Transforming Agriculture through Diversification and Entrepreneurship (TRADE) Programme is mainstreaming the Gender Action Learning System (GALS) as a community-led empowerment methodology that uses principles of inclusion to improve income, food and nutrition security of vulnerable people in a gender-equitable way. The method is addressing the power relationships at the root of inequality to meet gender equity and women’s empowerment among smallholder farmers under TRADE Programme. Watch the video below that showcase some of the successes achieved through the household approach under GALS.

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) East and Southern Africa Regional Director Sara Mbago-Bhunu was in Malawi from 2nd - 5th October, 2023 to launch the IFAD Malawi country office. During the period, Ms. Sara Mbago-Bhunu visited some TRADE programme sites to appreciate how the programme is contributing to improved sustainable livelihood of rural people in Malawi.

On Tuesday (3rd October,2023),The Deputy Minister for Local Government, Unity and Culture, Hon. Owen Chomanika MP. and the IFAD Regional Director, visited the newly constructed Matope Bridge and Mpemba Milk Bulking Centre in Ntonda EPA, Blantyre, where lives of 780 women under Mpemba Milk Bulking Group is being transformed through Transforming Agriculture Through Diversification and Entrepreneurship (TRADE) Programme. Currently Mpemba Milk Bulking Group produces about 58 000 litres of milk a month. Below are some pictures showcasing IFAD Regional Director and Deputy Minister for Local Government, Unity and Culture during the field visit.

Transforming Agriculture through Diversification and Entrepreneurship (TRADE) Programme participated in the 2023 National Agriculture Fair (NAF) that was organized under the theme: Achieving Self-Reliance through Agricultural Commercialization. TRADE Programme's participation at the fair provided a rare opportunity to the farmers to interact with various stakeholders in Malawi's Agri-Food Systems to establish strategic business partnerships that can be conjointly beneficial. Malawi Minister of Agriculture Hon Sam Dalitso Kawale MP. had to visit TRADE Programmes’ pavilion at this year's 19th National Agriculture Fair. During the event TRADE programme showcased various agricultural technologies and innovations that the programme is supporting to enhance value chain commercialisation in Malawi. Please take a look at the fair in pictures.

TRADE Programme in coordination with the Malawi Bee Products Association organised a Honey Stakeholders Meeting which was held physically at Cross Roads Hotel in Lilongwe on 2^nd June 2023. The meeting brought together beekeepers,aggregators, input suppliers, financiers, NGOs, developing partners and the government. The meeting aimed at improving the quality and quantity of honey production by ensuring that beekeepers have access to adequate inputs, training and extension services; strengthening market access and competitiveness by linking producers to processors and off-takers who can add value and meet the standards and preferences of domestic and export markets; and promoting social and environmental sustainability by encouraging good beekeeping practices, natural resource management and inclusive participation of women and youth. The Bee Products Association of Malawi was set up to facilitate marketing and to enable beekeepers to negotiate better prices for their Honey. Currently TRADE Programme is promoting seven value chains including Honey. TRADE observed a need to empower beekeepers through the provision of grants to enable them procure equipment that will assist them to make bee-keeping an attractive occupation.

As part of providing technical backstopping services to the Transforming Agriculture through Diversification and Entrepreneurship (TRADE) Programme, TRADE Technical Committee visited some of the Programmes’ Sites to track how the infrastructure projects are progressing. The Technical Committee believes that successful implementation of infrastructure projects will constitute an important milestone in TRADE's contribution to the improved sustainable livelihood of rural people in Malawi. Effective coordination judiciously matched with regular monitoring is thus an important element in ensuring a successful completion of the projects with improved efficiency at a recommended speed and achieving the intended quality. TRADE Programme has embarked on construction and rehabilitation of roads, bridges, buildings to support commodities and livestock water points that will assist in reducing infrastructure bottlenecks of identified 7 value chains. Currently TRADE Programme has 20 infrastructure sites in Kasungu, Ntchisi, Mchinji, Lilongwe, Dedza, Blantyre and Thyolo. Below are some pictures showing TRADE Technical Team supervising the infrastructure projects.

Transforming Agriculture through Diversification and Entrepreneurship (TRADE) Programme is hosting its second IFAD Mission Team which is in the country to provide support to the Programme Management Unit (PMU), to ensure that the key programme objectives are being met. The team landed in the country on 5th March,2023 and interacted with the PMU on Monday (6th March, 2023) and further visited the District Planning Implementation Support Team (DPIST) for Blantyre District Council on 7th March,2023. The Mission further visited Goliati Milk Bulking Center in Thyolo District to appreciate how farmers are adopting various technologies as part of enhancing Dairy Production. The Mission will proceed to Rumphi and Nkhatabay Districts to appreciate how Honey and Beef FBOs are operating.

TRADE programme is a successor programme of RLEEP and is expected to upscale RLEEP interventions for the first two and half years of its six years’ implementation period in eleven districts (Mchinji, Ntchisi, Dedza, Blantyre, Kasungu, Nkata-Bay, Rumphi, Karonga, Lilongwe Rural, Thyolo and Chitipa) focusing on 7 commodities (groundnuts, soybean, sunflower, Irish potato, dairy, beef and honey). The programme is to contribute to improved sustainable livelihoods of rural people in Malawi through “Value Chain commercialisation and resilience of rural poor and smallholder producers”. Below are some pictures illustrating how the supervision exercise is progressing.

The development of rural infrastructure plays an essential role in improving rural livelihoods and enhancing sustainable and environmentally friendly agricultural production. It is inline to the above statement that TRADE programme is creating an enabling environment for smallholder commercialisation through the infrastructure development initiative. The initiative will assist in reducing infrastructure bottlenecks of identified commodities through the development of: road infrastructure (rehabilitation including drainage, construction of structures and set up of Road Management Clubs); buildings to support commodities (warehouses, Milk Bulking Centres – MBCs –, Livestock/cattle markets and honey storage centres); and livestock water points (homestead/community & livestock drinking points).

TRADE programme through its Infrastructure Management section has been in different sites deploying competitively recruited private contractors (censed by the NCIC) to start constructing and rehabilitating roads and bridges that will improve the rural road network in TRADE programmes’ sites. During the exercise, TRADE programme involved the Department of Public Works, Community Leaders, Members of Parliament and Ward Councilors. TRADE is initially covering 11 districts (Mchinji, Ntchisi, Dedza, Blantyre, Kasungu, Nkata-Bay, Rumphi, Karonga, Lilongwe Rural, Thyolo and Chitipa) focusing on 7 commodities (groundnuts, soybean, sunflower, Irish potato, dairy, beef and honey). Below is the pictorial focus of some of the roads and bridges to be rehabilitated

TRADE Programme in coordination with the National Agriculture Content Development Committee (NACDC) organised a workshop which was held physically at Linde Motel in Mponela from 6^th to 8^thDecember 2022, to develop agriculture technical messages for the 2022/2023 farming season. TRADE observed that the content of some commodities (beef, dairy, sunflower and honey) being promoted by the programme was not in the national portal. It was against this background that TRADE programme had to push for the content development workshop to add content of the four commodities in the national portal. During the workshop, experts had to review and recommend the content, to ensure that messages being disseminated to farmers through various ICT platforms are technically sound, harmonized, evidence-based, scientifically proven, and farmer-friendly. The workshop brought together experts in the various value chains which include Legumes (g/nuts, soya, sunflower, beans), cereals (maize, rice) livestock, land resource (CSA and Agroforestry) roots and tubers (sweet potatoes, potatoes, cassava), climate change and resilience, irrigation, nutrition. VSL, Cooperatives, marketing, horticulture (ginger, garlic), fish and honey. The experts came from the government, non-governmental organizations, and private sector departments to develop content for the 2022/2023 growing season.

The National Agriculture Content Development Committee (NACDC), was formed by the Ministry of Agriculture, and exists to harmonise efforts by different stakeholders in content development for various ICT based approaches and to control the quality of agricultural content in Malawi by ensuring technical correctness and relevance of the content. The NACDC committee is composed of experts from different Ministry of Agriculture departments and organizations with vested interests in content, ICT platforms and farmer issues. The Ministry of Agriculture through Department of Agricultural Extension Services (DAES) provides leadership and coordination. The Chairperson of NACDC comes from non-state actors whilst the secretariat is maintained at DAES. Below are some pictures showing experts reviewing and updating the agriculture content for the 2022/2023 farming season.

An experience-sharing workshop was held in Mangochi, on 7th, December, 2022, to showcase the achievements and lessons learnt under TRADE and FARMSE-IFAD supported Programmes in Malawi. The workshop showcased the challenges, achievements and lessons learnt under the two programmes, and demonstrated workable models, approaches and strategies for TRADE Programme to adopt.

Mr. Dixon Ngwende the National Programme Coordinator for FARMSE inaugurated the workshop, which was attended by The National Programme Coordinator for TRADE, Dr Felix Lombe and Officials from both FARMSE and TRADE Programmes.

Mr. Dixon Ngwende and Dr Felix Lombe, stressed the need for better coordination at grass-roots level, better capacity building and advocated for replicating of technical cooperation in the two programmes. The two National Programme Coordinators acknowledged that experience sharing in the two programmes will significantly change and strengthened development initiatives as well as improving officers’ capacities. Below are some pictures illustrating FARMSE key senior officers presenting during the workshop.

Transforming Agriculture through Diversification and Entrepreneurship (TRADE) Programme is hosting an IFAD Mission Team which is in the country to provide support to the Programme Management Unit(PMU), to ensure that the key programme objectives are being met. The team landed in the country on 3^rd July,2022 and interacted with the PMU on Monday (4^th July, 2022) and further visited the District Planning Implementation Support Team (DPIST) for Mchinji District Council on 5^th July,2022. While in Mchinji the Mission interacted with two existing Farmer Based organisations (FBOs) that were established by the Rural Livelihood Economic Enhancement Programme (RLEEP), (Mkhunguyembe Cooperative and Kakuyu Farmer Business Schools) in Mkanda EPA to appreciate how these FBOs are progressing.

The Mission will proceed to Blantyre and Thyolo Districts to appreciate how Milk Bulking Centers established by RLEEP are operating. TRADE programme is a successor programme of RLEEP and is expected to upscale RLEEP interventions for the first two and half years of its six years’ implementation period in eleven districts (Mchinji, Ntchisi, Dedza, Blantyre, Kasungu, Nkata-Bay, Rumphi, Karonga, Lilongwe Rural, Thyolo and Chitipa) focusing on 7 commodities (groundnuts, soybean, sunflower, Irish potato, dairy, beef and honey). The programme is to contribute to improved sustainable livelihoods of rural people in Malawi through “Value Chain commercialisation and resilience of rural poor and smallholder producers”.

TRADE Programme Management Unit together with the IFAD Supervision Mission were in Blantyre and Thyolo Districts today, (7^th July, 2022) to appreciate how Milk Bulking Centers established by RLEEP are operating. The first Milk Bulking Group (MBG) to be visited was Mpemba MBG in Ntonda EPA in Blantyre, where farmers demonstrated how they test milk to find out, if it is sour or has been mixed with sodium bicarbonate. Whilst in Mpemba, the PMU and the IFAD Support Team visited MACH Milk Powder manufacturer to understand the commercial partnership which is there between smallholder milk producers and MACH Powder manufacturer as an off taker.

In the Afternoon, the team visited Mpeni Milk Bulking Group in Dwale EPA in Thyolo to plan how best Mpeni MBG can be revamped. RLEEP constructed a Milk Bulking Facility which has been nonfunctional since 2015, due to lack of electricity and other cooling equipment. TRADE Programme being a successor of RLEEP programme will rehabilitate the storage facility and ensure that smallholder farmers from Mpeni Milk Bulking Group start using the facility accordingly.