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12 The Society of Malawi Journal

the interests of the tea estates in the Thyolo and Mulanje districts (on the history
of the tea estates in the Shire Highlands, see Morris 2016: 183-220). But
Schwartz had become increasingly critical of the use of pesticides in agriculture,
given their adverse effect on both human health and on the natural environment
and its wildlife. Consequently, he sought a more organic form of agriculture.
The aims of the association involved maintaining and regenerating the
soils, reducing the costs of agricultural inputs - decrying the use of artificial
fertilizers and pesticides - and increasing the yield and profitability of farm
crops thereby establishing a viable and sustainable form of agriculture.
Responding to the increasing demand for "organic" products - beverages, food
and cosmetics - in both Japan and Western Europe, the Association advocated
and pioneered the growing of such crops as geranium, cayenne pepper, chillies,
coriander, Echinacea, chamomile, hibiscus and calendula, as well as well-
known crops such as sunflower, sesame, castor oil, groundnuts and pigeon pea.
Organic farming was envisaged by the association as relevant to both
peasant smallholders and commercial farms, as being well exemplified by
Arthur Stevens of Pirimiti Trading on his Gattina Estate near Jali and having a
particular link to the German market for organic products (Burgess 1999).
What is significant is that, given the high costs and stringent rules in
regard to farm "certification", the "organic option" was taken up not by peasant
smallholders - who for generations had been farming organically - but mainly
by commercial tobacco farms and tea estates. Ironically, they nevertheless
extensively used fertilizers and pesticides on their primary crops: tobacco and
tea.
The ethos of the advocates of permaculture is very different from that
of the "organic growers". In fact, they are highly critical of the monocultural
practices and the estate agriculture that is characteristic of the "organic option".
Permaculture is a flourishing and world-wide movement that had its
origins in Australia, mainly through the work of Bill Mollison. It was introduced
into Malawi by June Walker, who formed in the 1980s the "Permaculture
Network of Malawi' based on the lakeshore near Monkey Bay. She has been
described as the "mother" of permaculture, as an alternative approach to
agriculture in Malawi (Permaculture Magazine 59 (2009) 30).
Unlike advocates of industrial agriculture, permaculture does not
denigrate traditional farming practices, but both retains and links what is
valuable and important in these practices with modem science, particularly
ecological science. Permaculture aims to create a form of agriculture based on
the idea of a forest eco-system; however, the landscape would be creatively
designed to form a forest garden, one that produced a wide variety of crops for
human consumption. Permaculture is focused around several principles and
these were indicated to me in conversations I had with several dedicated
practitioners.