Banana Industry Conference Rolls Out Plan for Increased Yields

By George Kalungwe

The Ministry of Trade and Industry has outlined a number of measures in a bid to revive Malawi’s banana industry and reduce import dependency.

The measures were spelt out at the inaugural Malawi Banana Growers Conference in Lilongwe on Friday.

Local Production: Solution to High Cost of GM Cotton Seed?

by George Kalungwe

Kholowa: we need affordable seed.

For many years now, the government of Malawi and agronomists have been encouraging local farmers to grow genetically modified (GM) cotton seed following its notable benefits on yield and disease resistance.

Black Swedish Duck Details

In Malawi, when it comes to exotic ducks, most farmers are used to Pekin and Khaki Campbell. Oh, yes, these are cute ducks! But today, let’s talk a little about Black Swedish or, alternatively, Swedish Black. Both names are used. I sourced this information from purelypoultry.com, a website that tries to put into perspective different types of poultry breeds by specifying their traits.

What is the Difference Between GMO and Cross Breeding, or Cross Pollination

What is the difference between GMO and cross breeding, or cross pollination and how prevalent genetic modification is?

Kevin Folta, Interim Chair and Associate Professor in the Horticultural Sciences Department at University of Florida, has created a video response to your question. Find a transcript of the video below:

So what are the big differences between GMO technology, cross-breeding and simple cross-pollination? Let’s start with the last one. Cross-pollination is simply a process where two sexually compatible plants happen to cross by virtue of pollen, which is the male contribution to this process, being carried by wind or insects or possibly by water – whatever process – to fertilize another member of the same species. So, cross-pollination happens all the time. And I shouldn’t say “same species” because sometimes plants can cross that barrier without much trouble.

The idea of cross-hybridization – or cross-breeding is the way that the question came in – is when scientists – or when plant breeders, could be farmers, could be scientists – deliberately select parents for their specific traits and then transfer the pollen from one plant to the pistillate parts of the other plant, in other words making a cross between two plants that may have never crossed naturally. We see this more and more in plant breeding. The idea is to create a plant which has outstanding attributes of both parents.

Nowadays, this is becoming a very common practice, even to take very wide crosses – meaning maybe plants that could have never crossed naturally. Maybe something from a mountainous region that carries a certain disease resistance or cold tolerance trait and cross that with something that comes from maybe a more coastal region that has superior quality food product. Maybe by incorporating these two, by crossing these two and incorporating and mixing all those genes, something favorable may come out. It may be a one-in-a million chance but that one-in-a-million plant could allow significant environmental advantages by being able to grow a plant in different environments and have resistance to that disease, maybe requiring less fungicide or insecticide. This is the idea of basic cross-pollination and the way it’s used as a tool, again, by humans. So, human intervention is involved.

Kind of the ultimate idea of in human intervention in plant cross-breeding is what we’re thinking of in terms of GMO technology. GMO technology can also be thought of – or I think of it as – precision cross-breeding. It’s where you’re able to take a single gene, or maybe a small set of genes, and transfer them into a new genetic background. So maybe something that has tremendous, elite qualities in terms of its traits – maybe has excellent ability to ship or be stored or maybe great flavor quality – but has some problems with disease susceptibility. And, maybe by adding one gene, you could solve that problem. In something like an apple tree, this might save 50 years of breeding time by being able to add that one single gene.

So this is the principle difference between cross-pollination, which just occurs naturally between sexually compatible plants, cross-breeding, which is a human-facilitated process by which humans do this, and GMO technology, where in a laboratory we’re able to move one trait with precision to confer some new quality or some new trait onto a plant product.

The last part of the question is, “How prevalent are GMOs?” And, what you find is that approximately 70 percent of food in our stores carry this technology, or at least has products that came through this technology. You’ll find that 90 percent of acreage of soy, corn, cotton and canola are all GM plants. There also are some GM sugar beets, papaya and some squash, but that’s very minor acreage.

You’ll also notice that there aren’t that many horticultural crops available as GM – so things like tomatoes or strawberries just aren’t available. And that’s simply because of the regulatory process is so high. In the future you might see that change as we begin to understand further the safety of these technologies, and how they may be applied to solve significant problems in our society.

Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/uVWsDUWRgT4

Disclaimer: the article has been published in totality without any alteration.

Understanding the Lohman Brown

A lot of people have been asking for info about Lohmann Brown layer chicken. Here is a brief.

The Lohmann Brown is a variety of chicken, raised specifically for egg-laying productivity. It is of crossbreed origin, selectively bred from New Hampshires and other brown-egg-laying breeds. They lay at about 18 weeks, producing up to 300 eggs per year. Eggs are laid nearly daily, normally at dawn or dusk.

Most Lohmann Browns have a caramel/brown shade of feathers, with white feathers in a pattern round their necks, and white feathers at the tips of their tail feathers.

How long do Lohmann Brown chickens live?

The chicken has a friendly temperament and is also highly adaptable. It is known for its large and brown eggs and has excellent laying rate of more than 300 eggs per year. The Lohmann Browns also have a long life expectancy of up to 10 years.

The Lohmann Browns, like the Lohmann Silvers, were developed in Germany.

Source:
1. ^ Ray Feltwell (17 March 2011), Small-Scale Poultry Keeping: A Guide to Free-range Poultry Production, Faber & Faber, pp. 5–6, ISBN 978-0-571-26539-8
2. ^ Pammy Riggs; Kimberley Willis; Rob Ludlow (2011), Keeping Chickens for Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, p. 49, ISBN 978-1-119-99417-6

Like our pages for more info and business

fb.me/upilepoultryandlivestock
https://www.facebook.com/Golden-Lay-Farms-Ltd-1403395236595639/
https://upilefarm.blogspot.com/

We nurture nature

Most often, poultry breeds that are considered improved and high productive, i.e. those that lay more eggs, have more meat, etc., have one disadvantage. They are not broody. They never sit on their eggs (incubate) or raise their young ones.

Take for example, Black Australorp (Mikolongwe) or Kuroiler chickens. These are good meat and egg birds but can’t brood. This is the same with Khaki and Pekin ducks. Nice breeds of ducks – more eggs; more meat but they do not brood. Where a male is provided, their eggs will be fertile since they mate just like any other bird but the hybrid genetics in them take away some part of nature.

Multiplying these types of breeds can be tricky if you do not have an artificial incubator. You have more eggs with no means of hatching them. Are you in this fix? Do not despair. Try natural incubation with a hen. A hen that is broody (local chicken) can sit on exotic duck eggs as well as eggs of these other hybrid chickens and hatch them so long they are fertile. Upon hatching, she will raise the chicks!

In the case of chicken-to-chicken, there should not be any problem but in chicken-to-duck, the hen is likely to start staying away from the ducklings after a month or so when she starts noticing her differences with them.

For ducks, you can withdraw the ducklings at four weeks and put them in an artificial brooder. For chicks, you can let them stay with it until it is naturally time to wean them off or withdraw them at two weeks into a brooder as well. This will encourage the hen to stay laying again in a few weeks.

The trick is notice the time the hen is going to get broody. Please, note that this must be a hen which has also been laying and by the time it starts sitting on its own eggs, you simply remove hers and replace with the others. I advise not to remove all of hers, otherwise she will abandon all the eggs. Mix them up.

If you mix chicken and duck eggs, remember that the chicken’s will hatch first followed by the duck’s four or five days later. When the chicks hatch, take them away after two days. The hen will continue sitting on the duck eggs for more days to satisfy their incubation period which is 28 to 30.

Here, we have our hen which incubated Khaki Campbell and Pekin eggs, and is now raising the ducklings.

Nature is fascinating. Isn’t it?

On Malawian Local Ducks and Exotic Breeds

Do you know what we normally call ‘local ducks’ here in Malawi are closely related, if not the same as the highly-priced Muscovy ducks? I have studied most of their traits and find them to be similar. So to describe the local duck and its benefits, I will use the Muscovy.

Muscovy duck (Cairina moschata) is a large duck native to Mexico, Central, and South America and Africa according to an entry on World's Poultry Science Journal.

They are some of the largest ducks on planet Earth. The males can grow up to 76 cm long and weigh up to 7 kilos. Females are usually smaller, growing up to 3.5 kg.

The bird is predominantly black and white, with the back feathers being iridescent and glossy in males, while the females are drabber. Both sexes have pink or red wattles around the bill, those of the male being larger and more brightly colored.

The one I recently slaughtered weighed 3 kg dressed weight!

Under scavenging, backyard farming conditions, the ducks can lay between 60 and 80 eggs each per year, and about 100 and 125 eggs per bird per year with an egg weight of about 72g under improved management conditions.

Fact

Partly due to the larger yolk, duck eggs are significantly higher in both fat and cholesterol than chicken eggs. But they're also higher in protein and have a higher concentration of omega-3 fatty acids, making them a favorite of paleo dieters, who seek high-fat foods. - https://modernfarmer.com.

Duck meat has a much stronger flavor than both chicken and turkey. The nearest comparison would be the darker parts of other poultry, but duck is still more flavorful, says nutritionadvance.com. As is the case with many foods, the higher fat content positively contributes to the overall taste profile.

Do you like baking? Try duck eggs, instead of chicken egg and you’ll love them forever.

Pricing

Despite these attributes, most farmers in Malawi, especially in rural areas, sell their ducks at low prices, ranging from K2000 (US 2.6) to K3500 (US 4.7). In urban set ups, the prices go up to K5000 (US 6.6) and K7000 (US 9.3) for fully-grown meat fowls. This is very low compared to the K10, 000 and K20, 000 for foreign breeds such as Pekin and Khaki.

Now, with all these benefits, why should local ducks fetch low prices? It is high time we appreciated what a delicacy and money spinner the ‘native Muscovy’ is.

Our Homemade Breeds 2

This cockerel is brother to the hens above. They were hatched together. I am cautious not to call it Hy-Line cock since I understand Hy-Line cocks are not necessary brown in colour. Nonetheless, I patiently wait to see what offspring it will give us. The legs and neck are such tall not be confused with anything. It is simply in a class of its own. In fact, it is improved on a similar we had last time.

Our Homemade Breeds 1

Today, I would like to introduce you to some of the chicken cross breeds we have managed to come up with at Upile Poultry (upilefarm.blogspot.com; fb.me/upilepoultryandlivestock) over the years. I prefer to call some of these absolutely pure, for they do have any difference from what is considered pure breed. In other words, after repeated crossing we have reached the point of producing pure breeds. The others are what I call half castes. They take traits of both parents or dominantly those of one. I would like to make it clear that our idea for crossing is simply to improve meat and egg production – not to come up with some new breed, something like upileloiler. That’s not the idea. That’s why we maintain pure breeds for pure breeding separately, and bring in new males/females time and again to avoid mutation.

What you see here is a Hy-Line hen. As you can see, its size, colour, and, yes, indeed, the egg and docility are Hy-Line. This is about 6 months old and started laying last month. There are just two of them, apart from the young ones.

Change of Focus

Dear reader, Please note that from now onward, I've decided to dedicate this blog to Upile Poultry and Livestock. This is a farm I'm operating aside from the profession you know me for - journalism. For journalism and media issues, I shall maintain georgekalungwe.wordpress.com. Please keep following.

Refusing to Accept a Mistake is Stupidity, Mr. Minister

On Wednesday, February 13, 2019, 14-year-old Goodson Makanjira because another statistic in the sad tale of abduction, maim and murder of people with albinism in Malawi. His case was the 161st in a series of attacks on people with albinism that have happened since 2015. Of these, 20 have been killed. Because his case in court now, we include it in the 65 that are either under investigation or in court. Another 96 cases remain unresolved. These are alarming figures of targeted killings in a country that touts itself as the Warm Heart of Africa. So when one Nicholas Dausi, the minister of homeland security, said the suspected ritual killings have not reached alarming levels for our brothers and sisters with albinism to think of seeking asylum in safer countries, it was no surprise that he stirred the hornets’ nest. Surely the minister should have known that a loss of one life is a loss of too many. Probably, he has no relation with albinism or he is ignorant that his ministerial position entails providing security to all Malawians regardless of race, colour or creed. Indeed, as the Association of People with Albinism in Malawi has put it, his remarks were insensitive and shameful, not befitting a minister. Mr. Dausi should have known that the international law on asylum and refugees, to which Malawi is a signatory, provides that any person has the right to seek asylum in another country if they feel their state can no longer provide them with safety and security. Being a homeland security minister, he needed to know this law, otherwise we have no guarantee he could approve asylum of citizens from other countries should they seek asylum in Malawi for various forms of persecution in their home countries. If the attacks were not serious, the U.S government should not have told Zodiak it was ready to offer refuge status to Malawians with albinism as long as they follow the necessary procedures ascribed by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Public Affairs Officer for the U.S Embassy to Malawi, Douglas Johnston, says his government could resettle the victimized people with albinism just like it does with any other person who has experienced persecution or fear persecution in their home countries. Mister minister, if the attacks were not that serious, the international relations committee of the Malawi Parliament and Amnesty International should not have thrown their weight behind the suggestion for asylum. Mr. Dausi, you have one option: swallow your pride and apologise. It is that simple. After all, to err is human and apologizing is not stupidity. But refusing to accept a mistake is stupidity, in my view. Lule should have been let to live At the centre of the abduction of Goodson was one Buleya Lule, a Lilongwe based businessman. The man is now dead, and we may know the truth of what happened on the fateful day, if indeed he was involved. Buleya denied any involvement. He died as suspect, but it is incriminating that two men who confirmed abducting Goodson alleged in court they handed the young boy to Buleya. The case has only started, so I am surely positive that something would have come out of this man regarding the motive of the abduction of Goodson which, by and large, would have given us clues as to who is behind this heinous attacks on people with albinism. The sudden death, in police custody, of the key suspect in the abduction of the Dedza boy has ignited suspicions he may have been intentionally killed. I agree. Lule, was seen fit at court in Lilongwe the previous day only to be announced dead on Thursday. His body had scary wounds over the buttocks. His sister, Annie Lule, who has medical training, claims she saw suspicious blood clots in the lungs and brain of the deceased when his body was ripped open for a postmortem. According to her, these are not signs of a person who might have died high blood pressure but apparent assault. My conclusion is that the police severely beat him up – either in a bid to extract information from him, or even worse, to kill him and cover up evidence. Now that the family has requested for a forensic autopsy and the Association of People with Albinism in Malawi (Apam) obtained an injunction against the burial of Lule until the autopsy is done, we have a sigh of relieve someone will be held accountable for concealing evidence. The demos should go ahead I would like to hail the Apam for stating that they will not relent on their planned demonstrations and vigil at Kamuzu Palace, the residence of President Peter Mutharika. No police should dare disperse the protestors because doing so would only indicate the luck of seriousness by government in ending the attacks. The vigil is not a lasting solution, but it will help force President Mutharika to act with urgency in stopping the continued attacks of people with albinism. As we have seen in the case of Buleya, the repercussion of any attempt to quell the Apam vigil will be far disastrous. Police, let the voice of the oppressed be heard. ..... This article first appeared on https://zodiakmalawi.com/component/k2/refusing-to-accept-a-mistake-is-stupidity-mr-minister and the minister later apologised.

NGO to Fight Child Abuse in Schools throught SMSs

For most people the mobile phone is used for communication, calling friends and relations to socialize or talk business. But a local education lobby group is taking the use of mobile phone short messages (SMS) to unprecedented level – reporting abuse against school children, particularly the girl child. The Forum for African Women Educationists in Malawi (FAWEMA) has launched an interactive mobile phone text message platform to be used for collecting data on violence against school children, and is currently being piloted in two primary schools, Nkhoma and Mwatibu in Lilongwe. For starters, FAWEMA is using the platform to collect data on a child abuse study in areas around Nkhoma and Nathenje in Lilongwe where the two schools are located before it is formally dedicated to reporting and dealing with the problem. Judith Schoot Uiterkamp, country programme officer for the International Institute of Communication and Development (IICD) which is overseeing the technical aspect of the project said as technology continues to grow, there is need adapt to the ever-changing world to ensure efficient data collection on various issues relating to children’s education. “We find that almost everyone has a mobile phone these days. This is a toll free line which teachers, parents and guardians can use to send an SMS to FAWEMA on issues relating to forced marriages, school dropouts and other challenges facing girls’ education in their areas”, she said. She told me the project has been launched after serious consultations with communities to ensure efficiency and effectiveness. “We had many conversations with mother groups, teacher and parents associations and other members of the community to find out the problems of child abuse and the challenges they are facing in addressing them. So we thought of different means to dealing with these problems and found that mobile phones are very effective as they can reach very remote areas and are interactive”, she said. Communities using the platform will be sending SMSs about cases of child abuse in their areas to 55111 and they will be getting responses to enable FAWEMA conduct a proper follow up in consultation with the relevant authorities such as the ministry of gender and social welfare offices. Speaking at the launch of the project an official from the Lilongwe District Education Office Lucien Chikhadza appealed to other well wishers to assist in extending it to other areas of Malawi, adding that his office will render all the necessary support to ensure it is effective. The SMS project is a joint initiative of FAWEMA, Connect for Change, IICD, Edukans and Text for Change, and according to Uiterkamp, it could be made national if the pilot phase in Lilongwe proves worthwhile.

More than 2 million Malawians on Verge of Hunger Due to Floods

The World Food Programme (WFP) says there has been a positive response to humanitarian assistance to help the two million people affected by hunger in Malawi amid fears that the figure may further rise following heavy rains that have already caused flooding in some of the country. The Malawi government with assistance from donors such as the WFP and the United States Agency for International Development is providing monthly food rations to the affected people to last up to the end of the next quarter of the year when people will start harvesting the current crop. Each family is getting 50 kilos of maize, ten kilos of beans, five kilos of corn soya bran and five litres of cooking oil, said WFP acting Country Director Baton Osmani,. “This food is well balanced so that the recipients eat all the required food groups,” he said. Osmani told Zodiak Online during a food distribution exercise in Salima that donors have so far provided $58.5 million of the required $63 million in financial aid – representing a deficit of about $5 million. “World Food Programme mobilizes this food. We get the resources from donors, we transport it, we bring it up to here, and then it’s the NGOs who mobilize the community, identify the most vulnerable people and those who need the food in close liaison with the national authorities”, Osmani explained. He said he was hopeful that the remaining amount of funds will be raised soon taking into consideration the positive response that donors have provided in the past months. About 16 districts have been affected by hunger in Malawi largely owing to poor harvest of the main staple food maize caused by drought and floods in the last growing season. “The food we receive is enough. There is no way someone can give you a gift and you it’s not enough”, said Christina Njilika, a mother of six, who is one of those in need of food aid. “We are so grateful because this food will help us to have energy so that we can work in our fields”. In the current 2012/2013 growing season rains are falling on a rate the experts call ‘normal to above normal’ and this has raised fears of an increase in the numbers of people that may need food aid in the coming months in some areas where floods have washed away the maize crop like Nsanje and Salima.

“This period, January to March, represents the peak of the hunger season. We don’t estimate and an increase, however there may be incidents such as floods where people may be in need of assistance and we are assessing the situation and we’ll respond as it may be required”, said Baton. According to the acting WFP country representative, an assessment team involving the UN, government and NGO partners will be dispatched to evaluate the effects of the recent floods and what of assistance the effected household may need.PENTAX DIGITAL CAMERA The irony of the current food shortage in Malawi is not that the country did not harvest enough but that other parts suffered poor harvest as a result of floods and drought. These, according to the minister of agriculture professor Peter Mwanza, are effects of climate change. He suggests irrigation and improved technology could be a long lasting solution. “We have a hefty programme to say every Malawian who has land that is irrigable should grow two or more types of crops – one that is rain fed and another that relies on irrigation or residual moisture. This will definitely make Malawi to be food secure in all year round in the long run”.

Using Culture to Fight High Population Growth

There is one thing that would definitely stun you if you go to Chalera village in the area of Traditional Authority Chiseka in Lilongwe. You see numerous children aged below ten wondering about the village. Usually they are dirty and wear torn clothes. If they are not playing football, then are fighting one another or making noise for something you cannot figure out. This is regardless of whether it is during school time or during the holidays – children are everyone, and they cram around your car if you drove to the village. It would take you several minutes with the help of a few adults to convince them that they need to stay away so that you can drive off, lest you will trample on one. This is the picture that made Dr Davis Mkwambisi, the director of Kumudzi Trust, to come to the conclusion that something was wrong in this village. “How can you have so many children roaming around a small village? This was the question that came to mind every time I came here”, he recalls, “ It was clear that the people had no access to family planning messages, or that if they had the messages were not being delivered in the right way. We also observed that there were high levels of poverty here in the rapid appraisal we did.” The situation at Chalera village justifies fears by the National Statistical Office that Malawi’s population estimated at 13 million in 2008 is likely to grow to around 20 million by 2040 if no stern control measures are put in place. Malawi is already suffering from various effects of rapid population growth including shortage of farm land and scramble for natural resources and social amenities, according to population experts. This is not exceptional to Chalera. “The main problem we face here is shortage of water. Of course, we’ve enough food to feed ourselves; but because the population is increasing, farm land is becoming scarce, and we might face a big problem in the future”, laments group village headman Chalera.

While the government and independent organizations are largely using public gatherings with official technical speeches on the need to control population growth, one NGO – Kumudzi Trust – is using a different approach. It has employed traditional dances and acoustic music to disseminate messages about the negative effects of rapid population growth in this village. “We run a programme called Kumudzi Eco Learning Centre. The aim is to teach the people environmental management as well as make them aware about the affects of rapid population growth on the environment,” says Dr Mkwambisi, who is also a lecturer at Bunda College. He says Chalera village was chosen as the programme site because of its proximity to Bunda College and because most students from the college conduct their research studies there. Kumudzi Trust organizes what it calls cultural days where traditional dances and acoustic music fused with messages on family planning are performed. Usually hired are the upcoming acoustic band Galang’ombe Boys and Tilitonse Cultural Troupe. After the performances, the villagers engage in a roundtable discussion spearheaded by the village development committee. This is a forum where women, men and children talk openly about the effects of population growth. Thokozani Julius, Health Surveillance Assistant for Mazinga Catchment Area, explains the source of overpopulation in Chalera village. “We do give messages, but the problem is that men shun the village meetings organized to talk about family planning. So the messages only go to a single part of the population.” He adds that most men also feel they are being degraded to be taught how to run their families in the presence of their spouses hence they shun public meetings on family planning. According to Mr Julius, women also have a greater advantage because they get health education from antenatal clinics when they are pregnant or when they are taking care of under-five children. He says most of the households estimated at two thousand in the catchment area have a minimum of six children with an age difference of less than two years. One of the villagers, Hudson Solomon, from Sinosi village has an interesting response as to why people still have more children despite knowing the advantages of family planning. “Some people think that they need to have more children so that when one or two die, the rest would support them in future. However, they do not know the irony is that most child deaths are caused by lack of care. “The more children you have, the more problems you have to feed them, so they end up being sick and die. But when you have a few children it is easy for you to feed them and send them to school and they grow up well,” he observes. Speaking to this reporter under a deafening sound of traditional music, village headman Chalera says the approach has significantly helped to improve the understanding of the implications of high population growth among his subjects. He says government and several organizations have been to his area to disseminate messages about birth control, ‘but some people can’t just take the message,’ adding that some people still believe in the traditional belief that the more children one has, the wealthier they are. “They still want to live in the old days where people had not less than five or six children. If you tell them that things have changed, they don’t understand. They insist on having more children as a sign of wealth. “Only a few people here have taken up modern family planning methods because the hospital is very far away,” he observes. Village headman Chalera says the initiative by Kumudzi Trust has helped to bring change because more people now are lured to attend public gatherings where messages about birth control are disseminated. “The people are attracted to the traditional dances and music. So when they come they end up getting the message as well,” he observed on the sidelines of one of the cultural days I attended recently. Health worker Julius agrees with the chief: “This is very helpful because people in the villages like to associate themselves with things which are part of their life like the traditional dances and the songs. In this case, as the people listen to the traditional music and watch the dances they get the message at the same time.” On the side effects of modern family planning methods, he says not many complaints have come to his attention although some women do take contraceptives after being advised at the outlying Mitundu Health Centre. Dr Mkwambisi says the cultural days have helped to bring change. “Bringing together men, women and children means we are having a holistic approach to family planning at the same time creating a debate on the topic. You can see even children are talking about family planning and they will grow with it their mind.” He says Kumudzi Trust is implementing the programme under an action plan in which a village strategic plan will be developed to see people of Chalera significantly reducing the number of child births from December this year. He says this would be a departure from common thought that strategic plans are only meant for big companies and organizations, saying the village plan will incorporate issues of ecotourism, income generating activities, improvement of sanitation and enhancement of population control messages. Dr Mkwambisi observes that most people in rural areas have limited access to family planning methods such as condoms and contraceptive pills because government has no capacity to reach out to the remotest areas. As rightly observed by Dr Mkwambisi, a holistic approach is needed to ensure that Malawi’s population growth is proportionate to the country’s size and resources because the reproduction rate of 2.6 percent per annum is just too much for a land locked country that is barely 118,484 square kilometers. Certainly this cultural approach cannot be overemphasized.

The Big Fall: Soldier Down as Mutharika’s Body Jets In

The arrival of the body of president Bingu wa Mutharika did not go without drama at Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe on Saturday, April 14.

As the body was being ferried out of a South African military plane by high-ranking officers from the South African National Defence Force, one of them stumbled down the steps of the aircraft.

He limped a few steps before he joined the parade of the soldiers that handed over the body to the Malawi Armed Forces, apparently having suffered a minor injury.

"I stopped crying for a while to control my laughter", commented one friend on his Facebook page.

The picture here shows the towering officer failing to control himself as he slipped down the airplane ladder.

New Fertilizer Application Methods on the Cards

A research project to transform the way farmers use fertilizer in Malawi is underway courtesy of the ministry of agriculture’s Research Services Department.

The Soil Health Diagnostic Trials project comes against a backdrop of farmers’ complaints that they have not been yielding enough despite using fertilizer.

In Malawi the tradition has been that farmers use any type of fertilizer for basal dressing and top dressing regardless of the type of soil and its natural nutritional components.

This is the trend that the Soil Health Diagnostic Trials project aims to change to ensure that farmers maximize on yields by using the right type of fertilizers in the right type of soil, according to its coordinator Dr Wilkson Makumba.

“The area fertilizer specific recommendation is going to assist us to reduce the quantities of fertilizers that we are applying per hectare”, he says.

“Like the 92 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare is being applied everywhere but we do need all that in all areas. In some areas they have adequate amounts phosphorus that they do not need even adding extra, some have medium quantities that we really add the quantities”, said Dr Makumba.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa has put $ 420, 000(MK 70, 000 000) in the project.

“We decided to fund this programme because it falls within our mission where we want to promote agriculture in order to have a food secure Africa”, says Rebe Harawa, AGRA Program Officer responsible for soil health in east and southern Africa.

“To be food secure it requires use of both chemical and inorganic fertilizers, but to use organic and inorganic fertilizers you need to have the right type and the right amounts of fertilizers in the right places. And this project is to fine tune the fertilizer recommendations”, she added.

Director of Research in the Ministry of Agriculture, Alfred Mtukuso says the project will help farmers save on fertilizer costs. He said currently farmers are not getting maximum yields because of a blanket recommendation for fertilizer application the country has.

“There is a lot of variability in the soil types and fertility levels in the country, so this project is fine tuning the recommendations so that they are area specific to suit the types of crops grown in a particular area and therefore we’ll be getting maximum yield,

“But also this project will address the issue of total soil health. In other words, applying chemical fertilizer alone is not enough. We need to apply organic manure and intercrop our crops with legumes to build the organic reserves in the soils,” said Mkukuso.

It is expected that final results of the research will be made available to the public after three years, but currently farmers involved in the trials, for example in Chiwamba, Traditional Authority Chimutu in Lilongwe are already utilizing the experience.

Group Village headman Mseche hailed the project as a major compliment to farmers’ efforts to improve crop production by using lesser inputs. “When we see our maize growing greener, we know that we are going to have enough food. We need this research because our soils here are degraded”.

Currently farmers in Malawi produce less than a tone of maize from a hectare, but experts says there is potential of 10 tones where proper farming methods are followed.

AGRA works to achieve a food secure and prosperous Africa through the promotion of rapid, sustainable agricultural growth based on smallholder farmers

Malawi Finally Starts GM Cotton Trials

LILONGWE: The Malawi Government has finally given Bunda College, located in the country’s capital Lilongwe, permission to conduct confined field trials on genetically modified (GM) cotton, after nearly three years of assessment.

Bunda College scientists and officials of the National Biosafety Regulatory Committee confirmed this at a stakeholders’ awareness meeting held in Lilongwe on Friday, November 4.

According to Professor Moses Kwapata, Principal of Bunda College, who chairs the trials committee, it will take at least three years for results of the research to come out. The approval was officially made on August 19, 2011.

The trials are aimed at coming up with bore worm resistant and herbicide tolerant cotton varieties.

The notion is that this variety, known as BT cotton in the scientific circles, will help farmers earn more as they will no longer be required to spray their crop up to eleven times as is the case now.

On the other hand the tolerance to herbicides means that farmers will have reduced workload because, instead of weeding, they just apply herbicides – chemicals that kill weeds in a garden. The conventional cotton varieties currently on the market would die if herbicides are applied to the field.

Professor Kwapata said, “So far we have identified the field where the trial will be conducted (at Bunda College), we have already started preparing the land in anticipation to be planted in December or early January this year.

“We also have initiated the process acquiring the seed from South Africa and we have already put up a team that will be looking at the trial site on a daily basis.

“And we hope that once this has been planted in the field, it will also provide the farmers and other stakeholders an opportunity to come and see and evaluate the trials. It will include BT cotton plots and conventional local cotton varieties so that people can compare the differences as with advance in seasons.

Caroline Theka, an environmental officer in the Environmental Affairs Department Biosafety Registration Office, said the trial at Bunda College will closely be monitored by the authorities.

Asked whether the trial approval delayed because of Malawi’s limited capacity to conduct safe genetic modification, she said, “Yes and no. Yes in the sense, as you know, this is a new technology…people are apprehensive and cautious as well – so the issues of taking it back and forth delayed.

“But also people weren’t just sure of what to do, so that took a bit of time, so we can say capacity, yes, and also its because of apprehension and conscious”.

She said the office of the National Biosafety Registrar will work with Bunda scientists from the time they will be importing the seed, as they plant it, to the time the results will be released as prescribed by standing procedures.

“We will have our own monitors who will be going there over time and again.”

The BT cotton to be tried at Bunda is already being grown in other African countries such as Burkina Faso and South Africa.

Scientists, however, have to test here to ascertain how it can perform in the Malawi environment.

The approval of the BT cotton trials comes at a time when Malawi is working on increasing cotton production to complement tobacco, whose prices have fallen drastically over the years, as the main foreign currency earner.

BT cotton is said to have the potential of producing four times higher than the conventional crop per hectare when well taken care of.

2010 was the 15th anniversary of commercialization of products of agricultural biotechnology worldwide with an excess of 1 billion hectares of land, eight times the size of South Africa, planted with genetically modified crops.

A ray of hope

Over the past months on this blog you have read diaries of women who have suffered abuse after they disclosed that they are HIV positive: women abandoned by their husbands, denied access to land, prevented from taking leadership roles, rejected by family members, denied access to subsidized farm inputs and many more.

This is just a tip of the iceberg because it is an open secret that many women and girls are suffering in silence because of their HIV status.

However, it should be recognized that Malawi is making significant improvement in the public’s acceptance of HIV and AIDS, efforts to prevent further spread and mitigate the distress of those affected.

This is why today we present to you the story of a woman who is a living example of how Malawi has come to accept a section of its population once almost outlawed.

Former MYP boss

Miriam Patel hails from Mkalawire Village, in the area of Traditional Authority Mkula in Machinga District in the Eastern Region of Malawi.

Born on November 27, 1961, she did her education up to Standard 8 but she has done a lot in her life including serving in the once dreaded military wing of the former ruling Malawi Congress Party - Malawi Young Pioneers (MYP).

“After I dropped out of school in Standard 8, I joined the Pioneer where I served for three years. I rose up to the position of instructress.

“After left the MYP, I was married to a police officer-in-charge, but the marriage ended just after a few years and I left for my home village”, she recalls.
She had one child from her first marriage.

“While I was living in the village, I got married to another man. His parents however appeared not to be happy with me and marriage did not last long. Again, he left with one child - a boy.

“Subsequent to that I left for Mangochi where I started doing business. I was cooking rice and selling it to traders in the main market at the district headquarters”, she explains.

Then she got married again – a third husband! That was in 2001.
“I become pregnant, but I was getting ill frequently. My legs were becoming swollen time and again because of anemia.

“I had to leave for my home village, but my new husband did not follow me. He ran away.

“After sometime I gave birth to a stillborn. I did not do anything about it. I told myself that it was ‘God’s plan’.

A few months later she seriously fell ill. Coincidentally it was the same time Malosa Community Based Organization (Macobo) was being established in her area.

“The organization was looking for two people in our village to be trained in home based care. I was one of those chosen and I was also trained in HIV counseling.

“Through the lessons I undertook, I convinced myself that I needed to undergo an HIV test because I was frequently bedridden.

“I went to St Luke’s Hospital where I was found HIV positive. But the hospital staff did tell me the results of my blood test I think because they knew I was already an HIV counselor. They just forwarded my forms to Macobo.

“Sometime later the hospital was looking for people to start taking antiretroviral drugs. I gave them the names, but at the end I told them to include my name as well.

“I remember one of our bosses asking me why I wanted my name to be included on the list, but I insisted because I knew they deliberately did not want to tell the results of my blood test.

“Then they added my name to the list and that’s when I knew that indeed I was HIV positive.

A changed society

Miriam was on the first people to start taking live prolonging drugs in Machinga.
“I was one of the first people so much that my number is 4. I’ve been taking the drugs since 2004,” she says.

“In the first days I was worried, but later I accepted that I have to live with it. My parents were also shocked when they learnt that I was HIV positive, but I told them I was not dead. They now realize what I meant as they see me still living today.

“Yes, indeed, previously we faced a lot of discrimination in various spheres. People thought we could not contribute to community development. It was difficult for us to access coupons for subsidized fertilizer, for example.

“But after we enlightened them, more people here now accept those living with HIV just like another person.

“In 2009, I took three traditional authorities to Dowa where we conducted a campaign against discriminating people living with HIV in the distribution of subsidized farm inputs.

“The situation has now changed. We are now given priority”, explains Miriam.
“After being trained in counseling, we were advised to form a group which we called Tagwilizana (United).

“First we sort assistance from the National AIDS Commission (NAC) which provided us with broiler chickens. We were also assisted by the Malawi Social Action Fund which gave us goats which were keeping up to now.

“Then the District AIDS Coordinators came to find out if we were interested to join the Coalition of Women Living with HIV and AIDS (COWLHA). I was the first to be approached and I was among the first women that launched the organization in Blantyre in 2006.

Miriam says she has lived a comfortable life since coming in the open to declare her HIV status.

“I consider myself fortunate because I did not suffer stigma and discrimination as it is usually the case when one declares his or HIV status.

“Some of my friends whom I counseled and told them to start receiving medication were not so lucky. They have been rejected by their family members and some have died because their families stopped them from taking ARVs.

She is thankful that St Luke’s Hospital is very caring. The hospital has a special room where people living HIV receive treatment.

“We go to the clinic on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. We are treated better probably because the hospital is owned by a religious institution.

In some parts of Machinga, our colleagues do not have the same opportunity. For example, in Chikwewu, they have a shortage of nurses. Because of this people living HIV were given only a single day within the week to receive treatment.

“During such days, people with other ailments are not allowed to visit the hospital. This fuels stigma and discrimination because it is easy to notice that those visiting the hospital on that particular day are living with the virus.

It would be better if they were receiving the drugs just like those suffering from any other disease”, she laments.

A call for action

Working under COWLHA, this woman is leading a campaign to end cultural practices that encourage the spread of HIV, such as fisi,(hyena) where a man is hired to father a child in childless family.

With the establishment of COWLHA, Miriam says more women living with HIV in Machinga are now exercising their rights.

Miriam urges all those who have not yet gone for HIV testing to do so. On the other hand she encourages those who are HIV positive to come in the open because that will free their minds and help them live a comfortable life.

She particularly calls on the youth to go for HIV testing.
“These days we have HIV messages everywhere: on radio, TV and newspapers. They should advantage of this to avoid being infected”, she advises, “They should abstain from sex and work hard in class to have a bright future.”
______________
Author’s note:Tell us what you think about any of the articles you have read on this colunm by sending your comment to georgekalungwe@yahoo.com or just drop your comment in the dialogue box under the article to help us evaluate feedback.
______________
My Survival Story on ZODIAK Online is sponsored by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (Osisa).

He battered me while I was pregnant

The 2010 16 Days of Activism against Gender based Violence officially ended on December 10.

During the campaign that annually starts from November 25, this year Zodiak Online has been bringing you stories of women that have suffered various forms of abuse because of being HIV positive and how they managed to sail through.

Now, because the end of the campaign does not necessary mean all people with ill minds have transformed, we will have to continue a little bit further in order to reach out to those that still believe that abuse of women is normal.

Today, we hear from Serenia Jokora – the youngest of all the women that have presented their stories on this special column.

Serenia is 33 years old. She hails from Undi Village in the area of Traditional Authority Chawuma is Dedza.

“It’s now three years since my husband abandoned me. He left for Kasungu. I’m told he is working in tobacco fields there”, she says, “He left me with a young child”.
Serenia was found HIV positive in 2005.

“It all started after I tested HIV positive during mandatory test at the antenatal clinic.

“He was furious when I told him the news and he said I should not involve him in the issue. At first he refused to go to hospital for testing, but later he accepted. He was also found HIV positive.

“Initially we had no problems in our family, but my husband just changed overnight. He started beating up me, more especially the time I was pregnant.

“He used to come home drunk and he would beat me up almost daily without any proper reason during my pregnancy.

“We quarreled on petty issues. For example, if any man passes by our house, he would ask me who the person was. If I say I do not know him, he wouldn’t listen and he would beat me up severely.

“On several occasions he infected me with sexually transmitted diseases but instead accused me of being a prostitute. I can assure you that since I got married I never slept with any other man apart from him,” she says.

Suffering in silence

Despite that she was battered by her husband for close to five years, Serenia never reported the matter to police or any organization that would have assisted her.
The only third party was involved was their marriage counselors.

“They tried to reason with him to stop beating me up, but he never changed until he left for Kasungu three years ago.

“It’s true that most women are suffering in silence. Most of us do not know where to seek assistance on these issues”, she observes.

“Over the past years I have been having problems to find food because I have five children. I work in other people’s gardens to raise money for my daily needs.”

Serenia comes from a Ngoni area where beer drinking among men is part of culture.
“Most of the men around this area are militant towards their wives when they get drunk. I have a number of friends who have suffered in the same way.

“My husband said he will come back. Anyway, I will accept him because of the children, Serenia says surprisingly.

A call for action

Serenia urges government and nongovernmental organizations to work together to civic educate women in rural areas on their rights.

“We need to know where we can seek assistance when we are abused by our husbands.
She is currently on antiretroviral treatment and says the medication has helped to invigorate her life.

Serenia concurs with the rest of the women that have spoken out during this year’s 16 Days Campaign that provision of soft loans to enable women living HIV start small-scale business is an area where government and nongovernmental organizations must invest adequate resources.

As a member of a community-based health and advocacy group she is one of the few people that have come out in the open in Undi Village to declare their HIV status who are campaigning overtly for increased rights of people living with the virus that causes AIDS.

“If my husband comes back today, I will not just go head to accept him. Now, we have several support groups here, like Chembe Community Based Organization which I joined last year.

“I will tell him to make a promise in the presence of members of the group that he will no longer beat me up. In fact, I will demand that he joins the organization before we can reunite”.
……………..
My Survival Story on Zodiak Online is sponsored by the Open Society Initiative for South Southern Africa (OSISA)

He never told me his status…

Winless Kaonga hails from Chitipa District in northern Malawi. To be specific, she is from Mwanamuyemba Village in the area of Traditional Authority Mwaulambia. She was found HIV positive in 2006. She has five children of which two are also HIV positive.

“We were then staying in Karonga”, she recalls how trouble started to creep into her life.

“My husband was sleeping around with prostitutes. He abandoned me and never paid rent for the house we were living in.

“I had to be taken care of by my relatives who came to see me in Karonga”.

Concerned over her deteriorating condition, the well wishers took her to Wenya, Village Headman Mtemamkondo in Chitipa.

“He followed me and pleaded that we reconcile. I accepted because we had two children born in our family and I was concerned about their plight”, she said.

When Winness went back to Karonga, she gave birth to a third child.

“After the birth our third child, he started behaving wildly again.

“But after some time he fell ill. His legs started swelling”, she says.

The rejected stone

“Despite that he abused me¸ I tirelessly looked after him. I took him to the toilet, bath him…and took him to hospital.

“All his relatives refused to take him to hospital. They said ‘he deserved the suffering’. They said that’s what he wanted.

“For six years, we did not know what was causing his leg problems. Then I started asking him to go to hospital to have an HIV test, but he strongly refused.”

“He could not walk. It was as if he was suffering from polio. Later he started coughing. He coughed throughout in the afternoon and during the night.

“I tried to reason with him that the radio says when a cough persists for three weeks people must take a sputum test in case they have tuberculosis, but still he could not listen to me.”

The cough, however, was so serious that probably he had no choice with sores in his throat and mouth. He accepted to go hospital where he was admitted.

She said: “I had to take him on a bicycle. At the hospital he was, however, just treated for the sores and we were discharged after some weeks.

“But a few days after we arrived home, somebody from the hospital came to ask us to return to the hospital because my husband had been diagnosed with TB.”

This time he was in the hospital for fourteen days.

“I think it was while he was under TB treatment, that he tested for HIV but he never told me.

“He refused whenever I told him that we should go together for an HIV test. Probably he already knew his status but he did not want to tell me,” she says.

Because he had TB his immune system was compromised. His condition could not improve.

“I continued to insist that we go for an HIV test until one day when he accepted. I was happy because this was what I had longed for many years”.

“When we arrived at the hospital I was surprised to see him producing documents indicating that he had already taken an HIV test and that he had been certified to start lessons for antiretroviral treatment.

“So, you already took an HIV, I asked him and he replied ‘yes’.

“I felt very bad because he violated my right to know his status as his sexual partner. To me this was gender based violence since all along I had been asking him that we go for HIV testing but he refused only to go behind my back and, worst still, decide not to disclose to me his status.

“I was confused and banged out of the testing room.

“I stood outside for a while but something touched my heart. I told myself that if I were to go ahead abandoning him, it wouldn’t be fair. It thought it would be tantamount to abuse since he was very sick.

“Then I went back and asked the doctor to have my blood tested for HIV. I was also found positive”, she explains.

After the lessons for ART, the husband was put on treatment and in no time his health was resuscitated! He was back on his feet again!

However, as her husband got better, Winness now started feeling the pinch. She was diagnosed with TB which had infected her backbone. She was also hospitalized for two weeks.

“After I left the hospital, I continued taking the drugs. Now my health is back to normal.

“I was told at the hospital that being HIV positive did not mean the end of my life. It was told that whenever I have any problem, I should rush to the hospital. This made me feel strong and to start planning for my future.

“Now I am able to work in our garden and do any other household work. If I get sick, then it’s just like any other person…malaria and the like. I receive medication and get healed.

“I would not have continued to have children if I had known my status, but all the same that’s what happened. Two of children are HIV positive”, Winness laments.

Burying the hatchet

Winness still lives with her husband because she forgave him.

“Our love has now grown even stronger after fourteen years in marriage. Probably he has nowhere to go now that he is HIV positive!” she says jokingly.

Winness feels men in Malawi wield more power than women hence her suffering. “The situation is now changing. The coming of women groups has helped to changed things. Women are now able to speak out against abuse but previously we were ignorant of our rights.

“In the past whatever they say was taken as gospel truth provided it is a man speaking, but now that’s no longer the case”, she says, “We want this continue. We should have more women in decision making positions to speak out for the rights of their colleagues sufferings in rural areas.”

A Call for Action

To make sure that she lives a healthy life, Winness joined the National Association of People Living with HIV and AIDS and the Coalition of Women Living with HIV and AIDS.

She urges women who have gone through similar ordeals not to despair but be strong and look forward to the future. “If you decide to walk away from the family, you’ll end up making your children orphans which is not good.

“Let’s speak to our husbands and try to guide them where they go wrong. Men should also take it upon themselves to end violence against women. They should speak to us in a lovely manner if we are doing something wrong other than resorting to having extra marital affairs. That cannot solve the problem.

“As women living with HIV, we want government to defend our rights. On our part she should also strive to have a united voice in ending violence against women and girls.

“I’m happy that my story has been told….it used to trouble me a lot, but now that I have spoken out I feel relieved because I know people will draw lessons from story.

______________

My Survival Story on ZODIAK Online is sponsored by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (Osisa).