USAID / Malawi - Success Stories

Central Region Livelihood Security Program (CRLSP); USAID/CARE

Makina Kalundu hails from Madzonga village in Traditional Authority Khongoni of Lilongwe district. He was born in 1959, is married and has four children. He and his wife, Efelo, are also providing for two other children in their household.

Makina is a small holder farmer who has always grown maize for sustenance and burley tobacco for income. For a few years, things were going relatively well, and he could see his family moving from the "poor" category to the "better off." However, last year, his earnings from tobacco were cut by more than 75% making it impossible for Makina to repay his ongoing loan and purchase food for his household.

As part of a project funded by USAID Malawi and implemented by CARE, Makina was chosen as one of the five farmers to multiply Irish potato seed in Dimbas.

Farmers in that area had never grown Irish Potato and their apprehension was great. Through crop management training and assistance, the project staff was able to teach farmers how to grow, harvest and multiply seeds. They were able to keep part of their harvest for their family's consumption, sell some for income and multiply seeds for further sowing.

From the sale of his potatoes, Makina bought enough maize to feed his whole household for half a year.

This is one of the many achievements made possible by the Central Region Livelihood Security Program (CRLSP) implemented by CARE since February 1999 in three Traditional Authorities of Lilongwe District. Funding for the project is provided by entirely by USAID and CARE.

The goal of CRLSP is to improve the food and livelihood security of 10,000 rural households. Activities aim at developing and strengthening organizational capacities and partnerships of small holder farmer, raising agricultural productivity, improving water availability and utilization, and, increase household earning.

There are many other families like Makinda's which have seen their incomes grow considerably thanks to the project. Makina and Efelo expressed their gratitude to the project staff for providing them with an opportunity to grow the crop and asked that more farmers in their area be given seeds and training.

Makina concluded the discussion with these words, "the groundnuts, beans, sweet potato and cassava that we get from the USAID/CARE project are good crops yes, but Irish potato is so far the best."

USAID/ Malawi- Success Stories