Millions of fishes, fishes for....free?

It's an old story, one we're familiar with - that it's not merely lack of resources, but a problem of distribution, that separates the poor from the wealthy. Despite being one of the poorest countries in the world in terms of GDP (not the best metric of wealth), Malawi seems to have an abundance of food production, yet much of that goes to waste due to a lack of feasible processing techniques and market saturation. It's a gap that the folks at Malawi Mangoes recognized several years ago and are striving to fill (~80% of Malawi's mangoes go to waste every year)....but that is fodder for another post.

With a largely rural based populace (~85%), Malawi depends heavily on agriculture; indeed, most everyone is involved in food production to some degree, whether on more typical farm-shaped plots, by growing cabbages by the riverside in downtown Lilongwe, or through harvesting native fruits and vegetation growing wild across the countryside. Mostly, this production is strictly hand to mouth, although in recent years thanks to a fertilizer program and numerous small holder farm support schemes the country has apparently (depends on the crop and year) become a net exporter of food to nearby Zambia, Tanzania, etc. The sustainability of these initiatives varies wildly.

But on to fish. There's a lot of fish in the sea - but here we're dealing with the 7th largest freshwater lake in the world, and Africa's 3rd largest. Lake Malawi (or Lake Nyassa, which as a side tangent just means Lake Lake, as Nyassa is said to merely mean 'lake' in the tribal language of the era of the early Brits who inquired as to it's name), along with the smaller lakes in the south provide an important source of protein for millions of Malawians. Largely artisanal fishing results in a lot of processing problems, and difficulty in quantifying production and potential management needs...

To get a bit less academic. Essentially there's a gap between the fish harvested and the fish that either make it to market or the dinner plate - over 30% of harvested fish, on average, tend to be wasted before they find a home. For an over exploited resource, and one that is undervalued in the marketplace, this is a bit of a problem. I spent a day last week down in Zomba (~ 4 hours south of Lilongwe) meeting with a collaborative group working on adding value to Malawi's artisanal fishing sector, mostly through improved processing  (drying, smoking, packaging) so that the fishes can reach a market before spoilage. This work is being done in conjunction with local women's groups, mostly, and seems to be having some success. Encouraging, to say the least, and interesting in terms of a model for other resources as well.

However, other challenges for this small country include the big one - Climate Change. Yup, it's happening here too, and with noticeable effects already. Regional arid periods are increasing in duration, and some small fish producing lakes are already drying up at higher rates and more frequently than in the past as the rains decrease. Repercussions for both fisheries and agriculture, as both rely on the abundant availability of water...

But when we asked the local villagers last week what they would do this year, as the lake we were visiting, Lake Chilwe, is predicted to dry up completely by the end of this year's dry season, they said they just hope this won't happen. Hmm. So there's reason to hope, both directly and indirectly, for sustainable development and for global ecosystem change, but that's likely not enough. What will fill the gaps? Aquaculture? Perhaps...The more I research small scale pond aquaculture, it seems this may be part of the future solution for folk such as these.

Enough of this side tangent. More importantly - What have we been up to?

glory days climbing in Dedza

I'm kidding. Kind of. It's not overly exciting - Working, mostly. As funny as this may sound, I'm recently been hired as Devon's assistant (short term for the month of August only) to fill in the gaps in the irrigation division of Malawi Mangoes. Administration and research, for the most part - and I get to spend some of my time looking into small scale aquaculture to be integrated into their smallholder agriculture/irrigation scheme (isn't he a nice boss?). It's interesting stuff, and it's a good opportunity to get my feet wet (literally and figuratively - the farm can be a messy place) in the business side of life here, and an excuse for us to spend time together in a different sphere.

working life. 

err...I meant this one. Sorry. Bananas, in full force at the farm.

Else, we've been planning trips and making plans for both here and at home. I'm so excited to say that we already have not one, but TWO amazing people coming to visit us. Dear Tiffany is coming for two weeks of hilarity and life planning (we've been trying to figure it out for more than six years now. we'll get there one day) at the end of the month, and Katrina is following in September for three weeks of travelling and climbing adventures. Seriously, how did we get so lucky?!

I trust you can come up with your own favorite crack joke.

On the home front, we seem to have paid the karma gods well in recent history, as we've managed to stumble upon a waterfront cottage to rent for two months while we figure out a more long term solution for time spent in more rural Salima, where the Malawi Mangoes farm is located, and proximity to the lakeshore, where I'm more likely to be in the long term if I find fisheries endeavours.

A room with a view

The head of irrigation himself, pondering life at our lakeshore cottage

So somehow two wayward and somewhat broke souls ended up a city house and a lakefront cottage, all for about half of what I used to pay in Van for one room in my (albiet lovely) house. Life's not bad...

And as a sign off - We've made plans to get home for a month over Christmas, so for the snow sport oriented out there, we're expecting glorious ski trip plans and evenings spent sipping whisky in cozy mountain huts. Hint hint...

For the rest of you, sorry, we'll be otherwise preoccupied.

Just kidding. We promise to spend some time in town as well. At least a day or two.

So for now...

Tionana*!


*see you later!