We needed to do something to ensure that farmers have used the inputs to produce their own food. So as a department of agricultural extension, what we did was to mobilise farmers in what we are calling farming clusters, which will be joined together to form an agricultural belt.

Now what are the advantages for the farmer of belonging to this type of initiative?

What we have noted is that farmers have managed to increase their yields. You know they are working in a group. When it's time for garden preparation, everybody in that stretch has to go and do garden preparation. When it's time for planting, they will do that. So it means you are not left behind. The use of peer pressure here has done its part. So the chairpersons have ensured that all the farmers are doing the cultural practices on time. And farmers have been able to assist each other. For example, if a farmer doesn't have adequate inputs they can share. So they share both material and resources. But also, farmers have been able, because they are working as a group, they can approach a lending institution to get inputs. Because this company also knows that it will be easy to recover their loan, because the farmers are working in a group. They are already organised. So it works both ways: the farmers have benefited and the companies also. Like the seed companies commented that they managed to increase the sales of their improved seeds, because when you see that this seed has performed well in garden A, it means the owner of another garden next year will want to buy that seed. But the other thing that I should mention is that in this ulimi wa m'ndandanda, the stretch of fields or the farming clusters, you get demonstrations. And these demonstrations, normally they will demonstrate technologies that are responding to farmers' problems. So in the m'ndandanda, you find the farmers who have adopted those technologies, and these are what we call the lead farmers. The lead farmers are farmers who have adopted specific technologies, and they are able to demonstrate to other farmers.

Now what are the criteria used in selecting these lead farmers?

When we have demonstrations to be mounted, we discuss with the communities. How the community chooses, they look at certain characteristics, like the lead farmer has to be someone who is approachable, because the farmers can come anytime to ask on a particular aspect. But they also have to be innovative. We don't want them to be implementing the technology blindly, but they should also be looking at how can this technology be improved? Those are some of the things. But above all, you know in extension we are talking of communication. The lead farmer has to be someone who knows how to communicate with people. So this farmer will be able to convince and talk the same language with their fellow farmers, hence we will see more farmers coming up to adopt or try a technology.

Obviously this is a very good approach to empowering farmers, to make sure that they are self-sufficient in food. Have other countries shown interest in this technology?

What I would say at this point is that we have been receiving people from all over. We have been receiving people from Zambia, Tanzania our neighbours, the Kenyans, they have come here to learn how we have achieved the turn around, that is the food self-sufficiency. Some have even come to Malawi when it's our time for field days, and in Malawi from January up to maybe April, it's a peak period for field days, when farmers will showcase what they have achieved. The farmers that have a very good crop stand, explain how they have achieved it, and in the process we also compare with some fields that haven't done well, and discuss what went wrong in such fields. And in that process, the learning process, the farmers learn by seeing, observing and hearing it from their friends. So that's what I would say has really helped us to achieve the turn around.

Can the region benefit from this arrangement, if they adopt it?

The region I think can learn from us, they can adapt it to suit their own conditions. But the basic principle, I think it really works, because nowadays you look at people working in partnerships. We are talking of partnerships, the private sector and the public sector working together, and that is what we are doing. And I would say also, as Malawi, it has helped us, we have achieved it amid the global and economic challenges. But as I said earlier on, that we need to do more. The farmers, once they have achieved food security, they have to be economically minded, to produce for the external market, maybe for the local market and even for the international market. And that entails improving on the quality and volume of farm produce. Look at what does the buyer want so that you produce for the market that is out there. End of track.