Welcome to Macadamia information center

The Highland Macadamia Cooperative Union Limited (HIMACUL) represents smallholder macadamia growers in Malawi. With 3800 members spread out all over the country and partners in other countries too we have gone about setting up an area where information and news can be posted and commented on.

Smallholder macadamia groups are throughout the country in Mulanje, Neno, Mwanza, Dowa, Ntchisi and Rumphi. Through investing in cooperatives and associations the annual establishment has risen to 70,000 trees a year and over 1000 Ha is currently under smallholder management in the country. The majority of this crop has been established in the last 4 years. Kernel volumes are at present small but will grow significantly as this crop matures.

Thursday, January 29

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.

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