She Could Only Feed Her Children Once a Day. Sarah's Story.

Every parent wants to provide the basic needs of their children. Not tobe able to feed our children is the stuff of nightmares. But many rural Malawi farmers face that nightmare every dry season from October through February. AWP club member Sarah Maganizo could only manage to feed her family one meal a day when rainfed season was past each year, let alone pay her children’s school fees. One bad harvest meant her family would struggle with malnutrition all year. Fear of crop failure was a source of constant stress for her. For Sarah, this is food insecurity meant for her family.

Eventually, Sarah realized that other families in her village–people who were not so different than herself–were able to have food throughout the year because they were practicing irrigation agriculture. She urged her husband that they should start irrigation farming as a way of generating food for the household as well as income for other domestic needs. 

Armed with information about irrigation techniques, and supplied with a rope and washer pump from AWP, Sarah planted beans and leafy vegetables like pumpkin leaves, rape, and Chinese cabbage.

Her household now eats three meals a day.

Plus, she has managed to buy a bicycle through the income sales of her leafy vegetables have generated. She figures the profits from her bean crop should buy a goat.

Having the technology to accomplish irrigation farming is a relief for Sarah. “This year I did not harvest much during the rainy season,” she admits. “But I am not stressing, because I have food from my irrigation garden which I feed my family. In the past I could not manage to do so.”