Community gardens help Malawi families diversify diets
Through community gardens, families in Salima are growing a wider variety of nutritious foods, improving diets, health and household incomes.
In central Malawi’s Salima district, Mikayere Benedicto says vegetables that were once difficult for his family to obtain are now more readily available, thanks to a community farming group promoting year-round food production.
Benedicto belongs to Kasupe Care Group in Kachilele, where households grow maize, beans and vegetables and share techniques intended to improve soil fertility and access to nutritious food.
The group’s activities are supported through the nutrition component of the Ulimi ndi Chilengedwe (UCHI) Joint Programme, implemented by UNICEF together with the Government of Malawi and district councils. The five-year programme is funded by the European Union under its Global Gateway strategy.
“Before we started, we struggled to access vegetables. Since joining the group, vegetables have become more readily available, providing our families with vitamins that help keep us healthy and strong,” Benedicto said.
“We have also noticed that children are not falling sick as frequently as before,” he added. For parents like Benedicto, having diverse foods closer to home means more choices when feeding their children. Farmers support this production through practices such as crop rotation and preparing manure from locally available materials.
Benedicto said Kasupe Care Group had expanded from fewer than 30 members to more than 40, reflecting growing interest in its activities.
At household level, fellow member Maureen Thomas has planted maize, tomatoes, okra, mustard greens and Chinese cabbage in her garden in Mkhute Village, under Traditional Authority Kambwiri. Thomas said gardening had improved her household’s access to food and created opportunities to earn money by selling surplus produce.
“Before I started gardening, I faced challenges accessing vegetables and maize, as well as raising money from selling farm inputs,” she said. “My children also used to fall sick frequently, but this has improved as they now eat a variety of foods from the six food groups.”
For Thomas, a garden close to home makes vegetables easier to access, while surplus produce can be sold to help meet household expenses during lean periods.
She uses a pump to water her individual plot. The group’s communal garden, however, has no pump, forcing members to draw water from the nearby Kasupe stream. The lack of suitable irrigation equipment limits their ability to sustain and expand production, particularly when rainfall is unreliable.
“Rain-fed agriculture is becoming unreliable, which is why we encourage farmers to use available water sources, such as rivers, for gardening,” said Daudi Mkanya, an agricultural extension worker in the Katelera Extension Planning Area.
Irrigation allows farmers to produce additional food beyond the rainy season, he said, but competition for river water and limited access to equipment remain obstacles to higher productivity.
Lucy Esau, who oversees nutrition activities for Tiyanjane, Kasupe and Nsaopera care groups, said the groups had continued operating since 2016, including after some organisations that initially supported them withdrew.
Members have retained and applied the knowledge they acquired, maintaining communal gardens, growing food for household consumption and selling surplus produce within their communities, she said.
At Kasupe, members also prepare manure locally and pool resources to purchase additional farm inputs. Collective work enables them to share knowledge and resources while encouraging households to diversify their diets using locally available foods.
The UCHI programme combines four components: agricultural commercialization led by UNDP, natural resources management by AGRER and district councils, nutrition by UNICEF, and participatory action research by the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
The nutrition component operates in 10 districts, targeting about 400,000 households, or two million people, including children, adolescents, and pregnant and breastfeeding women. It promotes nutrient-rich food production, improved diets through nutrition education, and the use of nutrition data in local decision-making.
In Salima, care groups help communities diversify diets and sustain food production beyond the rainy season. Long-term progress, however, depends on reliable water, equipment, and agricultural inputs.
