Educated farmers vital to economy

The National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (Nasfam) says farmers’ literacy is a catalyst for agricultural development.

Operations manager for Nasfam, Snowden Mbalafana, was speaking on Thursday when he presented certificates to 748 local farmers who have completed a six months adult literacy course.

He observed that in most cases, farmers lose profits due to illiteracy as they are not able to read figures on scales or to calculate their tentative profits before taking their produce to the buyer.

“Providing them with reading, writing and numeracy skills will reduce their vulnerability to vendors’ unfair trade, which continues to impoverish them even though they are working hard in their fields each agricultural season,” said Mbalafana.

The local farmers were drawn from Mulanje, Thyolo and Phalombe.