Insight
Tac-Maz founder Thokozani Chimasula (far right) speaking with some smallholder farmers
Innocent Thindwa was Malawi Country Manager for the UK-funded Commercial Agriculture for Smallholders and Agribusiness (CASA) programme, which NIRAS implemented from 2019 to March 2026. Part of CASA’s efforts centred around demonstrating the commercial viability of agri-businesses with smallholder farmer supply chains. In Malawi, Innocent and his team focused on aquaculture and poultry smallholder farmers, helping them improve their income through commercial engagement with SMEs and increasing agri-business investment in these farmers. When a worsening energy crisis threatened a poultry outgrower model linking smallholder farmers to commercial markets, CASA and one of the 27 agri-businesses it supported unlocked discreet grant financing to co-design a solar-powered solution that restored chick production, strengthened farmer resilience, and created a scalable model for inclusive poultry growth. In this blog piece, Innocent explains the thinking behind the approach, the challenges faced and how today other agri-businesses are expressing interest in replicating the innovation.
In Malawi, CASA focussed on aquaculture and poultry value chains where it:
As part of CASA’s market systems development work in Malawi, we partnered with Tac-Maz Sustainable Ventures, a small-scale social agribusiness enterprise based in Chiradzulu district that produces and supplies indigenous and dual-purpose chickens.
Together, we designed and implemented a project aimed at helping smallholder farmers participate more profitably in the growing market for such poultry. The approach centred on building a commercially viable outgrower model that would enable smallholders to raise chickens using improved but low-cost feeding methods, while benefiting from access to quality chicks, technical support, and a guaranteed buyer.
Commencing in November 2024, the project sought to strengthen smallholders’ resilience and incomes by integrating them into Tac-Maz’s poultry supply chain. Under the model, Tac-Maz would produce six-week-old chicks and supply them to contracted farmers, together with feed packages provided on credit. Farmers would then raise the chickens and sell them back to Tac-Maz, which would deduct the cost of the chicks and feed upon purchase.
The model was designed to address several common barriers faced by smallholder poultry farmers: limited access to quality inputs, lack of affordable feed, weak market linkages, and difficulty accessing finance. At the same time, it aimed to help Tac-Maz increase poultry supply and meet growing consumer demand for indigenous and dual-purpose chickens.
In rolling out the business model in November 2024, Tac-Maz started to produce chicks for delivery to about 2,400 contracted smallholders. However, the company faced a significant challenge with power supply, which impacted the hatchery and brooding operations. The process coincided with a deterioration in power supply across Malawi, marked by an increased frequency of outages from the main power supplier, ESCOM. At the same time, the agribusiness firm’s usual fallback solution — using a standby generator during outages — was hindered by an acute fuel shortage and intermittent fuel supply.
As a result, Tac-Maz suffered losses both during egg incubation and chick brooding. Power failures caused eggs to fail before hatching and increased mortality among newly hatched chicks. This left the company unable to produce enough chicks for out-growers. This significantly disrupted the planned smooth rollout of the out-grower scheme, which depended on a reliable and continuous supply of chicks to farmers. Without this, Tac-Maz could not meet market demand or deliver the anticipated income gains for smallholder producers.
High lending costs made commercial borrowing unrealistic as long as Malawi’s energy outlook remained uncertain. In response, the CASA team worked with Tac-Maz to incorporate a targeted grant into their business model, funding the procurement and installation of a solar system to ensure reliable power for hatchery and brooding operations. The team identified this as the most reliable way to run Tac-Maz’s incubators at full capacity, ensuring efficient hatching and a seamless supply of brooded chicks to out-growers.
Thokozani Chimasula, Managing Director of Tac-Maz, has been really happy with the results: “The power challenges that initially prevented us from rollout were overcome, and we are back on track with our original vision: to pilot this business model aimed at demonstrating the commerciality of including smallholders in the production and supply of indigenous and dual-purpose chickens.”
For the CASA team, this adaptation was critical, not only because it enabled Tac-Maz to proceed with the pilot, but also because it showed how targeted investment in critical infrastructure could influence commercial lenders, including banks, to better structure their lending to address discreet constraints experienced by small-scale agribusiness firms.
Our pivot was consistent with the established ethos of CASA’s Market Systems Development approach, which emphasises the importance of staying flexible in project implementation as the most impactful solutions are often those that respond directly to emerging, real-world challenges.
Tac-Maz has demonstrated both the sustainability and scalability of this innovative poultry production model. Following the resumption of chick production in August 2025 powered by the solar system, the company has supplied 4,200 chicks to smallholder farmers while raising an additional 1,657 chickens in-house. So far, the model has benefited 420 smallholder farmers by improving their access to quality inputs, technical support, and reliable market linkages through Tac-Maz. On the financial side, the model is delivering tangible results: Tac-Maz has generated about £17,900 (MK43.0 million) in additional revenue, while out-growers have collectively earned around £15,000 (MK36.0 million) in net additional income.
These figures reflect not just growth at the firm and farmer levels, but also meaningful socioeconomic improvements at the household level, i.e., improved livelihoods and strengthened food security that stimulates local economies. Beyond income, the innovation has strengthened farmers’ capacity, deepened value chain participation, and increased their confidence in dual-purpose and indigenous chicken production as a viable economic activity.
“Properly targeted and strategically designed discreet grant financing can act as a catalyst, unlocking business opportunities that traditional financing mechanisms might overlook.”
CASA Malawi’s Innocent Thindwa
The Tac-Maz model is gaining strong interest from other agribusinesses and shows clear potential for replication and scale. Companies such as MAAG Farms have already expressed interest in adopting elements of this inclusive out-grower model, particularly the integration of solar energy to build resilient production systems. At the community level, 2,670 smallholder farmers across Thyolo, Chiradzulu, and Blantyre have also expressed interest in joining the out-grower network, signalling strong trust in the model and the scale of unmet need it can address. In response, Tac-Maz plans to leverage its strengthened chick production capacity by establishing a feed manufacturing operation, enabling faster scaling of its out-grower model business line since farmers will also be supplied with affordable, high-quality feed, addressing one of the major production constraints they face.
As Thoko told me: “With CASA support, our company was better positioned for investment readiness and has qualified for a US$40,000 matching grant from the UNDP Growth Accelerator Programme to establish the feed manufacturing facility. The proposed solution involves producing nutrient-rich feed based on black soldier fly larvae, a sustainable and cost-effective protein source. Importantly, this approach builds on existing investments via CASA technical support, through which Tac-Maz has already provided farmers with moringa and pawpaw seedlings that serve as critical raw materials for feed production.”
It is evident that solar energy has helped Tac-Maz to unlock growth pathways that would otherwise not have been thought of prior to August 2025. The integration of the manufacturing facility would establish a circular, farmer-integrated system that would help to not only reduce costs but also deepen farmer participation in the value chain, ensuring that scalability is both inclusive and environmentally sustainable.
It is encouraging to see firms like MAAG Farms showing interest in what we have done with Tac-Maz. I am excited to see where this goes and whether the approach will be further replicated across Malawi.
You can connect with Innocent on LinkedIn.
