Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative
Climate Change Adaptation Practices for
Smallholder Farmers’ Livelihood Security
in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi
African Technology Policy Studies Network

POLICY BRIEF No. 36
Tennyson Magombo
George Kanthiti
Grace Phiri
Mutisungirire Kachulu
Hilda Kabuli

Machobane Farming System and its Relevance to Climate Change Policy in Lesotho I1

2 I Machobane Farming System and its Relevance to Climate Change Policy in LesothoIncidence of Indigenous and Innovative
Climate Change Adaptation Practices for
Smallholder Farmers’ Livelihood Security inChikhwawa District, Southern Malawi
Tennyson Magombo

University of Malawi,
Bunda College of Agriculture,
P.O Box 219, Lilongwe, Malawi.
African Institute of Corporate Citizenship
P/Bag 382 Lilongwe 3, Malawi

George Kanthiti

Ministry of Industry and Trade, PO Box
30366, Capital City, Lilongwe

Grace Phiri

Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security,
Department of Agricultural Extension
Services, P.O Box 594, Lilongwe, Malawi.

Mutisungirire Kachulu

United Nations Development Program(UNDP), Environment, Climate Changeand Energy Cluster, P.O Box 30135,Lilongwe 3, Malawi.

Hilda Kabuli

Chitedze Agricultural Research Station
P.O Box 158, Lilongwe, Malawi.

August 2011
Machobane Farming System and its Relevance to Climate Change Policy in Lesotho I3

The African technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) is a multidisciplinary network of researchers,private sector actors andpolicy makers promoting the generation, dissemination, use andmastery of science, technology and innovation )ST&I) for African
development, environmental sustainability and global inclusion.
ATPS intends to achieve its mandate through research, capacity
building and training, science communication/dissemination andsensitization, participatory multi-stakeholder dialoque,knowledge brokerage, and policy advocacy.
Published by the African Technology Policy Studies Network
P O Bx 10081, 00100 GPO Nairobi Kenya© 2012Published by the African Technology Policy Studies Network

ISBN: 978-9966-030-34-4

4 I Machobane Farming System and its Relevance to Climate Change Policy in LesothoTable of Contents
Acknowledgement					1.
Introduction					2.
The Body					3.
Conclusion and Policy Options		

455
6

Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation
Machobane
Practices
Farmingfor Smallholder
SystemFarmers’
and itsLivelihoodRelevance
Securityto Climatein Chikhwawa
ChangeDistrict,Policy
Southernin LesothoMalawi I53Acknowledgement
This study was conducted as part of the implementation of the African Technology
Policy Studies Network (ATPS) Phase VI Strategic Plan, 2008 – 2012 fundedby ATPS Donors including the Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken (DGIS) theNetherlands, Rockefeller Foundation, amongst others. The authors hereby thankthe ATPS for the financial and technical support during the implementation of thestudy. The Authors specially thank the ATPS Climate Sense Program Director,
Dr. Kevin Urama (ATPS); and the Program Coordinators including Prof. Francis
Mutua (ATPS Kenya); Dr. George Owusu Essegbey (ATPS Ghana), Prof. Eric
Eboh (ATPS Nigeria), Dr. Nicholas Ozor (ATPS), and Ms. Wairimu Mwangi (ATPS)
for their technical support during the research process.
The authors are also very grateful to Mr. Emmanuel Mponda, and Mr. Peter
Zimba of Evangelical Lutheran Development Services (ELDS) for their technicaland logistical support towards the study. The authors cannot keep quite without
being grateful to Chawanangwa Munthali, Barbette Juwayeyi, Veronica Kuwela,
Thokozire Mvula (all BSc graduates from Bunda college of Agriculture of theUniversity of Malawi), who assisted the research team in collecting good quality
data from farm families. Many thanks should also go to Department of Climate
Change and Meteorological Services for providing rainfall data for Chikhwawa,
which was used in the analysis. The list is too long of individuals and organisations
that were key in providing necessary information for the study; authors are saying“THANK YOU” to you all for your cooperation and support.
Finally, authors extends their sincere gratitude to farm families and chiefs inChikhwawa district who cooperated with enumerators and provided the necessary
data that would take a long way in informing decision making processes for totaltransformation of people’s livelihoods in Chikhwawa district and beyond.

6 I Incidence
4
Machobaneof Indigenous
Farmingand
SystemInnovativeandClimate
its Relevance
Change Adaptation
to Climate
Practices
Changefor Policy
Smallholder
in Lesotho
Farmers’ Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi

1.

Introduction

Prolonged dry spells or droughts and floods as a result of climate change are aserious problem for smallholder farmers in Malawi, because agriculture is theirmain livelihood strategy. Food shortages and low income levels due to climatechange impacts mean inability of farmers to actively participate in the day to day
economic activities. Low income levels can also be translated into lack of accessto basic needs of life that require to be purchased with money. Farmers that havemainly been affected with this problem are those that have land allocations inthe Shire River Valley in Chikhwawa and Nsanje Districts. Understanding of theindigenous and innovative climate change adaptation strategies would assist
smallholder farmers, policy makers, civil society organizations and the private
sector to design programs that could assist farmers to build resilience against
climate change impacts for their sustainable livelihoods. The most pressing
question, that this research work tried to address was: What are the indigenous,
innovative and emerging climate change adaptation technologies for smallholder
farmers’ livelihood security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi? This researchwork, therefore, assessed the incidence of indigenous, innovative climate change
adaptation strategies for smallholder farmers’ livelihood security in Chikhwawa
district, Southern Malawi. Factors that affect adoption of such strategies were also
analyzed and discussed.

2.

Body

The study revealed that crop diversification, eating a wild tuber plant called nyika(Nymphea petersiana), applying organic manure to agriculture fields, mixed cropand livestock farming; small scale irrigation are the main indigenous climate change
adaptation strategies being adopted by households in the study area. The study
also shows that household size, landholding size, total annual household income
level, access to inputs and output markets, months household had no maize orsorghum as a proxy to food insecurity level, and access to agricultural extension
services are the major factors or household characteristics that significantly affectadoption of indigenous climate change adaptation strategies in the study area.
It was so clear from the analysis that access to agricultural extension services
Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation
Machobane
Practices
Farmingfor Smallholder
SystemFarmers’
and itsLivelihood
Relevance
Securityto Climatein Chikhwawa
ChangeDistrict,Policy
Southernin LesothoMalawi I75strongly and significantly affects the probability of households adopting most of
the identified climate change adaptation strategies.
It is evident that among other identified climate change adaptation technologies,
eating of a wild tuber plant known as Nymphaea petersiana and commonly known
as nyika came out as the second main indigenous climate change adaptation
strategy practiced by about 56% of households in the study area. Market accessby a household (where distance to the market was used as a proxy) proved tohave a positive effect on the odds ratio that a household eat nyika during hardtimes when a household had run short of staple and other food crops (p=0.099).
The shorter the distance to the market the more easier a household have accessto the market and the higher the probability that a household would buy nyika fromthe market and eat where there is no maize, sorghum and other food crops. This
also implies that most households get nyika from the market and very few perhaps
fetch it from the shire river -a very dangerous venture since a lot of crocodiles arereported in Shire river. Nyika is an aquatic plant, thus domesticating it means
integrating aquaculture. Nyika will ensure starch food availability while aquaculture
will ensure protein food availability and increased incomes for the household . The
fish ponds would also serve as a rain water harvesting technology and conserved
water could be used for irrigating other horticultural and field crops for bothhousehold food security and income.

3.

Conclusion and Policy Options

In terms of policy implications, the identified indigenous climate change adaptation
strategies should be promoted by the farming communities, responsible government
departments, the donor community, civil society organisations as well as the private
sector, if farm families in the study area and other areas in Malawi are to build
resilience against climate change impacts and have sustainable livelihoods. The
government of Malawi through Ministry of Agriculture and Food security should
also improve on the agricultural extension services delivery system and develop
messages that aim at promoting adoption of climate change adaptation strategies
being identified.

8 I Incidence
6
Machobaneof Indigenous
FarmingandSystem
InnovativeandClimate
its RelevanceChange Adaptation
to Climate
Practices
Changefor Policy
Smallholderin Lesotho
Farmers’ Livelihood Security in Chikhwawa District, Southern Malawi

Innovative collective action institutional set ups could be explored so that they
assist in reinforcing adopting of good farming practices and influence communaland household’s behavioral change in favor of climate change impacts mitigation
and adaptation.
Domesticating nyika and recognizing it as a formal food crop would ensure
household food security and improved farmer’s adaptive capacity to climatechange impacts. Domesticating Nyika would also ensure conservation of its
genetic resource which currently is at a threat of being over exploited since many
people fetch it for food and for the market.

Incidence of Indigenous and Innovative Climate Change Adaptation
Machobane
Practices
Farmingfor Smallholder
SystemFarmers’
and itsLivelihood
Relevance
Security
to Climatein Chikhwawa
ChangeDistrict,
PolicySouthernin Lesotho
Malawi I97

10 I Machobane Farming System and its Relevance to Climate Change Policy in LesothoMachobane Farming System and its Relevance to Climate Change Policy in Lesotho I11The African technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS) is a multidisciplinary network of researchers,private sector actors and policy
makers promoting the generation, dissemination, use andmastery of science, technology and innovation )ST&I) for African
development, environmental sustainability and global inclusion.
ATPS intends to achieve its mandate through research, capacity
building and training, science communication/dissemination andsensitization, participatory multi-stakeholder dialoque,knowledge brokerage, and policy advocacy.

African Technology
Policy Studies Network

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Science, Technology and Innovation
for African Development

12 I Machobane Farming System and its Relevance to Climate Change Policy in Lesotho

ISBN: 978-9966-030-34-4