Malawi's economy has deep roots in the small family farms that pepper its landscape. But farmers often can't earn enough from cash crops like tobacco, sugarcane, peanuts and tea.

The Clinton Hunter Development Initiative (CHDI) hoped to change this when they started working with rural Malawian farmers in 2006. As they explain on their website, they encouraged the farmers to grow soy instead of peanuts, which is more nutritious, gets better yields, and is easier to grow.

In one particularly impoverished district, CHDI also worked with a group of local farmers to build a large commercial soy farm. Collectively, the farmers could get a better deal by buying in bulk, which drove down the price of seeds, fertilizer and irrigation tools. CHDI also used the farm as an informal classroom, showing locals how the different cultivation techniques were used.

After only two full years in the country, CHDI reports that for many farmers, harvests have more than doubled under the new system, with income not far behind. One of these farmers shares her story in the video below.

In a country as poor as Malawi, where an estimated 53 percent of the population lives on less than $1.25 a day, that extra income provides farmers with many opportunities that had previously been out of reach.

A photo of what is believed to be William Kamkwamba's first windmill. Photo: whiteafrican (flickr)

When I was fourteen, I was busy going to drama rehearsals, shopping at the mall and fighting with my brother. But when William Kamkwamba was fourteen, he built a windmill to bring electricity to his rural village in Malawi by studying pictures in a library text book and using whatever materials he could find.

Watch this video, from Yes! Magazine, for his truly inspiring story:

You can follow William's current projects on his blog and and support his work in Malawi by donating here.

Plumpy’nut is frequently used by humanitarian agencies in emergency malnutrition situations. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

Humanitarian agencies have long been using protein and energy bars filled with nutrients and vitamins when responding to food emergencies. Though these "ready-to-use foods" are seen everywhere on grocery shelves in the West, they're often viewed as lifesavers when food crises strike the developing world.

BBC News recently highlighted the efforts of two British doctors, Steve Collins and Alistair Hallam, who saw the great results these easily accessible foods can have on malnourished populations. The doctors have taken the idea of ready-to-use foods even further with their company, Valid Nutrition, which manufactures foods supplemented with important nutrients found in meat and vegetables — foods most Africans can’t afford. While majority of emergency food packets contain high sugar concentrations and supplements that help in emergency relief areas, Valid Nutrition's products contain nutrients that are important in a person's daily diet and are sold at an affordable price. The company has opened manufacturing factories in various African countries, creating jobs for locals and helping the economy by using local crops.

Instead of only using these foods during emergency relief situations, the doctors want to help treat severe acute malnutrition, where a person's weight for height measurement is 70 percent below the median range due to food shortage and/or illness, according to the World Health Organization.

"The idea is to target people suffering from a less acute, but more widespread form of malnutrition that affects a staggering two billion people worldwide," reports BBC News.

Fortification of food for the developing world is not a new idea. Other companies such as Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, a Swiss nonprofit, has programs in various developing countries providing food for the poor. In fact, Gain is trying to put more market pressure on firms to “develop new, affordable nutritious foods by convincing business it is missing a vast untapped market.”

A ventor illegally sells bags of charcoal on the side of the road. Photo: Scott Gregory Photography (flickr)

Charcoal is Malawi's cheapest energy source, but local dependency on charcoal fuel is stripping the country's forests. The charcoal trade is illegal in Malawi, and now government and environmental groups are scrambling to find affordable forms of alternative energy for heating and cooking.

A shift away from charcoal seems implausible for many residents of the tiny southeast African country, where electricity and other energy options are much more expensive. Voice of America reports that Malawians, who earn an average of $19 a month, would have to fork out $30 for a new electric hot plate, where a locally made charcoal stove costs only $2.

Environmentalists say the charcoal trade is responsible for the loss of 50,000 hectares of native forests — the highest deforestation rate in Southeastern Africa.

Police roadblocks have failed to significantly impede charcoal trafficking. Malawi charcoal producer John Manda told VOA why he continues to ignore the charcoal ban:

I have been burning charcoal for 20 years. This is where my bread and butter come from; this is where I get money to pay school fees for my children. Although I know that it is not legal, there is no way I can stop without government giving me an alternative business.

Charcoal is one of the few industries in Malawi that benefits the poor, economist Patrick Kambewa told IRIN. In 2007, Kambewa published a report on charcoal consumption, trade and production which estimated that around 93,000 people depend on the charcoal industry for employment. (Malawi has a population of over 10 million.) Kambewa suggests that industry regulation — not criminalization — is a wiser way to address charcoal consumption.

"[Criminalizing the charcoal trade] has not helped matters, and all government ought to do is look into issues of taxation and rehabilitation of forests," said Kambewa. "People should be trained on how to manage forests at community level. They should be told about the importance of reforestation and the need to manage such resources.

Malawi is trying to wean itself off charcoal. The locally-based Wildlife and Environmental Society is training people in other profitable vocations like beekeeping and fruit juice production. Meanwhile, the government, with assistance from the European Union, has launched a six-year program that promotes sustainable forest management. The program will also push for expanding use of wind and solar energy. But VOA says people are skeptical that these efforts will fail to reduce the temptation of the lucrative charcoal trade.

In refugee camps in Sudan and the Congo, Mercy Corps trained locals to build and use fuel-efficient stoves, reducing the demand for firewood and ultimately cutting consumption by 50 percent.

"If you've ever smoked a major-brand cigarette, the chances are you've smoked Malawian tobacco," says the BBC. "Virtually every western cigarette uses a bit of the produce from this small southern African nation in its blend."

The battle between cigarette companies and anti-tobacco campaigns poses a challenge for Malawi, one of the poorest nations in the world. In Malawi, tobacco production contributes to 10 percent of GDP and is the second-largest employer in the country.

Proponents of tobacco production argue that tobacco is a crop of choice for farmers because it is easy to grow on marginal soils that yield little else, and earns about seven times more than maize and 22 times more than cotton. In Malawi, revenues from tobacco production are generated from a mere 2 percent of the country’s arable land.

Critics of tobacco production argue that the wealth generated by this resource is not spread evenly across the country. With the price of tobacco constantly fluctuating, those hardest hit are small farmers who are often forced to sell their produce at a loss when tobacco prices fall below market value. According to The Malawi Tobacco Control Commission (TCC), a local government watchdog, it takes US$1 for farm workers to produce a kilogram of tobacco, but that kilo is sold for only US$0.70. As a result, farmers on the big tobacco estates become bonded laborers, forcing whole families to work and repay the landlord. One study found Malawi's tobacco industry employs 78,000 children.

What's not in dispute is that Malawi's tobacco industry is struggling. The government is starting to push alternatives. One is farming mushrooms, where there is already a"brisk local market" — and a potential to meet unmet global demand.

On the tobacco auction floor. Photo: joellaflickr (flickr)

Today allAfrica revealed how increased funding to the UN's Rural Livelihoods and Economic Enhancement Program will teach Malawi's farmers how to benefit from increased market competition in the agricultural sector.

The program seeks to encourage production based on market needs rather than traditional small scale subsistence needs.