Socio-economic baseline survey report of evergreen agriculture project (2009-2010)

Malawi relies on smallholder agriculture because over 70% of the agriculture GDP comes from it. This indicates the strategic importance of smallholder agriculture sub-sectorto the country. Smallholder agriculture in Malawi is characterized by ridge tillage, burning of residues and monocropping. These practiceslead to nutrient depletion, reduce the soil organic matter, root penetration, soil water infiltration, nutrient recycling and biological activityand increase pest problems. Most of thesmallholder farmers cannot afford the expensive options available to improve the fertility of their soils. Because of these challenges at the farm level, there is need to revamp Malawi’s agricultural policy framework to foster the advocacy and wide scale promotion of conservation agriculture with trees and consolidate multi-sectoral partnerships and networks to increase information sharing on sustainable soil health initiatives. For many decades, ICRAF has conducted on-station and on-farm research on the potential of fertilizer trees in improving soil health and increasing crop productivity. ICRAF has witnessed success stories on enhanced food security and soil health improvements from the variety of fertilizer trees promoted such as Gliricidia sepium, Tephrosia vogelli, Tephrosia candida, Sesbania sesbanand others. It is against this background that the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security departments of Land Resources Conservation Department, Department of Agricultural Extension Services, Catholic Relief Services, National Smallholder Farmers Association of Malawi and Total LandCare implemented a one year pilot project “Evergreen Agriculture for Food Security” (EA) funded by Irish Aid Malawi to raise awareness on the potential of agroforestry based conservation agriculture in improving soil health ecosystems

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