Transforming Malawi’s Agricultural Landscape Through Food Safety

By Lara Ivanitch

In Malawi’s capital city of Lilongwe, Fernanda Santos wandered among baskets filled with a rainbow of beans, blankets laden with ripe produce and displays of the morning’s catch. Imbued with tradition and culture — and little focus on food safety, Santos thought — Lilongwe Central Market represents the country’s food systems and agriculture as they exist today.

Santos, assistant professor in NC State University’s Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences, was one of eight faculty who traveled to Malawi in September 2024 through the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) International Programs. 

Diverse Agriculture for a Self-sufficient Malawi

As part of Malawi’s mission to achieve self-reliance, Lilongwe experts and representatives met with Santos and her fellow participants to develop plans to transform the country’s agriculture. The NC State CALS faculty also sought out opportunities for research and extension.

“It was impressive to see the enthusiasm. We had people in the room from their Ministry of Agriculture, several agencies and several departments within the ministry,” Santos says. “And we had representatives from their three main universities there, too.”

Although tobacco remains Malawi’s major cash crop, its government seeks to diversify. Because North Carolina has transitioned from predominantly growing tobacco to producing a wide variety of agricultural commodities, it has grappled with some of the challenges Malawi faces today. 

“I think that’s part of what the government also saw as an opportunity to learn from a state that has turned that page,” Santos says. 

Malawi 2063 outlines changes the country will need to make to gain self-sufficiency. Currently, Malawi relies on imports for its food and farming supplies, at great expense. Most of the small farms dotting the landscape operate as subsistence farms. “Whatever they’re producing,” Santos explains, “they’re basically feeding themselves and the family.”

Mega Farms for the Future

While she was in Malawi, Santos toured what could usher in the country’s agricultural future: a “mega farm” that uses research-based growing techniques and modern methods. She met Horizon Farm’s owner Andrew Goodman, whom Santos credits as a visionary working to improve his country. “He thinks about sustainability. He thinks about zero waste, and nothing gets lost on the farm.” 

From using corn stalks left after harvest as fertilizer to producing its own compost, “everything has a function, and everything is used within the farm,” Santos says. In addition, growing varied crops brings in a more stable income than if the farm focused on one commodity.

Eventually, in addition to making a profit and producing food for the region and beyond, mega farms could serve as education hubs and suppliers for smaller farms nearby. 

A Need for Food Safety Education

Santos, whose work focuses on food safety, sees the need for changes in Malawi’s everyday food practices to decrease illnesses. But at the outset of the project, she envisions her role as working with larger commercial farms, possibly by educating them in the safest ways of washing, cutting and bagging fruits and vegetables to minimize risks from foodborne pathogens.

Since the visit to Malawi, Santos has been working to write a grant proposal for the ANH Academy Competitive Research Grants with David Mkwambisi, professor of environment and development and director of the Institute of Industrial Research and Innovation at Malawi University of Science and Technology. 

If awarded a grant, their project will aim to increase the availability of quality food and ensure its accessibility. To reduce food loss and waste, the project will develop, test and validate innovative Eco-Nutrition Guidelines to address food security, nutrition, and sustainability as the region faces ecological, agricultural, and socio-economic challenges worsened by the impacts of climate change.

Santos encourages others at the university to take part in international projects. “It’s not just us sharing our knowledge — it’s mutual,” she says. “When you go outside [the United States] and talk to these people, you learn so much more.”