Providing local tea farmers with the tools and training required to improve their tea yields

Project

Mulanje, Malawi

Mulanje is in southern Malawi, directly in the center of the country’s tea growing region. Harris Freeman’s UK Division, Keith Spicer, sources tea from this region for a major UK retailer. In an effort to provide the local tea farmers with the tools and training required to improve their tea yields and generate a sustainable income, the Harris Freeman Foundation & the retailer launched the SUKESA project in 2013.

How we helped

We partnered with the local tea farmers association; the Sukambizi Association Trust (SAT), which is a collective of smallholder farmers and Lujeri Tea Estate, one of the main processors of black tea in Malawi.

Together, we:

Built 3 nurseries through which cuttings from the latest tea plants (purchased from the Malawi Tea Research Foundation) could be nurtured and then sold at cost to the smallholder farmers
Trained 72 lead farmers and imparted over 2,300 hours of training to smallholders on the latest tea husbandry techniques
Created 9 demonstration plots, in which the best plantation management practices are showcased for smallholder farmers to learn from
Combined, these nurseries, training sessions, and demonstration plots have helped us to distribute 3.2 million plants and train over 10,000 farmers.

hours of training

Demonstration Plots

farmers trained