Malawi

How It Started

The Carter Center began working in partnership with the Malawian Ministry of Agriculture to improve food security in 1999.

Our Work and Methods

Maize accounted for half of the national farming area in Malawi, the largest per capita producer of maize in the world. However, unstable market conditions drove large-scale farmers to end cultivation in Malawi altogether.

• The Carter Center’s Agriculture Program, in partnership with the Sasakawa Africa Association, worked with regional agricultural agencies to demonstrate that small-scale farmers across the country could make up for maize shortages.
• More than 16,000 maize management training plots were planted.
• The project also used farm field schools to promote improved technologies – including soil preparation and conservation – to small-scale farmers.
• To encourage crop diversification, the training also covered soybeans, pigeon peas, rice, and wheat production technologies.

Impacts

• Despite delayed and insufficient rainfall, farmers achieved large yields with the use of fertilizer, drought-resistant maize, and other techniques.
• Conservation agriculture, which addressed problems of soil fertility and water shortages, proved popular with Malawi’s farmers.
• The program encouraged the use of quality protein maize for better nutrition.

The Carter Center ended its agricultural activities in Malawi in 2006.