What Is Successful And Notable About The Kind Of Fair Trade Malawi Offers

By Lila Barry

The concept of fairtrade has become much more well known in recent years, as organisations look to focus on growing sustainable and fair agricultural markets in developing nations. The fair trade Malawi based organisations look to develop is based on providing accessible markets for the country's farmers. Small Malawian farmers contribute almost two thirds of their country's agricultural GDP, so they are an important factor in the nation's growth.

These challenges take a wide variety of forms, and the fair trade programmes which are in operation look to help farmers overcome these. A lack of technical knowledge and limited ability to know how to best improve production are among these challenges. Unreliable access to markets also limits the ability of farmers to allow their businesses to grow in the way which they would like.

The inability to trade in accessible, fair markets has many long term negative consequences for farmers in this part of Africa. The food insecurity which results from it helps to cause poor health in the children of farmers, while being unable to generate a reasonable income limits access to healthcare. Education and other kinds of social service also become much harder to access.

The government of Malawi continues to fight a noble and relatively successful battle against hunger and the ongoing food insecurity much of its population endures, but more support is required. This is why fairtrade organisations in Malawi continue to work with farmers to help them better manage output and the quality of that output. The wider economy of the country, both its agricultural sector and more widely, are strengthened as a result.

Fair trade organisations look to help the farmers in this particular part of Africa address these challenges. One way of doing this is to open up access to markets for small farmers, helping to stimulate demand for their products. They look to build more direct links between farmers and potential customers, which helps to create a more personal sense of involvement, with the relationships allowing a more robust and resilient business plan to develop.

As a result of this work, farmers can make their farms sustainable financially, which adds greater security to their lives overall. Fairtrade organisations began working in Malawi in 1998, and since that date nine organisations have sprung up, all across the country. They work with around 20,000 farmers and other agricultural workers.

Groundnuts are among the crops grown by the agricultural sector in this part of Africa, and tea and coffee are also staples of agricultural production, as is sugar. Fairtrade organisations look to develop markets for these crops, in the ways detailed above. This is done with the hope of stimulating further demand for the farmers' crops, which in turn leads to greater sustainability.

The kind of fair trade Malawi based organisations offer to farmers has helped the country's agricultural base considerably in the decade and a half since the project began in this particular African country. That is not to say that the task has been completed; work is ongoing to continue to build and strengthen meaningful partnerships between producers and potential consumers. Only if this continues, and the relationships and networks become further strengthened and deepened, can a truly sustainable future for the country's farmers be built.

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