MALAWI – Several years ago there was a credit card commercial with the recurring theme of priceless. So what does that have to do with World Renew’s work in Malawi? Read on.
Farmers in Southern Africa frequently request help accessing fertilizer. Their soil is highly degraded and in need of regeneration. But as the population rapidly grows, less arable land is available to allow for proper fallow. Fertilizer is expensive and, if you borrow money to buy it and the rains are irregular, then it will have been wasted and the end result is greater poverty. What can be done?

Farmers in Southern Africa frequently request help accessing fertilizer. Their soil is highly degraded and in need of regeneration. But as the population rapidly grows, less arable land is available to allow for proper fallow. Fertilizer is expensive and, if you borrow money to buy it and the rains are irregular, then it will have been wasted and the end result is greater poverty. What can be done?

ESPANOR, World Renew’s partner in Mozambique, helps people there to establish village savings and loan associations with the express purpose of saving for the purchase of agricultural supplies like fertilizer. During a recent visit, savings group members shared with me that, thanks to their savings group, they now did not have to go into debt to buy their seed and fertilizer. By saving money together throughout the year, sudden or seasonal expenses are less of a struggle to afford.

In Malawi, people there have found another way to access fertilizer. As we traveled across the country in April visiting the Church in Community programs, we kept hearing one thing over and over again. In village after village, people were grateful to have learned how to make their own fertilizer.

Eagle Relief and Development, World Renew’s local partner in Malawi, has taught people how to make their own fertilizer by mixing maize husks, ashes, manure from small animals, and even human urine to a very small amount of chemical fertilizer. Now farmers need just 5 kg of chemical fertilizer for every 45 kg of these easily-obtained base materials to enrich their soil.

Some community members were initially quite skeptical. “At first,” says one farmer “people thought this cannot help, but now they have seen how well people harvested. Even though we had a prolonged dry spell this year, people who had applied their homemade fertilizer were able to harvest something.”

“In the past,” chimes in Pastor Gibb, “I used to harvest 1 or 2 oxcarts of crops. This year, because I applied homemade fertilizer, I am expecting to fill 4 or 5 oxcarts!”

An informal poll I conducted showed that one third of the people in the room were actually using their own urine — what a great use of a free powerful resource!

One man summarized well the value of what they have learned: “This is a priceless thing that we have received,” he said. “It is God’s grace that brought it to us!”

And He used you and World Renew to make it happen.

Blessings,

Steve Sywulka

Team Leader
World Renew Southern Africa