Project aim

The government of Malawi, supported by the European Union through Farm Income Diversification Programme Phase II (FIDP II), aims at improving the livelihoods and nutritional status of rural households in Malawi through increased and diversified agricultural production, and better market access.

In this project, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), is engaging with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Small Scale Livestock and Livelihood Program (SSLLP), in the three districts of Balaka, Chiradzulu and Thyolo in Malawi over a period of 42 months.

The overall goal of the project is to increase income and livelihoods for small-scale farmers, rural poor, women and rural youth through sustainable intensification and diversification of affordable plant- and animal-based food and fuel production.

The project objectives are to:

  1. Improve farmers’ access to resources, technologies, information and markets by characterizing and strengthening selected crop and livestock value chains in three districts in Southern Malawi.
  2. Increase productivity of smallholder crop-livestock farming systems by identifying and adapting technologies and associated production and harvest management practices.
  3. Improve the value chain enabling environment at all levels including targeted capacity building to enhance group performance and stimulation of small- and medium-scale enterprises.

With this website we inform key stakeholders in the agricultural sector, comprising women and men farmers, rural extension, development, business and private sector organizations, higher level decision and policy makers, the general Malawian public and the European Union as the donor of the Action about the project’s implementation strategies and its intended outputs, outcomes and impacts.