Wealth grown from the soil up, and returned to it again.
Chuma links commercial farming, organic fertiliser, livestock export and cooperative finance into a single loop, so that value earned by Malawian farmers stays with Malawian farmers.
A farm should not have to choose between growing food and building wealth.
Chuma was founded on a simple observation from Malawi's Central Region: the country's smallholder farmers grow the crops and raise the livestock that feed the region, yet too little of the value that follows, the fertiliser, the financing, the export markets, ever reaches them.
Chuma was built to close that gap. Rather than treating farming, finance and trade as separate businesses, Chuma runs them as one loop. Waste from livestock becomes organic fertiliser. Fertiliser strengthens the soil for commercial crops. Crops and livestock move through a formal export corridor to Gulf markets. And the proceeds flow back through Chuma Bank, a USSD-based cooperative finance platform, into the hands of the farmers who started the cycle.
The loop is not a metaphor. It is how the business is structured, and how the money moves.
Farming, fertiliser, export and finance, feeding each other.
Each stage of Chuma's business exists to strengthen the next. Nothing in the loop is a side project, each part depends on the others.
Commercial farming
Chuma operates Mbwabwa Farming Estate and works alongside the Commercial Farmers Cooperative Society of Malawi, focused on industrial crops, especially drought-tolerant, indigenous and highly nutritious varieties, taken through value addition rather than sold as raw commodity.
feeds → fertiliserOrganic fertiliser
Livestock byproducts are converted into organic fertiliser, reducing dependence on imported chemical inputs and building soil health built for a changing climate.
feeds → export & livestockLivestock & export corridor
A formal trade corridor connects Malawian livestock producers to Gulf markets, opening a route to export prices that were previously out of reach for smallholder farmers.
feeds → financeChuma Bank
A USSD-based cooperative finance platform, so that proceeds and credit reach farmers without a smartphone or a bank branch, and the loop begins again.
feeds → farmingThis is not an idea. Chuma is already on the ground.
Mbwabwa Farming Estate, the Chuma revolving fund and the community food bank are already running. What Chuma is now raising for is the integrated platform built on top of that base.
Every farmer sets aside a share of their harvest into a community food bank, a mutual insurance mechanism rather than charity, so that labour-constrained households are protected even in the hungry season.
This work happens on the land, not behind a desk.
Climate-smart agriculture is not a slogan here. It is survival planning.
Malawi's farming communities have lived through recurring El Niño cycles and the food security pressure that follows. Chuma's model, closed-loop, low import dependency and cooperative in structure, is built for that reality rather than around it.
Chuma is positioned as a private sector co-financing partner within Malawi's national food security agenda, working alongside government and development finance institutions rather than around them.
Built for co-financing, structured for accountability.
Chuma is not seeking a grant to test an idea. It is seeking capital to scale a model already proven at Mbwabwa Farming Estate, structured to sit alongside government, development finance institutions and private investors rather than depend on any one of them.
A private sector partner to government programmes
Chuma is positioned to co-finance national food security initiatives alongside government, bringing operational capacity and a proven track record to public programmes rather than competing with them.
Building the layer on top of proven ground
Current fundraising is for the platform layer, Chuma Bank, the Gulf export corridor, and the data systems that connect them, built on top of two decades of proof that the underlying model works.
Full details available on request.
For specifics on current funding rounds, partnership structures, or co-financing opportunities, reach out directly and Hellen will follow up with the relevant materials.
Get in touchThree ways in.
Co-finance the loop
- Positioned as a co-financing partner within Africa's food security financing landscape
- A private sector partner to government-led agricultural programmes
- A model built to scale across Malawi's Central Region and beyond
Join the loop
- Access to organic fertiliser produced within the loop
- A route to Gulf export markets through a formal corridor
- Cooperative finance through Chuma Bank, by USSD, no smartphone required
Follow the work
- Updates on food security, organic fertiliser and climate-smart farming in Malawi
- Commentary from Chuma's founder on African agricultural policy
- Background on the closed-loop model and its early results
Hellen Jeritha Chabunya
Hellen is a farmer, entrepreneur and public policy leader who has spent two decades building institutions rather than proposing them. In 2016 she took on Mbwabwa Farming Estate, then debt-ridden and underperforming, and turned it into one of Malawi's leading commercial producers of legumes and high-value commodities, now exporting across regional markets. That same instinct for turning neglected assets into productive ones is the foundation of Chuma.
As President of the Commercial Farmers Cooperative Society of Malawi and Secretary General of the Farm Mechanisation Association of Malawi, she shapes agricultural policy nationally and holds the trust of farming communities that no outsider could replicate. She was a founding Vice President of the United Transformation Movement and served as a senior advisor in the Office of the Vice President of Malawi, where she drove health and climate policy at the highest level of government. She has represented Malawi at COP and UNFCCC negotiations and worked alongside the British High Commission, the World Bank, the African Development Bank and the FAO.
Let's build the loop together.
Whether you are an investor, a cooperative, or a journalist, the fastest way to reach Chuma is directly.
hellenzalira@yahoo.com