One of the community tree nurseries
Sunrise over Lake Malawi
Chitenji for sale in the market
Planting a tree at Mvwalamane
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Map of Malawi showing the Nkhata Bay District where RIPPLE Africa is based

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NEWS: FRUIT TREE GROWING PROJECT IN MALAWI, AFRICA
 
Typical fruit tree nursery
 

In June 2007, Alupro sponsored our fruit tree project. Our aim was to establish a fruit tree nursery at Mwaya with a greenhouse for grafting and budding, and to grow fruit trees in some of the community tree nurseries. The communities and the RIPPLE Africa staff have been so excited and enthusiastic about this programme that we have extended the fruit tree project to all of our nurseries. They have been growing lemon trees as hardy root stock for oranges and tangerines, mangos for grafting, guavas and pawpaws (papaya), and some avocados. These improved fruit trees will provide valuable income generation from the sale of the tree seedlings and eventually the sale of fruit. Also, local communities will benefit from eating the fruit.
 
The new Alupro greenhouse under construction — this will be used for grafting and budding Preparing a local mango for graiting onto an improved mango Hardy lemons and guavas — we estimate that over 200,000 fruit trees have been grown this season Introducing oranges to the Senior Chiefs — they had never seen oranges like these before!

The new Alupro greenhouse under construction — this will be used for grafting and budding

Preparing a local mango for graiting onto an improved mango

Hardy lemons and guavas — we estimate that over 200,000 fruit trees have been grown this season

Introducing oranges to the Senior Chiefs — they had never seen oranges like these before!
 

We held a very exciting meeting with the senior chiefs and gave them navel oranges, purchased from a supermarket in Lilongwe and imported from South Africa. They had never seen oranges like these before, and our aim is for communities to be able to grow large, juicy oranges in the future. We have already organised the purchase of budwood from improved orange and tangerine trees to be budded on to the hardy lemon stock.

In November 2007, Cherry Hamson, the Communications Director for Alupro, visited Mwaya to see how the project was developing. Cherry is very passionate about this project being an enormous success. She is promoting the project with local authorities and schools in the UK, and many of them have featured the project in their magazines and websites.
 

Progress on the Fruit Tree Growing Project in Malawi, Africa
 
Budwood — each stem has four buds from an improved citrus tree and, once cut, they need to be kept cold and used within a few days Budding — hardy lemon root stock is grown and, when it is the diameter of a pencil, an improved bud is attached to an incision in the stem Catherine, the manager at Mwaya fruit tree nursery, is holding a successfully budded orange tree Fumbani, our fruit tree expert, at one of the community fruit tree nurseries

Budwood — each stem has four buds from an improved citrus tree and, once cut, they need to be kept cold and used within a few days

Budding — hardy lemon root stock is grown and, when it is the diameter of a pencil, an improved bud is attached to an incision in the stem

Catherine, the manager at Mwaya fruit tree nursery, is holding a successfully budded orange tree

Fumbani, our fruit tree expert, at one of the community fruit tree nurseries
 

The fruit tree growing project has proved very popular with the communities, and initially we extended the project to more community tree nurseries than originally planned. The nurseries have experienced success with the guava and pawpaw (papaya) trees, but the improved citrus trees have proved more difficult. There is a high degree of training needed to transfer budding skills, and at first we experienced a lower success rate than expected. The budwood had to be collected from the south of Malawi and, due to its short life after cutting, it was difficult to transport the budwood to all of the nurseries and train the members how to do budding before the buds died. We are now adopting a different strategy which is to have 20 citrus fruit tree nurseries situated in geographically key areas. We have set up each nursery with a budwood orchard of approximately 60 improved citrus trees of various types, and the idea is that these will grow and provide the budwood for budding onto the hardy rootstock in the future, thus making unnecessary the costly and time-consuming trips to the south of the country to collect budwood.

In addition to these 20 nurseries, we are also developing the main fruit tree nursery at Mwaya, and this will be the main centre for the area. It is a slow process and, as with all horticultural and agricultural projects, there are always challenges; for example, diseases, pests, weather conditions, etc.
 
Children at a community budwood orchard Improved orange tree Improved tangerine tree Improved mango tree

Children at a community budwood orchard

Improved orange tree

Improved tangerine tree

Improved mango tree
 
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