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20 January 2006
Sweet
Sweet potatoes have made life sweeter for Manda Nelson and his family.
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Thanks to his sweet potato vines, Manda can
take care of his mother and sister
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Manda, 18, is in secondary school. As if studying didn’t take up enough of his time, he has been the breadwinner for his family since his father passed away, and he also cares for his chronically ill mother. He watches out for the welfare of his sister too, and recently helped her study for her primary school leaving exams. He hopes she will pass and be selected to attend secondary school with him.
In 2003, Manda joined the Chiwamba Root and Tuber Farmers’ Co-operative Society, set up by Chata ADP. Through the society he learned to propagate cassava tubers and sweet potato vines, selling them to other farmers so they can improve their food security. Cassava and sweet potato are great crops for poor farmers because they are tolerant to drought, can grow in any kind of soil and do not require expensive chemical fertilisers.
In his first year, Manda earned NZ$33 from selling sweet potato vines and $47 from cassava tubers. Last year he earned $304 from sweet potato vines alone. With this money, Manda has been able to purchase food, clothes, a radio and a bicycle, as well as pay for his and his sister’s schooling and his mother’s medical expenses.
By expanding the area used for crop production and paying for extra labour with sweet potatoes, he can also produce a greater quantity of maize (the staple food in Malawi) than he previously could. And because he is more financially secure he can even buy fertiliser for the maize; something he couldn’t afford before.
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Chata project profile
CHATA STORY ARCHIVE
2008
Plenty to smile about
Zakeyo’s farm
Snippets
HopeChild
Counting down
2007
Model village
Snippets
2006
A glass of fresh water
Sweet
Snippets
Rabbits, rabbits everywhere!
2005
Snippets
Food security
2004
Don’t adjust your set
Snippets
2003
Real answers
Trees for life
Snippets
Beans ‘n’ spuds
Thinking outside the square
No kidding
Cassava miracles
Hunger & cholera
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