Mchinji Area Smallholder Farmers Association (MASFA), Malawi
Introduction
Sorting nuts, MASFA©Anette Kay
The Mchinji Area Smallholder Farmers Association, MASFA, was established in 2001, with the support of the National Association of Smallholder Farmers in Malawi (see NASFAM below). It brings together 200 local groundnut farmers, aiming to improve market access and prices, share expertise and give the farmers a collective voice.
In 2007, MASFA became a shareholder of Liberation Foods CIC, a UK-based nut company which is part-owned by the producers of the peanuts, cashews and brazil nuts that it markets.
MASFA
Membership of MASFA has now grown to almost 1,000 farmers, formed into village level societies, known as clubs, of up to 20 members. The association is democratically run and its main objective is to increase the income its members receive for their crops. A key benefit of membership is a stable market for their crops, as MASFA buys their groundnuts and soybeans and rents a warehouse where the goods can be stored ready for transport.
In the 2006-07 season, MASFA paid its members 70 Malawi Kwacha per kilo (33 pence) for their groundnuts. Before the association was formed, farmers were paid as little as 8 MWK (4 pence) per kilo and often had to deal with unscrupulous buyers who fixed their scales to cheat farmers out of a fair price. To ensure transparency, MASFA uses standardised scales which are checked and certified by the Malawi Bureau of Standards.
MASFA runs capacity building programmes including training in crop production, business skills, and management of the clubs. It also organises awareness-raising programmes on issues such as gender equality and HIV/AIDS.
Like most nuts in Malawi, MASFA nuts are grown without the use of chemical fertilisers or pesticides and are hand-shelled, ensuring any black or shrivelled nuts are removed. In Mchinji, groundnuts are the main cash crop; they are a traditional crop, well suited to the fertile soils and favourable climate, and with low input costs. Most farmers also produce soybeans, maize and tobacco, and some grow cotton. Some MASFA members are also experimenting with chillies as a potential export crop.
In the 2005-06 season, MASFA and its members faced the challenge of a serious drought which meant a dramatically reduced yield. Currently, the biggest difficulty for the association is cash flow - raising enough capital to buy the crops from its members after harvesting.
As in most districts of Malawi, there is abject poverty in Mchinji; the majority of the people live in basic mud huts and, compared with other African communities, they have few animals. Mchinji has a population of more than 300,000 families, around 95% of whom are smallholder farmers. Health and education facilities are available, with most schools being within 5 km of the community homesteads, but many of these facilities are in an acute state of disrepair and suffer from a lack of resources and trained staff.
MASFA is a shareholder of Liberation Foods CIC, a Fairtrade nut company established in the UK by Twin Trading and Equal Exchange. Both of these organisations have been working with marginalised nut farmers since the early 1990s, helping to build their capacity and the quality of their production. In 2007, Liberation Foods began selling Fairtrade certified nuts on the UK market. As well as peanuts from Malawi and Nicaragua, Liberation Foods markets cashews from India, El Salvador and Mozambique, and brazil nuts from the rainforests of Peru, Bolivia and Brazil.
The groups who grow and gather the nuts form the International Nut Co-operative, and together own a 42% share of Liberation Foods, making them part-owners and enabling them to participate in the direction of the company. When the company goes into profit, the farmers will receive a dividend on their shares. It is highly unusual for farmers, who often have no say about where to sell their product and at what price, to have a voice in directing the company and to benefit from its success.
Benefit of Fairtrade
As well as receiving the Fairtrade minimum price for their groundnuts and a more stable market, MASFA farmers receive the additional Fairtrade premium to spend on projects agreed by the members.
The first major project to have been completed in Mchinji is a guardian shelter at the hospital where people visiting sick relatives can stay. The hospital was built 20 years ago for a district population of 275,000, but, in reality, sick and injured people come to the hospital from farther afield, including over the border in Mozambique and Zambia, so that it now serves a population of around 600,000 people.
After travelling long distances, sick people or pregnant women often had to wait for treatment out in the scorching sun. In particular, there were no facilities – no water, nowhere to cook, no beds – for guardians accompanying their relatives. The brick shelter which was completed in 2008 means a huge change for the people who provide food and comfort for the sick and injured.
Some of the premium money has been used to pay off the association’s debts, putting it in a much stronger financial position. Plans for future funds include building new field storage units so that MASFA no longer has to pay rent for the warehouse to store the groundnuts; dry, secure units, constructed to a high standard, will better protect the nuts and ensure the quality of the crop.
Improving quality is a priority for the farmers so training in quality management is another area for future spending. In addition, new hand shelling machines will lead to an improved output with less time and effort. The members intend to repair some key roads to facilitate the transport of their produce. It is also envisaged that the premium could pay for more boreholes to be drilled in the area, bringing cleaner and safer water and resulting in fewer diseases.
NASFAM
NASFAM, the National Association of Smallholder Farmers in Malawi, works to strengthen and improve agricultural production by smallholder farmers in the country. It was through the encouragement and support of NASFAM that MASFA was established.
In 2000, NASFAM carried out a survey of farmers who were producing groundnuts as a cash crop. The survey identified many issues which weakened the position of the producers, such as the lack of accurate weighing machinery and the lack of transport for bringing nuts to market. Groundnut production was perceived as women’s work and the nuts were not marketed as a business. NASFAM encouraged the smallholders in Mchinji to form an association, and MASFA was born. By working together it is possible for the farmers to get a higher price for their crop, invest jointly in equipment and capacity building, and access regional and international markets.
NASFAM has been very successful in promoting this model of collective action across Malawi with producers of chilli, paprika, cotton, rice, soybeans, maize and tobacco. As a member-owned and not-for-profit organisation, NASFAM offers a wide range of benefits and support: access to resources and technical training; domestic and international marketing of members’ produce; providing information on aspects of farming as a business and a tool for community development via their twice-weekly NASFAM radio programme, quarterly newsletters and specialist crop bulletins.
The focus of NASFAM’s work is the empowerment of farmers. The services it offers encourage self-reliance and promote the strengthening of farmer businesses through value-added processing and diversification. Until 1990 smallholders in Malawi were prohibited from cultivating certain high-value crops, but today NASFAM works together with the Malawi Government as an advocate for the concerns and interests of smallholders, and is able to lobby for favourable agricultural policies.
Buy Fairtrade Nuts
You can buy nuts from Malawi carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark
Co-op,
Liberation,
Sainsbury's,
Tesco
Fairtrade Foundation November 2008
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Look for the FAIRTRADE Mark on products. It’s your guarantee that disavantaged farmers and workers in the developing world are getting a better deal.