Project News

"One-Day Stakeholder Meeting for Extension Staff, Farmer Group Representatives, Key Stakeholders" & "One-Day Market Survey Training (ToT) for Extension Staff in Implementing District Agriculture Offices (DAOs)" were conducted in 7 DAOs from 22th May to 1st June, 2018.

The Stakeholder Meeting has two purposes to achieve: (1) it shows farmers a business opportunity which horticultural farming can bring to them, and (2) it helps farmers to establish business linkages with a variety of market actors involved in horticulture business. The District MA-SHEP Management Team invited several market actors such as middlemen, chairpersons of the local markets, hotels, schools, farm input suppliers, NGOs, and microfinance organizations. 4 farmer group representatives from each target farmer group participated in the meeting and those farmers and stakeholders exchanged information through business talks. The total number of the participated stakeholders came to 72.

In the next day of the stakeholder meeting, the District Management Team conducted Market Survey ToT in order to explain how to conduct market survey, how to select crops based on the information which is collected through the market survey, and how to make action plan. The extension officers visited the local market to do an exercise of market survey and interviewed to vegetable sellers about their requirement for commodities and their prices and so on.

After the training, one of the extension officer of Kasungu district commented that "I've been working as an extension officer for 30 years, but I have never seen such a tool like this. The ministry has been keeping this tool? This is good. This is a good tool. Now, farmers can stop claiming that, "There is no market!""

Some extension officers in Mchinji district commented excitedly after the market survey exercise.

"So many vegetables are sold in the Mchinji market, but we found that the most of them came from other districts. Buyers go to other districts to purchase vegetables despite high transport cost, because Mchinji farmers don't produce so much vegetables. Buyers want to buy commodities in Mchinji. This is a business chance for Mchinji farmers! "

In the stakeholder meeting and market survey ToT, the participants found a business chance and looked excited.

Stakeholder Meeting at Dowa East DAO

Stakeholder Meeting at Dowa West DAO

Stakeholder Meeting at Nkhotakota DAO

Stakeholder Meeting at Mchinji DAO

Market Survey exercise at Dowa market

Market Survey exercise at Kasungu market

Market Survey exercise at Kasungu market

Market Survey exercise at Salima market

Market Survey Analysis at Ntchisi DAO