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Hunger
| Most years Malawi does not produce enough food to support the population. Almost all of the farming relies upon the natural rainy season allowing only one growing season per year. When I spoke with Fraxson, a Malawi agriculture graduate, he said the results of a study indicated if Malawi farmers could produce 50% more maize it would feed the entire country, refill the national grain silos, and allow surplus for export to surrounding countries. I asked him what was holding back the maize production and he said, 'irrigation'. Fraxson said in college he learned about crop rotation and irrigation among other things, but he said the irrigation equipment was too expensive for the village farmers to buy and use. A way to bolster the farming production is through irrigation via economical wooden windmills. A wooden panemone windmill costs a maximum of K6,000 (Kwacha in Malawi US$40) which can irrigate 1/4 acre which will produce aproximately K15,000 - K20,000 worth of crops in one growing season. So within one growing season the wooden panemone windmill pays for itself making it an economicaly viable solution. With irrigation successive plantings of crops can yield continual harvests year round in the Malawi climate. With inexpensive handmade wooden windmills farmers are freed from the limited three-month rainy season and the perpetual droughts which plague the Southern Afrcia Region. |
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