Alton Climate Action Network’s sustainable agriculture centre in Malawi has completed its first training course for local farmers.

On August 16 the Gumbi Alton Permaculture Project - supported by ACAN donors since 2020 – finished the six-day course for 15 farmers from villages in the Gumbi area of the country in southern Africa.

Most rural households in Malawi - one of the poorest countries in the world - are subsistence farmers growing maize to make a type of porridge called nsima.

But when there is no rain they go hungry. The Permaculture Community Training Centre’s mission is for them to have food every day.

Jenny Griffiths from ACAN said: “The centre in Malawi aims to empower local communities with the knowledge and skills of permaculture, fostering sustainable living through organic food production, biodiversity enhancement, afforestation, clean energy adoption and climate-resilient agricultural practices for lasting food security.”

The ACAN-supported 2.5-acre demonstration farm grows a wide range of fruit trees and crops organically and has a training kitchen with solar-powered stoves.

With money from ACAN donors the centre’s team of farmers, led by Martin Thole and local chief village headman Edwin Mponela, were trained at the Permaculture Paradise Institute in Malawi under director Luwayo Biswick and are spreading sustainable agricultural practices across a wide area around Gumbi.

More cash is needed to help subsistence farmers improve irrigation and to pay for a demonstration farm motorbike for visits to distant homestead farmers to help them implement permaculture.

On August 23 The White Hart in Holybourne hosted its Music for Malawi community fundraiser, with drumming and face painting in the afternoon followed by four bands in the evening.

James Gomani from Malawi, supported by Jenny Griffiths from ACAN, gave a presentation about the Permaculture Community Training Centre to the annual international online Sustaining Impact Summit conference, organised by the African Social Enterprise Workshop, on August 28.