Can you help? €4,000 is all that is needed to complete a farming project in Malawi that will be the difference between families having enough food to survive or struggling to fight starvation for two months every year.

The Sunergy Project is led by an Irish committee that includes Seamus Hayes (former president of Macra na Feirme), Tony Brady (Combines for Charity), Jimmy Reilly (former Self Help board member) and Mick McCarthy (formerly RTÉ) to complete a €20,000 solar-powered irrigation system for 16 farms in Namgoma village in Monkey Bay.

Seamus first came across the village through his work with Self Help.

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“I am now retired, but as I often told those who travelled with me: ‘You can be vaccinated against most things, but once Africa gets into your mind, you can never fully leave it and its people,’” he explains.

The Sunergy project involves taking water from Lake Malawi using a submersible pump powered by solar panels, which will allow local farmers to grow new crops. To date, €16,000 donated by Irish individuals and businesses has meant that the pump has been purchased and installed on the farm of Winston Chiawa, a former country director of Self Help, who is providing training to the other farmers on the scheme.

This farm is now producing bananas, sugar cane and various vegetables under irrigation. The farm also produces rice but this crop suffered severe damage from hippos that live in the lake.

Water storage tanks are currently being erected and construction will commence shortly on raised water channels to conduct the water to the fields of the participating farmers.

The 16 farms involved have set up a bank account in Monkey Bay and have elected a governance committee to oversee the project. As well as helping the farmers grow enough crops to feed their families, produce will also be sold to the tourist lodges that are being built along the lake shore.

According to Seamus, the farmers in Monkey Bay are subsistence farmers, but having a proper irrigation system will essentially be the difference between having a meal every day or “a meal every second or third day”, especially as maize production is expected to be down 30%-50% this year due to weather conditions.

“And their maize would be like potatoes for us during the Famine,” he explains.

While much progress has been made, €4,000 is required to complete the project, and the committee is calling on the generosity of the Irish agri community to help their fellow farmers in Malawi.

“It will be the difference between being able to grow enough food all year or starving for two months every year, as well as the knock-on effects from having cash crops to pay for their children’s education,” says Seamus.

For further information, contact Seamus Hayes on 086-230-7330 or email hayes.seamus.p@gmail.com CL