In response to : Our experience working with small-scale farmers in developing countries for the past 60 years confirms that farming is about far more than the production of food. It’s about stewardship of the land. It’s about stimulating the growth of local economy. It’s about feeling that you have a voice in your community and that you have skills to offer in building a better future for that community.

For Edwin Nyirenda, a farmer from Mwamuwilri village in Northern Malawi, the issues were clear. “I have seen tobacco farming take over the land we need and I have also seen the depletion of trees and the erosion of the soil.” As the farmers in his community lost control of the natural resources on which their livelihoods had depended they struggled to produce enough to feed their families. They lost confidence as farmers and increasingly gave up on their vision for a community in which natural resources including trees, water and land were “available for as long as the Mwamuwiliri village exists.”

Edwin’s story is one among many. Modern industrial agriculture, with its focus on increasing production at any cost, has caused tremendous pollution, rural displacement, widespread loss of agricultural and biological diversity and growing corporate concentration throughout the agricultural sector. This focus seems particularly short sighted in light of the fact that the current world food crisis is as much about increased world oil prices and climate change as it is about the production of food.

Now more than ever, there is a need for an approach that understands farming not only as a means of producing food, but as central to the preservation of delicate eco systems and to empowering farmers to have a voice in their community.

Find Your Feet is currently supporting 30,000 Malawian farmers like Edwin Nyrienda to practice sustainable farming based on local innovation, farmer exchange and the sharing of information. This approach has reduced dependence on external inputs such as fertilizers and hybrid seeds, has enabled adaptation to increasingly erratic weather patterns and has helped farmers to preserve the productivity of the soil for future generations.

Since working with FYF, says Edwin “I have produced enough food to feed my family and have even grown a surplus. I have sold this and now have an income to buy clothing and medication for my family.” As a result he and his fellow farmers have regained their pride in being farmers and custodians of the land.