The Village That Chose Solar Over Short-Term Aid
In Malawi’s hottest area, Ngabu, hunger often writes the same old story: A disaster strikes, NGOs rush in with aid, and communities line up to receive relief supplies. But in one farmers’ club they dared to flip the script.
Mercy Lapisoni: We can't keep waiting for donor aid, we sold goats to top up procurement of solar pump
When food insecurity hit the area in 2024, the members of Umodzi Club under Village Headman Lupiya made an unusual, even risky, choice.
Instead of buying food with donated MWK 10million money, they unanimously agreed to invest in a solar-powered irrigation scheme turning aid money into opportunity.
“It was painful because hunger was real,” recalls Pastor Alick Steven Bango, the club’s chairperson. “But we wanted a long-term solution. We didn’t want to keep going back to donors.”
With 40 members from six villages, Umodzi Club had already been trained in micro investment including micro-drip irrigation by NCA–DCA with DANIDA support and later benefited from goat management training as well.
They were also provided with goats to raise and sell on a semi-commercial scheme, each receiving about 5 goats.
When a well-wisher donated K10 million to families in crisis, many expected maize bags to roll in. Instead, the group bought a solar pump, drilled a borehole, installed two tanks, laid drip irrigation pipes, and sold 70 goats they had earlier received to buy land and expand the scheme.
They hired a drilling machine that successfully drilled water in the middle of the village and connected it to the drip lateral lines into the field where they now grow diverse crops.
Today, their acre of land has been planted with potatoes, tomatoes, maize, and leafy vegetables. They have already started selling vegetables to the communities around.
Their innovations did not end there. With support from NCA–DCA, the farmers added a biogas digester. What was meant to provide cooking gas for one household became a game-changer for the entire community: the digester produces biofertilizer, cutting costs on chemicals and enriching the soil.
“We dilute and use it across the scheme,” explains Secretary Thomas Galavanta. “It’s saving us money and keeping our soil healthy.”
The change has rippled into homes too. Veronica, Pastor Bango’s wife, now cooks on clean biogas instead of firewood. Neighboring farmers like Tereza Luka, once spending MWK 28,000 a week on charcoal, envied the innovation and have bought their own digesters, dreaming of farms powered and fertilized by biofertilizer – a bi-product of biogas making.
Umodzi Club is also embracing integrated pest management, planting neem, and practicing mixed farming. Their ambitions are growing: Expanding irrigated land, starting banana plantations, and even acquiring a tomato sauce processor to add value and diversify income.
The secret, members say, is ownership:
“When you own the project, you protect it,” says Pastor Bango.
Their story has caught the eye of development partners. NCA–DCA’s Programme Coordinator, Joseph Gondwe calls it “a smart investment in all-smart farming,” encouraging them to grow high-value crops for increased income.
And perhaps the deepest lesson is captured by club member Mercy Lapison, a beneficiary of goats through the NCA-DCA’s Nansen granted project in 2024. In her native Chisena, she challenges the reliance on food aid: “Mangwana atithandize, mangwana atithandize amatopa tayi?” that literally mean:
How long can we keep waiting for donors to feed us tomorrow?
Funded by: Nansen Grant and Danida.
