Aquaponic for Life (A4L) works to promote sustainable agriculture through innovative fish and vegetable farming methods. Founded in 2020 by Mr Peace Mnelemba, the Owner and Director, and now with eight full-time employees, A4L provides a range of aquaculture services, including designing and installing aquaponics systems, and offering consultancy, training and outreach services across Malawi. While the company has a simple structure, it benefits from the expertise of a board of advisors, Bernd Ueberscher and Torsten Knorr, who provide guidance on strategic planning and operations. A team of employees supports the day-to-day operations, with Mwayi Kampapalala as Deputy Director assisting Peace Mnelemba in management. Mphatso Luwemba, the Data Analyst, uses data to inform decision-making, while Lyman Yusuf, Maliko Eliko Dester, and Richard Beckman handle farm-related tasks.

Currently operating a 17-acre farm near Lilongwe, A4L serves as both a model facility and a training centre for aquaponics. As part of its mission, A4L provides outreach training in schools, rural communities, and youth cooperatives, aiming to alleviate hunger and poverty by empowering local communities with aquaponics production skills. A4L’s current target clients include large and medium-sized aquaculture farms and organisations. The company also serves smallholder farmers being supported by various development organisations and some who are provided the service on a pro bono basis. A4L is expanding its reach amongst smallholder farmers by increasing its product range suitable for smallholder farmers and the share of its revenue generated from the target market. Amongst other opportunities, A4L has identified a significant gap in the supply of catfish fingerlings and is setting up a catfish hatchery at its farm in Lilongwe to sell the fingerlings to smallholder fish farmers in Lilongwe and surrounding districts.

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Facilitating Investment for Commercialisation of Catfish Farming

This project demonstrated to fish hatcheries the commercial viability of a model for catfish fingerlings production and provision of catfish best management practices (BMP) in a model for table-sized catfish production and marketing which has smallholder farmers at the centre. The project also demonstrated to smallholder farmers the commercial potential and added climate resilience of switching to catfish production.  

In this 8-month project, on a budget of £61,292 (with CASA contributing £39,682), CASA partnered with A4L to encourage the commercialisation of catfish farming among smallholder farmers to address the current fish supply gap (including catfish) in Malawi with a focus on modern fish farming techniques like aquaponics and the use of black soldier fly (BSF) as a feed for fish. 

CASA helped A4L to procure catfish broodstock for establishing the nursery and to provide technical advice for smallholder fish farmers interested in switching to catfish production to boost their fish production volumes and help build their resilience to climate change. It also enabled A4L to identify and contract smallholders to pilot the model that will provide a market for catfish that will increase their incomes. The project uses a “lead farmer model” for sustainably providing technical advisory services, inputs and technology to smallholder farmers to stimulate catfish production. 

The business has enrolled its first 112 smallholders to buy catfish fingerlings, once the hatchery is in production, and aims to scale this up to 500 smallholder farmers once the hatchery is fully operational and has access through the Department of Fisheries to a list of over a thousand potential catfish farmers. 

A4L is currently seeking an investment of £55,000 to expand its production facility to be able to produce fingerlings all year round and target more farmers. A4L also aims to acquire essential cold chain facilities for transporting fish grown by the smallholder farmers to the market.

Updated: July 2025