Meet Noah Choe ’24, an undergraduate in Global Development who is driven by the ongoing quest for global food security with sustainable development at its core. With a double major in International Agriculture & Rural Development and Biometry & Statistics, Noah enjoys exploring new and different disciplines as an interdisciplinary approach to development. In his future career, Noah seeks to combine his interests in agriculture and statistics, working with professionals from different fields to promote a more food secure future. In this field note, Noah shares with us his experience as a CALS Global Fellow with a local nonprofit in Malawi, where he learned how a community-based approach can protect local values amidst a desire to balance agricultural development and environmental conservation.
Through the CALS Global Fellows program, I interned at the Soils, Food, and Healthy Communities (SFHC) organization in Malawi, during the summer of 2022. Throughout the fall semester, I worked as a Community Assistant with the SFHC, Professor Rachel Bezner Kerr, and the Einhorn Center and helped with presentation writing and data analysis. The following winter, I accompanied Professor Bezner Kerr along with two other Cornell students to the SFHC Research Center in Malawi, and we took part in farmer workshops, forest surveys, and village seminars. Engaging directly with communities in Malawi not only exposed me to how “development” happens in the real world, but also fueled by passion to contribute to a more food-secure world in my future career.
The Soils, Food, and Healthy Communities Organization aims to promote food security and environmental conservation through participatory research. Utilizing diverse scientific, social, and economic understandings, the organization supports the development of farmers’ knowledge about sustainable agriculture throughout Northern and Central Malawi. Their new facilities are located in Ekwendeni and host village chiefs and members, researchers, and students provide a forum for Malawian people to learn through collaborative and experiential methods. Since 2000, the focus of the SFHC has been the proliferation of agroecology, and since its founding, the organization has worked with over 6,000 farmers.
This winter, as a part of SFHC’s Participatory Forest Inventory Project, we visited 10 villages in Northern Malawi and met with Forest Committee members and village chiefs. We toured the villages’ tree nurseries, farms, and natural forests.
After speaking with the village members, we learned more about the vision they have for their future, and we reflected on how a revitalized forest can help the community.
In the past, natural forests were cut down for charcoal production and timber, and conflicts arose regarding the allocation of land and exhaustion of the forest resources.
Many members explained how they needed land for agriculture and had different priorities in the past. Village members speak about and remember a time when the forest was abundant with birds and mushrooms, and they could relax in the shade. With the diminished forest, people have seen problems with a lack of soil fertility, strong winds, and erosion.
The tour and discussion shed light on how the villages plan to reforest their villages in the upcoming months, having prepared hundreds of tree seedlings in their nurseries. The village members also formed a Forest Committee and gained the support of their village chiefs who allocated them land for them to plant trees. The collaboration within the village is strong, and many offer their expertise and opinions about the potential of the new forest. Village members are encouraged to be involved in forest planting and have agreed to the new rules and regulations for the use of forest resources.
I am encouraged and motivated by the urgency the communities have in addressing the problems in their villages.
Especially considering the concerns of climate change, communities described how they have been impacted by changing weather patterns and agricultural pests. There are global issues that we can address, and through collaboration and global interaction, we are able to facilitate important conversations.
I am grateful to have participated in this international fieldwork and learned from Malawian village members, promoters, and researchers.
