{"id":2395,"date":"2019-08-19T11:54:52","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T11:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/?p=2395"},"modified":"2019-08-19T11:54:52","modified_gmt":"2019-08-19T11:54:52","slug":"lusubilo-pilots-the-use-of-shop-seed-vouchers-to-support-vulnerable-winter-cropping-beneficiaries-through-the-sort-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/lusubilo-pilots-the-use-of-shop-seed-vouchers-to-support-vulnerable-winter-cropping-beneficiaries-through-the-sort-project\/","title":{"rendered":"LUSUBILO PILOTS THE USE OF SHOP SEED VOUCHERS TO SUPPORT VULNERABLE WINTER CROPPING BENEFICIARIES THROUGH THE SORT PROJECT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>By\nTilekeni Kaunda<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Poverty and food\ninsecurity has been the main factors affecting economic growth and development\nin Malawi and most especially those in rural areas. The poor and vulnerable\nhouseholds are the categories of people mostly affected.Poverty and income are\nclosely related and it has been argued that a low income level is a\nmanifestation as well as a strong cause of poverty. And due to the fact that a\nlarge majority of the rural dwellers are below the poverty line (are poor) and\nthat their livelihood depends mainly on agriculture, access to farm inputs to\nincrease crop production and productivity of natural resource base (land), is\nvery difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finding a lasting\nsolution to the chronic food insecurity through increase in productivity has\nbeen a major focus of Lusubilo Community Based programs. The organization believes\nadoption of new agricultural technology, such as high yielding varieties could\nalso generate the desired increase in agricultural productivity for poor and\nvulnerable households and can help to stimulate the transition from low\nproductivity subsistence agriculture to high productivity farming. However, the\nlack of access to improved seeds has been identified as one of the major\nconstraints to improved variety adoption. Meanwhile, adoption would not be\npossible without access to the certified improved seeds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lusubilo Community Based Programs,\nthrough sustainable Options Recommended for Testing (SORT) project, has been\nsupporting the needy farmers with farm inputs such as fertilizer and seeds of\nimproved varieties to increase crop production and productivity. The system\nthat was used to distribute the farm inputs was through ordinary direct\ndistribution. Although the project registered notable achievement in dealing\nwith food insecurity, there were other implementation bottlenecks and constraints such\nas a farmer planting a crop variety of their choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In order to deal with\nthese problems,The Lusubilo Community Based Organization piloted a shop seed\nvoucher system.The system involves the use of coupons (usually digital) which have a monetary value. Beneficiaries were\nexchanging the vouchers for seed of their choice at selected agro-dealer shops\nwithin their locality. This approach has allowed farmers to get seeds of the\ncrop variety that best suits their soils. Besides this, the use of vouchers for\nthe provision of seed has proved to be straightforward and transparent; it has\nreduced the cost incurred to transport farm inputs to various places; it is\ntimely in terms of implementation; it offers farmer an opportunity\nto test modern varieties; and empowers local community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that cash\/ voucher-based\napproaches can meet beneficiary needs in the most effective and cost-efficient\nway, by providing beneficiaries with the dignity of choosing preferred goods\nand services apart from boosting local economies and livelihoods by working\nthrough existing market systems.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to one of the\nfarmers who received a seed voucher, the voucher system has given the farmers\nanother and he is very grateful to Lusubilo Community Based Organization for\ncoming up with this approach.\u201cThis system of using voucher to buy farm inputs\nhas given us (farmers) to choose planting materials of our choice and this will\nstrengthen farmer seed systems and local markets\u201d said the farmer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since farmers will have\naccess to seed of improved crop varieties that best suits their soil and\nclimate, it is expected that farmers will produce more and earn more income,\nreducing their propensity to fall into poverty again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Tilekeni Kaunda Poverty and food insecurity has been the main factors affecting economic growth and development in Malawi and most especially those in rural areas. The poor and vulnerable households are the categories of people mostly affected.Poverty and income are closely related and it has been argued that a low income level is a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"iawp_total_views":15,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2395\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.karongadiocese.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}