55 year old Ibrahim has always been an industrious and successful farmer; his large iron roofed house is a proud testament to this. But in Malawi’s southern-most district of Nsanje - where Ibrahim lives - Mother Nature acts as a cruel leveler; no one is surviving the current drought ravaging the region.
Ibrahim has faced poor harvest seaons in Malawi. (Photo: CARE)
“I have been working in farming for over 27 years and this is the worst weather we’ve ever had,” says Ibrahim, “we had something similar in 1992 but then at least in March we had some rains but this is different,” he adds.
Despite all his hard work, this season he only managed to harvest a third of his normal yield; with the majority of his crops dying under the scorching sun and lack of rainfall. But this is more than many of his neighbours, and it is thanks in large part to his participation in CARE’s UBALE (United in Building and Advancing Life Expectations) project which promotes modern farming techniques and practices designed to combat climate change.
Ibrahim received special hybrid seeds and vines and has worked on a ‘food for assets’ initiative where he was given oil and peas in return for constructing water harvesting structures designed to stop evaporation of water from the soil. He has been a quick and eager pupil of all these new initiatives; “I have been really encouraged by CARE,” he says, “whenever there is a new technology I would like to learn it and be able to teach others.”
Ibrahim keeps a meticulous record of every time it rains in a notebook (Photo: CARE)
Thinking ahead and building up the resilience, flexibility and understanding of Malawi’s farmers is a crucial element in the ongoing fight against the whims of Mother Nature. With the recent El Nino phenomenon causing widespread drought and hunger across the entire region, nearly 32 million people are finding themselves at risk of hunger.
Ibrahim keeps a meticulous record of every time it rains in a notebook he carries with him, but this year it is a short entry; he shows us the small paragraph on the bottom left hand side of the page where he has documented the dates of only four times it rained this season.
The fears do not end with the season’s poor harvest. Malawi has two planting seasons; the second ‘winter’ season is due to start now when many families would be planting along the lower wetlands, but with the skies remaining clear they are also worried about the chances for this next season’s yield. “We don’t know if the winter rains will come, and we’ve already lost one season…” says Ibrahim. “If we get no rain next season we will have to try and do some other kind of work like collecting firewood, but eventually these will stop and there is nothing to do,” he adds.
For Ibrahim and many like him the coming year will be one of fear, uncertainty and hunger, but they are meeting these challenges with stoicism and strength; “a real farmer has no holiday,” says Ibrahim, “whenever you have time you should focus on doing something and think about what you should do next.”