One Village One Product (OVOP), a concept which encourages local communities to concentrate on local strengths, be they in materials, crops, culture or personnel skills to create distinctive products which can then be effectively marketed locally or internationally, was established in Japan’s Oita Prefecture in the 1980s. Oita prefecture has had great success with this concept such that this concept has been introduced in developing countries like Malawi.
Malawi began a pilot OVOP project in 2003 and two years later JICA implemented a program to support the establishment of a national OVOP government secretariat. This secretariat is now operational. The items produced under OVOP include:
- Palm Oil Soaps: These are produced in called Kaporo in the northern part of Malawi.
- Natural Value Added Products For Boosting Nutrition Status: Mitundu Agro Business Group is allocated near Mitundu Trading centre in Lilongwe district.They are producing tomato jam, groundnut oil, Soya milk, and cassava bread and cassava chips.
- Bvumbwe Milk: Pasteurized whole milk produced by Bvumbwe Dairy Farmers Cooperative society.
- Baobab Jam: Michirubased Khumbo Oil Refinery produces jam from baobab, an enormous and uniquely shaped tree, which is one of the symbols of African nature.
- Baobab Oil: This also produced from baobab by Michiru based Khumbo Oil Refinery.
- Moringa Oil: This is also produced by Khumbo Oil Refinery.
- Rice: Produced at a Rice Mill run by the Bwanje Rice Cooperative.
- Cassava starch: This is produced the Rumphi Cassava Association and the Nankhaka Cassava Group in Lilongwe.
- Processed vegetables and fruits from Bvumbwe.
- Mulanje honey: Processed and packaged in Mulanje
Some of these items are usually exhibited at African fairs here in Japan. If you are interested in these items or even more, feel free to contact the team at OVOP.
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9 users commented in " One Village One Product in Malawi "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI have actually used the palm oil soaps, and I think it’s really cool when a project like this can do and still produce good quality.
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The concept was advocated albeit in a different context by “Small is Beautiful” by E. F. Schumacher. Unfortunately, his ideas were not given the respect and implementation that they deserved. Mahatma Gandhi of India also had advocated such micro level development but was ignored. I am glad that Malawi is doing this. All strength to them.
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Clement Nyirenda says:
May 8th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
@Nicole: Just proving the concept that nothing is new under the sun. Lets see how far it goes in Malawi
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I think the idea is really cool. Products could become much better with such program.
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Great idea to strengthen local economy and competency. It will surely bring more at least more quality to products.
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I hadn’t heard about a function of the half of these products. Where I can read about them in detail?
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Thanks for the opportunity to comment.i’m in love with the OVOP concept.i visited Japan last year and it was the first time i learned about it.i collected a lot of material about it to read at home.this is a perfect example of what we need in SOUTH AFRICA especialy our rural areas.how and where can i get sponsorhip to go to Japan to learn more about this amazing programme.I also own a small operation that specialises in small leather goods like sandals,belts,handbags,wallets etc.i think i still need to learn more.please help.
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Clement Nyirenda says:
June 7th, 2009 at 12:18 am
@Maphuki: I think you should come up with a proposal and submit it to JICA. I am sure they will be able to help you especially when it embraces the OVOP concept.
Good to hear that you came to Japan last year? Were you attending an international conference?
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am duin environmental science at poly and i rily luv wat u guyz do ad lyk to work with u guyz some tym-big fan
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