SINGLE MOTHER ESCAPES DESTITUTION

All odds were against Makulata Sinkayika from Sonkhwe in Nyanja EPA in Lilongwe. As if being single and penniless was not enough, she suffered economic exclusion. She could not get any loan to support her farming, let alone her child’s education.

She was duly identified as needy and registered on the national subsidy programme, but could not buy the fertiliser due to programme hiccups and the ever-shrinking number of targeted beneficiaries the government could afford. She had no fallback plan. She lived hand to mouth in a grass-thatched, mud-walled house.

SAPP I brought a flicker of hope with chickens, but she dreamed of more.

“I received 10 chickens from SAPP I. The chickens multiplied, assisted my family and supported my kid’s education, who is now in Form 3 in secondary school,” she disclosed.

With the inception of SAPP II, her dream has grown. It has become even better with the RED component supported by International Fund for Agricultural Development.

“I now want to grow more crops for sale to buy oxen and an oxcart,” she said.

While SAPP I assisted her to produce more and get income for her family needs, El Niño weather had eaten into all the successes of the previous years as her area experienced dry spells two years in a row. El Niño

While she had constructed a better iron-roofed house, she had no food. However, her story has changed.

“Luckily in SAPP II I have benefitted from the subsidized inputs. I have planted certified seed and I am expecting to harvest over 80 bags of maize from my acre. Previously, I could get less than half of that. I used to farm without extension services and now I get the help.

“Now I know it is possible to grow enough food and I want to grow legumes too to use the proceeds to buy oxen and an ox-cart,” she concluded.