Inspired by his studies in the UK, Marshal Papworth Fund student Joseph Before borrowed a great British tradition and staged his own agricultural show in Malawi.
The show - staged in Before's his home district of Phalombe -was run for the Next Generation Malawi Mission 2014, which was organised by the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth.
The Marshal Papworth Fund helps to educate agricultural and horticultural students from developing countries through Scholarship Programmes. It identifies students who will return to their home country after their studies to use their knowledge for the benefit of fellow farmers and countrymen.
Before said: “I would like to thank the Marshal Papworth Fund for giving me the opportunity to develop my skills, which have helped me personally as well as other farmers within my local community to adopt sustainable farming practices. This means they are now more able to feed themselves, their families and their communities.”
His agricultural show included livestock and legume judging, seminars covering farming matters, and exhibitions showcasing the local produce of the farms including shelled maize, cocoa yams and groundnuts.
Prizes of bicycles were given to farmers for winning their judged categories, including an award winning goat and inventive farming techniques for using compost manure to improve soil fertility.
Chairman of the Marshal Papworth Fund, James Parrish, said: “With the effects of political and social unrest in South Sudan leading to farmers being unable to plant or harvest crops, the need to help educate agricultural students in such countries and globally in the importance of sustainable farming is paramount.
'Through the Marshal Papworth Fund many more individuals will be given the opportunity to gain the skills they need to develop and achieve sustainable farming practices, today and in the future.”
Marshal Papworth is a charitable Fund formed in 2001 from funds bequeathed from Marshal Papworth, an east Anglian farmer.
It is wholly managed by the East of England Agricultural Society.
Through its scholarship programmes the Fund develops life changing, land-based skills, enabling students, from developing countries to facilitate sustainable farming within their own communities.
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