A Japanese concept to help villages in Malawi focus their efforts on producing and marketing a single product has turned around the lives of rural dwellers.
The 'One Village, One Product Programme' (OVOP) is a community-centered, demand-driven regional economic development approach, initiated in a region called the Oita Prefecture in Japan in the 1970s. The approach is unique in that it achieves regional economic development by adding value to products, using locally available resources in processing, quality control and marketing.
Under the OVOP in Malawi, launched in 2003, some rural communities have set up a village food processing plant to produce jams, fresh juices, cassava bread and soya oil, or cooperatives that grow oyster mushrooms, while others have focused on products made from plants found in their area, such as baobab trees, or are even growing rice. Several projects have focused on non-food items, such as palm-oil soaps and brick making.
The government-run programme supports local initiatives with loans to buy processing equipment or packaging, and providing links to markets. OVOP's National Coordinator, Kamia Kaluma-Sulumba, said hundreds of people in Malawi had benefited economically, but "there were a number of challenges to deal with".
"We have received close to 1,000 proposals from different parts of the country. Some of these proposals are asking us to assist farmers or producers to train them on business management; others are asking for loans to buy food-processing equipment," she said, adding that they often lacked the staff to process applications to help more people.
Timothy Kaupembe, a rice farmer in Ntcheu District, in Malawi's Central Region, said: "This scheme was open to the villagers in the late [19]90s. [In] early 2000, government, with assistance from the Japanese government, improved the scheme and many farmers were allocated plots on which to grow rice. As if this was not enough, government introduced the OVOP programme in about two years."
About 2,000 farmers in the district have taken up growing rice in a cooperative effort under OVOP. Once the rice is harvested it is packed in quality plastic bags and sold in towns and cities.
Kaupembe, who started growing rice in 1999, said he could now support his three children with his earnings, and the programme also taught farmers about packaging and marketing.
"We are happy with the support we have received from government, under the programme. We have learned new techniques of producing quality rice, and because of this many of us have bought bicycles, built brick houses with iron sheets on top and are sending our children to school; something which our forefathers failed to do," added Kaupembe.
Leah Mphepo, a mother of six from Guluanenenji village, also in Ntcheu District, said, "In the past I had lots of financial problems, but when I started farming in the scheme ... some of those problems [were solved]. I am now able to feed my family well, pay school fees and take care of household needs."
She said government support had helped: OVOP gave communities in the area a rice-milling machine on loan and the farmers, who had formed the Bwanje Cooperative Society, would pay back the money once the machine started operating.
More marketing needed
The villagers were afraid they might not have adequate markets for their produce. "We are now producing so much rice, but we do not have markets where we could sell it," said Kaupembe. "[We] want to start exporting the rice and I hope government will continue helping us find foreign markets."
Kaupembe said most of the rice produced by the scheme, despite being of high quality, was sold cheaply on local markets because the cooperative did not have market links elsewhere.
OVOP's Principal Rural Development Officer, Sphewe Mauwe, said they were aware of the problem. "OVOP is helping hundreds of people across the country; rice farmers in Ntcheu are just one of the many examples of the many local people we are supporting in Malawi."
She pointed out that some honey producers were now exporting to neighbouring countries, such as Mozambique, while other products had even been exported to Japan. OVOP marketing advisor Kachio Fukui said, "We will try as much as possible to find markets for their products, even outside the country."
Since its launch in 2003, some 46 projects have helped improve the lives of almost 9,000 rural dwellers in one of the poorest countries in the world. Malawi is ranked at 166 out of 177 countries in the 2006 Human Development Index of the United Nations Development Programme.
Monday, 14 May 2007
Mom and son plan another ’bags of hope‘ trip
Watching a slide show about his trip to Malawi on his mom‘s laptop, Jaako Polkki dances in his seat.
Arms waving above his head, he sings along quietly to the African voices projected from the computer.
On-screen, photos show the boy with the mop of white-blonde hair surrounded by Malawian children, handing out his “bags of hope” to kids his own age and younger.
Nine-year-old Jaako and his mom Sue returned in February from a trip that saw them buy truckloads of food and farm animals to donate to villagers in rural Malawi.
An exhausting illness after she got home – a parasite picked up in Africa – meant Sue has only felt back to normal in the last week.
It was a visit to his family‘s church last May by a missionary from Guatemala that led Jaako to creating Hope for Malawi.
He and his mom appealed to the public and to their church, hosting yard sales and meals.
They raised $32,000, well shy of Jaako‘s $800,000 goal, and 2,000 cloth bags full of small toys, pencils, notepads and candy.
Mom and son intend to continue raising money, and have tentatively chosen June 2008 for their next trip.
“We went there to help them and they ended up teaching us so much,” said Sue.
Beyond the foot-long centipedes and crossing flooded rivers, she‘ll treasure memories of her son‘s compassion and watching him emerge into a self-confident person who took charge of roomfuls of people.
The day after landing and being met by their host missionaries in Lilongwe, the southeast African country‘s capital, mom and son went to market.
They bought 75 50-kilogram bags of maize along with sugar, oil, rice and other staples.
Over three weeks, they visited 10 rural villages to distribute the food through church or community leaders.
Canadian donors had pledged money for chickens, oxen and goats. Sue and Jaako bought them at each village.
That program, they discovered, was a bit stressful, as they struggled to find 63 chickens, 45 goats and two oxen – and keep track of exactly how many they‘d already given away.
Also, because it was the rainy season and crops weren‘t in yet, what people really needed was maize, noted Sue.
“There are things we will do again and things we won‘t do,” she said. “But all the money donated went to good use.”
At each village, they arrived in two trucks with their interpreter, usually at the community church or school – or the building that was both.
Church leaders had organized groups of children to meet Jaako, but everyone in the villages showed up.
Ritual greetings and exuberant singing and dancing – Jaako taught them English songs as well – were involved at every meeting.
At every village, Jaako handed out hundreds of his bags of hope.
“We always ran out,” said Sue. “It was so heartbreaking.”
The visitors brought blades and fashioned hockey sticks from branches.
“Well, it was good to have a translator,” said Jaako about teaching hockey to people who speak another language. “I‘ll just say that.”
Arms waving above his head, he sings along quietly to the African voices projected from the computer.
On-screen, photos show the boy with the mop of white-blonde hair surrounded by Malawian children, handing out his “bags of hope” to kids his own age and younger.
Nine-year-old Jaako and his mom Sue returned in February from a trip that saw them buy truckloads of food and farm animals to donate to villagers in rural Malawi.
An exhausting illness after she got home – a parasite picked up in Africa – meant Sue has only felt back to normal in the last week.
It was a visit to his family‘s church last May by a missionary from Guatemala that led Jaako to creating Hope for Malawi.
He and his mom appealed to the public and to their church, hosting yard sales and meals.
They raised $32,000, well shy of Jaako‘s $800,000 goal, and 2,000 cloth bags full of small toys, pencils, notepads and candy.
Mom and son intend to continue raising money, and have tentatively chosen June 2008 for their next trip.
“We went there to help them and they ended up teaching us so much,” said Sue.
Beyond the foot-long centipedes and crossing flooded rivers, she‘ll treasure memories of her son‘s compassion and watching him emerge into a self-confident person who took charge of roomfuls of people.
The day after landing and being met by their host missionaries in Lilongwe, the southeast African country‘s capital, mom and son went to market.
They bought 75 50-kilogram bags of maize along with sugar, oil, rice and other staples.
Over three weeks, they visited 10 rural villages to distribute the food through church or community leaders.
Canadian donors had pledged money for chickens, oxen and goats. Sue and Jaako bought them at each village.
That program, they discovered, was a bit stressful, as they struggled to find 63 chickens, 45 goats and two oxen – and keep track of exactly how many they‘d already given away.
Also, because it was the rainy season and crops weren‘t in yet, what people really needed was maize, noted Sue.
“There are things we will do again and things we won‘t do,” she said. “But all the money donated went to good use.”
At each village, they arrived in two trucks with their interpreter, usually at the community church or school – or the building that was both.
Church leaders had organized groups of children to meet Jaako, but everyone in the villages showed up.
Ritual greetings and exuberant singing and dancing – Jaako taught them English songs as well – were involved at every meeting.
At every village, Jaako handed out hundreds of his bags of hope.
“We always ran out,” said Sue. “It was so heartbreaking.”
The visitors brought blades and fashioned hockey sticks from branches.
“Well, it was good to have a translator,” said Jaako about teaching hockey to people who speak another language. “I‘ll just say that.”
Tanzania to construct Mbamba Bay port jetty
The Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) has invited international firms to tender for the construction of the Mbamba Bay port jetty to ease transportation of goods to Malawi and Mozambique.
The Authority says work on the landing jetty at Mbamba is expected to start this year.
The 1,265 hectares port will be developed to hasten the movement of goods for import and export creating an import corridor for Malawi which dominates the Mtwara Port. The goods include sugar, tea, tobacco, coffee, timber and coal.
In its 2005/2006 to 2009/2010 corporate strategic plan, TPA says that most of the ports on the lake, which were taken over by the Authority last year, will be improved as infrastructure is dilapidated.
The Authority’s Director of Planning Jane Kitilya told The EastAfrican that the Mbamba Bay port was on track.
She said most of the ports’ infrastructure was in pretty bad shape, and need urgent repair.
“This will sustain continuous growth of port traffic and cope with technological changes in shipping industry,” she said.
The Mbamba Bay port is located on Lake Nyasa about 170 kilometres from Songea town in Ruvuma region and 70 kilometres from Mbinga town.
It operates as a sub-office under Itungi port.
President Jakaya Kikwete said recently that plans to open up southern regions’ economies to Malawi and Mozambique will be undertaken in a few months’ time along with the completion of the Songea-Mbamba Bay road and construction of a landing jetty.
He said after completion of the road project, the government will build the Mbamba Bay port to a higher status as a southern gateway of Ruvuma.
“Currently, the port is in a bad shape and its handling system was not designed to tap all earnings,” he said.
The Mbamba bay port is one of Tanzania’s 10 inland ports, which is run by the TPA. Others include Mwanza, Bukoba, Kemondo Bay, Musoma, and Nansio, which are on Lake Victoria.
Others are Kigoma, Kasanga, which are on Lake Tanganyika. The other ports are Itungi, Liuli and Mand, on Lake Nyasa.
The Authority says work on the landing jetty at Mbamba is expected to start this year.
The 1,265 hectares port will be developed to hasten the movement of goods for import and export creating an import corridor for Malawi which dominates the Mtwara Port. The goods include sugar, tea, tobacco, coffee, timber and coal.
In its 2005/2006 to 2009/2010 corporate strategic plan, TPA says that most of the ports on the lake, which were taken over by the Authority last year, will be improved as infrastructure is dilapidated.
The Authority’s Director of Planning Jane Kitilya told The EastAfrican that the Mbamba Bay port was on track.
She said most of the ports’ infrastructure was in pretty bad shape, and need urgent repair.
“This will sustain continuous growth of port traffic and cope with technological changes in shipping industry,” she said.
The Mbamba Bay port is located on Lake Nyasa about 170 kilometres from Songea town in Ruvuma region and 70 kilometres from Mbinga town.
It operates as a sub-office under Itungi port.
President Jakaya Kikwete said recently that plans to open up southern regions’ economies to Malawi and Mozambique will be undertaken in a few months’ time along with the completion of the Songea-Mbamba Bay road and construction of a landing jetty.
He said after completion of the road project, the government will build the Mbamba Bay port to a higher status as a southern gateway of Ruvuma.
“Currently, the port is in a bad shape and its handling system was not designed to tap all earnings,” he said.
The Mbamba bay port is one of Tanzania’s 10 inland ports, which is run by the TPA. Others include Mwanza, Bukoba, Kemondo Bay, Musoma, and Nansio, which are on Lake Victoria.
Others are Kigoma, Kasanga, which are on Lake Tanganyika. The other ports are Itungi, Liuli and Mand, on Lake Nyasa.
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