Japanese concept enhances rural lives in Malawi

Lilongwe - The 'One Village, One Product Programme' (OVOP) is a community-centered, demand-driven regional economic development approach, initiated in a region called the Oita Prefecture in Japan in the 1970s. The approach is unique in that it achieves regional economic development by adding value to products, using locally available resources in processing, quality control and marketing.

The new approach also promises, through greater spending power in rural areas, to enhance business opportunities in these areas. Marketing the project to interested parties is also required.

Under the OVOP in Malawi, launched in 2003, some rural communities have set up a village food processing plant to produce jams, fresh juices, cassava bread and soya oil, or cooperatives that grow oyster mushrooms, while others have focused on products made from plants found in their area, such as baobab trees, or are even growing rice. Several projects have focused on non-food items, such as palm-oil soaps and brick making.

The government-run programme supports local initiatives with loans to buy processing equipment or packaging, and providing links to markets. OVOP's National Coordinator, Kamia Kaluma-Sulumba, said hundreds of people in Malawi had benefited economically, but "there were a number of challenges to deal with".

"We have received close to 1,000 proposals from different parts of the country. Some of these proposals are asking us to assist farmers or producers to train them on business management; others are asking for loans to buy food-processing equipment," she said, adding that they often lacked the staff to process applications to help more people.

Timothy Kaupembe, a rice farmer in Ntcheu District, in Malawi's Central Region, said: "This scheme was open to the villagers in the late [19]90s. [In] early 2000, government, with assistance from the Japanese government, improved the scheme and many farmers were allocated plots on which to grow rice. As if this was not enough, government introduced the OVOP programme in about two years."

About 2,000 farmers in the district have taken up growing rice in a cooperative effort under OVOP. Once the rice is harvested it is packed in quality plastic bags and sold in towns and cities.

Kaupembe, who started growing rice in 1999, said he could now support his three children with his earnings, and the programme also taught farmers about packaging and marketing.

"We are happy with the support we have received from government, under the programme. We have learned new techniques of producing quality rice, and because of this many of us have bought bicycles, built brick houses with iron sheets on top and are sending our children to school; something which our forefathers failed to do," added Kaupembe.

Leah Mphepo, a mother of six from Guluanenenji village, also in Ntcheu District, said, "In the past I had lots of financial problems, but when I started farming in the scheme ... some of those problems [were solved]. I am now able to feed my family well, pay school fees and take care of household needs."

She said government support had helped: OVOP gave communities in the area a rice-milling machine on loan and the farmers, who had formed the Bwanje Cooperative Society, would pay back the money once the machine started operating.

More marketing needed

The villagers were afraid they might not have adequate markets for their produce. "We are now producing so much rice, but we do not have markets where we could sell it," said Kaupembe. "[We] want to start exporting the rice and I hope government will continue helping us find foreign markets."

Kaupembe said most of the rice produced by the scheme, despite being of high quality, was sold cheaply on local markets because the cooperative did not have market links elsewhere.

OVOP's Principal Rural Development Officer, Sphewe Mauwe, said they were aware of the problem. "OVOP is helping hundreds of people across the country; rice farmers in Ntcheu are just one of the many examples of the many local people we are supporting in Malawi."

She pointed out that some honey producers were now exporting to neighbouring countries, such as Mozambique, while other products had even been exported to Japan. OVOP marketing advisor Kachio Fukui said, "We will try as much as possible to find markets for their products, even outside the country."

Since its launch in 2003, some 46 projects have helped improve the lives of almost 9,000 rural dwellers in one of the poorest countries in the world. Malawi is ranked at 166 out of 177 countries in the 2006 Human Development Index of the United Nations Development Programme.

Article by courtesy IRIN