By Kondwani Magombo

Lilongwe, November 23, Mana: Although the 2023/24 growing season was the worst season in most parts of Malawi due to El Nino weather conditions, Edrina Kenamu from Salima had a different story to tell.

Kenamu, together with her family comprising husband and five children, hails from Kandusiwa Village, Group Village Head Mtende, Traditional Authority Pemba in the district.

In the said lean year, the family broke a record by harvesting more than their sizeable family needed for food in a year.

“From our two-and-a-half-acre maize field, we harvested 36 bags of maize, each weighing 50kg,” explained Edrina Kenamu. “Of course, it was not what one would get from a field of that size under normal circumstances, but given the adverse weather patterns, a harvest of 36 bags was a big kill,” she, quickly, added.

Previously, the Kenamu family could harvest between 10 and 15 bags of maize from the same piece of land as the rains hadn’t been that good over the past years.

The 2023/24 growing season ‘bumper harvest miracle’ did not occur to the Kenamu household alone: many a family in Katelera Extension Planning Area (EPA) in Salima tasted it despite the harsh weather conditions.

The trick lied in a new tactic called Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture (PICSA), a farmer-centric climate service and agricultural extension approach that helps farmers understand climate change and variability, for them to make informed decisions.

PICSA outlines a set of steps to be undertaken by smallholder farmers, supporting them in making own decisions and planning what is best for their individual farms, for improved yields, food security, incomes, and resilience.

Put in broader terms, PICSA emphasizes that each farmer’s situation is unique, and options should be tailored according to their biophysical and socioeconomic context.

Unlike traditional climate information services (CIS), PICSA uses historical climate data (often spanning 30 years or more) to jointly analyze trends with farmers, and develop adaptable strategies well before the season begins.

By incorporating historical data, PICSA improves farmers' understanding of climate variability, and allows them to assess risks, such as rainfall amounts and dry spells, with more relevant and quantitative insights.

Additionally, PICSA supports the interpretation of Seasonal Climate Forecasts (SCF), providing locally precise and meaningful data, helping farmers plan more effectively for the season ahead by considering both climate and local resource.

Thus for the 2023/24 growing season, PICSA helped Kenamu, and many other farmers under Katelera EPA, understand climate variabilities for their area, prompting them to make the right decision on how to go about their farming that growing season.

“After thorough analysis of the available information regarding historical climate data and seasonal climate forecasts for our area, it became evident that we would have less rains in the growing season,” explained Kenamu.

She continued: “With that information, I knew that I did not only need to plant early-maturing maize variety, but I needed to make box ridges, also, to trap and conserve the little rain water that could be there.”

With her family’s limited income, Kenamu also knew that use of compost fertilizer (Mbeya) would be ideal – not only because of its affordability, but also because of the fertilizer’s ability to preserve moisture.

Initially, PICSA was paper-based whereby, small holder farmers were trained – using a manual book and flipcharts – to understand climate change and rain patterns in their respective areas so as to determine what crop(s) to grow to realize bumper yields.

But presently, a digital version of PICSA, E-PICSA, has been developed, replacing the paper-based innovation, and smallholder farmers like Kenamu are catching up fast with the new tool.

According to Geoffrey Chilombo, Senior Agriculture Communication Officer and Coordinator for Climate and Weather Projects in the Department of Agriculture Extension Services (DAES), the application was developed by University of Reading under the Department’s project with GIZ.

The project is being implemented in Kasungu and Nkhotakota, in Malawi, and in Petauke and Chipata, in Zambia.

“Following successful implementation of the project from 2012 to 2014, UNDP asked the DAES to orient extension workers and farmers in Chikwawa, Chiradzulu, Dedza, Salima, Lilongwe, Dowa and Nkhata-Bay, the 7 districts where the Department was implementing M-CLIMES with UNDP from 2017 to June 2024,” explained Chilombo.

E-PICSA application is freely installed in android smartphones, and it comprises an automated system for National Meteorological Services (NMS) that provides quality-checked, locally-specific, historical rainfall and temperature data, and location-specific season and short-term forecast.

“With paper based PICSA, farmers were finding it difficult to calculate probabilities of rains and temperature, as well as coming up with participatory budgets,” explained Chilombo, adding: “On the other hand, with E-PICSA, all a farmer has to do is to command the application on the smart phone and get the calculations.”

The evolution in understanding climatic changes and rains pattern to determine what crop to grow, and when to grow it, has not only excited the smallholder farmers: it has also left them certain of their food security, following accurate predictions they make through E-PICSA technology.

“We are very excited to use our phones beyond making calls, surfing the internet and social media platforms,” explained Kenamu, the happy lead farmer of Katelera EPA in Salima. “The E-PICSA application is user-friendly, with videos for maps, calendar and many extension materials.”

DAES is training lead farmers like Kenamu in the project districts through EPAs on the use of the technology for them (lead farmers) to train more smallholder farmers on the same for meaningful yields.

According to Katelera EPA Agriculture Extension Development Coordinator (AEDC), Lucern Nkanamwali, 2,375 farmers were oriented in the PICSA approach and recently, up to 40 lead farmers have been trained to orient yet more farmers on E-PICSA.

“We expect that the 40 lead farmers will each train 25 farmers who will also train others, in turn, and our target is to reach 15,000 smallholder farmers with the modern tool,” explained Nkanamwali.

He hailed the innovation, saying farmers are now able to interpret weather forecasts in relation to their area and choose what crop to cultivate, or what animal to rear.

“The farmers are equipped with technical knowledge: say, if the weather forecast says the area will receive little rains and they want to grow maize, they will go for a variety that matures early, and apply all the necessary practices in line with the learned forecast,” he added.

Nkanamwali’s observation is also shared by Isaiah Julius, Agriculture Extension Development Officer (AEDO) for Lobi EPA in Dedza, where over 34 lead farmers have been trained on the use of E-PICSA for them to train others, too, until a target of 10,000 smallholder farmers is reached.

“When we were using hardcopy books and flipcharts, it was not easy for the farmers to understand probability as they had to draw a graph, count months and calculate the probability,” explained Julius.

He added: “But E-PICSA has simplified everything as it does all the calculations for rains probability, temperatures and participatory budget.”

The E-PICSA evolution is catching on turning more smallholder farmers with smartphones in the project areas into local weather scientists and precise interpreters of forecasts for meaningful and  productive agricultural decisions.