Agroecology in Malawi offers a path to food sovereignty and resilience

Villagers in Nkhata Bay are using agroecological techniques—composting, intercropping, agroforestry and a local fertiliser called Mbeya—to restore soils, diversify crops and generate small local incomes through tree nurseries and produce sales.

A small village in Nkhata Bay District is practicing agroecology to revive damaged soils and strengthen local food systems. Field teams from EARTH Workshops, supported by Butterfly Space, run workshops that train villagers in composting, agroforestry, boxed furrows for water capture, intercropping and making Mbeya, a local fertiliser. The reporting describes visits to Chombe and Singo villages where residents showed compost heaps, tree nurseries and urine storage used to make fertiliser. These activities are organized around local materials, recycled containers and traditional knowledge alongside guidance from field officers. On the ground: - A village shelter stored at least 112 fruit tree seedlings in recycled milk-packet tubes; the seedlings were priced at 3,000 Malawian kwacha (about $1.70 USD) each, which would total about 336,000 MWK (about $195 USD) if sold. - Compost piles are made from food waste, leaves, maize stalks, animal manure, urine and ash; temperature checks and turning are used to assess readiness. - Villagers store urine in reused bottles to make Mbeya fertiliser and to add to compost; demonstrations showed mixing pig and chicken manure, charcoal ash, maize grain and urine to produce a 50 L batch of Mbeya. - Fields employ boxed furrows to capture water, mulch to retain moisture, and intercropping; these techniques produced vegetables and herbal trees on soils previously considered degraded. - EARTH Workshops and Butterfly Space run regular training and community programs; reporting links agroecology’s focus on crop diversification and local inputs to improved food security and greater resilience to droughts and floods, noting indigenous cereals like sorghum and finger millet as part of diversified systems. Summary: Villagers and local facilitators in Nkhata Bay are combining traditional knowledge and low-cost materials to restore soils, diversify production and generate modest income from nurseries and produce. The project’s organizers and participants plan to continue training, scale local production of Mbeya and expand agroforestry and intercropping activities as part of ongoing community programs.