Meet the Kilombero Rice farmers of Malawi | Just Trading Scotland

 

Just Trading Scotland (JTS) support over 700 smallholder rice farmers in the Karonga region on the northern shores of Lake Malawi, by providing a market in the UK for the high quality Kilombero rice they grow.

These photos show something of life in Malawi and the traditional cultivation methods which protect the environment and have sustained local communities for centuries.

The process of farming the rice is still done manually and is labour intensive. After the rice is threshed it is sent to a larger farmers’ association to be milled and then transported to Mozambique. It is shipped to the UK where it is cleaned and checked before being bagged up and sent to the JTS warehouse in Paisley ready for delivery to shops and fair traders. The farmers receive a fair and stable price for their rice, which means they can plan and invest in their businesses. In this way they can increase their incomes, provide greater food security for their communities and support and educate their families. Each farmer has to sell 90kg of rice to earn enough to send one of his children to secondary school for one year

Please get in touch with us if you would like to take on the 90kg rice challenge in your school, church or community group.