Watermelon Farming and Value Addition is an initiative by Karonga Innovators and Agroprocessors a registered enterprise in Malawi to improving incomes of rural farmers. The initiative trains farmers (including women, youth and people with disability) in watermelon farming and provides them contractual market. Watermelon farming is a new farming and uses affordable irrigation system enabling farmers to harvest 2-3 times per year. Since 2020, the initiative has trained and worked with 60 farmers in six selected districts of Malawi that are favourable climate for watermelon farming.
Watermelon farmer earns not less than US$3000 per acre per 3-month harvest because our watermelon seed varieties take 75 days to mature. This means a farmer earns US$9000 from cultivating watermelon on a 3-acre in a year compared to US$800 or US$1000 from rain-fed rice or tobacco farming in a year.
Farmers employ youth and women to work in the farms. The initiative employs youth and women as sales representatives to sell watermelons in towns and cities of Malawi. To maximise market and reduce watermelon post-harvest losses due to perishability of the watermelon fruit, the initiative has now started processing the watermelon fruit into watermelon jam that lasts 1-3 years before expiry date.

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