Project for Market-Oriented Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment and Promotion (MA-SHEP)
Malawi
October 27, 2016
April 09, 2017 – April 08, 2022
Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development (MoAIWD)
Agriculture sector is the most important industry in Malawi, accounting for 33 % of GDP, and approximately 80 % of labour force is engaged in agriculture.
Horticulture is one of the important sub-sectors with its main role in income and food security. It is however, affected by marketing challenges at local, regional and international levels mainly due to perishability of their products. It has also been noted that most of the smallholder farmers involved in production do not consider farming as their business and operate as individuals. Most of the extension approaches have also emphasized on production aspects rather than marketing aspects.
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has started "Training Program for Market-Oriented Agriculture for Smallholder Farmers" since 2014. After the training in Japan, ex-participants of this training started to implement the pilot project in Ntchisi District. In the course of the pilot project implementation, considerable positive changes were observed among the target farmer groups, such as embarking upon collective marketing and improving bargaining power. Recognizing this result, the Government of Malawi (GOM) requested the Government of Japan (GOJ) for the technical cooperation to support GOM in promoting and scaling up market-oriented agriculture for smallholder horticulture farmers based on the experience in the pilot project.
Overall Goal : Livelihood of smallholder farmers is improved through practicing the MA-SHEP Package.
Project Purpose : The income of the members of the farmer's groups targeted by the Project is increased.
1-1 | Assign roles & responsibilities of the implementers of the MA-SHEP Package and build the consensus among them. |
1-2 | Select target districts from all 28 districts, based on proposal from DADOs and priority of their horticulture cultivation. |
1-3 | Build the consensus about the above roles & responsibilities among selected DADOs. |
1-4 | Monitor and supervise the activities of Output 3 according to the above roles & responsibilities. |
1-5 | Share the progress, achievements and issues of the activities of Output 3 with regular reporting system. |
1-6 | DAES, DCD, ADD improve the MA-SHEP Package learnt from the progress, achievements and issues of the activities of Output 3. |
2-1 | Review the process, achievements and challenges of the pilot activities. |
2-2 | Review the activities, achievements and challenges of other market-oriented agriculture programmes implemented by DAES and other development partners. |
2-3 | Identify challenges in extension and marketing in Malawi. |
2-4 | Develop the MA-SHEP Package based on the activities above (Activity 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3) and the activities of Output 3. |
2-5 | Prepare training programme and training materials based on the activity 2.4 and the activities of Output 3. |
3-1 | DAES conducts training to ADDs, DADOs, and AEDOs of the target sites on the MA-SHEP Package. |
3-2 | DADOs of the target sites make Action Plans to implement the MA-SHEP Package in their districts with DAES supports. |
3-3 | AEDOs of the target sites conduct training for the target farmer groups on the MA-SHEP Package. |
3-4 | AEDOs monitor and advise target farmer groups. |