Malawi farmers urged to diversify their crops and embrace new farming technologies in dealing with climate change
Centre for Agricultural Transformation (CAT) has advised farmers in the country to diversify their crops as mitigation measures in dealing with climate change.
CAT Executive Director Macleod Nkhoma said this in Lilongwe during a technological agriculture show which took place at Natural Resources College (NRC) in Lilongwe.
Nkhoma said “Its very important for farmers to diversify their crops because when climate change is actually hitting us, there are some crops that will do better in one particular season while there will be other crops that do well in particular areas as well,” he said.
He said in that way the mega farmers are going to have some kind of insurance that should work quiet fair, they can rely on another crop.
On the specific agenda of the interface , Nkhoma said they invited mega farmers to appreciate the new farming so that they can replicate the same in their mega farms especially appreciating which varieties are early maturing than the others.
He said maturing varieties are decided depending on the grower’s ecological zone since they are better suited for them. “We are urging our farmers to plant early maturing varieties,” he said.
Mega Farm Unit Team Leader Yakosa Tegha commended the initiative saying this is in line with Government policies of food Sustainability.
Tegha said Malawi as a country is doing very well on mega farms. “We have got more than 500 farmers that have registered as mega farmers. Currently we are working towards having these mega farmers go into irrigation because we know we had some dry spells. So we need to promote irrigation so that you can produce for colleagues who don’t have the maize in the country,” he said.
Tegha commended Agricultural Commercialization Project (AGCOM) for financial support.
During the interface Foundation for Smoke Free World (FSFW) representive who is also Agriculture Transformation Initiative (ATI) Country Director Dr Candida Nakhumwa, said the farming technology shows are so important especially to the mega farmers.
Nankhumwa said current technologies enable farmers harvest more yields at a small area. She said it all depends on the planting technology applied.
She has since urged Mega farmers to follow all the new farming agricultural technologies to realise more yields.
Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :
