Friday 5 April in Malawi-835 pm
Hello. It has been a while since I have been on. Busy couple of days. Tuesday am started south to visit grain warehouse in Balaka. Nice, clean, personable manager. Pioneer maize plot along side, just like home--EXCEPT these are being dried in the ear on 10x 10 cloths. Then shell and if needed dry again. Flint corn. We grow dent in US. Very pretty, transparent.
Some farmers come from 35kg away. Some next door. Some farmers get their inputs subsidized, some do not. It is a bit complicated.
Farmers typically grow maize for household consumption and if extra for cash. Also may grow soy, or ground nuts, or sesame. When I asked the question irt what rotation was used.?? Answer was every 5 years we switch from maize. Very interesting.
Next stop was a warehouse built on one of several MILLENIUM VILLAGES in Africa. Millenium Villages is a concept that you intensely pump funds and inputs into the community and "kick start" the economic engine. This place on the surface seems to be positive. Excellent warehouse manager. Well trained and experienced. They deal with 7000 households. There are pods of around 1000 and each has a rep on the board. Hard to imagine.
Also a staffed hospital. Dr nearby--this is predominantly used for expectant mothers.
Group has a system of subsidized inputs which are paid back in kind out of crop. Extra maize is stored or sold if board deems that there is excess beyond village needs. Lots of new wells in the area---for you Monticello folks, dont know if this is part of what Paul Evans has done down here or what area he was in.
In the restaurant in the evening we met some men who were there to work on irrigation systems--this is surface irrigation from the Shire River.
Most of this trip was fascinating--- One thing----the phrase "the pedestrian has the right of way" has no meaning here----I mean NO meaning. Peds and cyclists are on each side of the paved highway. When two cars pass, the automatic action is to HONK. There is no thought about slowing down. And the cyclists and peds seem to be trained to get off the road/shoulder. I do not know who is crazier--the driver or the peds and cyclists.
Got back to Lilongwe, the capital city, on Wednesday evening.
Thursday 4 April.
Short am meetings with WFP(World Food Program) of theUN. And with SGS, the third party inspection service that is world wide.
In the afternoon, had an appointment with Central Poultry Feed Mill Manager. Explained about the ACE warehouse receipt system and practices. CP is going thru a major expansion in trying to serve the poulty mkts of Mozambique(which is like the next state for you US folks) and in Malawai. They will need to import or expand local production. they will also need to be more nimble storage operators. I think the whr system could help him--And I think that CP could offer a forward pricing system.
Friday doing reports.
Saturday--big day---will go to a Malawian wedding reception. Guess we are pretty important--got the invitation today. Some of the expats suggest that this is a deal to get people to bring money.
This country is a(maiz)ingly bueatiful. Have enjoyed the travels by and large. Just hope we can get some leadership to emerge from the community to try to drive an enterprise to profitability and success. The west and Europe are and have thrown a lot of money at these situations.
Jim Traub
No comments:
Post a Comment