The Wonderful World of Cassava…

…everyone’s favourite root vegetable!

(Source: http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j14/biopact/biopact_cassava_biofuels.jpg)

Well, perhaps not everyone's favorite root vegetable. After all, it is quite starchy and fairly tasteless...

However, cassava is also pretty awesome for a bunch of reasons. First of all, it can be used for many purposes - it can be consumed raw or cooked, made into flour for baking, turned into starch, etc - and therefore has potential to be both consumed by farmers and their families and sold in a growing and largely untapped market for cassava and cassava products, increasing household incomes. Cassava is drought tolerant, requires no fertilizer, and the roots can be harvested years after planting (i.e. they can be stored in the ground until needed). So... all in all, pretty handy in a country of cash and resource poor small scale farmers, who are vulnerable to environmental shocks (such as droughts) which can devastate their maize harvests, lack money for fertilizer, and who lack ways of storing produce for future sale (when prices may be higher) or consumption.

Photo 1: Close up of cassava leaves

I recently started working on a project that promotes the cassava industry in Malawi. We aim to get farmers growing cassava, processors to purchase cassava from farmers and process it, and buyers (e.g. milling, confectionery, and packaging companies) to purchase cassava from the processors.

The cassava project is quite unique among TLC’s projects. While the bulk of TLC’s agricultural projects focus merely on increasing production levels of small scale farmers, this project takes a more sophisticated approach by addressing weaknesses at points throughout the cassava value chain within Malawi.

I realize that to most of you the term “value chain” may be a familiar one.

What is an agricultural value chain exactly?
Agricultural value chains encompass the full range of activities and services required to bring an agricultural product from planting to sale in final markets.
Value chains include input suppliers, producers, processors and buyers, and are supported by a range of technical, business, and financial service providers.

A “typical” value chain is presented below:
In the development, we generally aim to make sure that small scale producers are getting a fair deal out of this system.

For example, in an ideal scenario . . .

• The input market is both accessible to small scale farmers (e.g. inputs such as seeds and fertilizer available in the rural areas) and provides the proper types of inputs (e.g. the type and quality of seeds required)
• Purchase of produce from farmers by buyers - whether it be by traders who buy raw products, or processors who perform some kind of process which adds value to the goods - is done fairly; farmers and buyers/processors have a mutually beneficial relationship, where farmers receive a fair price for their produce, and buyer’s market demands are met.
  

Ideally, these types of relationships would happen naturally, but this is often not the case – this is where NGOs come in.

Looking at this model, the majority of TLC’s work has so far been focusing on the level of smallholder farmers, helping them to produce more. Our small scale irrigation programs are based on the following assumptions:

• Access to irrigation will result in increased production levels
• Increased production levels will lead to increased income
• Increased income levels lead to better lives for small scale farmers
  

However, a major problem that we’ve encountered time and time again is that our farmers are having major problems moving from the “production” to the buyers - the processing/traders level. That is, farmers are having trouble actually selling their produce; produce often goes to waste or is sold off at low prices. The value chain for their produce is either poorly functioning or they lack access to it. What good is producing bumper crops of, say tomatoes or maize, if farmers are unable to sell it?

Why Cassava?
Cassava is a crop that has great potential in Malawi. This fact is especially true now, given some challenges that are being faced by maize, the current staple food crop. These challenges include low yields due to erratic rainfall and increasing prices of important inputs such as fertilizer and improved seed varieties. Cassava is a drought tolerant crop which not only has the potential to increase food security in many households, but also has great potential for sale – both of cassava and cassava products at the domestic and international level.

Photo 2: Walking through a big cassava field during the project launch

Several products can be processed from cassava such as cassava flour, chips, confectioneries, animal feed and starch. Cassava flour is of particular interest recently due to dramatically rising wheat flour prices – the cost of brown bread has gone up by up to 40% since I’ve been here!

At present, very little of the cassava being grown in Malawi receives any degree of processing – it is generally consumed at the household level, or is sold in raw form. Lack of processing of cassava close to the farmer level has been blamed for the poor prices that farmers receive and wastage of unsold produce.

There is a market out there for cassava, but there is a break in the chain. Farmers complain that there is no market for cassava, while potential buyers complain that no one is producing it. Farmers want to grow a crop that they can sell, and companies are looking for a supply of cassava. So, why isn't this already happening?

We're trying to kickstart this value chain by helping to link up different parts of the chain. Our job is not done once we have farmers growing cassava. If farmers don't have somewhere to sell their cassava, they'll stop growing it - they need to see the benefits of growing cassava. For these benefits to happen, we need to make sure that processors and buyers are in place. I'll try to explain a bit more, but giving a bit of an overview of what we're doing at the different levels of the value chain:

Input Market:

Production:

Traders/Processors:

National Markets:

In addition, we’re tackling some of those support services I mentioned earlier: transmitting information along the chain, providing loans, setting transportation requirements for processors and buyers, etc.

We’ve got our work cut out for us.

Photo 3: Cassava fields are generally fenced because goats enjoy feasting on the leaves

This is probably a bit of information overload . . . I'll be surprised if anyone gets around to reading this whole entry! So, I'm going to cut myself off here, and perhaps elaborate on some specific elements of the work I've been doing within this project in a future entry!

A glimpse into my every day life

It seems a little late to have a post on this, given that I've been here for over 9 months already.. . . I started writing this blog entry way back in November. I kept putting off posting it because I wanted to take some corresponding photos, but I just never got around to taking them. I have yet to take all the photos I would like to include; However, I have received a couple of recent requests for a post such as this, so . . . here we go . . .

The details of my day to day life here are different from what I’m used to in Canada, but not to the degree most people probably think. At the end of the day, I’m doing the same kind of stuff – it’s just the details that are different.

The hours I keep here are quite different. While back in Canada – especially during my undergrad – I wouldn’t make my way to bed until 1 or 2am, here I try to get to bed by around 10:30pm – even then, that’s pretty late by Malawian standards. My roommates are often in bed by 9:30, and in the previous place I stayed my roommate was generally in bed by 8pm. Still, 10:30 is early for me, but necessary, since my day starts at 5:30am.

While I’ve historically been very reliant on my snooze button, here I generally wake up unassisted sometime between 5:15 and 5:30 every morning (when I “sleep in” until 7 on the weekends, my housemates make fun of me for sleeping in so late!). I crawl out from under my mosquito net on my foam mat on the basic wooden frame bed I had made by a nearby carpenter.

One of my preferred breakfasts is phala – a porridge made of roasted maize and soya flour – with bananas. My roommates either don’t have breakfast or eat chips (fries) or rice porridge.

I leave for work around 6:45am. A short walk down my street brings me to the nearest minibus route. I generally have to wait no more than a few minutes before I see a white minibus come peeling around the corner with a man hanging out the window shouting “town! town!” indicating the vehicle’s final destination (the bus station in “old town”).

Photo 1: View down my street

Photo 2: A little shop across from my house

On certain days, I just don’t seem to have luck catching a bus from my usual spot. So, I have to walk through my area’s trading centre area to the main road. I take a shortcut which has me tromping through maize and cross an open storm sewer which serves as a bit of a garbage dump. Solid waste management leaves something to be desired here . . . storm sewers often become mini dumps which are burned occasionally as trash accumulates. This particular spot is close to a few tailors and a couple “saloons” (salons) so it is inevitably filled with many colourful scraps of fabric and LOTS of spent hair extensions (as a general rule: if a lady has a lovely head of long hair, it isn’t hers).

I pass a couple of carpenters, who work in open air shops using old hand tools. I bought my bed from such a carpenter.

Photo 3: My carpenter

Up a little further I pass a maize mill where ladies from all around gather to earn a little money by offering sifting services outside the mill.

Photo 4: Ladies at the maize mill. Those woven baskets there are used to sift maize.

Entering the market, I’m always greeted with a jovial “Muli Bwanji!” (how are you?) by a man running a little fruit stand. No matter how many times I respond with the appropriate “Ndili bwino, kaya inu?” (I’m fine, and you?), he always seems to be entertained, and has a good laugh at my expense.

Photo 5: Fruit seller

Vendors sell bags of charcoal. Charcoal is produced by slowly burning huge piles of wood in soil packed ovens. Charcoal is a very commonly used fuel for cooking in town, and is a significant contributor to the deforestation problem.
While production of charcoal is technically illegal in Malawi, it is still very common being one of the non farming related income generating activities available to the rural poor.

Photo 6: Charcoal seller

A row of ladies sell used clothing just outside of the market walls. The used clothing is shipped over from North America and Europe in shrink wrapped bails. I see all kinds of familiar shirts walking around town, from little kids in Montreal Canadians Jerseys, to big guys in purple “red hat society” shirts, or ladies in “world’s greatest dad” t-shirts. The used clothing market is largely attributed to killing any chance of sustaining textile industries in Malawi and other African countries.

Across from the used clothing ladies, chip sellers line the path.

Photo 7: Chip seller

Continuing on, I pass men laying fish out to dry in the sun, and ladies running little phone booth stations. There are tyre fitters and car mechanics who set up simple shops as well.

Photo 8: Tyre fitter
Photo 9: Car mechanic

Within a 20 m radius, one gets to experience almost the entire meat production process. It is pretty interesting, really. First, there is the heard of goats that is always gathered next to the filling station. They seem to be shipped in every morning by pick up truck; they have their legs tied together and are lain down on the bed of the truck for transport. A short distance away is a tree that I pass on my way to the bus stop. Each morning I walk by they seem to be a different stage in the slaughtering process: sharpening their knives as a goat nervously stands nearby; tying a goat upside by his/her ankles; slitting the throat; draining blood; skinning . . . etc. Sometimes one goat, sometimes two. A short distance away from the tree is the butchering table – a small table, completely in the open (and generally completely covered in flies…) There is always a goat carcass or two strung up, and one being chopped up into bits using what appears to be quite a dull knife. Across from this table are the men with the chip stands. While most are cooking up chips in pools of oil on metal tables, a couple sell fried goat meat and goat “offals” – mmmm.

Photo 10: Goats awaiting their turn
Photo 11: Goat slaughtering tree
Photo 12: Goat slaughtering tree in all its glory
Photo 13: Butcher

Now, continuing along my walk . . . passed the goat slaughtering tree, is another tree of note. On the weekends, the second large tree I pass serves as a barber shop. A man puts up a little cardboard sign saying “barbershop” and pulls up a chair. He seems to have quite the steady stream of clientele, there is always a row of people sitting on stumps by the tree, seeming to be waiting their turn. Across the street, I arrive at the bus stop.

Photo 14: The barber (no clients around at the time!)

I flag the bus down and squeeze myself in. It wasn’t so long ago that it was a much tighter fit. A recent law was passed restricting the number of people allowed per row to 3. Previously, 4 people were squished into rows really meant for 3 – not too comfortable. However, fewer people per ride means higher prices.

A minibus trip to most parts of the city costs 90MK (65 cents). That doesn’t sound like much, but when you compare it to average wages people make in this city, it is huge! Let’s say you need to take a minibus 2 times a day, 6 days a week, 4 weeks a month – that comes to 4320MK per month. Compare that to some typical wages . . . My watchman is paid 2500MK per month, office clerks at my housemate’s work (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) make 8000MK per month. Transportation in this city has become cost prohibitive for many.

By minibus it takes approximately 15 minutes to get into town from this point. It isn’t a terribly thrilling ride . . . We pass a couple of nicely landscaped traffic circle – traffic circles here are amongst the most nicely landscaped places in town. On Saturdays you often see wedding parties using traffic circles for photo ops! Traffic circles are the norm with traffic signals only found at a couple of T-intersections. Traffic signals are called “robots” here. I recall being a little confused overhearing a conversation on the new robots being installed in town when I first arrived…

Photo 15: War memorial. I went to check it out in December, a month after it was officially opened. Even then, plaques were already falling off . . .

Photo 16: Pedestrian bridge over the major road which brings me by minibus (the stop for which is just past the bridge) to work. No one really uses the bridge – the only time I see it being used is by people jogging up and down for exercise.

I crawl out of the minibus (it takes some technique) at my stop which is near the Shoprite and main People’s trading centre (PTC) Old Town. Shoprite is a big South African grocery store chain, while PTCs are a Malawian chain.

My office is a short walk away, and I generally arrive by around 7:15am. I’ve been spending much time in the office recently. I’ve actually moved on to working on a different project now, one which I’ll be writing about soon.

I often get a little peckish around mid morning, and dash out of the office for a quick snack. What I pick up for a snack is often quite seasonal. At present, my current favorite things are: boiled ground nuts (peanuts), which I purchase from ladies that carry basins of them on their head; guavas or green tangerines, which I purchase from men who walk around town with boxes of them for sale; and roasted sweet potatoes, which I purchase from men who roast them on charcoal stoves in the markets.

My lunch hours are busy times, filled with errands. There isn’t much time available in the week to do shopping and the like – stores open and close within normal working hours during the week (typically open between 8 and 5), close around 1pm on Saturdays, and most stay closed all day Sunday. It is pretty frustrating; I don’t know how people get anything done! I’m lucky though; my office is located centrally in the heart of Old Town which is pretty handy. I know my area like the back of my hand, and I have my preferred shops to get pretty much everything I need.

I usually bring leftovers for lunch (the day we got a microwave at my office was very exciting for me), but a day or two a week I’ll go out for lunch. One of my most commonly visited spots is a restaurant in the market called “the Silver Spoon.” I will usually get nsima with vegetables and beans – approximately $0.80 (the price went up recently!).

Photo 17: The Silver Spoon

It gets dark pretty early now, so if I want to get home before dark (which I do!) I need to leave the office by 5:30.

By the time I arrive at home, my watchman is sitting at his post. Most everyone in this town seems to have a watchman. They are key in reducing opportunistic criminals – our watchman has scared off would-be robbers who have lurked by my window on a couple of occasions.

At home I’ll hang out with my roommates for a bit. We usually make supper together – some combination of rice or nsima with veggies and eggs, meat (or tasty soya pieces for me!), fish, or beans. I’m generally in charge of preparing the veggies – my housemates used to squawk about my not using enough oil in my cooking, but they’ve gotten use to it!

I usually bathe during the evening, even though my housemates seem to think this is weird (they always bathe in the mornings). We lack a geezer (a hot water heater) so I put on a big pot of water to boil – I’m not a fan of cold baths! I fill up my trusty red bucket with the warmed water and head to the bathroom where I use a plastic saucepan, a loofah (which grow locally here), and a bar of soap to get squeaky clean before starting my day. I dry off using a piece of chitenje fabric which I wrap around me before returning to my room.

And then . . . off to bed!

Kim's Parents in Malawi!

My parents recently descended upon Malawi. While I don’t think either of them could have imagined that they’d ever visit the African continent, my being here served as enough of an incentive to draw them over!

For their first evening here, my house mates and I had my parents over for supper. We whipped up some Malawian delights – pumpkin leaves with ground nut flour and chicken with nsima. My parents got to try their hand at eating nsima; it requires some technique – my dad was a natural, my mum . . . well, she needed some further instruction (sorry mum!)

Photo 1 – Khala and I whipping up dinner

Photo 2 – Mum and Dad’s first nsima

I rented a car for their visit. I feared being quite the hazard on the road, having not driven in 8 months and needing to drive on the left hand side of the road. Not to mention the fact that driving here poses some interesting challenges, including some potholes that seem large enough to swallow the teeny Toyota Starlet I had rented.

Wanting them to dive right into things, on their first full day in Malawi we headed off to spend a little time in a village. We visited the village I stayed in when I first arrived in Malawi. When I had traveled to the village before, I used a motorbike or Land Cruiser; as such, we were able to drive right up to the village. With our little car, however, we had to do the last bit of the journey on foot. We were told that it was a 2 km walk, but from what I remembered, that didn’t seem possible . . . in fact, it was at least an 8 km walk, and took quite some time. My dad learned the wonders of using one’s head to carry things, he’s a fan!

Photo 3 – Dad showing off: no hands!

The village stay was quite fantastic. Too short, but my parents did get a good taste of Malawian village life. The whole family seemed very happy to see me again, and they were thrilled that I brought my parents.

Photo 4 – Mr. Chisamba showing my parents his groundnut (peanut) field

We stayed in a newly constructed mud hut. I had prepared my parents in advance for the fact that they would have to sleep on a reed mat. I assured them that it wasn't too bad - after the 2 weeks I spent sleeping on one the last time I was in the village, I was almost convinced that I didn't need a mattress at all (though I did end up picking one up when I returned to the city). However, while I had the same bed frame + reed mat combination I slept on last time, my parents were totally spoiled – they had a full bed, mattress and all!

Photo 5 – our hut

We spent our time in there sitting and chatting with people, helping (well . . . we tried to help anyway) with or at least observing various tasks, visiting, etc. My parents learned how to do tasks such as preparing pumpkin leaves for dinner, cooking nsima, pounding maize, taking dried kernels off of corn cobs, etc. There was plenty to fill our time.

Photo 6 – Dekernelling maize

Another major activity was eating . . . In the morning of the day we left, Mr. Chisamba, the head of the family, asked when we’d be needing to leave, and when we’d like lunch. I told him that we had to be off by around 1pm, so, lunch any time before that would be fine. We had had breakfast sometime around 7:30 – 8 in the morning, consisting of big “scones” (buns), biscuits, and tea. Around 10:00 a tray of food was brought to our hut; low and behold, it contained a full meal, consisting of rice, and relishes of tasty soya pieces and vegetables. It was a little early to have such a big meal! After eating what we thought was lunch, we packed up our things. My dad was standing by the doorway when I heard him exclaim: “oh no!” I thought something bad might have happened, so I rushed over to see what was wrong – there I saw Ellis striding over with another tray of food. So, at 11:15, we had our second lunch of the day! This time, nsima, tasty soya pieces, vegetables, and chicken. My parents were still stuffed from the previous meal, and didn’t think they could eat another bite. However, I informed them that it wasn’t really an option - by rules of Malawian etiquette they at least had to have a few bites! This really is just one example of incredible Malawian hospitality – this is not a terribly well off family, but they were so kind and generous with what food they had.

No one in the family asked anything of us; I have heard stories of volunteers returning to rural host families, and finding themselves bombarded with requests for money, cell phones, etc. I came with a bag of staple food items as a thank you for putting us up. We gave them a small gift of cash when we left – the least we could do considering how generous they were with food and everything – but I don’t think it was even expected.

After leaving the village, we were headed to Cape Maclear. We were told that the drive would take us around 2.5 hours. It went well enough for the first hour or so. I drove, and managed to avoid hitting any of the pedestrians, bicyclists, goats, etc that serve as obstacles on the roadways here. Then, we turned onto the M10 highway – which, according to the map anyway, is supposed to be a major highway – for the next 70 km towards Cape Maclear. However, as soon as we turned onto it, the lovely paved roads I had been enjoying abruptly ended, and I found myself crawling at 10 km/hr on a horrible dirt road. I’m still not entirely convinced we were even on the correct road, but I don’t know what else it could have been! The drive from this point took another 4 hours. It was BRUTAL. I was driving the smallest car I’ve ever driven on the worst roads I’ve ever driven on! There were definitely points along the journey I just didn’t think we were going to make it.

The following morning we headed to Mumbo Island, which is an island privately owned by a safari company, a couple kilometers offshore from Cape Maclear. It’s beautiful, bilharzia (a nasty parasite that inhabits the waters along much of the shoreline of the lake) free waters and beach tout (annoying guys that pester tourists relentlessly to buy stupid crafts or use their tour services) free beaches sounded like an excellent part of the lake to bring my parents. We stayed in swank safari tents. It was a lovely little island escape, offering great snorkeling and kayaking, nice walks, and good food.

Photo 7 – Safari tents on Mumbo Island
Photo 8 – My parents and I
Photo 9 – Nice view
Photo 10 –A smaller island just off the beach, where 5 of the 7 tents were located

Our next stop was Liwonde National Park. We participated on walking, and sunset drive safaris. We saw lots of various antelope type creatures, warthogs, birds, and hippos, but sadly the elephants eluded us.

Photo 11 – Hippos!

Photo 12 – View of the river

Photo 13 – Warthogs

Photo 14 – Ungulates galore!

From Liwonde we traveled just a short distance to Zomba. We had meant just to pop up for a cup of tea at a nice hotel on the plateau, but as we were leaving I spied a poster for a nearby stable which offered trail rides on the plateau. We called them up and arranged for an afternoon ride, and checked into the hotel.

Photo 15 - The lovely gardens of the Ku Chawe Hotel

The ride was quite lovely! The stables had been open for a year, but they had only recently started advertising, which is probably why I hadn’t heard about it before. They had 5 beautiful horses; the stable owner said that all but one came from Zimbabwe, rescued after being abandoned when the white farmers were forced out. We went on a ride lasting a couple of hours, through old stands of pine trees and some indigenous forests, passing a few illegal logging camps along the way.

Photo 16 – We had to cross a dam at the beginning of the ride
Photo 17 – It was nice to be back on a horse again!

Photo 18 – After the ride, we were invited back to the stable owner’s home. She had a ridiculous view from her garden.

We then headed to Mulange Mountain, the highest peak in Central Africa. It is a nice spot, a picturesque mountain, especially with the tea plantations at its base.

Photo 19 – Buying dinner supplies in Mulange town. Here I’m buying oil – you can buy oil in little baggies, quite handy for our purposes!

Photo 20 – Mulange mountain with tea plantations in the foreground

I went for a hike to a waterfall – it’s too bad I didn’t have time to hike up to the highest peak, a trek which takes a couple of days by most. After the hike, I went for a dip in the Likhubula pools, a great swimming spot in a mountain stream. We stayed at a nice little chalet, and used the surprisingly well equipped kitchen to prepare a tasty dinner.

Photo 21 – Waterfall on Mulange
Photo 22 – Lukhubula pools

The following day we drove through the tea plantations of Thyolo on our way to Blantyre. Tea is the second most important export crop in Malawi. It is grown mainly in the southern region, particularly in the areas around Thyolo. The tea plantations result in a landscape quite unlike that elsewhere in the country – the tea growing in low shrubs, harvested by workers wearing large baskets on their backs.

Photo 23 – Tea fields in Tyolo, with tea pickers hard at work.

In Blantyre we did some fabric shopping and went out for a very nice dinner. The next day we returned to Lilongwe, stopping in Dedza for pottery and cheesecake along the way.

Photo 24 – St. Michaels and all Angels Church
Photo 25 – My mum picking up some tailoring in Blantyre

Photo 26 – By far, the yummiest dessert I’ve had while in Malawi! Mmmm . . . meringue + macadamia nuts + vanilla ice cream + chocolate and caramel sauce = heaven.

Photo 27 – Emerging from the chaos, as I picked up some produce, somewhere between Blantyre and Lilongwe
Photo 28 – I love the strange combinations you find for businesses here

The following day we went to the Mua Mission and cultural centre, where we learned a lot about the culture and history of Malawi, and purchased some carvings for which the centre is famous.

Photo 29 – Kugoni Cultural Centre

I then sent my parents off on a safari in Zambia, to South Luangwa National Park for 4 days. They did pretty well – they saw the usual elephants, giraffe, zebras, impalas, hippos, crocodiles, etc. As a bonus, they saw some other quite cool things – 2 leopards (beautiful yet elusive creatures!), honey badgers (apparently very rare…), and a python!

We had a couple days of running around Lilongwe before my parents were shipped off to Canada. I'm so glad that they had the chance to come and check out this lovely little country of Malawi, as it is a place that will hold a very special place in my heart long after I leave.