The 2nd African Organic Conference – Mainstreaming ... - ICROFS

2 nd AFRICAN ORGANIC CONFERENCE 2012
May 2-4, 2012 in Lusaka, Zambia
access to new markets. Other notable benefits the farmers are benefiting from include the knock-on effect
on conventional prices and price stability being experienced on the fair trade regime. Organic agriculture
provides a cheap means of replenishing depleted soil nutrients while empowering women to participate in
income generating agricultural practices. The health benefits of organic products are fetching farmers’
competitive prices thereby improving farmers’ economic status notwithstanding the use of locally available
farm inputs in place purchased ones. The stable demand for organic products has promoted contraction and
therefore stabilized prices and supply for the benefit of farmers.
The challenges facing the sub-sector include; inadequate research and development; weak researchextension-farmer
linkages, and low production levels due to the small parcels of land where organic
farming is being practiced.. Value addition and processing are poorly developed consisting mainly of
transport and handling as opposed to change of form. The existing legal and regulatory framework is not
conducive for the growth and development of organic agriculture due to poor enforcement of produce and
product standards. These shortcomings have resulted in poor performance of the organic agriculture subsector.
The Organic Agriculture policy which was formulated in 2010 aims at giving a clear direction for
sustainable growth and development of the organic agriculture sub-sector. The policy has addressed issues
pertaining to, research, extension, production, processing, marketing, storage, quality control and,
institutional and legal framework and accelerating public-private sector partnerships for the organic
agriculture sub-sector. The proposals the policy need to be supported by an appropriate legal framework
and will require the support of all stakeholders for its successful implementation.
In the formulation this policy, the Ministry of Agriculture benefited immensely from contributions of
various stakeholders particularly the expertise of the drafting team who were composed of experts from the
MOA, KARI, KOAN, UoN, KIOF, Rutuba Foundation, SACDEP and KEBS. I wish to thank individuals,
groups and organizations whose invaluable input contributed to the development of this policy paper on the
organic agriculture sub-sector.
ORGANIC&FARMING&AS&A&PANACEA&TO&DEFORESTATION:&THE&CASE&OF&NAMINYANGA&
ORGANIC&FARMERS&ASSOCIATION&(NOFA),&MALAWI.&
LIMSON KALUZI
Abstract
Malawi Organic Growers Association (MOGA), a farmer organization, has been working to scale out and
up organic agriculture in Malawi. One farmer group which has a magnificent and salient story about
transition from bad to good is Naminyanga, Organic Farmers Association (NOFA). The deforestation was
extreme. The most arching part of it is that the deforestation was not followed by afforestation. The
department of forestry worked tirelessly to arrest the situation but to no avail. A heart breaking and sad
story occurred that provoked interventions from the Non-governmental Organization fraternity. A forestry
officer on duty gunned down a charcoal burner. The demise of the charcoal burner triggered chaos around
the community. The community of the charcoal burners took revenge by murdering one of the forestry
officers.
Increasing the income of the community was crucial if they were to stop cutting down of tress carelessly
for charcoal and firewood. MOGA introduced organic agriculture to address their degraded land, offer
alternative for exorbitant inputs and help them cultivate high value crops. The increase in the production
and introduction of high value crops and accessibility to value markets increased the income of the farmers.
The main challenge encountered in this project was low funding. The main lesson drawn is that organic
agriculture is effective in increasing income of resource poor farmers. Production requires less costly inputs
as compared to inorganic methods. As such, farmers who lack capital consider organic agriculture as a
production system that will support them.
32
BOOK OF ABSTRACTS