Increasing Mitigation Productivity and Adaptation through Climate-Smart techniques (IMPACT) reached 75,417 people from 2016-2017 in Malawi with $1.1 million from USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance. CARE worked in partnership with ADRA on this project.
“We have been a food insecurity household for years. … As I am talking, we have harvested 8 bags of maize…we are eating vegetables from our garden and are selling some to buy other basic needs for our family.”Magret Howa from the IMPACT project
What did we accomplish?
- Families have more food: There was an 18% increase in the number of families who had enough food during the hungry season. In one of the worst harvests in history, families didn’t go hungry for any more days than they did the previous year.
- Agriculture is more sustainable: There was a 65% increase in land under sustainable agriculture production (that’s SDG 2.4.1, for any nerds keeping track at home).
- Crops are more resilient: 10 times more land has irrigation, and 8.7 times more crops are protected against pest and disease. That means crops are more productive, and more likely to grow, even in bad years.
- Women are more involved in decisions: There was a 75% increase in women’s involvement in financial decision-making.
- Farmers have more support: 3 times more farmers have access to agriculture extension. 93% of farmers are satisfied with the support and seed distribution they were getting.
How did we get there?
- Be efficient: The project cost $66.20 per person they reached, and focused on practical ways to deliver solutions. They also changed approaches when something didn’t work—like pivoting away from solar pumps when it became clear communities couldn’t repair them.
- Help families recover from emergencies: IMPACT built on an emergency response program to help families transition from immediate assistance to longer-term planning and preparing for future risks.
- Provide information and inputs: The project trained 631 people, who then trained an additional 30,458 others using the lead farmer model. IMPACT also distributed 33,500 kg of seeds which are projected to result in 8.3 million kg of crops.
- Build sustainable businesses: To solve the problem of quality seeds, the project helped 520 people start 24 seed multiplication businesses. Together, they pass on 2 times what they received as startup costs to other farmers.
- Listen to the community: The project built a complaint hotline, a help desk, and a suggestion box so that all kinds of participants had ways to offer feedback and improve the program.
Want to learn more?
Check out the project evaluation.