The weather has stayed hot and dry during the month. Few showers have been received during the period. Relatively speaking, the rains were expected to come earlier this year.

The crop levels for the month stayed up and the estate will do similar levels as it did in September.

The main operations for the month revolved around harvesting. Fields continued to be irrigated through the dry spell. Weeding of the fields was another activity for the month. In the development area, fertilizer was applied, in combination with irrigation.

The estate produces its own honey every year and this year the harvest has started for the season totally 1,000 kg of honey. It is anticipated it will reach 5,000 kg by the end of the year.

Kawalazi has begun the purchase of beans from the surrounding community worth over 3.5 million Kwacha. This will be followed by the purchase of maize.

Mr. Wilson Jumbe joined Kawalazi as a plucker in 1990 from Mulanje District in the south. After working for a year and having made some savings he started a small business of selling dried fish within the estate. Mr Jumbe used to travel 50 kms on foot to Mzuzu (nearby town) to buy the fish and bring it down to the estate and sell it at weekends. With the capital increasing, he decided to open up a small grocery with the initial investment of MK 30,000 and operated it after working hours and at the weekend. Later he managed to save a substantial amount and purchased a piece of land in the village near the estate where he built himself a proper grocery shop and is now settled with his business and family.

With the business increasing, Mr Jumbe resigned from his plucker job earlier this year to solely concentrate on his business, with a vision to become the largest wholesale shop in the Kabanduli area. "If it were not for Kawalazi I would not have progressed with this business. As I was leaving alone, I saved as much as possible from my salary to invest into this business".