Alton Climate Action Network
This video (2026) shares the inspiring story of ACAN’s Sustainable Farming Project in Malawi and the life-changing impact it is having on local communities.
The ACAN logo is painted on a gateway of a rural farm 5,000 miles away in Malawi! The Gumbi Permaculture Community Training Centre (PCTC) is ACAN’s climate justice initiative. Malawi, in Southern Africa, is the fourth poorest country in the world. Two thirds of the population live in food poverty. The 22 million Malawians are responsible for less than 0.04% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but are victims of climate breakdown caused mainly by rich countries.
Most families are subsistence farmers growing maize as a monoculture crop. Without expensive chemical fertiliser and reliable rains, the crop fails. With more frequent droughts due to climate change, this method of farming is unsustainable.
In 2025 PCTC launched as a training centre in sustainable farming methods. It offers 525 farmers in 22 villages in the Gumbi community (in Lilongwe District, central Malawi) regular training courses in sustainable farming methods, with ongoing outreach support. The farmers are organised into co-operatives led by a cohort of 28 farmers trained at PCTC in 2025.
The main focus now is the irrigation of homestead farms through solar water pumps and more wells and boreholes.
In partnership with the Gumbi Education Fund, ACAN donors have since 2021 paid for young people to be trained in sustainable farming, at the Permaculture Paradise Institute in Malawi, growing a wide range of local crops, fruit and nut trees without chemical fertilisers. Money raised from ACAN donors has purchased 3 acres of land for the demonstration farm – and funded the building of a store, classrooms, water storage, a fish pond, housing for animals, beehives, tools and seeds.
Rondavel accommodation and a unique training kitchen with solar-powered induction hobs were built and equipped in 2025, funded by an ACAN major donor. PCTC is now a centre for solar energy and clean cooking.
In this specially recorded talk for ACAN, James Gomani, the (unpaid) Gumbi PCTC finance and operations manager, explains the importance of the Training Centre’s work and the need for continued ACAN support.
Funding is ALWAYS needed to provide training, support farmers, solar water pumps for irrigation and the provision of more wells. If you can, please DONATE through the GUMBI button on the donation page on this website to help our work to end food poverty in the Gumbi community.
