access agriculture is disseminating new farming technologies through the use of
videos. They implement their project with different partners such as DAES, DAESS,
SANE, NASFAM and Farm Radio Trust
 They also developed a young entrepreneurship fund as a competition across Africa
where the youth were asked to come up with ideas on how best to help farmers, and
a Malawian youth won an award
 Farmers learn best from their peers but this has a physical limitation.
 Lack of suitable content in local language
 Lack of opportunities by youth which lead them to migrate from rural areas
 Limited access to new ideas and knowledge which women have

b) Presentation by Clement Shema: Use of Mobile based platforms

 FRT, NASFAM, DAES are using mobile based platforms to provide extension services
 They use radio for advisory services
 Farmers lack access to accurate and evidence-based information to improve their
production and productivity
 There is great opportunity in the mushrooming of FM radio stations (80 radio
stations)
 There is great opportunity in the mushrooming of TV stations (35 TV stations)
 About 8 Million people owning or have access to mobile phones in rural
communities
 Willingness to engage in extension by the private sector

4.5 Extension and Advisory Services

Stakeholders had an opportunity to discuss extension and advisory services in relation to
the prevailing situation across the country. Several presentations were made as follows:
a) Presentation by Grace Mzumara: The DAESS platform
 Stakeholders bypass the system, they just go directly from the government to the
farmers instead of passing through the committees such as VAC
 There is also conflict between DAESS and local government platforms
 There are conflicts between the committees since they think they are being stripped
off their roles
 Poor understanding of the system at all levels and inadequate capacity building of
the beneficiaries

b) Questions raised during plenary session:

 How do companies in the private sector benefit, such as ETG which embraced the
SHEP Approach?
 How is the sustainability of the project emphasized?

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  Since SHEP aims at dismissing the dependency syndrome that farmers have then
why are they addressing farmers as beneficiaries; instead of identifying them as
partners?

5. Day Three: Side Events

5.1. Food and Nutrition Presentation by Martha Mwale -
Agriculture as the source of nutrition

Farmers’ reactions on the presentation:

 The household food and nutrition advisors have
gone extinct nowadays and yet farmers lack
their services;
 There are conflicting messages on
intercropping, for instance removal of
groundnuts in tobacco fields and yet both cash
crops are beneficial to farmers;
 Farmers raised concern on GMO crops and
hybrid products which they said were a health
hazard;

a) Presentation by Mr Chimbizgani Kachali on

coordination of DAESS and nutrition:
 There is an easy way of remembering the six food groups in Chichewa that is double
Z (Zokhutitsa and za Zipatso); double N (za Nyemba and za Nyama); and double M
(za Mafuta and za Masamba);

Farmers’ reactions on the presentation

 Why is it that a girl child who is 10 - 17 years is supposed to eat differently from a
boy child who is of the same age?
 Why not formulate a Village Umbrella Committee which looks into all the
committees that are in that particular village like what CARE does?
o There is, it is the Village Development Committee (VDC)
 Works of the VDC are very poor, theoretically it’s working but on the ground there is
no work done;
 Extension personnel should consider teaching the farmers once more about the roles
of the VDCs.

5.2. Debriefing from the Farmers’ Field Trip

The following are some of the observations made by farmers and stakeholders after a field
trip to the Auction Holdings Limited (AHL) where farmers witnessed the sales of tobacco:

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 Tobacco bales that have gone for re-offers must be well taken care of and the
tobacco should not
take too long to be
brought back to the
auction floors;
 If a farmer booked a
certain amount of
bales to deliver to the
auction floors, he/she
should not bring more
bales than what was
agreed on;
 There should be a
limit of the bales sent
for reoffer; for
example maybe 5 Farmers at the auction floors

times then thereafter the

tobacco should be bought;
 Vendors are spoiling the
markets since the bales they
take for sell are mixed with
poor quality tobacco;
 Vendors should stop being an
intermediary between the
farmers and the buyers. If they
will not adhere to this, they
should be arrested and sent to
jail;
 Registration of tobacco farmers
should be done at the farmers’
nurseries and not at the
Tobacco Commission (TC) since
vendors take advantage of the
system and register as farmers;
 There should be a fixed price
for a particular grade. The
Tobacco sales in progress
minimum price of every grade
should be given by the
government and it should be followed by the auctioneers. Minimum prices should be
the starting price for that particular grade. This is not being followed;
 Established tobacco companies are producing their own tobacco and this leaf is
being bought at good prices at the auction floors. Such companies should be stopped
from growing tobacco or they should be growers and not buyers at the same time;
 Communications should be made on the tobacco grade that will be bought in that
particular year and the minimum set prices;
 Extension workers should keep on helping farmers to record the costs that go into

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 farming so that farmers should embrace farming as a business;

6.0 MaFAAS General Assembly

6.1 MaFAAS Report

Mr. George Vilili, the Chief Executive Officer for Farm Radio Trust (FRT) who is also the
Chairperson for the MaFAAS Executive
Committee, presented a report the MaFAAS for
the period from June 2017 – August 2019.
Activities conducted by the MaFAAS during this
period include:
a) National extension week, 19 to 23 June
2017
b) Submission of statement on extension in
2017/18 national budget, June 2017
c) Participation in August 2017 National
Agriculture Fair
d) Workshop on AFAAS Virtual Social
Networking Platform , 6 Oct 2017
e) Survey on farming challenges 23 to 24 Oct
2017
f) Training workshop on monitoring and
evaluation in extension, 13 Dec 2017.
g) Workshop on harnessing ICTs to scale up
agriculture solutions, 21 Feb 2018.
h) Submission of statement on extension Mr. Vilili presenting the MaFAAS report
2018/19 national budget, May 2018
i) Farmers conference, 18 to 19 September 2018
j) Training of trainers on innovation platforms, 13 to 14 Dec 2019
k) Joint conference on private sector led extension 25 June 2019
l) Commencement of development of second strategic plan
m) Networking, advocacy on website, social media, and newspaper
n) Board of Trustees and Executive committee meetings

Challenges encountered during this period include the following:

a) Inadequacy of funds for planned activities - funding is ad hoc and membership fee
payment is very low
b) Lack of permanent secretariat officials – the MaFAAS is currently dependent on
volunteers who have limited time to follow up on actions agreed during MaFAAS
gatherings such as conferences
c) It is taking time for the lobbied stakeholders to act – increase of national budget
funds for extension in Malawi not yet achieved

Lessons learnt by the MaFAAS

a) The MaFAAS has provided a platform for harmonization and innovation in
agricultural advisory services through presentations and discussions, necessary for
promoting pluralism

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 b) Stakeholder commitment to MaFAAS is high as evidenced by increasing participation
of stakeholders in MaFAAS activities and number of voluntary presentations made
over the years
c) Stimulation of good performance of other coordination institutions under District
Agriculture Extension System which were limited to district level without a national
level structure for lesson sharing
d) Stimulation of interest in writing among extension professionals in Malawi.
e) Organizing farmers to make demands and raise issues in agriculture thereby
actualizing the demand driven extension policy

Plans for the MaFAAS for 2019/2020

a) Complete the strategic plan
b) Develop project proposals and submit to donors for funding
c) Train extension and advisory service practitioners using the New Extensionist
Learning Kit
d) Support the DAESS structures through technical support visits and joint meetings.
e) Conduct advocacy meetings on key issues affecting farming and extension in Malawi.
f) Follow up on implementation and document actions taken on issues raised in
MaFAAS gatherings
g) Conduct a national farming and extension conference
h) Document innovative extension models in Malawi
i) Continue providing an opportunity for stakeholders to share experiences, discuss
and resolve challenges affecting extension, and more importantly, ensuring that the
key recommendations of its gatherings are put into action
j) Establish robust resource mobilization strategies to ensure that activities are funded
and implemented as planned

Reactions from participants on the report:

a) The MaFAAS has been advised to tackle the issues of livelihood and well-being of
extension personnel when writing proposals;
b) Extension workers need standard houses with electricity but the villages don’t have
such housing facilities and that is the reason why the extension workers flee from
the village to town and then they start commuting which is not effective for the
delivery of extension services;
c) The VAC and ASP members need civic education on their duties since they are not
working effectively in the communities;
d) Board of trustees meeting should tackle more on having an office for MaFAAS which
should be operational and this will show some seriousness;
e) Dairy farming extension workers are very few especially in the northern region and
also there is shortage of dip tanks;
f) We should start seeing graduates from agricultural training institutions venturing
into farming after being given start-up capital through loans so as to embrace the
concept of farming as a business;
g) In future let’s have Members of Parliament (MPs) from the committee of agriculture
during the MaFAAS conference so that they should hear the farmers’ voices;

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 6.2 Report on MaFAAS Stakeholder Consultation
Presentation by Mr. Baxton Nkhoma: MaFAAS Stakeholder Consultation
The presentation gave highlights of where the MaFAAS is coming from, where it is now,
where it is going and how it will get there.
In March 2012, the strategic planning
workshop took place bringing together
stakeholders from various institutions in
the agricultural sector where key strategic
issues for the MaFAAS were discussed in
light of the emerging global and national
trends against its own capabilities.
A Strategic Plan has been developed for
the MaFAAS to address challenges
affecting the institution. The SP has six
strategic objectives as follows:
a) To promote the exchange of
information, innovations and
human resources;
b) To improve the capacity of
agricultural advisory services
partners and members;
c) To influence policies and programs
related to agricultural advisory
services;
d) To improve the quality/quantity of Mr. Nkhoma presenting his report
agricultural advisory services in
Malawi;
e) To identify, encourage and support operational research in agricultural advisory
services;
f) To coordinate donor efforts and input in agricultural advisory services;

Strategic Options/Pillars
a) Establishment of institutional structures
b) Resource mobilization
c) Standardization, quality assurance and capacity building
d) Networking, coordination, research and knowledge management
e) Advocacy, lobbying and crosscutting issues
f) Publicity and communication

The SWOT Analysis for the MaFAAS

Strength
a) Holding conferences every year which are well attended by stakeholders
b) Recognized by the Malawi government and registered as a trust
c) Affiliated to a continental body, the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services
(AFAAS)
d) Affiliated to a global body, the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS)

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 e) Committed members make voluntary contributions as Secretariat, Board, Executive
Committee and Organizing Committees
f) Fills a gap in extension service coordination, standardization and professionalization
in Malawi

Weaknesses
a) Does not have permanent employees to work as secretariat
b) Does not have stable source of funding
c) Not very active in tasks
d) Its recommendations are not always implemented by government and other
stakeholders
e) Limited visibility in the extension sector
f) Does not have its secretariat with its own staff

Opportunities
a) Membership fee can be collected to beef up funding
b) Calls for funding are sometimes available which can be utilized for resource
mobilization
c) Pluralism in extension Malawi is institutionalized hence the needs for coordination
will remain making relevance of MaFAAS to continue

Threats
a) There are other bodies which are being created such as National Stakeholder Panel,
Professional Association of Extensionists whose roles and interaction with MaFAAS
has not been clarified
b) Conflicting messages in extension
c) Extension work not being given key priority
d) Belief that everyone can do extension
e) Limited linkages between research and extension

Reactions to the presentation from the participants

a) Women made a manifesto on mechanisation, but there hasn’t been any progress in
Malawi. If the tractors that were sent to the RDP for hiring were available, we
would’ve done away with the use of hoes in Malawi;
b) MaFAAS needs to develop a value proposition to its membership since it doesn’t
state the benefits of being a member;
c) MaFAAS seems to be side-lining the private institutions as it mainly recognizes those
from the government ones; an example being the academia such as LUANAR which
is a public university rather than also engaging some from private universities;
d) MaFAAS should have a business plan model to present to the farmers rather than
just saying that farming is a business;
e) Farm inputs are really expensive hence farmers are unable to realize huge profits so
government needs to come in and do something about this;
f) On the issue of proposals there is need to include the excavation of buried dams
which will help farmers to practice irrigation, as part of climate adaptation and
mitigation;
g) MaFAAS should embrace Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17 which is on

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 partnerships;
h) The Farm Input Subsidy Program (FISP) has to stop since farmers say it doesn’t really
benefit them;

6.3 Constitutional Amendment

The facilitator for the session Mr. George Vilili announced to the delegates the proposed
amendment of article 19 (1) of the MaFAAS constitution which states that:

(1) The Trustees shall have power to appoint committees consisting of such number of
Trustees or other persons as the Trustees shall consider appropriate and to delegate
to such committees the powers and duties exercised by the Trustees under this
Constitution except the power to make rules and execute instruments conferred by
Article 18.

The proposed amendment to Article 19 of the MaFAAS Constitution states that:

(1) The Trustees shall have power to appoint an Executive Committee consisting of the
Chairperson, Secretary General, Treasurer, MaFAAS Executive Director and six
members or other persons as the Trustees shall consider appropriate and to delegate
to the committee the powers and duties exercised by the Trustees under this
Constitution or any other duties related to operational implementation of MaFAAS
finance, audit, administration, technical, standardization, and advisory activities
except the power to make rules and execute instruments conferred by Article 18.

Voting took place and 47 delegates said yes to the proposal, while as 5 delegates said no to
the proposal. This means that the motion was carried, and article 19 (1) of the MaFAAS
Constitution has been amended accordingly.

7.0 Closing Ceremony

The Chairperson of the MaFAAS Board of Trustees, Dr. Charles Masangano closed the 2019
MaFAAS Farming and Extension Conference by appealing to all the delegates to put into
action all the resolutions that were made at the conference. He also thanked the delegates
for all their efforts in participating in all the deliberations at the meeting, and wishing them
well. The Chairperson then made a commitment to ensure that all the resolutions that were
agreed upon during the conference are operationalised.

8.0 Resource mobilisation

The organising committee for the 2019 MaFAAS Farming and Extension Conference relied
on funds from institutions that paid for their staff members as well as farmers. Some of the
institutions that participated at the conference made financial contributions include the
following:
a) NASFAM: MK3, 000, 000.00
b) Shampu-Better Project: MK650, 000.00
c) WUSC: MK435, 000.00

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 d) Care Malawi: MK2, 100, 000.00
e) Action Aid: MK2, 550, 000.00
f) Access Agriculture: MK1, 000, 000.00
g) The Govt of Flanders: MK800, 000.00
In summary, the total income realised for the conference was MK11, 220, 000.00; total
expenses are pegged at MK12, 679, 906.67; while the total deficit is MK1, 500, 000.00.

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9.0 Annexes
i. The MaFAAS Financial Report
ii. The MaFAAS Consultation Report
iii. The MaFAAS Constitution
iv. The MaFAAS Annual Report
v. The attendance register for the 2019 MaFAAS Farming and Extension Conference

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