In the demise of the most successful Chimanga Project that used to provide agricultural assistance to several smallholder farmers in Balaka, farmers have now a sigh of relief following establishment of a new Andiamo Trust’s agricultural programme known as ‘Get up, Stand up!’ The programme that is being controlled by Alessandro and Valeria Marchetti is expected to run for three consecutive years during which farmers will benefit from agricultural loans in the forms of money and fertilizer.

The programme which intends to help smallholder farmers to realize food security has come at a very right time when Malawi, in particular, is also helping local smallholder farmers to purchase fertilizer at subsidized prices. All this is in concurrence with Malawi’s MGDS and the Millenium Development Goals that stipulate on reducing severe hunger to half by 2015.

Elaborating on disbursement procedures, the programme coordinator, Alessandro Marchetti, pointed out that the programme intends to identify at least 800 people to benefit from the programme. He however specified that the beneficiaries will be people of the Balaka region with those coming from around Andiamo having the priority to reap from the programme.
During the viability study, ‘Get up Stand up!’ gave out about 150 bags of fertilizer worth 7500 kilograms to local farmers. This year, no specified number of bags of fertilizer has been established. However, it is speculated that the number of fertilizer bags is expected to increase following the number of beneficiaries.

On top of giving out fertilizer, the programme will be disbursing non-interest loans to farmers. Speaking on this, Mr Marchetti clarified that when farmers get the loans, they will be expected to sell part of their produce and pay back the exact amount as loaned without any interests. This will help farmers to produce a lot of food for sale and reserve.

Get up Stand up also plans to introduce Agriculture classes at Andiamo’s technical college that will enlarge Andiamo Trust’s plans in education sector.

By Eugenio Njoloma