By Mike Chipalasa:
At age 24, Kennedy Makaika has achieved what many young people can only dream of. After dropping out of secondary school, he has now ventured into cassava production.
Within a short period of time, he has already used his profits from cassava production sales to build two houses and purchase a plot for construction of shops.
Originally from Habati village in Traditional Authority Kanyenda in Nkhotakota, Kennedy started cassava production in 2017 when he was 18 years old after being inspired by a local successful cassava farmer.
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“I looked at what he was doing and how he was prospering through cassava and decided to go into cassava production as well,” explained Kennedy.
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Kennedy was forced to drop out of school in 2016 due to lack of fees, as he was an orphan with no immediate family relations to assist him with school fees.
“I started with one acre of cassava. Cassava is the highest value crop here in Nkhotakota, unlike maize, tobacco, or other crops. I wanted to go for a crop that would give me high returns,” said Kennedy.
Initially, he had little knowledge of cassava production, best practices, and planting materials. All he was doing was guesswork. This meant that there wasn’t much to speak of in terms of increase in yield and incomes.
For the three years he grew cassava without any external support, his income wasn’t enough to meet basic needs and upkeep.
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For example, during the 2019 to 2020 season, he earned a paltry K90,000 from his cassava production, which he admits was lower than expected.
In 2020, Kennedy joined a cassava farmers’ club that worked with Nkhotakota-based African Agriculture Holdings Limited (AAHL), one of the agribusinesses supported by the Centre for Agricultural Transformation (CAT) with funding from the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World through its affiliate the Agricultural Transformation Initiative (ATI).
The club produces and processes cassava starch. AAHL provided club members with training on cassava production, cassava cuttings, and ready markets for the cassava produced.
“As a result of this support from AAHL, I started growing cassava on two acres because I wanted to increase my yield since there was a good market for the crop,” he said.
AAHL provides market to all its target farmers operating in groups to ease their reach and to help them access ready markets.
In the 2020 to 2021 cropping season, when AAHL was buying cassava at K80 per kilogram, Kennedy earned K1.1 million from his produce.
In the 2022 to 2023 season, however, the yield and earnings dropped to K800,000 after selling his cassava to AAHL.
“The yield was low because of delayed planting and failure to apply manure. I learned something from this, so my 2023 yield will be much higher than other years,” he said.
Apart from cassava production, Kennedy also cultivates other crops. “I also grow rice, soya, and maize to diversify my produce and increase my income. If one crop fails due to variable climatic conditions such as poor or heavy rainfall, the other will make up for it,” he explained.
Previously, it was hard for Kennedy to pay his own school fees, but the story is different now for him. He is no longer in school, but he is now able to assist his four siblings with the support they need.
“I thank the CAT, through AAHL, for the training on cassava crop management. They also provided us with planting materials. But now, on my own, I have multiplied the cassava, such that I no longer get any from AAHL. The only thing I get from them now, is the market. Otherwise, I’m now self-reliant,” he said.
With input prices increasing yearly, and in view of the high labour costs, Kennedy’s wish is for the AAHL to consider increasing the price per kilogram so that farmers can benefit more from their toil.
He plans to increase his land size from two to eight acres by subleasing additional six acres using profits realized from cassava production. Furthermore, he is considering buying a pick-up vehicle to help him with his cassava farming and other businesses that he wants to establish at Dwangwa Trading Centre and Nkhotakota Boma in the next two years.
Kennedy is one of the 620 small farmers AAHL has supported with new modern farming innovations and technologies on cassava production to attain high economic yields at both the personal and household levels.
AAHL Factory Manager, Mark Songolo, explained that when the company realized that most smallholder farmers had little knowledge on productivity, they decided to provide them with new technologies and high yield planting materials, which increased number of tonnes produced per hectare.
Songolo’s remarks align with the CAT Impact Survey Report for 2022, which also found that 89 percent of the 46,935 surveyed farmers had adopted technologies, with a 38 percent production increase and 165 percent average revenue increase.
“With CAT, we have reached out to 620 smallholder farmers by helping them increase production and access ready markets,” said Songolo.
CAT Executive Director, Macleod Nkhoma, said the cassava value chain was one of the key crops his organization focuses on because it offers an alternative viable option for diversification. He urges farmers to always strive to increase their production to maximize profits.
