Lilongwe Office Set up

Lilongwe office is now set up, operating from Area 10 and close to the M1

Project Management Unit Stengthened

The project management unit has been expanded to 2 full-time people with the addition of Laura Arnalte in late March. This will support the expansion and increasing managerial load of working in all 3 regions. The management unit has also moved to Lilongwe to be located in a central position and closer to the donor and government institutions.

Funding Announcement

Scottish Government Malawi Development Programme 2008 – Application Ref: M16

Equal Exchange

Support to Smallholder Macadamia

I am pleased to inform you that your application to the Malawi Development Programme has been successful.

Funding Announcement October 2009

Key Challenges for 2009

NESMAC
• Hiring of a NESMAC manager
• Embedding structural changes
• Mapping and farm level planning
• Diversifying nurseries to rear other tree species
• Build the bulking centre and Administration Block
• Trial establishment of rootstocks to speed up establishment and enable larger scale plantings
• Producing and establishing 15000 macadamia rootstocks/ grafted trees

Ntchisi Cooperatives
• Supporting the further development of the Cooperatives
• Equipping a bulking centre
• Producing and establishing 15000 macadamia rootstocks/ grafted trees
• Developing a quality based buying system
• Conducting a Fair Trade pre certification inspection

Rumphi Cooperatives
• Conducting a second survey
• Developing full work plan
• Provide support to the cooperatives
• Conduct nut quality survey
• Explore working with Mzuzu Coffee Planters Cooperative on Macadamia
• Securing a reliable source of seed and nursery materials

Ideas for exploration
• Scholarships for farmers to develop their skills
• Explore way to use the demonstration farm as a farmer training centre
• Intensify beehive production
• 2 wheel tractor
• Climatic Change adaptation strategies and communication of issues

Major Challenges faced in 2008

2008 has been a challenging year for everyone involved with NESMAC. The doubling in size of the organisation through up major issues surrounding representation and structure of the organisation. In addition this placed great pressure on the office staff. The old committee members had been their positions in many cases for 5 years and the process was not smooth going. NESMAC trustees have become increasingly important in NESMAC during the year and have assumed a greater role in the organisation their support has been important in implementing and discussing organisational changes.
The NESMAC office in Neno has also been forced to re examine how it provides support for so many farmers. To cope with the increased planning and managerial load NESMAC have decided to hire a new NESMAC manager. This post will be new changing roles throughout the NESMAC support team in Neno.
Work has progressed slowly on the construction program. Although now the plot has been marked out and the lease agreed with the Neno district assembly NESMAC are still awaiting key documents. These did not arrive in time for construction to commence prior to the rains however will do so in 2009.
The project funding has been effected by the Malawi Kwacha exchange rate with the Pound in the last quarter of 2008. All the project budgets were written at an exchange of MK280:£1 the project was benefiting from the favourable exchange of MK300:£1 for a large amount of 2008. However the relative cost of basic commodities such as fuel cement has pushed up the cost of running the organisation. At present the exchange rate with the pound is 200 which will have a large impact upon funding levels in 2009.

Australia Trip

A trip to Australia was supported by the Neno Macadamia Trust. The trip also gave the project an opportunity to view the Australian industry and medium scale NIS bulking operation. The trip was very useful to envisage what type of bulking structure and equipment would be needed in the smallholder sector in Malawi.
Visits were made to a good medium sized macadamia farm where several important areas were discussed and explored. The establishment of rootstock followed by top working/ punch budding in the field should be explored and would resolve many inherent bottle necks in the community nursery system. Trial plantings for training and demonstration purposes have been arranged. Several new varieties were identified with potential for the smallholders further investigation will take place to assess the material for suitability. A specific report giving more detail of the trip is available upon request.

Nursery Investments

Nursery investments in the form of 3 additional wells, 5 shade structures and skills (grafting / nursery management) have been made. This has been necessary to further scale up tree production in order to supply trees to the numbers required for CHDI Carbon Program. Part of the demonstration farm has been put over to a large macadamia nursery; varieties not found elsewhere in Neno have been sourced and established here. The site in its first season of operation managed to rear 4000 rootstocks and provide space for grafting and nursery best practice training. A second well was sank at the site in October close to 3 seed beds.

Crop Marketing

First crop marketed and dispatched to Thyolo Nut Company for processing. Although only a small amount of NIS was able to be bought and bulked the exercise did enable quality issues to be identified. This was a valuable learning experience on how to communicate with the processing factory arranging when crop should be delivered. Visits during the year by NESMAC members and staff have enabled a relationship to be built.

Youth Development Program

The Youth Development program continued in 2008 working with 4 secondary schools in Neno and 3 in Ntchisi. The 7 clubs containing 225 students have produced rootstocks, marked out and planted nurseries and or orchards as well as providing information on agriculture, trade and macadamia. It is hoped that the course can be extended to youth clubs/ organisations in Neno and Ntchisi, these groups could enable young people who have not attended secondary school to benefit from the course.

The course will continue in 2009 and the syllabus will broaden to include work on forestry and rearing of indigenous trees. The project team are also keen to include information on Climatic change and more importantly adaptation strategies for smallholders (diversification, land husbandry) to strengthen farming systems.

Northern Region Cooperatives

The project has refrained from actively supporting the Northern Region Cooperatives due to geographical and budgetary constraints, however with the granting of the Support to Smallholder Macadamia Project grant form the Scottish executive the project can commence to engage with these farmers. A survey of Northern Region Cooperatives yielded positive results and information regarding previous and current support identified key farmers and areas. A rough plan of implementation has be drawn up and will be followed up by a week northern region trip in March to hold meetings with all the cooperatives and visit key nurseries and offices. A second trip is planned for April.

Cooperative Number of farmers Number of Trees
Nchenachena (Rumphi) 300 14000
Mphompha (Rumphi) 380 19200
Khosolo (Mzimba) 125 6700

Although at early stages the survey team we very confident that meaningful relations can be formed with these cooperatives.

Ntchisi Macadamia Cooperatives

In January the project commenced support of smallholder macadamia farmers in Ntchisi (central region). These farmers have been active macadamia farmers for some time and have been organised into 5 cooperatives (4 in Ntchisi, 1 in Dowa), there are 1200 members of these organisations. Following a survey in 2007 key priorities were identified with the cooperatives:

1. Employment of an technical officer

2. Setting up of an office in Ntchisi Boma as a meeting and admin centre (will also provide accommodation for staff travelling to the area),

3. Supporting the cooperatives develop leadership and structure; roles and responsibilities

4. Getting 16 community nurseries up and running in order to supply trees to farmers in late 2008/early 2009.

5. Enter into negotiations with the Ministry of Agriculture to support the management of their large nurseries in Dowa and Ntchisi.

I am happy to report great progress has been made, 16 community nurseries have benefited from the supply of seed and equipping with basic nursery management tools. The number of active grafters has been increased by 28 and the network of nurseries has reared 11,200 rootstocks over the year of which 7,800 had been grafted at the end of 2008. This has been further supported by the hiring of a dedicated nursery support officer allowing the area manager to focus on his core agronomic skills. Support services have been challenged by mobility so the project will purchase 2 motorbikes to facilitate mobility across the districts. The areas covered by the 5 cooperatives is larger than Neno thus to serve all the areas improved mobility is essential. Training has been supplied to assist the cooperatives break down tasks into manageable and realistic work loads. The cooperative has also opened bank accounts and like Neno is managing expenditure in partnership with project management.

NESMAC restructuring

Restructuring of the organisation and redrafting of the constitution have taken place, this has been necessary to adapt NESMAC to the increased size and geographical spread of the membership. In essence the restructuring driven by NESMAC committees and trustees will diffuse power more equitably amongst the clubs. The clubs are now clustered on a geographical basis between 6 group action committees (GAC’s) all with elected positions of chair and secretary. The central executive committee has been replaced by a steering committee drawn from all the GAC’s. The organisation will move from 2 central monthly meetings to 6 GAC meetings a year and 6 steering committee meetings. This will mean farmers will need to travel less to meet and meetings will only take place when needed.
GAC elections were held in October and the NESMAC steering committee in November, Kelvin Masinga was elected the new Chairman of NESMAC. Kelvin is 30 and is one of the most skilled and hardworking farmers in the district, he leads by example and has the full confidence of trustees and project staff. The restructuring was approved at the November AGM.

Neno Smallholder Macadamia Association of Clubs (NESMAC) Expansion

NESMAC expansion has taken place in effect doubling the number of farmers in NESMAC to a little under 1000 farmers. The expansion has focused on the Neno upland areas to take in a large area of high macadamia potential. The Mwanza section has also increased in size and now has a full time dedicated macadamia office to improve support to the nurseries and support increased plantings. NESMAC has also decided to include clubs out of the macadamia zone for the first time these clubs will be dedicated to beekeeping. NESMAC will also support these clubs to plant other agro-forestry species alongside the Clinton hunter Development Initiative (CHDI)Carbon program.