Sunday, January 31, 2010

Free advertising for Kiva

I'd like to introduce you to a really neat micro-lending

website. I use this one myself. It allows you to lend

small amounts of money to people who run small

businesses in developing countries.


photo credit

You get to see photos of the prospective borrowers,

and read of their plans. When they pay back the loans,

you can re-loan the money to someone else.


"Kiva's mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend to unique entrepreneurs around the globe."





Sunday, January 17, 2010

and still more maize!



The maize is often inter-cropped, most commonly
with beans
in the central region.


Or sometimes with pumpkins...



We have a factory in Lilongewe that uses soya
as an ingredient, so soybeans are becoming
more popular.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Maize and more maize

When I got back to Malawi the maize had finally come up
in most places.
The patches around people's houses
at the research station looked nice.



Maize is the main staple food and is planted on
three-fourths of smallholder's land, even
around the buildings in Lilongwe.



We had uneven rains in November and December, so now the
maize is different ages where it had to be replanted.