Farmers in Dowa District have expressed gratitude for the Improved Communities, Livelihoods Resilience for Healthy Lives (FAI) project, saying it has helped them access new markets, improve economic self-sufficiency and increase food production.
One of the beneficiaries, Maria Nkhoma, told Malawi Voice on Friday at the 2026 National Agriculture Fair in Blantyre that the combination of technical capacity building, irrigation support and structured market access has improved their livelihoods and strengthened their ability to adapt to climate change.
“We have really benefited. Since last year in August, they encouraged us, strengthened us, inspired us, trained us and gave us seeds. These seeds have given us huge harvests this year,” she said.
Nkhoma added that the FAI project gave them an opportunity to participate in the 2026 National Agriculture Fair, which has helped them learn new farming methods and how they can apply them in their fields.
“We have seen how other farmers are progressing as far as agricultural resilience is concerned. In Dowa, natural disasters affect us heavily each year, but through the FAI project, we are now able to know which drought-tolerant crops to grow and which crops can do better during heavy rains. This has also boosted our food production,” Nkhoma added.
The FAI project is being jointly implemented by the Circle for Integrated Community Development (CICOD) and Oxfam, with financial support from Foundation Assistance Internationale (FAI).
Launched in 2025 and set to run through 2027, the project targets 1,200 households within Mponela Extension Planning Area (EPA) in Dowa District. It relies heavily on the Farmer Field School (FFS) model to promote agrobiodiversity, irrigation farming, and the cultivation and consumption of local food plants using climate-smart agricultural practices.
In her remarks, Oxfam Senior Project Officer Chimwemwe Chilenga said the FAI project promotes food production by equipping farmers with techniques to withstand climate shocks while expanding their income opportunities.
“We are promoting food production through the provision of solar pumps and local seeds since they are easy to manage. While our partners treat and manage health issues, we focus on empowering those same beneficiaries with a platform to sell their products so that they can have food security, nutrition and income required to live a healthy and better life,” she said.
Chilenga added that they are complementing the health-focused DREAM project by working on the livelihoods of the same beneficiaries, focusing on food security, nutrition and helping farmers to market their products.
She therefore advised farmers to adopt crop diversification and plant climate-resilient crops to cope with climate shocks, including the forecasted 2026 El Niño.
Through the Oxfam-implemented FAI project, farmers exhibited raw produce including sorghum, millet, cassava and yellow maize, together with packaged products and other farm goods.
