Dowa District’s Mlambe Club in Philip Village, T/A Chiwere, which rears goats, says marketing skills have the potential to make livestock farming in the country a most beneficial business that people can engage in.
The club’s secretary, Grey Robert, made this sentiment in an interview with journalists who toured their farm to appreciate how it operates.
Robert says their club was not aware of how to market their goats, which made farming seem irrelevant to some quarters.
“For us to make sales, we could just wait for wedding or funeral ceremonies, and the money realized was just too little and could not meet our needs,” says Robert.
However, he says the situation is improving now following a series of marketing trainings and orientations they were engaged in before receiving the goats.
“These trainings were being conducted by Norwegian Church Aid (NCA)/DanChurch Aid (DCA) Country Joint Programme through a one year Fath in farmers: boosting local production for food security in Malawi Project.”
He says some quarters used to give them money for boosting their farming, but they could not make progress.
“We lacked fundamental knowledge, which the Project equipped us with,” Robert states.
On the other hand, Agatha Kamwaza from Mpamba village in the same area says her life is improving tremendously through livestock farming.
“We sold our goats and equally shared the income, which enabled me to buy some needs for my household,” she added.
She pointed to a radio set, personal goats, chicken, mattress and access to basic needs as some of the remarkable benefits realized.
Meanwhile, Gilson Njunga, Executive Director from for Trustees of Agriculture Promotion Programme (TAPP) in Malawi; implementer of the project in Dowa says collaboration among the locals has made their quest for improved farming easy.
“We train farmers on how to make their farming commercial, and hence they are now making profits from it,” he said.
“The project is more about resilience to improve people’s livelihoods so that they are financially independent,” he added.
Apart from livestock farming, the NCA/DCA’s Project is also helping people effectively implement micro investment irrigation farming.
