Family container gardening in Malawi

This is a project in the region of Rumphi-Livingstonia (N.Malawi) in order to improve the living standards of the local population. It is focusing on school and family container gardening (the growing of vegetables, herbs and fruit trees in containers). Moreover, special attention is given to a boys and girls school sports programme.

Three friends, namely the Honorary Professors Wim Van Cotthem and Donald Gabriels and the civil engineer Dino Galbusera form a strong basic team for the promotion and coordination of this Malawi-Chitukuko project.

One of the main goals of this project, is teaching the school children of ALL the schools in the project area between Rumphi and Livingstonia on how to produce fresh food in different types of containers (bottles, buckets, crates, bags, sacks, tins, cans, drums, etc.).

Once the youngsters have learned at school (e.g. in their school garden) how to grow their own vegetables and herbs, they will inform their family about these opportunities and, later on, becoming adults themselves, they will apply these techniques when producing food for their own family.

Due to a lack of variation in agriculture (mainly maize),
there is little food security. If corn cultivation fails,
a hunger period follows.

Important quantities of fresh food can be produced with this container gardening method. All the school children, their teachers and consultants can become ambassadors of a radical change in the situation of the food crisis in Malawi.

Eating maize porridge as the main daily food has to be supplemented with vitamin rich and mineral rich vegetables and herbs to get a balanced nutrition. These fresh food products should not be grown outside the homes in the field, but close to the house, close to the kitchen, in all sorts of containers, if needed placed on risers.