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Malawi Food for Progress is a four-year plus nine-month extension, $11 million investment made possible by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and implemented by Land O’Lakes International Development. Using a private sector-led approach and operating from 2011 – 2016, the program worked with 68,091 smallholder farmers to increase their production of cassava, rice and small livestock through improved technologies, including irrigation.

The program also promoted dietary diversity, hygienic practices and proper nutrition among farming families, and reinforced techniques

for improving on-farm production via use of mobile SMS/text campaigns, radio broadcasts, billboards, and other information and communication technology (ICT) interventions. In addition to creating a robust six-month sustainability plan prior to the program’s end, Land O’Lakes also worked with farmers to establish 1,414 Village Savings and Loans (VSL) groups with a total of 35,774 members. Collectively, they have harnessed the power of their own community to save a cumulative MWK 781,449,306 (US $1,647,960) and have made loans worth MWK 526,440,000 (US $1,110,180) to community members.

Executive Summary

Malawi Food for Progress Impact Report

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Background

For more than 15 years, Land O’Lakes has been helping rural Malawian households improve their incomes and nutrition, while enhancing the competitiveness of local agribusinesses. From 1999-2006, the USAID-funded Malawi Business Dairy Development Program boosted rural incomes by increasing the number of rural poor households deriving their main livelihood from dairy. By 2006, members of the program’s eight milk bulking groups grew their herds from 400 improved breed cows to a total of 6,674 cows by scaling up artificial insemination efforts and instituting a pass-on scheme. As a result of the year-round income facilitated by dairy, project farmers’ household incomes increased by $606 per year.

Building upon that program’s success, the Malawi Dairy Development Alliance (MDDA) reduced poverty and hunger and supported more than 14,000 farmers in 23 milk bulking groups, through which farmers accessed credit, inputs and markets across the dairy value chain. The program concurrently worked with 14 private sector input and service providers to improve their product offerings to meet the productivity-enhancing needs of smallholder farmers. It also facilitated the creation of the

country’s first livestock insurance product. Concurrently, through supplemental funding provided by the General Mills Foundation, from 2008-2009, Land O’Lakes served porridge fortified with smallholder farmers’ milk to almost 2,900 primary schoolchildren, including HIV-affected orphans and vulnerable children, which increased school enrollment by 21 percent.

In addition to the USDA-funded Malawi Food for Progress Program, which has improved production and profitability for rice, cassava, poultry and goat farmers from 2011-2016, we are also implementing the Livestock for Resilience (L4R) program, which is funded through USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, from 2014-2016. This initiative is enhancing the resilience of 30,000 vulnerable individuals in Central Malawi through improved production and management of chickens and goats, scaling up veterinary services, and by increasing their savings and financial literacy.

Our History in Malawi

Program Overview

Since 1981, Land O’Lakes International Development has applied an integrated approach to international economic development that capitalizes on our parent company’s 94 years as a leading farm-to-market agribusiness. We use our practical experience and in-depth knowledge to facilitate market-driven business solutions that generate economic growth, improve health and nutrition, and alleviate poverty. We believe in the value of people and ensuring our work is rooted in honesty, integrity and respect. Our vision is to be a global leader in transforming lives by engaging in agriculture and enterprise partnerships that replace poverty with prosperity, and dependency with self-reliance.

Since our inception, we have implemented more than 280 programs and training initiatives in 80 countries, which have enabled farmers and agribusinesses to become more profitable and to leverage economies of scale through well-functioning cooperatives and producer groups. Funded primarily by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), our programs not only improve production and food security for smaller farming operations, but they foster innovation, market linkages, and strengthen the private sector. Ultimately, they make small and growing enterprises in developing countries more attractive for investment, and build consumer demand for agricultural products produced by smallholders.

About Land O’Lakes International Development

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Malawi’s largely agrarian economy contributes to the livelihood of 85 percent of its population. But, weak infrastructure, limited arable land and destructive weather patterns have contributed to food insecurity for many of the country’s residents. Although a good deal of international assistance in Malawi focuses on providing aid to the poorest of the poor, the approaches employed have not necessarily moved Malawian farmers out of a subsistence mindset, or inculcated the idea of how to begin farming as a business. Many of these efforts have also failed to look beyond farm-level production to create the market linkages necessary to incentivize consumer and private sector demand for what smallholders produce.

In contrast, Land O’Lakes’ efforts in Malawi have worked to promote a commercial mindset among program’s clients – incentivizing them to begin investing in their own growth – no matter how resource-poor they are to begin with. Through the US $11 million, USDA-funded Malawi Food for Progress program, Land O’Lakes has been working in the lakeshore districts of Salima and Nkhotakota to increase the viability of the rice, cassava and small livestock value chains. From improvements in production practices that are increasing yields, leveraging economies of scale by strengthening cooperatives and producer groups, improving access to productivity-enhancing inputs and services, facilitating improved access to market information, and building consumer demand for locally produced commodities, the program

has created sustainable linkages that will ensure improved incomes for farmers well beyond the life of the program.

Treating smallholder farmers in Malawi as businesspeople facing common commercial challenges, rather than as charitable beneficiaries of donor funding, was a paradigm shift, and required changing existing mindsets among government extension workers, private sector partners and, most importantly, among the farmers themselves.

To take part in the program, Land O’Lakes required that program participants have some productive assets at the outset. Participants in the rice and cassava value trainings had to already have land upon which to farm. Meanwhile, to become eligible for accessing improved breed goats or the goat pass-on scheme, clients had to be existing goat farmers, and had to first build an improved, raised structure for housing goats.

Additionally, we also incorporated SMS, radio broadcasts, billboards, and other information and communication technology (ICT) interventions to reinforce the campaign and techniques for improving on-farm production.

As a Food for Progress program, activities were partially funded both by Commodity Credit Corporation funds and by proceeds from the sale of donated U.S. agricultural commodities, including 7,295 Metric Tons (MT) of crude degummed soybean oil. The program included

Program Overview

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Objective 1: Improved Agricultural Production and Nutrition

Land O’Lakes exceeded its target of 51,000 to assist 68,091 smallholder farmers, entrepreneurs and private sector partners in the rice, cassava, and livestock value chains. Efforts focused on increasing production by adopting improved, profitable technologies and sound agronomic or production practices. Additionally, we provided nutrition education to 15,022 caregivers (exceeding the target of 10,000) to promote dietary diversity, safe hygiene and good nutrition, while also linking farming families to nutrition services available within their communities.

Objective 2: Strengthened Farmer Organization Capacity

We facilitated market linkages and provided business planning and organizational governance trainings to 230 producer groups, exceeding the target of 200.

Objective 3: Strengthened Agribusiness and Support Services

To successfully strengthen and develop the targeted value chains, Land O’Lakes increased the effectiveness and sustainability of private sector and government support service providers. Additionally, we engaged financial service providers to increase agricultural credit products, and other services for smallholder farmers.

Land O’Lakes achieved most of the program’s targets six months before the program was slated to close, and met or exceeded nearly all outstanding targets by time the program culminated in February 201.

Acknowledgements from Malcolm Hatley, Chief of Party

Program Overview

The success of this program can be attributed to the people who contributed their time, effort and support; the funding provided by the USDA; and the target groups within the communities in which we worked, who were hungry for knowledge and support. It was their ability to grasp new ideas, however small, and put them into practice that was truly the real reward in seeing this program through. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge all the stakeholders, too numerous to mention by name, most notable of which are the field and operations team, who made it happen.

the following objectives and activities, with achievements as follows as of September 2015:

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Report Card Results vs. Targets

Indicators Target Actual Difference

Percentage of the trained farmers who have applied improved practices

50% 65% 15%

Cassava 50% 55% 5%

Rice 50% 73% 23%Small livestock, chicken and poultry 50% 67% 17%

Farmers receiving short-term agricultural productivity support

51,000 68,091 17,091

Cassava 24,000 17,799 -6,201

Rice 15,000 27,308 12,308Small livestock, chicken and poultry 12,000 22,984 10,984

Farmer groups, associations, and coops strengthened

200 205 5

Sales transactions executed between buyers and sellers

250 450 200

Village Savings and Loans groups created 1,400 1,414 14

Individuals with a savings account or insurance policy (FTF indicator)

30,000 35,774 5,774

Strategic plans developed with key businesses 7 12 5

Program Scorecard

**NOTE**: Data and facts contained herein are accurate as of September 2015 and independently verified by external evaluator, Kadale Consultants, Ltd.

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Program Design

To improve the quality and quantity of what farmers produced, as well as household nutrition, Land O’Lakes engaged in a number of activities in Salima and Nkhotakota districts that focused on maximizing the potential of each value chain at the farm level. This included training farmers on improved practices and technologies, building the capacity of Lead Farmers to provide

support within their communities, using our YankhoPlots™ methodology to demonstrate the results between traditional versus improved farming practices, and upgrading six rice irrigation schemes. We also facilitated farmers’ access to improved varieties of rice and cassava, and promoting access to improved breeds of livestock.

Component 1: Improved Agricultural Production and Nutrition

It starts with farmers

In Malawi, communities nominate Lead Farmers, who are then trained in improved farming practices and technologies. The expectation is that these farmers will pass on their new skills and knowledge to their neighbors beyond the life of any foreign assistance program. Originally established by the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Development, many organizations working in the country have adopted the approach of working with and through Lead Farmers. Land O’Lakes used this approach in the Malawi Food for Progress program, as well, by working in partnership with 295 Lead Farmers—200 Lead Farmers in Crops (LFCs) and 95 Livestock Lead Farmers (LLFs) and 300 Nutrition Farmer Group Leaders (NFGLs).

Via a cascading approach, we started by offering the Lead Farmers a robust, four-week, value chain-specific training. Formal education in crops covered innovations in efficiency, value-addition,

on-farm post-harvest management, sustainable land management and other topics. Trainings for LLFs focused on goat and poultry production and livestock feeds and feeding. NFGLs learned how to take anthropometric measurements (height and weight) and read, complete, and interpret the new child growth charts included in the Malawi health cards. This train-the-trainers program included testing to ensure quality and reliability of information retained. Skilled and knowledgeable, the Lead Farmers then trained other farmers via farmer field days and on-farm demonstrations in their localities.

Ultimately, this tiered approach exposed 68,091 farmers to new ideas and technologies that improved agricultural productivity. These efforts were done in partnership with local government extension workers, and buttressed by our signature training approaches offered via YankhoPlots™.

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Program Design

Crops

We demonstrate our recommended new and improved agricultural management practices alongside traditional farming practices, so that farmers who come to project YankhoPlot™ sites can see for themselves what works best. We operate by the farmers’ maxim: “Don’t tell me, show me; because seeing is believing.” These sites are modeled after the Answer Plot® approach developed by Winfield Solutions, a Land O’Lakes, Inc. business unit that is a leader in sales of inputs and crop protection products. (Yankho is the Chichewa word for Answer).

During widely-publicized farmer field days at YankhoPlot™ sites in Salima and Nkhotakota, LLFs, LFCs, government extension agents, and Malawi Food for Progress staff members demonstrate how to properly prepare land for production of rice or cassava via improved practices and technologies. Practices are activities that farmers can implement without a cash investment, such as proper weeding techniques and changing plant spacing. On the technology side, we work with private sector input suppliers and the national crop research institutes to demonstrate how productivity increases with the purchase of use of improved seeds, fertilizers and crop protection products. Farmers can then make asset-based decisions to determine which interventions they can afford, and to understand the approaches that don’t require any cash investment.

In addition to YankhoPlot™ farmer field days, to introduce flexibility, Lead Farmers create smaller, household mini-YankhoPlot™ sites on their farms. Via these satellite sites, Lead Farmers reach additional farmers in more rural areas by reducing barriers related to travel and childcare needs.As a result of seeing how improved practices and new technology led to larger harvests at YankhoPlots™ and mini- YankhoPlots™, 55 percent of cassava and 73 percent of rice farmers applied improved practices or new technologies to 21,511 hectares of land (out of a target of 21,900 hectares).

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A Value Chain Approach to Cassava

Malawi’s weather conditions make growing crops difficult, because droughts and floods detrimentally impact potential yields. In such climates, growing cassava can be advantageous, because it is drought-tolerant. Furthermore, as this root vegetable develops below-ground, like carrots, post-harvest storage facilities are less critical. When and if needed, farmers can leave cassava tubers in the ground until they are ready to transport them from the farm to market.

Whereas farmers in Malawi traditionally grew “sweet” cassava varieties used for snacks, Land O’Lakes promoted “bitter” varieties such as Sauti, Manyokola, Mulola and Sagonja, which deliver higher yields and have shorter maturation periods.

To help facilitate the transition from growing sweet to bitter varieties, Malawi FFP distributed 140,870 bundles of cassava cuttings and trained farmers on techniques such as soil type identification, land preparation and timing, weeding, fertilization, and others. More than half of the cassava farmers trained have applied improved practices, and 12,786 of the target 13,140 hectares are under improved technologies or management practices. The target number of hectares has not yet been reached because farmers can only expand landholding in cassava and rice value chains by clearing away other crops, which we discouraged given the program’s commitment to nutrition and dietary diversity.

Our approach starts with farmers, helping them to improve the quality and quantity of their crops and linking them into producer groups.

Through Farmer Field Days at our YankhoPlots(TM), Lead Farmers enable farmers to compare the results of traditional and improved farming approaches.

We connected producer groups to cassava processors, which peel the tuber and process it into flour and animal feed.

The processed cassava flour is then incorporated into baked goods and other consumables. Cassava flour can reduce dependency on wheat exports, and costs a fraction of the price.

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A Value Chain Approach to Cassava A Value Chain Approach to Rice

Throughout Malawi—not only in Salima and Nkhotakota—producers often save their seeds from one season to use in the following season. Although it may seem counterintuitive, this practice actually reduces farmers’ incomes, because recycled seed produces smaller yields when used year after year. By contrast, certified seed varieties boost farmers’ productivity.

To increase productivity throughout the rice value chain, Land O’Lakes is training farmers in preparing land for growing rice, water level management, and growing certified rice varieties. High-quality seed is vital for increased agricultural productivity. To ensure the availability of certified rice seed and provide a new source of income for smallholders, Land O’Lakes partnered with Lifuwu Research Station—Malawi’s only government institution authorized to oversee quality control in rice seed production—to multiply Nunkhire rice seed at Lipimbi Irrigation Scheme in Nkhotakota District. Nunkhire produces higher yields and matures earlier than Kilombero and Faya, two varieties traditionally grown in Malawi. Land O’Lakes also upgraded the rice fields with irrigation pipes and canals, which have helped the group maximize 14 hectares of land for growing, compared to the previous seven hectares they were using before.

Through these initiatives, Land O’Lakes was first to enable smallholder farmers to multiply certified rice seed in Malawi, which we later linked to an agro-dealer and rice processors with an out-grower scheme. In addition to Lipimbi, Land O’Lakes also leveraged existing infrastructure by upgrading irrigation schemes at Bua, Mpasanjoka, Lifuliza, Chiwale, and Namatchichi—including legally registering these sites as Water User Associations (WUA) with the Malawian government.

As with cassava, we helped rice farmers improve on-farm production, and worked with lead farmers to demonstrate improved practices and varieties of rice.

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We also worked to upgrade six irrigation schemes and created water user associations.

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Our approach starts with farmers, helping them to improve the quality and quantity of their crops and linking them into producer groups.

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Through Farmer Field Days at our YankhoPlots(TM), Lead Farmers enable farmers to compare the results of traditional and improved farming approaches.

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A Value Chain Approach to Livestock: Poultry

To improve the quality of local chickens to be consumed for meat, Land O’Lakes initially began distributing Mikolongwe Black Australorps cocks—a breed promoted by the Malawian government and many NGOs—to breed with local chickens. However, the improved breed requires higher management and feed needs. If not met, mortality rates increased. As a course correction, and as a more appropriate addition to CLHWs’ household income, we changed our strategy to distribute `point of lay` chickens. One of the advantages of prioritizing chickens as layers over as a meat source is that there is a resulting

continuous income stream from egg sales, as long as farmers have access to sufficient markets for the eggs.

We introduced a total of 9,000 chickens in the target districts and trained Livestock Lead Farmers on disease control, chicken house construction, improved feeding practices and other topics. In addition to income from egg sales, the lead farmers estimate they earn approximately MWK 19,000 per month ($39) for services provided to chickens.

Approximately 42 percent of the world’s poor rely on livestock for their livelihoods. Land O’Lakes promoted improved goat production and the establishment of a pass-on scheme, as well as improved animal care and husbandry. In the poultry value chain, we supported farmers’ increased egg production as an additional source of household income, and disease prevention efforts.

Small livestock such as goats and chickens are more drought tolerant and less costly to raise and manage than dairy cattle. They also reproduce far more quickly than cattle, thus enabling farmers to have more productive assets and less vulnerability when they need to sell one quickly for cash.

In our Malawi FFP program, Livestock Lead Farmers play two major roles. First, they are extension workers who advise farmers on managing livestock and husbandry. Second, by working as Community Livestock Healthcare Workers (CLHWs), they provide services such as castration and de-worming, which is significant both because these paid services increase the CLHW’s household incomes, and because they help supplement the dearth of formal veterinary services in-country.

NutritionWe support human and animal nutrition to ensure that both farmers and their productive assets can grow and thrive as part of a “One Health” focus. In Malawi FFP, our main nutrition activities include leveraging the skills of Nutrition Farmer Group Leaders (NFGLs), by setting them up to train other women in the community via cooking demonstrations at Farmer Field Days, within VSL groups, and among Farmer Groups. We also work in partnership with the Malawian government by training Health Surveillance Assistants (HSAs) to identify malnourished children within their communities and refer them to local health care facilities for interventions as necessary. The main screening activities take place at the YankhoPlots™ farmer field days, an innovate approach to reaching farmers close to their homes. Via MWP, Land O’Lakes trained 300 NFGLs, who trained 15,022 caregivers (exceeding the target of 10,000) in hygiene and nutrition.

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A Value Chain Approach to Livestock: Goats

To be eligible to receive improved goats, farmers had to be existing farmers and build raised structures for disease prevention and fertilizer collection.

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Local markets like Exipa Fresh Foods appreciated having convenient access to a fresh supply of quality meat - which has improved sales to consumers.

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We trained lead farmer paravetinarians to perform deworming of goats and other efforts to promote animal health and disease prevention.

Working in collaboration with the Malawian Government’s Department of Animal Health and Livestock Development’s Central Veterinary Services unit, Land O’Lakes helped farmers in Nkhotakhota and Salima to access 2,665 improved breed goats. These cross-bred, high-quality breeds were sourced from other districts in Malawi. The program instituted a pass-on scheme whereby each recipient had to ‘pass-on’ one kid born to another family in their community, thus placing an additional 1,261 female kids with farming families.

To ensure goats remained strong and healthy, we also trained the Lead Farmers on de-worming, improved breeding, improved feeding systems, and housing of goats in raised structures. Called kraals, the structures facilitate collection of manure that can be used as fertilizer and assist with disease prevention. The Livestock Lead Farmers estimate that they earn between 8,000-16,000 Malawian Kwacha (MWK) (US $16 to 33) per month from the services they provide to goat-farming families in their communities and at YankhoPlots™ farmer field days.

A food safety and consumer awareness component to the program includes the refurbishment of two abattoirs at the District Centers. This is significant because, in Malawi, traditional methods of slaughtering animals can be unhygienic and antithetical to food safety. The upgrades include effluent drainage, hanging hooks to avoid storing animals on the ground, and other improvements that help ensure a safe and reliable market of meat inspected by the government. In addition to the abattoir upgrades, the program brokered an agreement with Salima-based butchery EXIPA Fresh Foods, to facilitate purchasing farmer groups’ goat and poultry to sell to their customers.

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Through the upgrading of two abbatoirs, and in collaboration with government health inspectors, we were able to ensure that safe food reached consumers.

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Village Savings and Loan Groups

Many farmers encounter barriers in accessing traditional loans and supplemental funding from formal financial institutions. This is due to a dearth of collateral, a lack of credit histories, and very high interest rates. As a result, farmers reinvest any revenue from the previous harvest back into their businesses to enable the next harvest. They then sell crops to vendors as soon as they are ready. Although this may generate faster income in the short term, it has a negative long term impact because vendors offer relatively lower

prices—and, thus, less income to farmers—when crops are in greatest supply. We knew farmers could command higher prices from their crops if they could hold on to them until when they are in shorter supply and higher demand; yet, farming families would still need income as they waited. Consequently, Land O’Lakes worked to enhance farmers’ access to finance by harnessing the power of the community.

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Program Design

Component 2: Strengthening Farmer Organizations

By building economies of scale, Malawi FFP brought large groups of farmers together to work collaboratively at both production and marketing of their commodities. The main activities Land O’Lakes undertook to strengthen farmer organizations included identifying and forming Farmer Groups, engaging in Farmer Group Capacity Assessments, monitoring progress towards capacity improvement through the Performance Measurement and Management (PMM) system tool, training Farmer Groups based on the AgPrO Manual and Modules, and facilitating farmer groups in formalizing sales and other deals.

Farmer Group Capacity Building

Land O’Lakes has created a farmer association and business development curriculum that serves as a step-by-step guide to the process of cooperative development. We used this tool, the Agricultural Producer Organization (AgPro) Manual, to strengthen 205 Farmer Groups, and provide training to an additional 25. Each group had membership numbers ranging from 100-1,400 farmers. Together, they

learned how to effectively address issues of governance, strategy, business planning, market identification, collective selling and more.

The program’s sustainability plan includes training of trainers and government officials, which further builds capacity and positions the groups for sustainability.

Grants

To stimulate demand for produce from Malawi FFP farmer groups, we developed matching grants with 21 agribusinesses in Nkhotakota and Salima. The grants also encouraged further local investment in using cassava (such as

incorporating High Quality Cassava Flour into products) and rice processing.

Land O’Lakes also facilitated ‘meet the buyer’ events and market linkages to assist Farmer Groups to sell to new buyers.

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Program Design

Component 3:Agribusinesses and Support Services Strengthened

Beginning with the end market in mind, Land O’Lakes’ activities to strengthen agribusiness and support services included input supply development, agribusiness development, food safety and consumer awareness, and other strategies.

Market Linkages

Land O’Lakes recorded a total 450 sales transactions between buyers and sellers, including rice sales to processors, cassava cuttings, cassava sales to processors, and livestock sales. As an example, by promoting cassava varieties that can be used in a wider variety of applications, Malawi FFP created and leveraged market linkages such as that Nkhotakota Cassava Processors Association (NCPA), which began buying fresh cassava from Malawi FFP-trained farmers that they processed into High Quality Cassava Flour (HQCF). NCPA then sold HQCF to a Salima-based company, Lakeshore Bakery, which incorporated the cassava flour into baked goods as a substitute for more expensive, imported wheat flour. NCPA also sold cassava

flour to Ndatani Premier Feeds – one of the 14 input and service providers that Land O’Lakes International Development’s former USAID-funded Malawi Dairy Development Alliance supported – which in turn incorporated it into its animal feed products. Other linkages include EXIPA, which buys goat meat from livestock farmers whose animals were slaughtered at the abattoir supported by the program.

In the previous year, more than half of the smallholder farmers supported by the program reported they sold produce, meat, and eggs. Rice farmers were most likely to sell, followed by cassava and livestock farmers, at 67.1%, 48.3%, and 43.4% respectively.

Ndatani Investments was one of the private sector market players that purchased cassava flour from the Nkhotakhota Cassava Processors Association, using cassava produced by Malawi Food for Progress project farmers

Lessons Learned, Best Practices and Innovations

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Lessons Learned, Best Practices and Innovations

Adapt the program to make course corrections as needed. Effective project development, execution, and evaluation require well-laid plans. At the same time, it is often difficult to accurately ‘blueprint’ the complexity, nuances and the dynamic nature of any development intervention completely at the proposal stage. Therefore, Land O’Lakes augmented certain approaches during the life of the program to ensure robust program outcomes. This included adding to the poultry to the livestock value chain to reach more farmers, and then switching from chicken broilers to layers to reduce poultry mortality and expedite

income generating activities from farming them. We also adding mini-YankhoPlots™ to the program, to create a durable site on Lead Farmers’ land that would last beyond the life of the program. We also made VSLs a significant feature of Malawi FFP to help stimulate financial capital among farming households and producer groups, which enhanced their ability to invest in their farming ventures. This flexibility enabled us to incorporate new learnings throughout the program’s implementation, and ultimately made Malawi FFP’s interventions more effective.

Use change agents.

Land O’Lakes is to able to achieve what we believe will be long-lasting impact and considerable outreach due to the knowledge, skill, and capacity of Lead Farmers, Nutrition Farmer Groups Leaders, and Village Agents. Working with these three existing structures

of community-level change agents enabled us to mobilize and access a wider swathe of the targeted communities, which delivered considerable reach for the investment, and promoted sustainability without added program costs.

Engage the private sector.

Malawi FFP’s matching grants facilitated change more widely and more sustainably by partnering with existing businesses in target communities to adapt their business practices so as to better link up with locally produced commodities. This included working with them to better understand the factors limiting their previous purchase of

local commodities, improving their packaging and marketing to better appeal to local consumer preferences, collaborating with them on outreach, and assessing new and innovative uses for locally produced commodities (such as using cassava for animal feed).

Work with the Government and the context.

Land O’Lakes engaged with the Malawian Government at multiple levels and across numerous areas to ensure the program’s interventions were congruous and supported existing governmental approaches to agriculture, livestock, health and irrigation. This not only helped ensure the program’s relevance and appropriateness, but working to support the success of agreed-upon government priorities will help ensure they continue to

receive support after the program ends. Within the media campaign and resources developed or distributed for improved practices and nutrition training, we not only converted them to Chichewa, we also adapted AgPrO modules to speak to Government of Malawi standards, and also replaced the guide’s existing images of farmers around the world with those of Malawian farmers.

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