One of the most memorable Farmer to Farmer assignments

I had the most memorable CNFA (Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture) assignment in April 2015 in Malawi. Madisi Agro Processing Cooperative Society Limited (MAPCOOP) is one of the best young cooperatives I have worked with in the past 7 years. The Managing Director, Watson, has 35+ years in the Ministry of Ag/Cooperatives and he knows how to organize and follow through. MAPCOOP has been the recipient of grants and as well as loans and has been recognized as one of the best cooperatives in the region (if not the country). In addition, MAPCOOP has been very instrumental in converting tobacco farmers to sunflower seeds crops. Every training had 70+ members in the warehouse; all arrived early (!) and stayed after I left. Great participation! I stayed again in the Linde Hotel; it has tripled its lodging rooms and improved the gardens. It is still primarily a convention hotel; during the week it was completely full; on the weekends, it was very quiet. For part of my stay, Bryce Malsbury another CNFA volunteer was also on assignment. His group was not as organized and successful as MAPCOOP; it was arranged for the Chairman and Manager of MAPCOOP to visit the group and give highlights of their success. I left Malawi and travelled to Mozambique to begin an assignment with AFAP (African Fertilizer Agro Dealer Partnership). It was a reunion with Sergio Ussaca, formerly Country Director for CNFA and now the same for AFAP. I traveled from Maputo to Chokwe. My assignment was to work with CPL (Limpopo Producers Savings and Credit Cooperative (CPL) as well as HICEP (Hydraulics of Chokwe) and SAVAL (Limpopo Valley Agricultural Services). CPL is managed by an excellent staff and serves rice farmers as well as business people in the area. On May 1st, the town closed down for Workers’ Day; I marched in the parade with CPL and then joined them for a wonderful pot luck!