By Vincent Gunde

A consortium of Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs) is implementing Sustainable Food systems for Rural Agriculture Transformation and Resilience (TRANSFORM) project in five districts of the country, Rumphi, Mzimba, Kasungu, Dowa and Mchinji covering 22 Extension Planning Areas (EPAs).

In Dowa district, TRANSFORM project is targeting Mndolera, Chibvala, Nachisaka, and Mvera EPA’s with a goal of contributing to sustainable agricultural transformation that will result in improved income, food and nutrition security among smallholder farmers in Malawi.

The project has an objective of strengthening local food systems and demonstrate a sustainable improvement of food and nutrition security, income and resilience to climate change to among 35,000 agricultural dependent rural households within selected EPAs.

Presenting an end of the program report to the District executive committee (Dec) in Dowa,Trustees of Agricultural Promotion Program (TAPP) M/E Officer Lovemore Kachingwe, said the project has the outcomes of increasing productivity, production, diversification, and resilience to climate change at household and community levels, increased consumption of safe, nutritious and diverse food by households and improved profitable market access and entrepreneurship opportunities.

Kachingwe said the project is being implemented with key approaches such as lead farmer follower farmers approach, farmer field school methodology, care group model, climate adaptive villages, Village and saving loans (VSL), and micro investment incubator model.

He said the project has distributed 8 maize shellers across the 4 EPAs of Dowa, rehabilitation of 2 irrigation schemes, distribution of 39 bicycles to section chairs and distribution of 3,476 goats to 1,738 households.

“The project has distributed 217.9 metric tonnes of basic seed (soya and ground nuts) to 10,895 farmers and led to the establishment and registration of Thamolatha Horticultural cooperative in Mndolera EPA,” said Kachingwe.

However, Kachingwe said beside the project registering success stories, there were challenges in the course of implementation such as fuel crisis, devaluation of the Malawi Kwacha, farmers prioritizing short term financial need, fall army worms, heavy rains and drying up of water sources.

On sustainability of the project, Kachingwe said the project will provide linkages of the seed multiplying farmers to seed services unit, government to continue activities through TRANSFORM structures, establishment of community livestock committees, and capacity building of Lead farmers.

He said TRANSFORM project has recommended for farmer field schools, the use of Lead farmers approach, coordination with government officers in planning and implementation and combination of interlinked activities from production, nutrition and marketing.

In his remarks, Dowa District Council’s Chief Administrative Officer Mathews Mkandawire, called on all partners implementing their various interventions in the district to provide progress reports of the projects they are implementing to Dec for cooperation, transparency and accountability purposes.

TRANSFORM has been implemented from 2020 to September, 2025 for 5 years with funds from the Royal Norwegian Embassy programme through Norwegian Church Aid (NCA)- Danish Church Aid (sDCA) targeting 150,000 agricultural dependent households and in Dowa district, the programme was implemented by TAPP and AG CARE.