INVC – BRIDGING ACTIVITY END OF YEAR PRESANTATION CADECOM Lilongwe Hotel 29th – 30th June, 2017

PRESENTATION LAY OUT Introduction Progress made on planned activities Challenges Recommendation Progress in pictures

INTRODUCTION Dedza CADECOM in collabollation with IITA with funding from USAID are implementing an Integrating Nutrition in Value Chains (INVC) Bridging Activity project in the districts of Dedza and Ntcheu. In Ntcheu the project is in the Extension Planning Areas(EPAs) of Njolomole and Bilila while in Dedza the project is being implemented in the EPAs of Chafumbwa and Kanyama.

In Ntcheu the project is promoting Soy bean value chain and in Dedza it is promoting Groundnuts value chain. The project is targeting 4,100 beneficiaries in the first year and this will be increased in the next year through seed loan revolving of good seed. Thus 1,000 beneficiaries per EPA in the first year. The collaborating partners in this project are IITA as the donor, MISST, ICRISAT, and DAES.

PLANNED ACTIVITIES FOR THE PERIOD Project staff meeting Verification of project beneficiaries Association meetings Seed distribution Farmer mobilization for trainings

Facilitate Aggregation of crops for marketing Facilitating Seed recovery Conduct Field Days on field management and harvesting. Review meetings with staff Monitoring and supervision

Progress of Planned Activities for the Period ACTIVITY TARGET ACHIEVED COMMENTS Project staff meeting. 1 meeting 1 10 CADECOM project staff attended the meeting. Staff were briefed about the INVC – bridging activity Beneficiary registration 4,000 5,306 2,260m and 3,046 f have been registered in the 4 EPAs Association monthly meetings. 28 meetings 25 The meetings discussed issues like beneficiary registration, seed distribution, seed loan recovery, marketing etc. Seed distribution. 40.0mt 41.5mt Chafumbwa and Kanyama distributed more than what was estimated. 25mt of g/nuts and 16.5mt soy distributed to 3886 beneficiaries.

Trainings Field management   Harvesting Marketing a) for staff and b) lead farmers 4 trainings 1 training 4 1 101 females and 131 males (lead farmers) trained inland preparation , weeding, pest and disease management. These are expected to train their fellow farmers 74f and 75m attended the training on Harvesting and Postharvest Handling 5 CADECOM staff and 4 AEDCs attended the training on how ACE works Lead farmers and selected club leaders were trained on ACE operation and collective marketing. The trainings were done by ACE. 55m, 56f attended the training and these agreed to trickle the message to their fellow farmers.

Facilitate Aggregation of crops for marketing.   200mt soy 30mt Some GACs has not yet given the amount aggregated. The activity is going on. 50mt g/nuts - Farmers have just started aggregating Facilitating Seed recovery. 32mt soy 10mt The recovery is still going on, it has just stated. 30mt g/nuts 5mt Low recovery due to seed germination problems and Aflatoxin attack more especially in Kanyama Conduct Field Days on field management and harvesting 8 Two field days per EPA. The first one on field management and the other one on Harvesting and Postharvest handling. 514f and 506 males attended the field days.

Review meetings with staff 2 1 One to be done later. The aim is to discuss the progress and way forward Data collection There have been 2 data collection exercise in all the 4 EPAs. The first one was on Technology adoption and the other one was on yield. Monitoring and supervision.   These are monthly field visits made by CADECOM project staff, the aim of these visits is to see if lead farmers are training fellow farmers and if farmers are following the technologies that they were trained.

Challenges Low attendance during community trainings (Trainings conducted by Lead Farmers) Poor germination of groundnuts

Recommendation Germination taste should be carried out by the farmers before planting.

Progress in Pictures Famers waiting for seed distribution in Kanyama EPA A beneficiary after receiving her seed

GAP training in progress One of the marketing training in Njolomole

Staff training in marketing at ACE offices in Lilongwe

Fig 6. Aggregated produce and seed recovery

Field days in progress

Adoption of double row planting A farmer in her soy field in Bilila

End of Presentation Thank you