As I have previously mentioned in my last blog, my site is an orphanage somewhere in Mchinji. This orphanage keeps children from a day old to those around twenty years. Apart from settlement land, the orphanage has farmlands where they produce different crops in order to minimize the cost of buying all the foodstuffs for the children and other farm products that children would not easily have access to if they had not planted. In this blog I will give details about the crops and fruits grown by the orphanage.
Firstly, the orphanage grows maize for the children to eat nsima (a Malawian food made from maize flour). The maize crops are grown twice a year both during the rainy season and the dry season. During the dry period treadle pumps are used to irrigate the maize crops. Apart from maize flour for nsima the children also eat fresh maize which is cooked for them or roasted.
These are some of the things the orphanage grows in order to ensure good nutrition for the children.