Duration: 2013-2015
Budget: 400.000
The Government of Flanders decided to allocate a new contribution to the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Malawi. This organisation has been one of the partners of Flemish development cooperation since 2009.
Duration and budget
A contribution of 400,000 euros is charged to the 2013 budget. The programme will start in the spring of 2013 and will last three years.
Problem definition
Deforestation is a huge problem in Malawi. Agroforestry is internationally recognised as a means to achieve better food security and a higher income for farmers, without putting forests under even greater pressure. ICRAF is working on the integration of forestry into sustainable agricultural practices in view of an improved food production among smallholder farmers.
Practical implementation
The Irish development cooperation (Irish Aid) believes in agroforestry as well and has been cooperating with ICRAF for a number of years now. Therefore, Irish Aid has approved a second phase of the Agroforestry Food Security Programme (AFSP). Flanders wishes to join this in order to further enhance the programme. The Flemish contribution will allow ICRAF to also implement the AFSP in Kasungu and Mzimba. For some time now, projects have been running in these districts with the support of the Government of Flanders.
This initiative will build on the experience gained during the CATS Bank project of ICRAF. However, the AFSP has a wider scope than CATS Bank where the main focus was on the development of seed banks.
The cooperation with the Department of Agricultural Extension Services (DAES) will be another objective of this programme. The cooperation with DAES has been ongoing since 2009 to improve the capacity of agricultural extension workers and more specifically to strengthen the Department of Agricultural Extension Services (DAES).
Partner
World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)