Week 1 - Settling in to the Farm

Arriving in Blantyre, off the plane, I met Kate Mathias, my contact here in Malawi. We spent the first few days gathering supplies for the farm, before heading North to Liwonde National Park, where the farm is situated.

Once at the farm, I met some of the main employees on the farm as well as the majority of the 24 families. We sat down and had a group meeting on my role over the next three months, and what my expectations and theirs were for the future of the project.

The farm has been running for over 12 months without a single harvest to date. No one knows what size the fish in the ponds are, or how many there are. The community were very keen to get the project moving so I decided first protocol would be to harvest one of the ponds, and have a look at the catch. Needless to say, the 24 families were very happy with this course of action. Given that no market investigations have taken place, the harvest would be shared amongst the families,
but thereafer we will have a more commercial outlook for the farm.

As the majority of the families are ex poachers, they have no problems using seine nets, and have great harvesting techniques. After several attempts, one of the ponds was empty and we had 40Kg of fish to distribute. Everyone was happy, it was a good introduction to the farm, a great way to build the start of our relationship, and a perfect end to the week.

Using a Seine Net

Moving the seine net to the corner in order to pull the fish out

150g tilapia, locally known as Chambo!